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The Witnesses

The Witnesses

A tiny, reviled, and obnoxious American religion forces the nation to define what religious liberty really means. Excerpted from Sacred Liberty Robert Fischer was trying to escape from Litchfield, Illinois, when the mob caught up with him. The crowd pulled him out of his car and started destroying his Jehovah’s Witnesses literature. It was June 16, 1940, war hysteria was mounting, and the residents were livid that Fischer and the other Witnesses refused, as a matter of conscience, to salute…

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Anti-Mormon Art

Anti-Mormon Art

The hostility toward Mormons in the second half of the 19th century was intense, and often focused on polygamy. The small type on the sword and rifle indicate “The Only Sure Way” that Uncle Sam can rid us of the “mormon vermin.” The small type says, “Heroic Measures” and “Extermination.” This one is hard to get one’s head around. Mormons were consider, well, not white. This was partly because they embraced polygamy, which was viewed as Asiatic or African. In…

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Trump’s Record on Religious Freedom

Trump’s Record on Religious Freedom

Believe it or not, I’ve been reluctant to come out swinging about Donald Trump’s record on religious freedom.   It’s not that I don’t have strong opinions (which I’ll soon share).  Frankly, I wanted this book to be encountered as a history book not an “anti-Trump” current events book – a) because it’s not one and b) I really want Trump supporters and/or conservatives to read and absorb the first 90% of the book (before I get to the Trump bits)…

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Nast-y Anti-Catholic Cartoons

Nast-y Anti-Catholic Cartoons

Look closely: those crocodiles coming ashore to eat the children are actually Catholic Bishops!  The boy standing bravely on the beach has a Holy Bible sticking out of his coat. A gutted building behind them is labelled Public Schools.  What’s this all about? In the 1870s, when this Thomas Nast cartoon was published, Protestants were aggressively casting Catholics as anti-Bible.  The reason: the Catholics resisted having their kids forced to read the King James version of the Bible (instead of…

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Un-separating Church & State

Un-separating Church & State

An ape-like Catholic nun is sewing together church and state. Get it?  Thomas Nast not-to-subtle message is that American Catholics wanted to destroy the sacred system of separation of church and state. Indeed, a quick way to signal your anti-Catholic bona fides was to declare your support for separation.  Note, too, the simian Irishman sneering at Liberty who is chained to a bucket of “fraudulent votes.” Protestants accused Catholics of wanting state money to subsidize Catholic schools, which did happen…

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Young James Madison

Young James Madison

This is James Madison at age 32. His coming of age had coincided with a massive wave of religious persecution in that part of Virginia. Between 1760 and 1778, there were more than 150 major attacks against Baptists in the colony, most of them carried out by leaders of local Anglican churches – and most within a horse ride of Madison’s home in Orange County, Virginia.“That diabolical, Hell-conceived principle of persecution rages,” he said to his friend William Bradford. He…

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Haun’s Mill Massacre

Haun’s Mill Massacre

On October 27, 1938, the Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, issued Executive Order 44, one of the most astonishing documents in the history of religious freedom in America. It declared,  “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary.” Yes, the Governor of Missouri ordered the extermination of all Mormons.   The image above depicts what happened a few days later. About 250 vigilantes attacked a Mormon community called Hauns Mill and…

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Madison’s Life Mask

Madison’s Life Mask

I admittedly I have a bit of a thing for James Madison.  In addition to the powerful role he played in advancing religious freedom, I think he was overshadowed by Jefferson because he was short, sickly and not a very good writer.  This, believe it or not, is a life mask of James Madison. No person played a more important role in the creation of religious freedom than Madison. He was heavily influenced by evangelicals in Virginia, having witness horrible…

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The River Ganges

The River Ganges

Look closely: those crocodiles coming ashore to eat the children are actually Catholic Bishops!  The boy standing bravely on the beach has a Holy Bible sticking out of his coat. A gutted building behind them is labelled Public Schools.  What’s this all about? In the 1870s, when this Thomas Nast cartoon was published, Protestants were aggressively casting Catholics as anti-Bible.  The reason: the Catholics resisted having their kids forced to read the King James version of the Bible (instead of…

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