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The Burning of the Ursuline Convent

The Burning of the Ursuline Convent

In August 1832, rumors started spreading that sinister things were happening behind the walls of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Catholic school had become popular with affluent Boston Protestants and Unitarians, but word had spread that a “mystery” woman was being held there against her will. On the morning of August 10, posters appeared around Charlestown: “To arms!! To arms! Leave not one stone upon another of that curst nunnery that prostitutes female virtue and liberty under the…

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Reviews of Founding Faith

Reviews of Founding Faith

“There is a fierce custody battle going on out there for ownership of the Founding Fathers. Founding Faith strikes me as a major contribution to that debate, a sensible and sophisticated argument that the Founders’ religious convictions defy our current categories….If asked to recommend the best book on this controversial topic, I would choose Founding Faith.” –Joseph Ellis, author of American Creation “Steven Waldman, a veteran journalist and co-founder of Beliefnet.com, a religious web site, surveys the convictions and legacy…

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Virginia Ratifying Convention, James Madison

Virginia Ratifying Convention, James Madison

12 June 1788  This statement on the “multiplicity of sects” summarizes the Madisonian view of religious liberty The honorable member has introduced the subject of religion. Religion is not guarded–there is no bill of rights declaring that religion should be secure. Is a bill of rights a security for religion? Would the bill of rights, in this state, exempt the people from paying for the support of one particular sect, if such sect were exclusively established by law? If there…

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Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw

Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw

Zilpha Elaw 1846 “[…] When I arrived in the slave states, Satan much worried and distressed my soul with the fear of being arrested and sold for a slave, which their laws would have warranted, on account of my complexion and features. On one occasion, in particular, I had been preaching to a coloured congregation, and had exhorted them impressively to quit themselves as men approved of God, and to maintain and witness a good profession of their faith before…

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The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law or, the High-Flying Churchman Stripped of His Legal Robes Appears a Yahoo

The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law or, the High-Flying Churchman Stripped of His Legal Robes Appears a Yahoo

John Leland 1791 From The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions Not Cognizable by Law or, the High-Flying Churchman Stripped of His Legal Robes Appears a Yahoo: “[…]Every man must give an account of himself to God; and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in that way that he can best reconcile it to his conscience. If Government can answer for individuals at the day of judgement, let men be controlled by it,…

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General Order No. 11 — Grant’s ban on Jews

General Order No. 11 — Grant’s ban on Jews

December 17, 1862 U.S. Grant became outraged that some unscrupulous traders had created a black market in southern cotton. He was also convinced that Jews were playing a primary role (in part, perhaps, because his own father had tried to get a piece of the action, along with a Jewish trader.  A few weeks later, President Lincoln revoked the order. The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are…

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Engel v. Vitale Majority Opinion

Engel v. Vitale Majority Opinion

U. S. Supreme Court 1962 The plaintiffs in Engel v. Vitale—three Jews and two “spiritual” people who did not belong to an organized religion—objected to their children having to recite prayers that had been written and required by the State of New YTork. The Court agreed 6 to 1, with three Republican- appointed justices joining three appointed by Democrats. The majority opinion was offered by Justice Hugo Black The respondent Board of Education of Union Free School District No. 9,…

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West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, Dissenting Opinion by Felix Frankfurter

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, Dissenting Opinion by Felix Frankfurter

1943 In 1942, the state board of education issued a rule requiring kids to salute the American flag—“in the spirit of Americanism”—and declared that refusal “would be regarded as an Act of insubordination.” Ten-year-old Marie and eight-year-old Gathie Barnett, the children of a pipe fitting helper at a local DuPont factory, refused to salute during a ceremony at Slip Hill Grade School. They were expelled. The Witnesses appealed all the way to the highest court. In his brief to the…

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Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing

Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing

U.S. Supreme Court 1947 In Everson, the Court focused on the meaning of the Establishment Clause. Did that cryptic phrase intend merely to block the establishment of a state religion? Or did it prohibit taxpayer support for religion more generally? The Court disagreed with a New Jersey taxpayer who objected that his tax dollars were being used to subsidize the transportation of students to parochial schools. But it offered a set of guidelines and then these controversial words: “In the…

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President George W. Bush’s address to Congress after 9/11

President George W. Bush’s address to Congress after 9/11

President George W. Bush September 22, 2001 […] I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. (APPLAUSE) The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself….

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