Hussites and Calvinists had four basic demands. The fourth (not known enough) was that the state must punish all "sins". (Obviously the tradtional state was, in their eyes, not strict enough - perhaps because of the division between state courts and "synodal" courts, which mostly treated perpetrations deemed not important enough for state intrusion.)
This informs my personal view of "Putianism" as a kind of temporal insanity, in which pious people decide that there is a certain sin which must be abolished with all means and at all costs, including war and political oppression.
Examples being the abolishment of pagan rituals (like Christmas) under Cromwell, abolishment of slavery under Lincoln (which the Irish dubbed a new Cromwell), abolishment of alcoholism (the prohibitionists), abolishment of racism (the Civil Rights Movement), abolishment of political incorrect speech or nowadays hate speech.
Well, I wouldn't wish all of those things back; esp. slavery or cruelty against animals (as persecuted by Cromwell). But I think that the problem lies with "with all means and at all costs".
(A more funny example of modern Puritanism was the Dutch fight against swearing which was exerted with much intensity, but ended in ridicule, like the American prohibition.)
That is why I promote the tradition of Christian unobtrusiveness, as described by an early monk: "(Like a dog) If you ask me for help, I come; if you send me away, I leave."
- Of course there are conflicts where one party may ask us to come and the other party may ask us to leave. But I propose to treat those situations as conflicts between humans with interests, not as abstract sins against alleged norms.
Modern concepts of sin are hopelessly damaged by the modern habit to lump harmless and harmful conduct together. This was the problem with the concept of alcoholism (there is a harmless and a harmful use of alcohol) and is nowadays the problem with concepts like "racism" (which covers simple factual statements and normal expressions of negative feelings as well as real perpetrations).