One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse

Author:Kevin Kruse [Kruse, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780465040643
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2015-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Supreme Court’s decisions striking down state-mandated programs of prayer and Bible reading in public schools generated a wide range of reactions. Here, Charles Schulz captured the popular panic that the decisions would drive religion out of public life. PEANUTS © 1963 Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Dist. By UNIVERSAL UCLICK. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

In this image, political cartoonist Herb Block dismissed such concerns, suggesting that religion might be best encouraged in the private sphere. A 1963 Herblock Cartoon, © The Herb Block Foundation.

For Black, the deluge of criticism was stunning. Reading the angry letters, he said, was a “real education.” He replied to the calmer complaints, often suggesting that his correspondents had been misled about the decision and urging them to read it themselves. He largely ignored the angrier ones but occasionally felt compelled to respond. “One woman condemned Hugo to Hell,” his wife recalled, “and he wrote an answer telling her a bit sarcastically, I thought, that if she would go to the library (as he was sure she would not have it in her own house) and ask for a book called the Bible, she should turn to the chapter and read where it said ‘Pray in your own closet.’” Black, the former Sunday school teacher, referred other critics to that same passage, though usually in gentler tones. “To those who think prayer must be recited parrot-like in public places in order to be effective,” he explained to a niece, “the sixth chapter of Matthew, 1 to 19, might be reflected upon, particularly verses 5 through 8.”40

Black was not the only one who took solace in the Gospel of Matthew. Reverend Edward O. Miller, the liberal rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, applauded the Engel ruling in the Christian Century, citing the same passage as his rationale. Dean Kelley, a United Methodist minister who led the National Council of Churches’ Department of Religious Liberty, parodied the same piece of Scripture to mock the Court’s critics. “Practice your piety before men to be seen by them,” he chided. “Require the little children to bow their heads and pray, or at least keep silent while others do, using the pious words that your rulers give you. Then everyone will remark how religious you are. Then religion will be greatly helped and faith in Faith will become very popular.”41

Initially, these religious supporters of the decision were few in number. Reacting to the early, exaggerated reports of the ruling, most churchmen were aghast. Billy Graham was “shocked and disappointed” by the decision, which he warned was “another step toward secularism in the United States.” “Followed to its logical conclusion,” he said, “prayers cannot be said in Congress, chaplains will be taken from the armed forces, and the President will not place his hand on the Bible when he takes the oath of office.” Francis Cardinal Spellman, Catholic archbishop of New York, likewise said he was “shocked and frightened” because “the decision strikes at the very heart of the Godly tradition in which America’s children have for so long been raised.

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