Last week, the U. S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer. The case stems directly from religious bigotry in the mid-1800s.

In 2012 Trinity Lutheran Church in Missouri applied for a state grant to resurface their playground to make it safer. The church’s pre-school uses the playground and it’s also available to the local community. Most of the children in the pre-school and neighborhood do not attend the church.

Missouri denied the funds. They claimed state law prohibited them from aiding “any church, sect, or denomination of religion.”

And so on to court and now to the U. S. Supreme Court. The case offers the Court the chance put right the wrong imposed on religious believers in Missouri 140 years ago.

That wrong is called the Blaine Amendment.

Catholic Immigrants Found Catholic Schools

By the mid-1800s, in the wake of the Second Great Awakening, the religion of the American people was for the most part lowest-common-denominator (LCD) Protestantism. Charles Finney, the most prominent evangelist during the awakening, summed it up:

Persons of all denominations, forgetting their differences, gave themselves to the work. They all preached the same thing, the same simple Gospel. They held out substantially the same truth: Christ died to save souls; you may be saved; you are a sinner and need to be saved; now, will you come to Christ and submit yourself to God? This was about the amount of instruction.

That LCD Protestantism influenced all of American public life including public education. Since Protestantism was part of what it meant to be a real American, public schools promoted it with enthusiasm.

During that same era, the country experienced great waves of Catholic immigrants. For Catholics, Mr. Finney’s “simple gospel” was true as far as it went. It just didn’t go far enough. In fact, they found it so inadequate and, in the public schools, so objectionable that they founded their own schools. These would promote Catholic faith, education, and identity.

Keeping “Sectarian” Catholic Schools at Bay

Protestant America was never very keen on Catholics, but this went beyond too far. There had to be a way to make it harder for poor Catholics to send their children to these new “sectarian” Catholic schools. How could Catholic children be forced into the public schools with their “non-sectarian” Protestant bias so that they could become good Americans — and good Protestants?

To save the Republic from rampant Catholicism, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner was formed in 1849. Their core issue was the abolition of slavery, an extremely good cause, but they fueled that good cause with anti-Catholic bigotry. The Order was a secret society. When asked about it, members were bound by oath to say, “I know nothing.” Hence, they were called “The Know-Nothings.” Politically they were the American Party.

Their idea of the First Amendment was to keep Catholic “sectarianism” at bay while strengthening “non-sectarian” LCD Protestantism.

This was nearly enshrined in the U. S. Constitution in 1879. President Ulysses S. Grant proposed an amendment banning “sectarian” religious instruction in public schools and the use of tax dollars to in any way support “sectarian” schools. The amendment was named for James G. Blaine who had been Speaker of the House.

Protestants and non-religious people loved the amendment. While it was never ratified, all but eleven states adopted and still have Blaine Amendments or similar legislation. Missouri is one of them.

Danger for All Religious Groups

What Grant, Blaine, the Know-Nothings, and the amendment’s other supporters didn’t take into account is that “sectarian” is in the eye of the beholder.

They thought they were safeguarding the republic from the dangers of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” Instead they created a legal trap for religious believers including the good folk at Trinity Lutheran. Today when all religion is regarded as “sectarian” it’s possible to exclude all religion from government benefits.

Now I know it’s a mistake to judge those in the past by our standards.  It’s easy to second-guess a 140-year old decision with 20/20 hindsight. Still, the Blaine Amendments give states the power to discriminate against any or all religious groups. That exacts a steep tax on freedom as Trinity Lutheran and many others have discovered.

Those who observe the Supreme Court seem to think that the Court will find for Trinity Lutheran. Besides, the new governor of Missouri has changed the policy. One way or the other, Trinity Lutheran will receive their grant.

What the Court should do, if it can, is declare Blaine Amendments across the country unconstitutional. That would set right a long standing injustice.