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The Asiatic “Barred Zone”

The Asiatic “Barred Zone”

The makers of a dishwashing fluid in 1886 capitalized on anti-Asian sentiment. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was driven by racist theories of ethnic superiority and some concerns about Chinese competing for American jobs. Eugenics was on the rise and taken quite seriously. A report from a congressional committee explained that there was “not sufficient brain capacity in the Chinese race to furnish motive power for self-government” and that “there is no Aryan or European race which is not…

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Church, state, Catholics and Thomas Nast

Church, state, Catholics and Thomas Nast

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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Religious freedom and the fight against fascism

Religious freedom and the fight against fascism

World War II was a turning point in the history of religious liberty.  It was during this period that politicians started talking less about the importance of religion and more about the importance of religious freedom. The key: it provided a stark contrast with the Nazis and later the Communists.  Roosevelt listed religious liberty as one of the Four Freedoms. Around this same time, interfaith groups of clergy – a rabbi, a minister and a priest – fanned out across…

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Imprisoned Mormons

Imprisoned Mormons

This is a picture of Mormons who were arrested for the crime of polygamy.  From 1882 to 1892 nearly 1,000 Mormons were jailed for practicing what they considered an important element of their faith, “plural marriage.” Federal agents scoured Utah for Mormons unlawfully cohabitating. A polygamist wife described the feeling of desperation: “It is difficult to picture the unsettled conditions in Utah and Idaho during the raid against polygamists. Homes were broken up and families scattered among relatives or friends.……

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Parley Pratt and his great, great grandson

Parley Pratt and his great, great grandson

See the resemblance? Maybe in the nose and lips? The man on the left is Parley Pratt, Mitt Romney’s great, great grandfather.  Pratt was no run of the mill Mormon. He was one of the original “twelve apostles” who helped found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pratt was imprisoned in 1838 with Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, and driven out of Missouri by mobs of angry Protestants. Pratt had twelve wives and was later murdered by the estranged…

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Twin Reptiles

Twin Reptiles

Not much subtlety here. The popular political cartoonist Thomas Nast hated Catholics and Mormons.  The cartoon was published in 1880, a period when both Catholics and Mormons clout was rising – as was the backlash against both. Federal agents scoured Utah jailing more than 1,000 Mormons for practicing polygamy. Meanwhile, surging immigrant populations of Irish immigrants meant increasing clashes in schools over whether Protestant Ten Commandments and Bible should be forced on Catholic Children and whether federal dollars should support…

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Indian children at boarding school
Christianizing the Indian Children

Christianizing the Indian Children

After the Civil War, some wanted to exterminate the Indians. The “reformers” thought it would instead be wise to “Christianize” them. A key weapon: boarding schools that would purge Indian culture. “Education cuts the cord that binds [Indians] to a Pagan life, places the Bible in their hands, substitutes the true God for the false one, Christianity in place of idolatry … cleanliness in place of filth, industry in place of idleness, self-respect in place of servility, and, in a…

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Dont believe it
“Don’t Believe That”

“Don’t Believe That”

First, note how the Catholic children and the priest are depicted as baboon-like creatures.  This Thomas Nast cartoon, which appeared in Harpers, refers to a Bible-in-the-schools controversy that erupted in Long Island City, Queens, in 1875. The school board had required children to read from the King James Version; Catholic students could either sit in the room during the exercise or leave for the day. In a gutsy form of civil disobedience, the Catholic children responded by blocking their ears…

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Reviews and Praise for Sacred Liberty

Reviews and Praise for Sacred Liberty

“Before ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ came the first American gift to the world: freedom of conscience. Without it the whole history of the nation–and of the world–might be very different, and we are lucky indeed that Steven Waldman has written this compelling and incisive study of the most fundamental and essential breakthroughs of modernity: the right to believe, or not, as one wishes. This is a great book about a monumental issue.” –Jon Meacham, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of…

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The Immortal Chaplains

The Immortal Chaplains

Two ministers, a priest and rabbi gave up their life preservers as the U.S. Dorchester sank after being hit by a German torpedo in 1942.  The story of their heroism hit a nerve in part because it fit a new message from the U.S. government – that one of the main things that distinguishes us from the Nazis and the Communists is religious freedom. The Postal Service issued this stamp – with its telling subhead, “interfaith in action” – in…

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