In 1892, the United States Supreme Court determined, in the case The Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States, that an English minister was not a foreign laborer under the U.S. Code statue even though he was a foreigner. While this case was not specifically about religion and considered the legality of contracts for other foreign professionals, the court considered America’s Christian identity to be a strong support for its conclusion that Congress could not have intended to prohibit foreign ministers. Justice David Josiah Brewer penned the court’s opinion, in which he stated that the United States was a “Christian nation.” This statement is included as part of the dicta—that is, it is a gratuitous statement that is not essential to the Court’s holding. The Court has already decided the issue before venturing its opinion as to the religious character of the country. Included was a remarkable list of 87 examples taken from pre-Constitutional documents, historical practice, colonial charters, and the like, which reveal our undisputed religious roots. They range from the commission of Christopher Columbus to the first charter of Virginia to the Declaration of Independence and included the following statements: 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…. There is no dissonance in these declarations. There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. There are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people…. These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation. Brewer later clarified his position on a “Christian nation,” stating the U.S. is “Christian” in that many of its traditions are rooted in Christianity, not that Christianity should receive legal privileges or is established to the exclusion of other religions or to the exclusion of irreligion.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:59:50 +0000
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