A Once Christian Nation

1892, the Supreme Court documented and adopted this statement after an exhaustive study of the connection between Christianity and U.S. government: “These references… add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a religious people… a Christian nation.” 1931, the same statement was reinstated by Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland saying that Americans are a “Christian people.” We certainly don’t have that understanding today.

In the history of America, the concept of a wall between church and state is a very recent concept and was never used by twice in the history of America up until the late 1940s, but in the last 50 years there have been countless cases citing this concept. Beginning in 1962, with the removal of prayer from schools, a host of other decisions were made removing God from our generation:

- 1962: A verbal prayer offered din a school is unconstitutional, even if that prayer is both voluntary and denominationally neutral (Engel v. Vitale).

- 1965: Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed to students and teachers – unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional (Stein v. Oshinky).

- 1965: If a student prays over his lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud (Reed v. Van Hoven).

- 1979: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask whose birthday is celebrated by Christmas [Jesus] (Florey v. Sioux Falls School District).

- 1980: It is unconstitutional for students to see the Ten Commandments in school because they might read, meditate upon, respect or obey them (Stone v. Graham).

- 1985: Even though the wording may be constitutionally acceptable, a bill becomes unconstitutional if the legislator who introduced the bill had a religious activity in mind when it was authored (Wallace v. Jaffree).

- 1990: It is unconstitutional for a classroom library to contain books which deal with Christianity, or for a teacher to be seen with a personal copy of the Bible at school (Roberts v. Madigan).

- 1993: Artwork may not be displayed in schools if it depicts something religious – even if that artwork is considered a historical classic (Washegic v. Bloomingdale Public Schools).

- 1993: The Ten Commandments, despite the fact that they are the basis of civil law and are depicted in engraved stone in the U.S. Supreme Court, may not be displayed at a public courthouse (Harvey v. Cobb County).

- In a high school class in Dickson, Tennessee, students were required to write a research paper using at least four sources. Despite the fact that the students were allowed to write about reincarnation, witchcraft and the occult, because student Brittney Settle chose to write her paper about the life of Jesus Christ, she was given a zero by her teacher.

- An elementary school principal in Denver removed the Bible from the school library.

- In Omaha, Nebraska, a student was prohibited from reading his Bible silently during free time, or even to open his Bible at school.

- In California, there are schools that no longer allow students to mention the word “God” during class.

Taken from research by Logan Bloom and David Barton.