Did Orthodox face religious discrimination like Catholics and Jews?
Going off of Herberg's Protestant-Catholic-Jew, specifically
Hedberg argues that American social life was ordered into Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish slices, but in the Post War period, these were all seen as more or less equally valid ways of being American. He argues America wasn't just one melting pot, but a "triple-melting pot".
Were Orthodox Christians similarly "valid" Americans, or were they not?
Thanks for reposting this as its own question. At the same time, it'd be good if you could contextualise what it is you mean by this - it was originally framed against the backdrop of the "No Irish Need Apply" thread, so are you asking "did Orthodox Christian face employment discrimination during the late 19th century United States" or something like that? :)
Not trying to dismiss your question, but realistically how large has the Orthodox population really been in America? From a brief bit of Google-fu, they still make up a very small portion of the population, so were they a large enough group for most people to be aware of, outside of major cities with large immigrant populations? Most of the groups who would have been associated with the Orthodox churches, specifically Greek, would have already been on the receiving end of a great deal of anti-immigrant sentiment - which is not necessarily religious.
Using this as an example because it's one I've done a decent amount of research on, you can read the propaganda surrounding the Greek Town Riots in South Omaha. Most of the anger targeted at the Greek populace is fairly generic for immigrant groups at the time - they're somehow dirty, morally inferior, harassing women, and more importantly were brought in as cheap labor or strikebreakers. No reference is made to religious distinctions.
Hell, even the Klan didn't seem to realize they might be religiously different, and they were always happy to jump on that train whenever the opportunity presented itself - they were just filed under the nebulous category of "foreign" and "un-American".
EDIT: One more piece I think you're missing is that a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment was based on misunderstanding of the Pope's authority over the church and Catholics as a whole - if you look at old anti-Catholic propaganda, the vast majority of it features the Pope as some sinister, controlling force. So many of them. The Orthodox churches do not feature any such well-known figure for people to fixate on.
Could you explain a bit by what you mean by Orthodox Christian? in one sense our country was partially founded by several different "Orthodox Christian" groups seeking freedom of worship.
I think you mean minority sects of Christianity, outside of the early Puritans and Quakers, etc. Is that correct?
Probably the most significant example of discrimination (and really persecution) involving a religious Christian sect in the United States involves Mormonism.
