Letters & Documents

President Eisenhower: ‘And I don’t care what it is’

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

President Dwight Eisenhower December 22, 1952 In comments at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on December 22, 1952, Eisenhower described an encounter with Georgy Zhukov, a top Soviet official. It became a famous explication of the modern approach to combining piety with pluralism. I must say that in just a matter of immediate dialectic contest, let’s say, I didn’t know exactly what to say to him, because my only definition was what I believed to be the basic one, the basic…

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Dwight D. Eisenhower First Inaugural Address

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

President Dwight D. Eisenhower January 20, 1953 In his first Inaugural Address, President Eisenhower called for religious renewal. My friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads: Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the Executive branch of Government join me in beseeching that…

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Statement by President Eisenhower Upon Signing Bill to Include the Words ‘Under God’ in the Pledge to the Flag

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

President Dwight D. Eisenhower June 14, 1954 From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country’s true meaning. Especially is this meaningful as we regard today’s world. Over the…

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Report of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, 1921

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization 1921 WARSAW. Concerning the general characteristics of aliens emigrating to the United States from Poland and the occupation or trade followed by them, reports Indicate’ such to be substantially as follows: (a) Physically deficient. (1) Wasted by disease and lack of food supplies. (2) Reduced to an unprecedented state of life during period of war as the result of oppression and want. (3) Present existence in squalor and filth. ( b ) Mentally deficient…

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West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

US Supreme Court 1943 The Jehovah’s Witnesseses had been looking for a test case to demand more expansive religious liberty. They found it near Charleston, West Virginia. In 1942, the state board of education had 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…

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Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Education by Horace Mann

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

Horace Mann 1844 Education reformer Horace Mann argued that the Bible by itself—when presented without commentary—was pure and universal, making “the perfect example of Jesus Christ” lovely in their eyes. But he opposed Catholic proposals to allow both Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible to be taught. Here he explains why: And by allowing and enforcing two different religions, the government proclaims its own absurdity, for both cannot be right. Two opposites may both be wrong, but, while truth…

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Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Catholicism in the United States

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

Pope Leo XIII January 6, 1895 “It would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced. The fact that Catholicity with you is in good condition, nay, is even enjoying a prosperous growth, is by all means to be attributed to the fecundity…

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“Yes, the Klan Has No Catholics”

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

Klu Klux Klan Song Book A couplet from “Yes, the Klan Has No Catholics,” one of the anti-Catholic songs in the Ku Klux Klan Song Book: Source(s): Jacobs, “Co-Opting Christian Chorales,” p. 370; Danny O. Crew, Ku Klux Klan Sheet Music (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003), p. 207.

Indian Religious Freedom and Indian Culture, Bureau of Indian Affairs Circular no. 2970

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

John Collier, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs January 3, 1934. Circular No. 2970—Indian Religious Freedom and Indian Culture, 1934 Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Washington, January 3, 1934. To Superintendents: On trips to jurisdictions, and through correspondence occasionally received at the Washington office, I have discovered that some Indian Service officals and employees, some missionaries, and many Indians are not clearly advised as to the policy of this office toward Indian religious expression and toward ceremonial…

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Witnessing Wovoka

January 21, 2019 Sacred Liberty

Fast Thunder January 17, 1891 Fast Thunder, a Christian who performed the Ghost Dance, recounts his experience visiting with Wovoka, an Indian prophet: “As I looked upon his fair countenance, I wept, for there were nail prints in his hands and feet, where the cruel white men had fastened him to a large cross. There was a small wound in his side also, but as he kept his side covered with a beautiful blanket of feathers, this wound could only…

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