Public Worship Quotes
What is particularly interesting about this quotation is the date. As late as 1932, a governor of a major state, was declaring a State holiday for a particular religion, and in his official capacity was recommending fasting and paryer within a Christian context. Although the Proclamation violated the First Amendment, at the time few people would make the effort to go to court to challenge what had been a long tradition in America of declaring Christian Holidays official and the keeping of the Sabbath with criminal penalties for those who did not. However, it took time, effort and money to challenge these practices in court, and the majority community did not treat those people well socially who challenged custom as unconstitutional even when the courts agreed and restrained the practice. Even into the 21st century there were still a few legal battles about prayer in schools and promulgating Biblical passages in public buildings. From the late 1800s to the latter part of the 20th century, it was the Democrats who attracted most religious Americans while the Republicans were the party who advocated a non-traditional but Constitutional approach to religion. See {623322}
One of the “crises” created by the American Revolution was the cutoff of imported Bibles. The ministers petitioned Congress for a subsidized printing of the Bible. The petition was referred to a committee which included John Adams. The committee recommended against the subsidized printing idea, but did recommend that 20,000 English language Protestant Bibles be imported from Holland. However, just as the recommendation was made, the Continental Congress had to flee Philadelphia to escape the oncoming British. When Congress finally met again, the Bible issue got lost among other important problems resulting in an American Bible shortage which the young nation survived. It was not until 1782 that the first Bibles were printed in America.
