Keeping Alive the Memory of American Public Religion

Charles G. Mills

9/10/2009

Revolutionaries and totalitarians always try to erase the people’s link to the past. Hitler discontinued the teaching of Latin in the German schools. Stalin renamed the second largest city in Russia because it was named for Saint Peter. Henry VIII despoiled the English churches of their relics, including the incorrupt bodies of saints, and Cromwell whitewashed over all the murals in the churches. During the Spanish Civil War, the communists destroyed the body of Saint Louis Bertrand, which had been miraculously uncorrupted after over 350 years. The French were particularly malicious in their determination to erase all public signs that France is a Catholic country. It is still illegal in France for civil servants to wear small crosses on chains around their necks at work.

The story continues ….