“IT is sometimes flippantly asserted that ‘This is not a Christian nation;’ you have no right to a Christian Sabbath protected by law, for the Constitution of the United States prohibits the establishment of religion.” Thus begins an argument to prove that this is a Christian nation, which appears in Vol. 5, No. 1 of “Sunday Reform Leaflets,” issued by the Sunday League of America, with headquarters at Columbus, Ohio.
The assumption that this is a Christian nation is the basis for many appeals for legislation, state and national, to enforce the observance of Sunday.
There are many facts which bear upon this question, and they are not so far beneath the surface of things that they cannot be readily pointed out for consideration. Let us examine a few of them for the evidence which they furnish upon this point.
Is this a Christian nation because the people spend some hundreds of millions of dollars every year for whiskey and similar liquors, and about five millions to carry the gospel to the heathen?
Are we a Christian nation because we prefer to give ten times as much for tobacco to smoke and chew as we are willing to give for foreign missions?
Is this a Christian nation because it maintains a great and growing navy for the purpose of inflicting death and destruction upon its enemies?
Is this a Christian nation because it always demands satisfaction for any real or fancied insult to its dignity?
Is this a Christian nation because it shuts up the transgressor in prison, instead of forgiving him the offense?
Are we a Christian nation because we are ruthlessly exterminating the beautiful birds—taking from them the life the Creator gave them—in order that our ladies may have feather-trimmed bonnets to wear to church?
Are we a Christian nation because our church-going people split up into a hundred irreconcilable divisions and sects?
Are we a Christian nation because nine-tenths of the people are twice as eagerly engaged in the pursuit of money and pleasure as in the pursuit of piety?
Which one of these perfectly evident facts demonstrates that we are a Christian nation? Or do they all unite to prove the point?
Will the Sunday League of America—or anyone for that matter—please inform us how this is.