Protecting Christian Liberty: Mainline Protestantism, Racial Thought and Political Culture in Canada, 1918-1939

Abstract

Canadian social and political historians generally have examined nativism, immigration, racial ideology and immigration policy without looking seriously at the churches’ responses to them. This neglect, although typical of Canadian historiography, should be surprising. It certainly is significant. As the American historian Mark Noll has argued recently, Canada has a better objective argument for having once been a “Christian nation” than the United States. Well into the twentieth century, arguably until after World War II, Canada was in all measurable ways a “Christian nation.” The mainline Protestant churches, particularly, were among the largest and most pervasive institutions in Canada. The churches were powerful culture-shaping organizations, crucial sources of social welfare and reform, and prominent influences on government policy. For these reasons, their responses to immigrants deserve careful attention. This essay will explore attitudes in the Protestant churches during the 1920s and 1930s towards immigrants and racial thought. English-