Primary Document

The document I chose for my primary document is Religion and the Schools by Washington Gladden. Gladden begins talking about parochial schools. Parochial schools are private schools. An example around here is holy Cross, my alma mater. I think going to a parochial school myself gives me a big insight to this topic. I know firsthand what the experience of going to a private school is like. I personally have mixed reviews from my experience. While I know having faith is very important, to my family and me at least, Holy Cross didn't really help grow my faith. What Holy Cross taught me was the history of my religion, which to me isn't nearly as important as learning what it means to be catholic or how to act on my faith. They did teach me the Hail Mary and the Our Father, but it didn’t teach me how to really follow my faith. Another thing about Holy Cross that did not help was education. I feel I didn’t get the education I needed to succeed in high school. I feel that there is definitely a gap between my education and the education of the public school students.
This article describes the different reactions that different religions had to religion not being in public schools. He wrote that Catholics, Lutherans, and Protestants agreed on how it's bad to not have religion in public schools, whereas the majority of other religions disagree. It also talks about the different approaches schools have made to make it not as big of an argument, but nothing seems to make every side happy.
This is a very difficult subject because as the article says, you can never please everybody. I think the best way to handle it is the way they handle it now. Separate into public and private schools, therefore the students who want to focus on religion can, and those who do not, can avoid it. I think there should be classes offered though, so that if students don’t have the money for a full private school, they can take a class in school to learn more about religion.


Washington Gladden "Religion and the Public Schools," Annals of American History.

Religion in the United States

This article talks about the history of religion in the United States. It talks about how different religions have flourished in America and what made it grow. The first event that made religion flourish was the first Great Awakening. It brought sensationalism to the picture. While this started the growth of religion, the second Great Awakening brought it even further. It rejuvenated Protestants, especially in New York. Another religion that flourished around the same time was Mormonism. It was based off of Protestantism. It gained many followers quickly, but was controversial and forced out of many states, forcing it to move to Utah.

The main reason for most religions becoming more popular in the United States was immigration. This is especially true for Catholicism. The main factor contributing to that was the potato famine in Ireland bringing many Irish-Catholics (including my great grandparents) to America. Catholics from Europe and Latin America also flocked to the U.S. All this immigration caused Catholicism to become the largest religion in the United States. This was usually Protestants, and they were threatened by the growth of Catholics.
Later, Jews were becoming more prominent in America because they were fleeing persecution in Russia and other countries. They also faced discrimination, just like the Catholics, from the Protestants.
The Catholics response to this discrimination was the Second Vatican Council, which was designed to make the Catholic Church more modernized. The changes including using the local language in masses and building bridges with the Protestants to cut down on the tension between the two religions.

This article gave me a lot of information about all religions in America. I never knew how much tension there used to be, and occasionally still is, between religions. It was really interesting to hear about that, and also to learn how different religions became what they are today. This article really teaches anyone who reads it a lot about United States and its ties with religion. I enjoyed learning more about my faith, but also learning about other faiths, and learning how a lot of religions are based off another.


"religion in the United States." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 10 Feb. 2010. .

Abington v. Schempp

This court case was arguing whether or not student-led reading of the Bible or reciting The Our Father violates the first amendment. The law in Pennsylvania at the time was to read at least ten verses from the Bible and that any student may decline to participate. The Schempp family argued that this was unconstitutional and they fought to get rid of this morning practice. I agree with the Schempp family. I believe that prayer should be a personal thing that is kept within yourself. I think the students should be given time to do whatever sort of prayer they prefer everyday, and I think they will get a lot more out of it.

Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU

This is a court case about religious displays on public property. It occurs in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The court ruled that the nativity scene that was on display did in fact violate the first amendment, but voted that the menorah did not violate it. To me this seems ridiculous. If one religious symbol can violate the amendment, then any other religious symbol should violate it as well. I say it's either keep both up, or take both down. The court said to keep the nativity scene would show an endorsement for Catholicism, but only taking it down and not taking down the menorah sends the exact opposite message. If they made an equal decision, I believe things would have been a lot more equal.

"Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU (1989)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. .