Jonathan Zimmerman: Anti-Islamic mood repeats history
[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University.]
A little-known politician emerges from Illinois to capture the White House during a time of national turmoil and unrest. Critics whisper that he’s a secret member of a dangerous minority religion, which flouts the norms and traditions of democracy itself.
Barack Obama, in 2010? No, Abraham Lincoln. In 1860.
That’s right. Just as Obama’s enemies call him a closet Muslim, Lincoln’s opponents hinted that he was ... a closet Catholic. And in each case, the reason was exactly the same: millions of Americans feared, derided or despised these faiths. The important question isn’t whether Lincoln and Obama actually practiced Catholicism or Islam; it’s why so many of us have cared. And the answer is right before our eyes.
The whispers about Lincoln’s religion began right after he was elected president. The “evidence” was simple, and altogether spurious.
Jesuits were active in Lincoln’s region of Illinois, so he must have been baptized by them. Oh, and Lincoln had once defended a prominent priest in a slander lawsuit.
But there was more. Lincoln also denounced the bigotry and prejudice of the Know-Nothings, America’s most vehemently anti-Catholic political party. “If the Know-Nothings get control,” Lincoln warned in 1855, “the Declaration of Independence will read: All men are created equal except for Negroes, foreigners, and Catholics.”
Pretty suspicious, no? Remember the old adage about your enemy’s enemy being your friend? Why would Lincoln criticize the anti-Catholics, unless he was Catholic himself?
And here’s why it mattered: Across the political spectrum, including Lincoln’s Republican Party, Protestant Americans assumed that Catholics were disloyal to the Republic. “We” respected individual rights, liberties and freedoms; but “they” took orders from the Vatican, an authoritarian menace that spread its tentacles across the globe.
Read entire article at Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A little-known politician emerges from Illinois to capture the White House during a time of national turmoil and unrest. Critics whisper that he’s a secret member of a dangerous minority religion, which flouts the norms and traditions of democracy itself.
Barack Obama, in 2010? No, Abraham Lincoln. In 1860.
That’s right. Just as Obama’s enemies call him a closet Muslim, Lincoln’s opponents hinted that he was ... a closet Catholic. And in each case, the reason was exactly the same: millions of Americans feared, derided or despised these faiths. The important question isn’t whether Lincoln and Obama actually practiced Catholicism or Islam; it’s why so many of us have cared. And the answer is right before our eyes.
The whispers about Lincoln’s religion began right after he was elected president. The “evidence” was simple, and altogether spurious.
Jesuits were active in Lincoln’s region of Illinois, so he must have been baptized by them. Oh, and Lincoln had once defended a prominent priest in a slander lawsuit.
But there was more. Lincoln also denounced the bigotry and prejudice of the Know-Nothings, America’s most vehemently anti-Catholic political party. “If the Know-Nothings get control,” Lincoln warned in 1855, “the Declaration of Independence will read: All men are created equal except for Negroes, foreigners, and Catholics.”
Pretty suspicious, no? Remember the old adage about your enemy’s enemy being your friend? Why would Lincoln criticize the anti-Catholics, unless he was Catholic himself?
And here’s why it mattered: Across the political spectrum, including Lincoln’s Republican Party, Protestant Americans assumed that Catholics were disloyal to the Republic. “We” respected individual rights, liberties and freedoms; but “they” took orders from the Vatican, an authoritarian menace that spread its tentacles across the globe.