It's a Crawford Thing

You'll have to excuse my little daughter for her rant about Christmas (Merry Judgemas). She has this history that oddly positions her for these "somewhere left of far right" views on life. I tried to teach her what was right, I really did, but once they clear puberty and start into their adultery they often have their own thoughts and express their own views.

Mandy, you see, is one of a very select group of young American women who has the proof necessary to allow her to join the "Daughters of the American Revolution" organization. That's right. She could stand there right next to Lorelai Gilmore and raise a glass of champagne to celebrate whatever it is the DAR group likes to celebrate.

The documentation that would insure Mandy's induction is fairly vast but best among the stories and documents is the red heart on the grave marker of David Crawford signifying his notable contribution to the Revolutionary War as, get this, General George Washington's personal physician. David was born August 11th of 1729 but this story isn't about him, it's about Mandy's history that would compel her to write such a rant so the story must start earlier, much earlier.

In June of 1718 Mandy's great great great great great great grandfather (I'm not making it up - it was Mandy then me then my dad then Ralph then Robert then Robert then John then Sameth - David's brother - then James who is the genesis of my name although I'm not the first to use it in our pedigree - but I digress) anyway in June of 1718 James and Mary Crawford stepped off a boat (that departed Golen Ireland) and started a new life in America.

So now, in 2009 we're 9 years short of being 300 years back in Mandy's history but it still isn't far enough. Her family spent close to 100 years in Ireland prior to being driven out of Paisley Scotland so we have to go back into the early 1600s.

So 400 years ago Mandy's great great... well ... let's just say a really great set of grandparents were in Scotland trying to live a good life devoted to Christianity. The problem was with this guy named James (son of Mary queen of Scotts) who became King of England (he was formerly the King of Scotland) and he did a couple of things you can probably relate to. First, he brought Scotland and England under one rule and called himself "King of Great Britain" (the "Great Britain" name kind of stuck). Second, he authorized the translation of what we now call the King James Bible.

Any who, James had a son named Charles and he was in charge when this whole mess started, and therefore I hold him responsible for Mandy's attitude. It seems that the Stuart family (we're talking James and Charles here) saw themselves as the "religious authority" and wanted to force their perspective of Christianity on anyone and everyone in Great Britain. They were Catholic. The Crawford's were protestant and apparently that just wasn't good enough. After a skirmish or two it became obvious that the Crawford clan wasn't strong enough to defend themselves against oppression from the kingdom. They would have to denounce their Christian views and follow the religious beliefs of King James and his annoying son Charles - or leave.

So we left.

After the 100 years in Ireland and a trend that suggested Ireland was destined to become part of Great Britain too, Mandy's family ended up in Orange County New York (long before it was the USA). We came in pursuit of a promise of religious freedom. We came here because we want to use the New American Standard version of the bible and don't want some government official lopping off a sibling's head because we refused to read the KJV.

Mandy's ancestors literally fought against England in the American revolution with a dream of building a place where government didn't get to decide what their religious beliefs would be. They wanted to build a country where folks could agree to disagree, but be free to worship without intervention.

They came here to build a place where the minority views held by the weak were not going to be forcefully crushed by the majority views of the powerful. It was the genesis of the separation of church and state. It was a good, check that, a GREAT idea.

And yes, we got our kids to read the bible as they were learning to read. And yes, we called Christmas by its real name and didn't weaken it by printing "Happy Holidays" on our banners. But we never want to forget the times when we were the weak having our religious views suppressed by a society that wanted to decide for us.

If we truly support freedom we must support a freedom that says if the French want to start a corporation called "Target" and put a store in our town, we will give them freedom to hang a "Happy Holidays" banner rather than forcing our Christian views on them. If the Gap wants to welcome (and extract money from) religious groups other than Christians by saying "Happy Honica" or "Rockin Ramadan" we're completely supportive.

We don't need to share their views - we just need to allow them the freedom to have those views.

So, OK, I believe it too. I was going to try to blame Mandy's views on King James and Charles but after looking up that big-ole-pedigree that I found in my Grandmother's papers I have to admit that she comes by it honestly. It's a Crawford thing.