- Aug 7, 2003
- 17,038
- 2,806
- Faith
- Non-Denom
- Marital Status
- Private
- Politics
- US-Libertarian
While looking for something else, I can across this information. I had long known that the history of America was full of anti-Catholicism, but never knew the extent. Here's a little history lesson for you:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/front/3106365
Non-Protestant groups.98% of colonial America belonged to one Protestant sect or another.Only 1.4% embraced Roman Catholicism, and only 0.12% embraced Judaism.
Anti-Catholicism in colonial time manifest primarily in the area of civil and religious rights.Only in Rhode Island could a colonist Catholic enjoy full civil and religious rights according to chapter, decrees, and laws of the land.
<UL><LI>In Pennsylvania, where there were a number of Catholic churches.Catholics were permitted freedom of worship and enjoyed voting rights, but despite Quaker support they were excluded from public.
<LI>According to Maryland laws passed after 1691, Catholics not only were deprived of political rights, but were also forbidden to hold religious services except in private houses.
<LI>In other colonies, including Maryland, Catholics were second class citizens, repressed, banished, and categorically scorned and even excluded.
http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nromcath.htm
To Protestants, the immigrants' religion was cause for great consternation. Protestants prided themselves on living in a country founded as a Protestant "light unto the world," as the Puritans put it. They felt threatened that America might soon become a "Catholic" country; they worried that the Catholic religion, with its hierarchies and traditions, had made the immigrants unsuitable for democratic and individualistic America. They even mused whether the Catholics were coming in droves in order to colonize America for the pope! The churches could try to protect the immigrants, but they could do little to counter the prejudice Catholic immigrants faced in "mainstream" America every day. Neighbors called Catholics names, employers refused to promote them, landlords rented them their worst apartments, newspapers blamed them for rising crime rates, and banks refused them loans. A popular national organization, the American Protective Association, was founded specifically to promote anti-Catholicism and other prejudices.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/front/3106365
Non-Protestant groups.98% of colonial America belonged to one Protestant sect or another.Only 1.4% embraced Roman Catholicism, and only 0.12% embraced Judaism.
- In 1775, there were 6 Jewish congregations, 56 Catholic, 65 Methodist, 120 Dutch Reformed, 150 Lutheran, 159 German Reformed, 310 Quaker, 494 Baptist, 495 Anglican, 588 Presbyterian, and 668 Congregation churches in America.
- To protect Catholics in case of eventual discrimination, Lord Baltimore urged passage of the Toleration Act in 1664.It granted freedom of religion to all who believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ.Five years later, however, under the domination of Protestant legislature, the act was repealed and Catholic were denied the protection of the law.The repeal signified how the colonist, and in later centuries other Protestants, regarded, the Roman Catholic faith.
Anti-Catholicism in colonial time manifest primarily in the area of civil and religious rights.Only in Rhode Island could a colonist Catholic enjoy full civil and religious rights according to chapter, decrees, and laws of the land.
<UL><LI>In Pennsylvania, where there were a number of Catholic churches.Catholics were permitted freedom of worship and enjoyed voting rights, but despite Quaker support they were excluded from public.
<LI>According to Maryland laws passed after 1691, Catholics not only were deprived of political rights, but were also forbidden to hold religious services except in private houses.
<LI>In other colonies, including Maryland, Catholics were second class citizens, repressed, banished, and categorically scorned and even excluded.
http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nromcath.htm
To Protestants, the immigrants' religion was cause for great consternation. Protestants prided themselves on living in a country founded as a Protestant "light unto the world," as the Puritans put it. They felt threatened that America might soon become a "Catholic" country; they worried that the Catholic religion, with its hierarchies and traditions, had made the immigrants unsuitable for democratic and individualistic America. They even mused whether the Catholics were coming in droves in order to colonize America for the pope! The churches could try to protect the immigrants, but they could do little to counter the prejudice Catholic immigrants faced in "mainstream" America every day. Neighbors called Catholics names, employers refused to promote them, landlords rented them their worst apartments, newspapers blamed them for rising crime rates, and banks refused them loans. A popular national organization, the American Protective Association, was founded specifically to promote anti-Catholicism and other prejudices.
