That “Christian Nation” Decision
By L. A. S.
Justice Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, in an address at a religious gathering recently, spoke of the Bible in comparison with the books reverenced by non-Christian peoples, and of the influence of the Bible upon national life in those countries where it is held as a sacred book. The following words from this part of his address are of interest as explaining his conception of the United States as a Christian nation, Justice Brewer being, it will be remembered, the author of the “Christian nation” decision which elicited so much comment some years ago:— No nation has a sacred book comparable with ours. Above all the writings of Confucius, above the Koran, in the richness and loftiness and purity of its teaching is this Bible that we believe in. It is our nation’s sacred book, yet does this nation come up to the level of its teaching and mold its life in all things by the pure and lofty precepts of this Book? I do not mean that as a nation we have a state religion, or that by secular means we support any form of Christianity. But I do mean to say that this American nation, from its first settlement at Jamestown to the present hour, is based upon and permeated by the principles of this book. The very first charters that were issued have as one of the reasons for their issue that the Christian religion might be carried into this new continent, and all through our national life, from its beginning to the present time, there has been a constant recognition of the Bible as our sacred book. So it is that we are regarded among the nations of the world as a Christian nation. We do not, any more than any other nation, come up to the level of our ideals as expressed in this book. While other nations are Christian nations, and this Bible is their sacred book, it is true, comparing nation with nation, that those nations in which this book is free, in which its principles reach further through the great body of the people, surpass those nations in which the Bible is a closed book or only partially understood. In other words, the more this Bible enters into the national life, the grander and purer and better becomes that life. It appears that Justice Brewer’s “Christian nation” decision, as he intended it, had reference to the nation as a body of people rather than as a government; but the trouble with it is that a good deal more is likely to be gotten out of it than he meant to put into it, by those who would use it to establish a state religion.
L. A. S.