p. 4 | The “Christian Nation” Again by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 22, 1907

The “Christian Nation” Again

By C. M. S.

THE Home Herald (Ram’s Horn) of Chicago gives a page and a half of a recent issue to the arguments of Justice David J. Brewer and to its own arguments to prove that this is a Christian nation. The whole reasoning is based upon the false premise that because rulers professing to be Christian sent out expeditions to America and granted charters for the ownership of lands they had never seen and did not own, therefore all that was done must be Christian, and the nation finally formed must be a Christian nation; that because the founders of this nation had respect for the name of God and religion, therefore the nation they established must be a Christian nation; that because in the early charters and constitutions of the colonies there was “abundant recognitions of Christianity as a controlling factor in the lives of the people,” and in one such document Christianity was “declared the established religion,” therefore this must be a Christian nation; that because some of the courts have declared Christianity to be “the religion of the people,” therefore this nation must be a Christian nation; and all this in spite of the fact that the highest voice in the nation—its Constitution—purposely declared and still does declare that even the supreme legislative body of the nation “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

As truly might some individual claim to be a clergyman of the Methodist Church when the highest authority in that church had forbidden him to open his mouth in a Methodist pulpit. He might still be a religious man, but his claim to being a Methodist clergyman would be a false one. As truly might an alien declare himself to be a full-fledged American citizen when the courts of the country had refused him naturalization papers. He could still live in the country and enjoy the protection of its power, but his claim to citizenship would be a false one, and his attempt to exercise the right of suffrage would get him into trouble. This is no more a Christian nation than the unfrocked or unlicensed professor of religion is a clergyman, or the unnaturalized alien is a citizen. The nation is forbidden to do the very thing that it would be doing if it were in reality a Christian nation.

Justice Brewer is a member of the Supreme Court of this nation; but he could have no right to act in that capacity had he not been clothed with that

right by one having the authority. He might claim the right without the appointment, but he would not be permitted to exercise it. But he would have just as much right, unappointed, to sit upon that bench as this nation has to the title “Christian nation.” It has not received the appointment; it can not appropriate the office—it is, in fact, estopped from doing so.

There is still another reason why this nation is not a Christian nation—because it is not Christian. Several million people in this country profess Christianity. Other millions profess infidelity. Other millions profess Judaism. Still other millions profess nothing; while there are thousands upon thousands of Mohammedans, Confucianists, Buddhists, and Shintoists. Is it supposable that a piece of ore with as many component parts as the above, could justly be designated by the name of any one metal? Take a piece of metal to the mint and offer it to the one in charge as gold, for which you wish its value in gold coin. He assays it, and finds twenty per cent of pure gold, the remainder of the weight being made up by baser metals. He would denounce you as a fraud, and your scheme a “gold brick” swindle. Why?—Because you were claiming for your metal what was not true of its character.

The claim that this is a Christian nation is not true either in the sense of its real character and constituency or in the sense of its functions as a government. C. M. S.