“A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.”

I don't know a puritan, so I can't say.

Purtitans get a bum rap. Read "The Religious History of the American People" by Ahlstrom, Princeton Univ Press. The Puritans established a thriving highly educated and motivated society in Mass in a short span of 50 odd years that became a model for an expanding nation. New England and the Puritan experience is know throughout the world as a noble experience in theology, philosophy, education, democracy, etcetera. (Let us momentarily forget the unpleasantness at Salem, which was an aberration.)

Yes, and witch hunts are as popular today as they were then. Today's puritans are no better. Collective absolutism of any kind is dangerous.

Good answer Mike but from what I have read I rate it five. I don't think Puritans exist today like they did in the 16th and 17th cen. Though I am beginning to wonder.

The institutional descendants of the Puritans are the United Church of Christ and the Unitarians. The United Church of Christ was formed by a uniting of the Congreational Churches and some other smaller Reformed Churches. If you look at a UCC Hymnal it says printed by the Pilgrim Press.

I think Puritanism is alive and well- in the USA---in full witch hunt mode (with any respect due...) in the form of the Southern Baptist Convention and other groups. Read "American Theocracy" by Kevin Phillips...