The more things change, the more.......

     Penn and his colleagues all agreed that Pennsylvania must be a Christian community that would not become a theocracy nor recognize any one sect, not ever Quakerism, as its state religion.  All avowed their faith in liberty, toleration, and the rights of man, but they differed in their interpretations.  They were less in accord with his idea that government was a social service agency concerned with promoting health, welfare, and education as well, of course, as the furtherance of religion, morality, and peace.  They upheld the principle that the people should rebel against an unjust monarch, though in view of what some of them had seen in England's recent history, they voiced their opinions guardedly.  All of them, including Penn, realized that much more was needed to assure a perfect state than a resolve to live by God's eternal laws.  It was, they learned, far easier to crusade for freedom and justice than to write laws to guarantee those privileges.  Each advisor, convinced that he and he alone possessed the magic key, became impatient with his colleagues.
-Harry Emerson Wildes, William Penn:  A Biography