Ignoring Religion in History Isn’t Neutrality—It’s Distortion

By Michael Van Hecke

Our texts are history and do not promote a particular religion or religious teaching. The texts are, however, written for Catholic schools, so in conjunction with standard historical events and themes, our books describe persons and events that are of importance to Catholics. Given that we do not minimize standard history in any of our texts, Catholic historical events and figures enhance but do not minimize the standard account. In other words, these are standard history textbooks based on the national history standards.

Our editorial standards of judgment of what to relate are strictly historical. Where the Catholic Church, by any historical judgment, is central to history, we present it as such; where it is not, we do not. Thus, in Light to the Nations II (LTN II), Catholicism is frequently in the narrative because the Catholic Church was a major player in the history of Europe from the 17th to the late 20th centuries. This is not promoting Catholicism in any way, just relating history as it was, like when talking of Mecca, Islam is obviously discussed. 

That being said, in our LTN II in a few cases we highlighted certain figures or events that might in standard historical texts receive little notice, though they are still actual historical events or people. We do this because such persons or events are of interest to Catholics. I provide two examples here. You will note in those examples that they do not stray from strict history into the promotion of doctrine or devotion. They are real historical facts.

In American history, the Catholic Church has not been as formative a cultural or historical force as it has been in Europe; thus, we do not treat of it as often as we do in LTN II. The Church has, however, played a part in American history, and this is relevant to Catholic students—but not just Catholic students. Still, relative to the “secular” history of America, the Catholic history offerings are few. But those few are part of the science of historical integrity and never included for doctrinal or devotional promotion. Excising it would be disingenuous to true scholarly history.

I provide two examples from The American Venture (AV) here. You will see that these do not promote doctrine or devotion—though one describes what Catholics believe, but only because such knowledge is necessary to understand Catholic attitudes towards slavery in 19th century America. They are clearly of interest to Catholic students. But more, they should be of interest to anyone who wants a full account of American history. Catholics have made up one quarter of the U.S. population.

Our own internal editorial stance is to be historians at our core. In a time of wild ideological polarization, our texts are soundly researched and presented in order to provide students with a balanced and scholarly instruction in how to be amateur historians themselves. 

An example that struck me deeply when I was young was studying Martin Luther King Jr. His work was so powerful and essential in American history. But to understand the man and his work, any honest student would need to know how his own Christian faith shaped his life's work, indeed, his martyrdom for social justice. To ignore his quoting of St. Thomas Aquinas in his pivotal “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is to emasculate the historical power of his argument—it makes it just a singular opinion. But it was not. His letter had the power of authority of 700+ years of settled philosophy of law. King was not Catholic, but he knew his history and the importance and truth of Aquinas, and used his teachings to great effect. This is beautiful and awesome and it won greater justice for our country. 

This is what we bring our students. This is a full and scholarly approach to history—it is what all students deserve.