Antebellum Era
First Account
From the image of American River Ganges, we find people at the shore of the river; some are seated at the top of a hill just beside the river. Buildings are noticed merely a walking distance from the river giving an impression that there is a community of people living near the river.one of the buildings has two flags on the sides, and a cross on top of the building, the cross symbolizes the presence of Christians in that region. Inside the river, we see crocodiles; they are coming to the shores of the river.
Crocodiles are noticed coming many in numbers, looking hungry, and ready to attack (Thomas). A man is seen standing at the beach facing the direction from which the crocodiles are coming from, on the right hand he holds a small boys’ hand, and on the left he holds a small girls’ side, this man looks ready to face the crocodiles and puts the little children behind him so as to offer them protection.
All the children at the shore look frightened and helpless. The groups of people seated on top of the hill near the beach are seen dropping some people at the beach instead of helping them out, and others are comfortably watching the hungry reptiles attack the people at the beach.
From an image of usreligion.wordpress.com, there is an image of a house with signs of people inside. From my point of view, it looks like there is an argument between the people inside that house (Thomas). There are writings like “I nominated God as president for life,” this kindly tells us that some of the people inside the house are Christians, then there is also a writing “AYE!” which seems to come from several people, which already sounds like a heated discussion.
Roman Catholic Church had built a lot of schools before 1869 in America. The government had also begun a project of making public schools (Thomas). During the 1870s the government wanted to also allocate funds for the religious schools, most of which were built by the Roman Catholic. Most of the schools that were made by the government practiced protestant morals, and read the protestant bible. Catholic leaders wanted the government to distribute funds equally between the public schools, and the religious schools.
The New York state government passed a law of “free education,” which took effect. The Catholic Church was so close to the Democratic Party and was much involved in politics more than any other ethnic group (Thomas). The Roman Catholic was against modernization, and democratic government institutions, they had selfish needs, and always wanted the government to make all schools follow the Catholic way of life, and recite the Catholic prayers. The American Catholic was not ready to assimilate the American culture, and have a free mind where a person can do what he thinks is right.
Nast, an activist in the US, rises to oppose the Catholic Church, arguing that the Catholic fraternity was after using government funds to abolish public schools. The New York Catholic Church had allied with tweed; hence it was getting favors from the government. Nast fought against Catholic interference with public schools, but it was not that easy.
Second Account
Republican Party believes that the United States is a Christian country, and the Party believes that the nation should live a Christian way of life (wordpress). The United States is a country which consists of different types of religions, and the law states that citizens have been granted freedom to worship according to their faith. The belief of the Republicans that the US is a Christian nation causes a lot of problems during campaigns, creating a difference between candidates due to different religious beliefs
Many occupants of the United States are believed to be Christians; however, this does not justify that the US should be a Christian country, and change laws for the same (wordpress). Republicans are attacked by the Democrats, terming them to be un-Americans. Barack Obama is attacked by the republicans terming him a Muslim, despite him being a Christian by practice. Republicans believed that Obama was not an American citizen. Donald Trump, a Republican presidential candidate,, uses this chance to attack Obama claiming that Obama’s former teachers and books carry the evidence that Obama has been lying about his religion, where they term him as from the Muslim dominion.
The Ideology of making Christianity the official religion in the US causes problems for the Republican Party; it raises tension in the country because of different people who differ in terms of worship, even between those of the same religion (wordpress). Such type of ideas makes people distance themselves from political issues, and can also cause a decline in the economy of the country because it will push away many investors who think because they are not of the stated religion then no need to go and invest in that country. Donald Triumph hates the Muslim faith and blames them for the terror attacks faced by the world, and he blames the Muslim for bombing innocent Christians. Donald promises to fight against terrorism when he is elected as the president of the US.
CONCLUSION
Comparing the first account with the second account, we find that a lot of things have changed. In both accounts, a particular religion always wants to control the government. In the first account, the Roman Catholic believes that all the schools in New York should practice catholic ways of teachings. Catholic priest stays close to the government, hence convincing the government to produce funds to support the Catholic schools.
In the second account, the Republican Party believes that, since the largest population consists of Christians, then the whole country should be a Christian community irrespective of different people from different ethnic groups. The ideology of converting the US to a Christian country causes a lot of political differences during campaigns, but the idea is not implemented because people are against religious division, and the countries law states clearly that, any US citizen if has the freedom to worship irrespective of their faith..
References
Nast, Thomas. “The American River Ganges”, Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 30, 1871. Print
wordpress. “religion and politics in US.” 2016. usreligion. 28 4 2019.