Not a “Christian Nation.”
By W. N. G.
We often hear the so-called patriotic sentiment that the 266 American lives lost by the sinking of the Maine must be “atoned for by the lives of Spaniards.” This sentiment is entirely retaliative, and wholly infidel. If the destruction of those lives was wrong—and it surely was if premeditated—then the life of every Spaniard in the world would not atone for the deed. This is not because the life of a Spaniard is not worth as much in the sight of God as the life of an American, but it is because no atonement for the loss of life is worthy the name that does not include the sin attached to that life. From this point of view, all the lives in the universe (save One) could not atone for one of the victims of the Maine disaster. Therefore, supposing that catastrophe to have been deliberately premeditated, to destroy any more lives on that account is to add murder to murder. The taking of human life as an atonement for the loss of life does not at all comport with the claim that “this is a Christian nation.” Indeed, the present attitude of our government is sufficient proof that this dictum of the Supreme Court is erroneous, and that Washington’s treaty with Tripoli was right, which declared that “the government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.” W. N. G.