8. Is there any evidence that such an image will be made?
Large and influential organizations, such as the National Reform Association, the International Reform Bureau, the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, have been formed, by professed Protestants, and for years have been persistently working to that end. Many Roman Catholic societies recently formed in the United States, such as the Knights of Columbus and the American Federation of Catholic Societies, are looking to a like end—that of making America Catholic.
9. What, according to its constitution, is the avowed object of the National Reform Association?
“To secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as shall ... indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of the government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.”—Article II of Constitution.
Notes.—Upon the question of making this a “Christian nation,” Bishop Earl Cranston, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in an address delivered in Foundry Methodist Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C., March 13, 1910, made the following observation:—
“Suppose this were to be declared a Christian nation by a Constitutional interpretation to that effect. What would that mean? Which of the two contending definitions of Christianity would the word Christian indicate?—The Protestant idea, of course, for under our system majorities rule, and the majority of Americans are Protestants. Very well. But suppose that by the addition of certain contiguous territory with twelve or more millions of Roman Catholics, the annexation of a few more islands with half as many more, and the same rate of immigration as now, the majority some years hence should be Roman Catholics,—who doubts for a moment that the reigning Pope would assume control of legislation and government? He would say, with all confidence and consistency, ‘This is a Christian nation. It was so claimed from the beginning and so declared many years ago. A majority defined then what Christianity was, the majority will define now what Christianity now is and is to be.’ That ‘majority’ would be the Pope.”—“The Church and the Government,” page 7.
The National Reformers in their attempts to justify the legal establishment of Christianity as the national religion, have erroneously declared that the statement of Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1892, “This is a Christian nation,” is a decision of the court, whereas it was only a statement in the argument leading up to the decision of the court.
In a sermon at the centenary of the establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States, in 1889, Archbishop Ireland said: “Our work is to make America Catholic.... Our cry shall be, ‘God wills it,’ and our hearts shall leap with crusader enthusiasm.”
The theory of the National Reformers is thus expressed: “Every government by equitable laws, is a government of God; a republic thus governed is of Him, and is as truly and really a theocracy as the commonwealth of Israel.”—“Cincinnati National Reform Convention,” page 28.
10. How does this association regard the Catholic Church on this point?