Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States - 143 U.S. 457 (1892)

[Madea]

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/143/457/case.html

I first read some info on this case because of the justices references to "Christian nation". It's potentially an interesting read from the immigration stand point as well.

But, beyond all these matters, no purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation.

The first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I in 1606, after reciting the application of certain parties for a charter, commenced the grant in these words:

"We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet government; DO, by these our Letters-Patents, graciously accept of, and agree to, their humble and well intended Desires."

There are a lot of references to God and Christianity in this case.

Let me know what you think. 8)

 

[LisaC]

This was a dispute over an employment contract that folks have used as an example of the government declaring the U.S. a Christian nation.

 

[Madea]

This was a dispute over an employment contract that folks have used as an example of the government declaring the U.S. a Christian nation.

Yes. I know that.

 

[lotstodo]

The vast majority of the signers of the Declaration were strongly against a monotheist government, the lone major exception being George Washington. During the Constitutional Convention, there were heated debates over whether or not this was indeed a "Christian Nation". Washington lost to the Virginia plan put forth by Jefferson, a deist, in which there was to be no discrimination whatsoever as witnessed by Article VI Paragraph 3. Had the founding fathers intended a Christian nation, they would have surely said so in that paragraph. Instead, they explicitly said the opposite. This debate carried on throughout the ratification process and was a matter of contention in every state until Rhode Island became the final state to ratify in 1790.

There is no reference to God in the Constitution, in fact "We the People" are the power in that document. This is not to say that individually many of the founders did not embrace Christ, as most did. However, they had just broken away from a Tyrant whose power was to place himself before all but his state religion, and this is expressly why monotheism was not only avoided, but actually outlawed in the Constitution.

The idea that it must be Jesus Christ or a "Godless" nation is also a strawman. We are not a Godless nation, we are a nation of religious tolerance, or at least that was their vision. They set out specifically to pen a document that limited government, not the choice of the people. They understood intimately that government defining God was a means to the opposite end. That is something we all need to understand today, that the ultimate purpose of the Constitution was to limit government, not American citizens, and this most certainly included religion.

Were we founded on "Christian principals"? Well in as much as one can say that those principals embody qualities that we all universally find to be of high value, then that argument can be made. But to say that only Washington embodied those high principals and not Jefferson, would be a mistake.