Latter-day Puritans

Puritanism has long been a part of the American mind-set. Like their forebears, latter-day Puritans eschew any nuance as utter betrayal; they see human conduct only in terms of extremes and absolutes, and they want to burn away whatever (or whoever) they deem inadequate while covering their excesses in self-righteous feigned piety. Their new City of God is to be populated by people who would appear good without actually being good. As Jonathan Edwards put it in his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God screed, "The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation."