Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 21, 1903

THE public schools of Chicago were ordered by a committee of the school board to be closed on “Good Friday.” A school trustee named Stolz, a Jew, remonstrated against the action, pointing out that it was contrary to the fundamental principles of the nation, which separate church and state, and was also in violation of a rule recently passed by the school board, which declares that “in the theory of the separation of church and state the board of education has no right to take official recognition of any religious holiday.” The board, he said, never recognized Jewish holidays. Chairman Harris, of the committee, says the Chicago Tribune, in reply stated that he did not think it would be best to depart from precedent in this matter, the schools having been heretofore closed on Good Friday, and besides, there was a difference between the observance of Good Friday and of Jewish holidays in this country, since the United States is a Christian nation. Nearly all denominations, he said, now recognize Good Friday. On motion of Trustee Brennan, seconded by Mrs. O’Keefe, the schools were ordered closed.

What kind of a “Christian nation” is it—Protestant or Catholic—which in recognition of its Christianity closes its public schools on Good Friday?—A Catholic Christian nation, evidently. Any nation which unites church and state by ordering the public observance of religious festivals proclaims thereby that its Christianity is of the Catholic stamp; and it is then only natural that Catholic festivals and fasts are the ones to receive the nation’s homage.