Evaluate One Ancient Influence on modern American law

Introduction

Today many U.S. citizens born and raised in the United States find themselves trying to define U.S. culture. Although a pluralistic religious community existed in the Colonial Period, there was a general consensus that this would be a country founded on Christian beliefs. The protestant culture influenced the formation and execution of the laws. It was primary in the common or public schools, provided an agenda for social reform, and served as the basis for forming denominational colleges during that period (Ewick and Susan, pp. 67-89). During the 1830's, this Protestant domination became challenged, and that continuous challenging leaves us grappling with what we deem culturally acceptable or unacceptable. This paper evaluates one ancient influence on modern American law in a concise and comprehensive way.

Discussion

In the 1830's, approximately 600,000 catholics arrived in the United States. During the 1840's, 1,700,000 more arrived while an additional 2,600,000 arrived in the 1850's. By 1880, there were approximately 6,259,000 Catholics in the U.S. Nearly half of them were Irish, about 1/4 were from Germany, 1/6 from England, Wales and Scotland. The rest were mainly from eastern Europe and Italy (Ewick and Susan, pp. 67-89).

The immigration of the Jewish population in large numbers began in the 1880's. In the 1830's, Jewish people made up less than one tenth of a percent of the American population. By the mid 1920's, the number of Jews in America had jumped to 4 million. The American culture and legal system found itself faced with further changes to accommodate and incorporate the more diverse, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish Citizenship. With this coming together, America witnessed the emergence of a Judeo-Christian consensus.

As new immigrants with new faiths have come to our shores, we have found ourselves changing to further include our more recent citizens. In 1934, there was only one mosque and less than 20,000 Muslims in this country. In 1988, there were over 600 mosques or temples and more than 4 million Muslims in the U.S.

Although Hinduism is a family religion and most worship takes place in the home, it has been estimated that there were approximately 150,000 Hindus in the United States in 1940. In 1990, this number grew to about three quarters of a million. In 1909, there were approximately 3,000 Buddhists in America. In 1988, there were an estimated 600,000 Buddhists in the U.S (Porsdam, pp. 45-56).

U.S. culture and law continued to reflect the emergence of other “new religions” embraced by young Americans during the 1970's. Among these religions are Transcendental Meditation, the Hare Krishna Movement, Zen Buddhism, and the Unification Church. (the Moonies) Perhaps the greatest influence and challenge to America and its laws was the growing number of Americans who did not have any religious practices and objected strongly to the Judeo-Christian assertion of right and wrong (Porsdam, pp. 45-56). In the late 1980's, these new “secularists” made up approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population. Their views are seen to be “humanist” and they support what they feel ...