In the 19th century, Catholicism was regarded by
many people in this country as thoroughly incompatible with
Americanism. They saw it as a hostile foreign element that would
subvert democracy. Today, a majority of the justices on the Supreme
Court are Catholic, and they are taken to be as American as
Mountain Dew. We’ve come a long way in religious tolerance,
writes Steve Chapman. Or maybe not. The belief that Catholics are
irredeemably alien and disloyal has given way to the fear that
Muslims pose a mortal threat to our way of life.