https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/christian-persecution-in-missouri/
".. For the present day reader, it might be hard to understand how Christian persecution could have occurred under a Constitution that was supposed to protect freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But the Constitution and natural rights mattered little to those who engaged in such behavior. Loyalty to “the Union” was the driving force behind such blatant violations of the rights of their neighbors. Leftwich writes, “Missouri will ever be conspicuous in the annals of history as the only State in the American Union to inaugurate and authorize a formal opposition to Christianity, as an institution, and legalize the persecution of ministers of the gospel as a class. The fact will not be denied, and the history furnishes the saddest, wisest lessons. Ministers of the gospel have been robbed, arrested, imprisoned and even murdered, for no other cause than that they were ministers of the gospel. They have been indicted by grand juries, arrested and imprisoned with common felons, mobbed and put to death for no other cause than that of preaching the gospel without taking the ‘Test Oath’ of the New Constitution.”
Furthermore, “Both Federal and State legislation shield those who committed the crimes of the war from legal prosecution; but such enactments possess no control over the pen and the press…it is well the record of these horrible deeds be preserved, that the better portion of the people in this and other States may have some knowledge of what was done and suffered here during the dark and bloody days, from 1861 to ’65…Many of those, directly or indirectly, implicated in these deeds of cruelty and shame are now loud and earnest in their entreaties for ‘by-gones to be by-gones’ and profess great grief that anything should be said or done ‘to keep alive the feelings of the past…’”
Following is a mere handful of summarized accounts that can be found in much greater detail within the pages of Martyrdom in Missouri, volumes 1 and 2. ..."
The link above shows what happened, and what can happen again.
".. For the present day reader, it might be hard to understand how Christian persecution could have occurred under a Constitution that was supposed to protect freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But the Constitution and natural rights mattered little to those who engaged in such behavior. Loyalty to “the Union” was the driving force behind such blatant violations of the rights of their neighbors. Leftwich writes, “Missouri will ever be conspicuous in the annals of history as the only State in the American Union to inaugurate and authorize a formal opposition to Christianity, as an institution, and legalize the persecution of ministers of the gospel as a class. The fact will not be denied, and the history furnishes the saddest, wisest lessons. Ministers of the gospel have been robbed, arrested, imprisoned and even murdered, for no other cause than that they were ministers of the gospel. They have been indicted by grand juries, arrested and imprisoned with common felons, mobbed and put to death for no other cause than that of preaching the gospel without taking the ‘Test Oath’ of the New Constitution.”
Furthermore, “Both Federal and State legislation shield those who committed the crimes of the war from legal prosecution; but such enactments possess no control over the pen and the press…it is well the record of these horrible deeds be preserved, that the better portion of the people in this and other States may have some knowledge of what was done and suffered here during the dark and bloody days, from 1861 to ’65…Many of those, directly or indirectly, implicated in these deeds of cruelty and shame are now loud and earnest in their entreaties for ‘by-gones to be by-gones’ and profess great grief that anything should be said or done ‘to keep alive the feelings of the past…’”
Following is a mere handful of summarized accounts that can be found in much greater detail within the pages of Martyrdom in Missouri, volumes 1 and 2. ..."
The link above shows what happened, and what can happen again.
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