An English theologian and pastor, Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to his conflicts with the established church and his advocacy of the strict separation of church and state. He also espoused a controversial attitude of radical egalitarianism towards the American Indians. He founded the colony of Rhode Island as a religiously free and open community, even though he and his fellow colonists were Baptists. Many American Baptists cited Williams as the reason for their support of Thomas Jefferson’s presidential election. His strongly-worded pronouncements, such as “forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils,” still resonate today.