; Whereas Martin Luther believed that education should be available to all, not just to the elite class that could afford it or those who got an opportunity for education by entering a religious order; Whereas increased literacy rates led to various interpretations of Biblical scripture by common people, including women, which allowed for greater theological debate, thought, and practice; Whereas the Protestant Reformation influenced English Christians to move to North America in the 17th century; Whereas the English Government and the Anglican Church sent settlers to North America in 1607, where they landed at Jamestown and began having regular Church services at Jamestown Fort; Whereas, beginning in 1624, the Anglican Church became the established church of Virginia, with taxpayer dollars going toward the Church clergy; Whereas, in 1620, Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in pursuit of religious freedom from the Anglican Church; Whereas, in 1630, John Winthrop preached a sermon aboard the ship Arbella titled, A Model of Christian Charity , where he proclaimed that the New World shall be as a city upon a hill and that the eyes of all people are upon us, ; Whereas United States Presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have all invoked John Winthrop’s words in historic addresses to the Nation; Whereas early American theologians sparked the First Great Awakening, which was a religious movement inspired by the teachings of Protestants Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel Davies, and others to inject religious liberty and Christian virtue in the American colonies; Whereas, in the American colonies, Protestant churches played an integral role in opposing the edicts of the English Government and the Anglican Church; Whereas the Anglican Church in Virginia was very restrictive as to what people were allowed to read, who was allowed to preach, and how they were allowed to preach