Creel 1

Adamm W. Creel

FR Art Wheeler

HST 210

26 November 2018

Atheists Need Not Apply

If there was a physical Bible Belt, Texas would be the buckle. Religion is a major aspect

of what it is to be a Texan. “According to the 2010 U.S. Religion Census, at least 56.0 percent of

Texans are adherents to a religion. The national average is 48.8 percent.” 1 Texas gives freedom

to believe whatever you want in whatever religious way you choose. While not forced into a

religion, Texans are required to at least “acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being”2 should

they want to hold public office. Religion was a big part on the shaping of Texas as it grew into

the state it is today, so much so that it was included multiple times in The Texas Constitution’s

Bill of Rights. There is a long history of changing tides in the prevalent religious history of The

Lone Star State, from conquerors to immigrants, all brought their own brand of faith .

There is currently a large religious diversity within the state of Texas, when you separate

all of the Christian faiths out that is. The top of the religious mountain are the Catholics, who are

a growing number, and one that is especially true in southern Texas along the border with

Mexico, where there is a larger Hispanic population. In the northern part of the state, however,

the second largest group the Southern Baptists are prevalent. It isn’t until you get to the fifth-

1
(Texas State Historical Association n.d.)
2
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)
 Creel 2

place religion when a non-Christian faith appears, that being Islam.3 Compared to over four

million Catholics and three million Southern Baptists the four hundred thousand Muslims seems

a small number, but it is growing today, and was nonexistent in 1860. When compared with a

barely existent Jewish population it is quite a feat to break into the Christian state that is Texas.

In the mid-1800s Texas was overwhelmingly Protestant, and the once prevalent Catholic church

was in the decline.4 However, in recent years there has been a swing where once again the

Catholic church is beginning to grow in population once more.

In 1878 the Texas Constitution was finalized. Within Article 1, which is the Bill of Rights

for Texans, there are three original sections that deal with religion.

Sec. 4. RELIGIOUS TESTS. No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification

to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding

office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a

Supreme Being.

Sec. 6. FREEDOM OF WORSHIP. All men have a natural and indefeasible right to

worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No man shall

be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry

against his consent. No human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or

interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion, and no preference shall ever

be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship. But it shall be the duty of

3
(Texas State Historical Association n.d.)
4
(Texas State Historical Association n.d.)
 Creel 3

the Legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to protect equally every religious

denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship.

Sec. 7. APPROPRIATIONS FOR SECTARIAN PURPOSES. No money shall be

appropriated, or drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society,

theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the State be

appropriated for any such purposes.5

Section 7 is basic and translates easily to there is no state founded church. Section 6 allows

anyone to have and practice any religion and gives responsibility to the Legislature to keep laws

to protect this right. Section 4 is where things get away from freedom to requiring. In Section 4,

while it states that there will not be a test based on a religion for any public office, candidates

still have to believe in the “existence of a Supreme Being”6, which excludes atheists and many

agnostics from government positions in the state of Texas, and cementing it as a pseudo

theocracy within the United States.

Aside from the indigenous population of Texas, the first attempts of any religion to enter

the region was the Catholics out of Spain. Starting with the first mission San Clamente in 1684

there was a long line of failed missions in Texas.7 Marked by four characteristics “ferociously

courageous,” “rapacious for fame and gold,” “racist…never doubting Spanish superiority” and

“juices of religious crusade.”8 The Spanish attempted to force the natives into subservience with

their missions. The Spanish did not want to themselves farm and toil in the western hemisphere,

so developed a system where a military unit and a religious unit would travel together, and set up

5
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)A1S4, S6-7
6
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)A1S4
7
(WYGK Publishing 2015)
8
(Fehrenbach 1968)p21
 Creel 4

missions along with presidios across the frontier in an effort to convert the natives into the

Catholic Church and to get them to be Spanish citizens where they would be taxed and forced to

support the garrison and clergy as third and fourth class citizens. These were ultimately failures,

as differences of opinions and diseases turned away the natives, and neither clergy nor soldier

wanted to be farmers, so many of the missions failed and were abandoned. The last of the

missions, Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio, was founded in 1793 before the Spanish turned

their sights away from Texas and on to California.9

The Spanish did not have the power to fully patrol the Texas-Louisiana border, so a slow

trickle of American Protestant settlers began to trickle into Texas. In 1810 when Mexico

declared their independence from Spain the migrants became the problem of Mexico, which like

Spain,” maintained the Roman Catholic church as an Established institution, and when the first

Americans were legally admitted, Catholicism was imposed as a condition of migration.” 10 At

the beginning when there were few settlers who had to “agree to become a Catholic, receive

baptism, and be admitted… take an oath of allegiance to be faithful to the King and the

Constitution” 11of Spain and later Mexico, it was easy to lie. Even then there were no real

hostilities. A half-Irish Catholic priest named Father Miguel Muldoon was set to preside over the

colony started by Steven Austin, “most of whom were Protestants although they had professed

Catholicism in order to enter Spanish Texas. They looked forward to his scheduled visits for

baptisms and weddings.”12 Because of this goodwill the “term "Muldoon Catholic" applied to

9
(WYGK Publishing 2015)
10
(McDonald 1966)p77
11
(McDonald 1966)p77
12
(Flannery 1980)p24
 Creel 5

one whose Catholicism is only a veneer. … to those members of Father Muldoon's flock who,

originally Protestant, professed Catholicism only to secure Mexican lands in Texas.”13

However, as more and more Americans began to cross into Texas they became more and

more against being forced into the Roman Catholic church, and chose instead to keep their

Protestant faiths, thus violating the laws of their new country. Tired of being controlled by a

distant Mexican-Catholic government the Protestant settlers from America decided it was time to

become free of the oppressive yok that was placed on their shoulders when they decided to move

to Texas.

“On March 2, 1836, delegates of the people of Texas met at Washington-on the-Brazos

and declared their independence from Mexico. Among the grievances they expressed

toward the Mexican government, the declaration asserted that “It denies us the right of

worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the

support of a National Religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human

functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.” The assertion was in

reference to the fact that Protestant churches had been disallowed under Mexican rule”14

This lead to the Texas war of independence and later to Texas becoming, briefly its own nation,

and ultimately a state in the United States. Religious freedom was as key to Texas gaining

independence as it was to the first migrants to the United States.

Gaining their freedom from Mexico, Texas was for a time an independent nation called

the Republic of Texas. During its time as a republic Texas was controlled by the once minority

13
(Flannery 1980)p26
14
(Wuthnow 2014)p91
 Creel 6

Protestants. Having come mostly from America many had the same expansionist agenda, and

rather than keeping out of the way, or trying to convert the Indian population as the Spanish

before them, they waged war on the Indians, “these wars expelled virtually all … Indians from…

and opened up all east Texas to white settlement.”15 Now with virtually all of Texas opened up

for settlement the Protestant population continued its growth, while shrinking the Catholic and

Native religions.

These Protestant settlers brought with them black slaves, which were formerly outlawed

by Mexican law, and the Catholic Church. The bringing of slavery to Texas by the new settlers

allowed for the ability to grow the economy of the new Republic through trade. “Britain, France,

Belgium, and The Netherlands had recognized, or had commercial treaties, with The Republic of

Texas.”16 Yet the goal of the Republic was to join the United States of America as a state.

Slavery was the stumbling block of expansion in Washington D.C. as to which territories to

allow to enter as slave or free states.

Roughly ten years after declaring itself free Texas once again donned the yok of

obedience, when on 29 December 1845, Texas was finally allowed to join, to the celebration of

the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, The United States of America as the 28th state. Texas

entered as a slave state. Even though “400,000 white Texans-95 percent of the population-who

owned none.”17 Statehood opened up Texas to more settlers from the eastern parts of the United

States with promises of cheaper land. Large numbers of Protestants from various European

15
(Fehrenbach 1968)p258
16
(Fehrenbach 1968)p259
17
(Fehrenbach 1968)p328
 Creel 7

backgrounds came to Texas to make their fortunes, and with them came some Irish immigrants

with their Catholic religion that was looked down on and despised by the Protestants.

Even the Protestant religions were at odds with each other. Some Germans “immigrating

to America in the late eighteenth … centuries made a conscious decision to reshape Lutheran

doctrine and identity to more closely resemble the Protestant religion that dominated the cultural

life of nineteenth century America.”18 Those being Methodist and Presbyterian religions, that

were more anti-Catholic than Lutherans were back in Germany. With the migration of

immigrants their “religion was the foundation of immigrant morality and created cohesive groups

that provided stability in a strange new American culture. Religious denominations provided

immigrant groups an arena in which to articulate their political and moral views regarding the

political issues.”19 With the Americanized versions of the religions that immigrants were used to

being so different, it caused some immigrants to look outside the box and convert. In his

dissertation, Craig William Borchardt mentions a German immigrant Carl Urbantke and his

conversion from the Lutheran Church he had left in Germany. “Carl Urbantke's conversion to the

Methodist Church in Texas”20 is just one example of religious conversion while entering a new

land. Old world disputes were brought with populations into the new world where they evolved.

Legitimized as a state, Texas was, for the first time in 1850, part of the national census.

“Texas reported a total of 341 churches with seating accommodations for 63,575 and property

valued at “204,930. The Methodists had 176 churches, Baptists 82, and the Presbyterians 45. In

that year there were only thirteen Roman Catholic churches represented, but their property

18
(Borchardt 1996)p12-13
19
(Borchardt 1996)p8
20
(Borchardt 1996)p6
 Creel 8

valuation of approximately “$80,000 was the largest.”21 These numbers reflect the longevity of

the Catholic church, as well as the rise of the Protestant denominations into prominence in Texas

at the time. And while the Methodists had the most churches, it was the Baptists, that had the

widest reach thanks to multiple publications distributed for their faith from the meetings of their

religious leaders. When the census was again conducted in 1860 there again was a decline in the

Catholic percentage of the population in comparison to the Protestants, as well as a significant

growth in the property holding of the Protestant faiths. While the “Catholic churches had

increased to thirty-three, but their property valuation at $180,900 was surpassed by both

Methodists and Baptists and almost equaled by the Protestant Episcopal group with only

nineteen churches.”22 There were now 1,034 churches with accommodation for 271,000

members with a combined property value of over one million dollars.23 The Protestants had

taken the reigns as the religious pinnacle in Texas.

When creating the Constitution of Texas in 1876, along with the political beliefs of the

Texas settlers were too the religious beliefs of the Protestant faiths. While sticking along the

same path of the United States Constitution in form, Texas included stronger religious wording.

In an attempt to continue the tradition of religious leadership throughout Texas the verbiage

“provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being”24 was added in the Texas Bill of

rights. This ensures that all elected officials are keepers of faith and would use that faith as a

template in their political decisions. At the same time, the differing Protestant faiths had to make

sure that one did not take over the state through their elected officials, so “no money shall be

21
(Friend 1958)p11
22
(Friend 1958)p11
23
(Friend 1958)p11
24
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)A1S4
 Creel 9

appropriated, or drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any sect”25 was added to make sure if

a legislature of Baptists was the majority they could not increase their power over the other

Religions.

Starting with the Catholics with the Spanish conquistadors in the 1600s, religion has been

a mainstay in the history of Texas. From the failed mission system to the “Muldoon Catholics”

the Catholic church has attempted to be the dominant religion of the state. However, with

increased immigration the Protestant groups were able to surpass the Catholics in 1860s Texas.

This trend carried on throughout the state, and even though today there is the largest single

population of Roman Catholics represented in Texas, the Protestant faiths combined dominate

the landscape. Overthrowing the Catholic dominance was a key factor of Texas wanting

independence. This desire to have any faith a man wanted guided Texas as an independent

Republic and later helped guide Texas through statehood. While Texas is a large part of the

Bible Belt and a place for many Protestants, the constitution allows for and encourages all

beliefs. As long as someone is able to “acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being”26 they

are welcome to all parts of life in the state of Texas.

25
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)A1S7
26
(Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council 2017)A1S4
 Creel 10

Works Cited
Borchardt, Craig William. 1996. "German Lutheran Transpants and Methodist Converts in Washington
and Austin Counties, Texas, 1860-1930." PhD dissertation. no. UMI (Number: 9634706). Texas
A&M University, May.

Fehrenbach, T.R. 1968. Lone Star A History of Texas and the Texans. Boston: Da Capo Press.

Flannery, John Brendan. 1980. The Irish Texans. San Antonio: The University of Texas Institute of Texan
Culture at San Antonio.

Friend, Llerena B. 1958. "The Texan of 1860." The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1-17.

Legal Division of the Texas Legislative Council. 2017. Texas Constitution Includes Amendments Through
the November 7, 2017, Constitutional Amendment Election. Austin, Tx, November 7.

McDonald, Archie P. 1966. "Westward I Go Free" Some Aspects of Early East." East Texas Historical
Journal 75-84.

Texas State Historical Association. n.d. Religious Affiliation In Texas. Accessed November 14, 2018.
https://texasalmanac.com/topics/religion/religious-affiliation-texas.

Wuthnow, Robert. 2014. ""WITH LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE: Defining the Separation of Church and
State."." In In Rough Country: How Texas Became America's Most Powerful Bible-Belt State, 88-
120. Princeton University Press. Accessed November 26, 2018.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wq11g.6.

WYGK Publishing. 2015. The Missions. Accessed November 14, 2018.

http://www.texasmissionguide.com/the-missions/.

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