This Issue: YOUR NEW AMERICAN ATHEIST CENTER

Vol. 19,

EDITORIAL
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
NEWS
Brainwashing by Big Religion
.
Churches Defy Laws
.
Religion Intolerance Again .
Carter Advocates Rei igion ..
Religious Judge Investigated
FEATURE ARTICLES
Bible-belt Journalism/Speaking for women: Anne Gaylor
Catholic Propaganda in Press, TV And Radio/Shibles Corner:
Warren Shibles
Rob~rt G. Ingersoll/A Sketch of His Career, Carl Shapiro
Spirit, Soul, And Mind/Frank R. Zindler
AMERICAN ATHEIST RADIO SERIES
Ingersoll on The Holy Bible
FREETHOUGHTPOETR~

No.7

July, 1977

2
3

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. 11
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18
20
26
28
23
30

EditorinChief/Madalyn Murray o 'Hair, Editor/Jon G. Murray, Managing Editor/

William J. Murray, Assistant Editor/R. B. Shirley, Design/Valerie L. Murray, Cover
Photographer/Ron
Dorsey, Circulation/John
I. Mays, Non-Residential
Staff/Anne
Gaylor, Warren Shibles, John Sontarck, Jo Kotula, Production
Coordinators/Cathy
Rowell, Ralph Shirley, Pepi Plowman.
The American Atheist magazine is published monthly by American Atheists, 2210 Hancock
Drive, Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit, non-political, tax-exe~pt, educational organi~ation.
Mailing address: P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768; copynght C> 1977 by Society of
Separationists, Inc.; subscription rates: $15.00 per year; $25.00 for two years .. Manuscnpts:
the editors assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. All manuscnpts must be
typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST

Post Office Box 2117
Austin, Texas 78768
Enter my subscription
NEW
Total Enclosed

MAGAZINE

for one year at $15.00

(two years at $25.00).

RENEWAL

ON THE COVER
In late June, the American Atheist
Center was moved to a new location .
This prestigious building, in the center
of northwest Austin, has one of the finest
'addresses' of which the city can boast.
Beautifully landscaped in the style of
the American southwest, the entrance is
an architectural delight of Spanish influence. Palmyra, palm trees and pinoak trees
add the final touch.
The building has thirty-two offices
and work areas, richly paneled or framed in
brickwork. Old red Spanish tile, or thick
carpentry enhance the feel of a luxury
building. Richly textured orange, brown and
green lined drapes give protection from the
sun on the arched windows set into the
brick.
It is just exactly the building of dignity,
of integrity, that matches the image American Atheism is here to stay.
This is the end of "a struggling effort"
of a few people and a few families and the
beginning of an important corporate thrust
to obtain the civil libertarian rights which
have been denied to American Atheists
since the inception of our nation.
You may be proud of this citadel of
rational thought as it presents in a very
physical way the solidness which the organization has now found.
"Open house" will extend to all members and subscribers of the magazine during
the ensuing summer months. Come and
see - come and identify with us - come
and be proud of the heritage we, - and you,
build.
(See center spread for the 'Inside Story")

_
MOVING?

Name

Address

City, State, & Zip

If you are planning a change of

address,
please
notify
AMERICAN
ATHEIST,
giVing both
your
old
address and your new address, as well
as both your OLD AND NEW ZIP
CODES. This will enable us to process
the change more quickly and not interrupt your subscription.
Please allow
six weeks for change to become effective. If possible, please include old
label off of your magazine envelope.

~~I

---'J

It has been our habit to dream a little as we sweat and

toil at the American Atheist Center. "If only we could ...
file a suit to stop the religious encroachments for good and
all time." "If only we could ... have this fabulous Center
out of which we could operate - and we would be respected in the community just from that." "If only we could ...
get Billie Graham to debate Madalyn Murray O'Hair." "If
only we could ... persuade all American Atheists to really
back us and finance our efforts!"
We have our share of Walter Middy dreams.
As a part of dreaming, as we sweat and toil, we have always kept one eye on the newspaper classified advertising.
We dream of acreage and the American Atheist University.
We go, about once a month, to look at land and stand there
on it - saying "Oh dear, Robert Ingersoll in heaven! Help
us to get a little corner somewhere for Atheism!!"
Last year we almost came close. There was this building.
We wanted it, knowing it had certain limitations, but seeing
that it meant that our precious library could be under the
same roof as the American Atheist Center. We put $1,000
on it as we tried to finance it. We took the dream of it to
the American Atheist Convention in April of this year and
died one thousand deaths when we could not get aid for
acquiring it. [Members, please refer to the May 1977 Insider's Newsletter.] We were numb with disappointment.
But, to add injury, we lost the $1,000 deposit.
But, as always, we lick our wounds and we return to the
chore at hand and we sweat and toil and dream of "next
time".
For the American Atheist Center - often "next
time" has been heartbreaking years away.
Then, the second week of June, Dr. O'Hair, combing the
"Business Property for Sale" classified ads, again, for the
1,374th time saw an ad "MUST SELl. Owner will sacrifice.
Call -----".
She clipped out the ad and passed it to our
General Manager and Vice President (we all have two jobs
or more at the Center) William Murray.
That afternoon, he came into her office, "Jesus Christ!
do you know what building this isl!".
"Well, there is no sense in calling on Christ, Bill. He's
dead. He can't help."
"Ha, ha! This is that building on Hancock Drive that
we have all been drooling over for three years."
"You're kidding."
"Come on! I'm the shining knight in white armor; would I
jest?"
"Well, can we - at least - go and see the insides of it?"
"I doubt it; there is probably a $25.00 charge for that."
But, we did go and we dip see it just to taste what it might
be if we ever were able to aspire to something like it.
The price was staggering: $260,000. Everyone just gulped
when the terms were laid out. But, it was one of the best
addresses in the city of Austin, an architectural gem, exquisite,
landscaped to perfection, something to which one could
aspire.
"Remember Browing," Dr. O'Hair advised the staff. "Remember those immortal lines:
'It is not what I am,
'But what I aspire to be,
'That comforts me.' rr
"Oh t'hell with poetry at this point" grumped Jon Mur-

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST - 2

ray, "Let's try to swing it."

No one would ever believe it if we related in detail the
wheeling and dealing which William J. Muray [alias Bill)
did in the next ten days. The woman turned out to be sympathetic to Atheism, and really in a hard financial bind - and
Bill took advantage of both.
When the dust settled, the Charles E. Stephens American
Atheist Library and Archives, Inc., had traded its buildings and
land (worth about $50,000) for a second mortgage on the
building. Our equity in the old American Atheist Center, (on
which we owed a $42,000 mortgage) had been traded also and
we had assumed the first mortgage on the new building.
For at least three stunned hours one afternoon in June,
we did not believe that we had pulled it off. Then suddenly
it dawned on all of us - it was actually ours! One of the most
beautiful buildings in Austin, Texas, belonged to American
Atheists. OH! it just dawned on your ed. that we should have
celebrated then. We should have broken out the old champagne bottles!!! But, typically, we did what we usually do sweat and toil.
"Good Gawd! Let's move before she can change her mind!"
and move we did. We began then and there to carry every
thing to our new office. What's that old song?
"Fairy tales can come true.
"It can happen to you.
"If you're young at heart" - and if you work like hell, and
work some more and don't give up and try everything - in all
directions - all of the time.
By the 20th of June we were into the new building, settled
down and working. There was more space - and - everyone
was happy for a change. The piles of work were still there, but
now there were constant, welcome, interruptions as everyone,
and his uncle, saw our new sign and came in to say that they
were Atheists too and could they have some literature.
It is nice to be loved for once instead of despised. It is
nice to have people come into the Atheist Center and wish
us well instead of telling us tro drop dead. It is heartening
to be treated with respect by the trade men who know af
fluence when they see it.
The sun is shining just a little brighter in Austin, Texas,
these days. The name "Atheist" evokes just a little bit more
respect. The news media is quite a bit more cordial. We may
have finally "arrived" as an institution in America.

~
And, now, we really need your help. Mustering all of
our resources, we managed to wipe out $120,000 of the
cost of the building, but we have a mortgage of $140,000.
We are doing our part: we work here night and day - to
say nothing of day and night. Won't you help now by put
ting your money where your heart is?
We would like to payoff
the mortgage as soon as we
possibly can - along with its 9Y:.%(gulp) interest rate.
Anything you can do to help will be appreciated. We
will even take a dollar, a dime, a hundred, a thousand anything.
American Atheism has a home. Let's make it a paid-of
one. And, then, we can go from there.
Editor
(See illustration of Building Fund Barometer, page25.)

D1P~

~o~

~11

a fifuIDre----:-:------:----:--::----:-~

Dear Editor:
At the Convention, I, and I believe
just about everyone else was very
frustrated during the selection of the
"Hypocrit of The Year." We were far
more repulsed by the likes of Anita
Bryant and John Conlon than we were
by Eldridge Cleaver or the Porno
Priest. But Bryant and Conlon did not
fit the category.
It occurred to me (unfortunately,
after I left the convention) that, in
focusing on the Hypocrit, we are
missing a splendid opportunity
to
demonstrate the irrationality
and
bankruptcy of religiously based morality.
I propose that American Atheists
establish an award to be (tentatively)
known as the "Religionist of The Year
Award". This award will go to the
religious person who, during the preceding year, has by word or deed acted
the most repugnantly while being
motivated by and acting consistently
with his or her religious beliefs.
If we had had this award at the
Convention, the winner (probably
Anita Bryant) would have been chosen
with far more feeling and enthusiasm
than was shown for the Hypocrit
award.
While I know that you are unbelievably busy, I would appreciate hearing reaction from you, others at the
Center, or any other member. I am, of
course, open to any improvements in
the content or wording of my pro-

magazine,
the
eminent
American
author, Gore Vidal, admits to Atheism.
During an interview, in which he expresses distaste for Judeo-Christianity,
he makes the statement,
"I'm an
Atheist." (This is on page 26 of the
magazine).
(2) Noted
anthropologist
and author, Dr. Ashley Montagu, expressed Atheist thoughts on a recent
"Phil Donahue"
show. Although he
used words like skeptic, "agnostic",
and doubter; it seemed to be Atheist
to me. (3) There are two interesting
books which I have recently read:
"The Cosmic Connection" by Dr.
Carl Sagan, gives a brilliant account
of the theory of evolution, and also
some insight into how the scientific
community views the "God" concept.

"You Can Get There From Here"

by Shirley Mac Laine offers insight into

Atheism and the status of religion in
Communist China, and Ms. MacLaine
takes
a very objective
(at least
agnostic) viewpoint. I heartily recommend
both
books
to American
Atheists.
I am enclosing two short letters I
had published in the paper; I also send
Atheist information
to friends, relatives, everyone from local libraries and
radio talk-show
hosts, to the local
weatherman
who recently urged all
Tampa residents to "pray for rain." I
write letters every time there is a
public school textbook controversy, a
locally religious evangelical push, or in
response to any blast I hear against
110I81.
Atheism. I have written two letters regarding Atheism to Ann Landers, but
Sincerely,
neither was published.
I have also
Howard Glick
written to some local elected officials.
Madison, Wisconsin
In short, I am kept busy. I must say,
Howard:
however, that I am very pleased with
the local library situation; "Freedom
Is a good suggestion. We know
Under Siege" is at our public library
problems with the "Hypocrit"
downtown Tampa, and the University
For that, one must be proof South Florida, also here in Tampa,
"religion" to cover up a blatant
has a wonderful
stock of Atheist
1119 deceit-filled exercise.
books, greatly augmented
after my
would like to hear from more of
this issue.
first search there over two years ago.
Well, I guess that's enough for my
Editor
personal "progress
report."
I hope
this will at least be some encourageEditor:
ment and support for you in this
thought I would take the time
difficult time.
you a personal letter. I want
Most sincerely yours,
you of the following points
John W. Pelkey, Jr.
I consider good news: (1) In
Tampa, Florida
1977 issue of "Book Digest"

....,...._____,

[Editor's note: Mr. Pelkey is a prolific writer to daily newspapers. Just

two of his recent letters to The Tampa
Tribune follow.]

A theism Isn't Communism

TAMPA - I was greatly disturbed
and annoyed concerning the letter by
Margaret Zeta, "TV Show on Christ
Blasphemy." Though I do not know
that much about the program in
question, I resent her later remarks
associatingAtheism with Communism.
While it is true that Atheism is
the official Communist doctrine in respect to religion, it is simply not true
that all A theists are Communists.
I am an A theist and an American.
Those need not be incompatible with
each other. There are Atheist organizations all over the Free World.
Here in the U.s., we have the
American A theists, founded by
Madalyn Murray O'Hsir, and consisting of thousands of members, al/
loyal American citizens. There is
nothing subversive about Atheist
thought. Americans have as much right
to be A theists as to be Catholic,
Protestant, or Jew.
Even if everyone in this country
happened to be A theist, we could
still be a capitalistic, free enterprise,
and democratic nation.
Let's not confuse Atheistic philosophical thought with the economic
system and personal oppression of
Communism.
Churches Have Enough Privilege
TAMPA - So, the traveling religious group was arrested for trespassing and soliciting, harassed, and
threatened with eviction. Why not?
I'm sure I would have received the
same fate or worse had I been passing
out my Atheist literature at West
Shore Plaza or picketing the religious
bookstores. Would the city have given
me the same consideration and
reprieve?
Let us not give religion any more
special legal privileges; it already has
tax exemption.
[Letter writing is effective! See Ann
Gaylor's article on pps. 18 & 19.]

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

'Mainline religions as bad

as cults for brainwashing'
By ALISON CUNLI FFE
Staff Writer, The Toronto Sun
Parents who pressure their children into accepting bar mitzvah or confirmation are just as bad as
the splinter religious cults they accuse of brainwashing young adults, said a Toronto theology
professor.
Professor Herbert Richardson of the department
of religious studies at the University of Toronto
was speaking at a conference on "deprogramming"
planned for the benefit of psychiatrists attending
the 130th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Toronto.
"What really gets me," Richardson said, "is the
traditional reiigions that attack the splinter rei igious groups for their tactics when parents in those
same religions are bombarding 12, 13, or 14-yearold children in a thousand subtle ways to pressure
them into being bar-mitzvahed or confirmed or
whatever."
He said he believes that the religious cults are
operating unethically when they convince young
people to attend summer camps where they are
exposed to hours a day of rei igious instruction. But
he pointed out that traditional rei igions, especially
the more fundamental reiigions, operate similar
camps that are difficult to leave until the bus
comes back to pick up everyone.
Richardson was speaking at the end of presentations by five young people - Linda Epstein of
Toronto, a member of the Hare Krishna temple,
and four young Americans involved in the Unification Church - who were forcibly kidnapped
with the aid of their parents and subjected to unsuccessful deprogramming because of the religions
they had chosen to follow.
Epstein said her deprogrammers, led by
"Lightning" Ted Patrick, (a noted deprogrammer)
kept her locked in a Richmond Hill hotel room for
more than a day, trying to renounce her Hare
Krishna faith.
"I was terrified," she said. "There were these
three strange men who threw me down on a bed
and tore my clothes off while my father helped

hold me down. I didn't know what was goingto

happen."
She said the deprogrammers kept her awakeall
night with slaps, shakes, and a light in her face.
They ripped up some of her "sacred books",
drew "really gross faces" on others, and "tried to
make me so weak I'd believe anything."
About 40 psych iatrists attended the conference.

DEPROGRAMMER

JAILED

(UPI-Denver)
- A federal judge in Denver
denied a request by religious deprogrammer Ted
Patrick that he be credited with jail time servedin
California. U.S. District Judge Alfred Arraj did not
give any reasons for the denial. Patrick of San
Diego was convicted in 1974 of abducting two girls
to deprogram their religious beliefs. Denver District
Judge Zita Weinschienk last April sentenced
Patrick to one year in prison but suspendedthe
sentence on the condition he not become involved
in any similar cases. Patrick was sentencedto ajail
term in California the next year on a conviction
for abducting a 19-year-old member of the Hare
Krishna sect.

Churches to Refuse Help to Law

Officers in Hunt for Murderer
(UP!) - On January 24th, 1975, a bomb ex
ploded at the Fraunces Tavern in New York, killi
four persons and injuring 55 more persons.A
group calling itself the F.A.L.N.-The
Ar
Forces of National Liberation for Puerto Ri
-taking credit for the act.
The search for the bombers-they are consider
responsible for more than 50 similar terrorist
-has led law enforcement agencies to somestra
places, not least of which are the national offi
of the Episcopal Church.
And the investigation ... particularly as it
on the church ... has raised some fundamen
questions about church-state relations and thero

The news which fills one half of the magazine is chosen to demonstrate, month after month, the dead reactionary hand of religion. It dicta
good habits, sexual conduct, family size, it censures cinema, theater, television, even education. It dictates life values and lifestyle. Religion'
politics and, always, the most authoritarian and reactionary politics. We editorialize our news to emphasize this thesis. Unlike any other
zine or newspaper in the United States, we are honest enough to admit it.
.

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

-4

(Churches to Refuse Help to Law Officers in Hunt for Murderer)

of thegrandjury in American society.

At its governingboard meeting early in May, the
ational Council of Churches, looking closely at
at happenedin the Episcopal Church, adopted
resolutionattacking the use of a grand jury as
an instrument of investigation." It calls for
urch agenciesto provide "moral and material
rt-including salary to employees-for those
bers and employees who, for reasons of
'nciple,refuseto testify before a grand jury."
The National Council's action has its roots in
Episcopalcase.
In that instance, church officials
were
naed by law enforcement officers seeking
nting recordsand other detailed information
nnectionwith their search for Carlos Alberto
He was a prime suspect in the F.A.L.N.
ings and a former member of the church's
, nalCommissionon Hispanic affairs.
bpoenaswere servedon two members of the
ic Commission, ordering them to testify
a grand jury. They have refused and have
jailed on contempt of court charges. They
heldfor aslong asthe investigation lasts.
National Council's action is believed to be
to establishchurch policy procedures for
ingto governmentinvestigations.

atholics Jail Catholics

Chicanosand one white woman went to
ayfor oneto four months, and one Chicano
servingthree years probation for demonthree years ago against the then newly
St. Basil'sChurch.
David Aisenson refused to grant mercy
of execution even for twenty-four hours
any Salazar,sole provider and guardian
young children. The court expressed
for the children's fate and Salazar was
to county jail for three months.
Richard Martinez, Richard Cruz, Alicia
and Duane Doherty (former nun for
rs) were among those Catol icos Por La
olics for People) who protested against
millions of dollars for a fancy cathedral
Blvd. They were chargedwith interferurch serviceswhen they demanded that
be allowed into the church and that
t on their needs.
granted three years probation to
er of the National ChicanosWelfare
ization. Her black counterpart,
ht of the National Welfare Rights
was among the 150 black, brown,

and white supporters present. They filled the

courtroom and spilled over into the hallway.
Uniformed and plainclothes police dotted the
crowd and, at one point, kicked out co-counsel
Mike Kogan and Miguel Garcia for "speaking out
of turn."
After the three male defendants were led to jail,
Duane Doherty was sentenced to three months in
jail by Judge Irwin Nebron in another court.
The City Attorney noted for his prosecution of
left politicos and social activists in general, seemed
pleased that the three-year court process, compi icated by lengthy appeals wh ich lost, ended with
his prey incarcerated.
The charges against the Catholics were filed by
the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church did not
see the need for "Christian charity" when dealing
with other Catholics who had the "wrong" idea.

George Robeson

c..u

U..J

Do I really have to die for this?

This is a reprint of a daily column written by
George Robeson for the Long Beach Independent.
It seems that Mr. Robeson is finding out what
"good Christians" are all about.
.
Well, it looks like this is it, old friends. I guess
I've bought the farm, as we used to say in the Air
Force.
Yes, I'm on my way out. And my only crime
was writing what I thought. Come to think of it,
that's been my crime every day.
But I never knew that so many "Christians" had
so much hatred in their hearts until I criticized the
"1 found it" telephone campaign.
I have had hate mail from churchgoers that
would make me believe that it is a mistake to go
to church and associate with such people, if I
didn't know that most of them are good types.
Here is a typical letter from a reader who does
not identify herself:
"lf you don't claim Christ for your Personal
Savior, you are going to get more heat in Hell than
any readers can give you ...
You can keep your big mouth shut, because of what Christians are doing. You are considered an Anti-Christ (from the Bible!) ... I'd like
nothing better than to get you fired off that press
job. Just looking at your picture makes me vomit!
Take that, and that!"
That really worries me. I'm not joking with you,
it really does worry me. This person is not the only
one who has consigned me to Hell for not saying
II

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 5

(Do I really have to die for this?)

anything bad about Jews or Jehovah's Witnesses

or Mormons, and it seemsthat I have been remiss
in that area.
Okay, I will make up for it now. Just so all these
"good Christians" are satisfied - I had a Jewish
friend who was a hoodlum. He was so bad, he
actually shot a guy, right through the head. I had
a Catholic friend who was just like that. But he
didn't get caught.
I knew a Jehovah's Witness woman. She was a
crackpot. Can you imagine standing out on the
streetcorner in a driving rainstorm selling a
newspaper? I've been a newspaperman all my life,
and I wouldn't do that. She must be crazy.
And these two Mormon guys, they came to my
house one day. They wanted to talk to me, that's
all. I was very polite, as I usually am. I forget
whether I told them I was Catholic or Jewish, but
it was an easy lie, a polite lie, and they thanked me
and went away.
It was a Saturday morning, and they had dressed
up in nice dark suits to come by. I think they were
very nice guys, but the "Christian" mail I've been
getting insists that I say something bad about
them.
Well, I surely will do that. They have to be nuts
to dress up neatly like that on a Saturday morning.
They are very crazy, obviously.
Let's see, now, did that cover it all? I said that I
knew Catholics and Jews who were hoodlums, and
Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons who must be
crazy.
.
Does that handle it all for you so-called "Christians?"
I've read the Bible, and in the New Testament
I've found no real hatred.
There is violence in the Bible, more than you
will see on television programs. There is sex in the
Bible, as much as you might see in an X-rated
movie.
But mostly, there is compassion and forgiveness
and nothing at all about "think as I tell you to or
you rot in eternity."
And I am appalled that so many people
consigned me to those eternal fires, just because I
wrote that a religious campaign went wrong.
And when they go to church next Sunday, they
should not sit in the front pew. Perhaps, just for
a refreshing change, they should sit in the back
pew, and think a bit.
They might want to think about their roles as
human beings who honestly bel ieve they can send
somebody to hell, just for the hell of it.
They might reconsider their religion, and decide
if they really are Christians, or the world's worst
hypocrites.

Vatican real-estate
deals 'net mil/ions'
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican and its
religious orders own at least a quarter of Rome's
real estate and have sold some of their holdingsat
great profit without paying Italian taxes, a magazine said.
L'Europeo, a major independent weekly, said
the transactions - some involving millions of
dollars - turned historic religious buildings into
modern hotels and banks.
The magazine said the Holy See's holdingsex
tend from buildings in the heart of Rome'shistoric
center to over 5,100 acres on the outskirts of the
Italian capital. It said the holdings include extensive property around the Piazza Navona, the Colosseum and the Spanish Steps and plush Parioli
sections.
The Vatican withheld immediate comment,but
Vatican observers said L'Europeo's report did not
seem "scandalistic and appeared within reason."
The Vatican is the center of Roman Catholicism
and the world's smallest state, with an areaof
108.7 acres. But L'Europeo said it controlled "
real empire" in real estate holdings exemptedfr
taxes through the 1929 concordat that regul
relations between the Holy See and the Itali
government.

Churches Defy Laws,

Demand Secrecy
The National Council of Churches want U.S.
money but does not want to abide by U.S.I
Early in June, therefore, it issued a resolution
affiliated - Church agencies should refuse
divulge the names of contributors, members
"any groups or persons with whom they have
working in a relationship of confidence andtrust.
Since almost every church in the U.S. is anaffil'
of N.C.C. this was a clear call to all churchesto
obey existing law, as it proclaimed that chu
and agencies should deny law enforcement offic'
personnel files, correspondence, "internal" d
ments or information and travel or expenser
without legal advice and the consent of
involved.
The board also says church agenciessh
afford "special protection" to their "minori

THE HUMAN RACE HAS SUFFERED FOR CENTURIES AND IS STILL SUFFERING FROM THE MENTAL DISORDER
KNOWN AS RELIGION, AND ATHEISM IS THE ONLY PHYSICIAN THAT WILL BE ABLE TO
EFFECT A PERMANENT CURE.

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

-6

Defy Laws, Demand Secrecy)

iesand"social action" programs.

quote the Rev. George Telford, Atlanta,
of the resolution, "In every era, the
has found it necessary to guard itself
y against government interference in its
I affairs." However the churches have never
more active than now in their drive for tax
Telford is an executive with the PresbyChurchin the United States.
-deploresthe use of the grand jury system
, to invade the churches." Actually the
nt must resort to grand juries because of
rchescontinuing claim to be responsive to
andnot to the U.S. Constitution.
elford's words: This is a "pattern of
nt interference in the internal affairs of

n:h."
National Council's resolution, approved
dissent, urgesthe interfaith organization's
churches to adopt similar procedures.
ber churchesincluded such vast organasBaptists,Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyer how many ministers will preach on
orderin coming summer Sundays.

rmerchild evangelist
urges belief in self
By LORRAINE RUFF
Correspondent,The Oregonian
LLIS - In 1950, at the age of 4, child
Marjoe married a couple, a marriage
challengedall the way to the California
Court. He was the first and last ordained
21 to perform such a rite.
the time the curly-topped preacher in
was7, he wasworldly wise.
and still is a very big business," the
Marjoe told a standing-room-only
n State University as part of the
CONference,a celebration of illusion
.now a successful film and television
it wasn't hard to leave the ministry
neverreally believed in what it was he
'from the beginning. "But the people
me.And the bottom line is that I was
service.All entertainers get paid for
I alwaystook the offerings after the
said."And only those people who
hadbeenhelped made an offering,"

But then the huckster's mile-a-minute delivery

softened and only the likable, exuberant, youthful
quality remained as he said:
"If only I could have told them the truth, to just
believe in yourself," he said. "Many of those
people who attend revivals regularly cut themselves
off from all other forms of emotional release.Their
church denies them movies, theater, rock and roll
concerts becausethey're sinful."
"So all they have is the revival with all its hallelujahs and foot-stompings, the laying on of hands,
the dancing and the speaking in tongues," he said.
"The largest percentage of people who attend
revivals are fat, matronly types who have sworn
off sex. What they experience at a revival is very
close to sexual release," he said. "I've had many
women come up and tell me that Jesus was their
lover, and not in a perverted way either," he said
seriously, holding up his hand as if to hold back
the snickering.
Marjoe said he preached until he was 16 and
then he became very angry. "1 figured my mom
and dad had collected $2 million or $3 million
between the time I was 4 until the time I was 16.
I never saw any of it, nothing was put away for my
education. I thought about suing them, but I gave
that up."
When he was 18 he decided to get out of preaching altogether. "Anything I do I have to do all the
way or not at all. I would have had to go the whole
route, my own magazine, television appearances,
maybe my own show, perhaps radio, a temple ... "
Marjoe espoused a few of his own teachings,
admonishing "but you've got to decide what's
right for you, man," he said. "Just because it's
right for me doesn't mean it's right for you," he
said.
"That's
the problem with most religions
today. They all say, I have the answer. I was asked
to write a book about what I believed in but
I said no because I didn't want some new religion
starting up."
Marjoe said he could never figure out why somebody like Billy Graham with all his influence never
spoke out against the Vietnam war from the pulpit.
"That war would have been brought to a close
much sooner if he had."
And then with much emotion he said:
"And what about all those Black preachers in
the South who sent their Black congregations back
out into the cotton fields every week while they
drove around in their white Cadillacs? I believe the
Black ministers did more to suppress their own
people than the whites ever did, that is until Martin
Luther King, Jr. came along."
When asked if he thought Billy Graham was
sincere, Marjoe said he feels Graham believes in
what he was doing. "But so did Hitler, man. I'll
just tell you this, when that adrenalin starts to flow
you can hype yourself up into believing almost

JUl V, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 7

(F ormer child evangelist urges belief in self)

anyth ing."
Looking back, Marjoe said he found himself
taking positive things out of perhaps negative
experiences.
"If my mother tormented me about learning all
those sermons, it just means now I can step out on
a sound stage and have a script memorized in a
very short time," he said.

The Examiner

$15MHlion

A Year
GREEDY

REV. IKE

ROBS POOR BLACKS

Ike's not black, he's green.

Like
countless
other
preachers and con men, Rev.
Ike
bilks
the
public-the
poor,
black public-of
$15
million a year while screaming, "I used to be black until
I turned myself green."
Rev. Ike, whose real name
is Frederick
Eikerenkoetter,
cares nothing of what people
think of him. "Don't wait for
pie-in-the-sky
by-and-by
when you die. Get your pie
now-with
ice cream on top,"
he preaches.
Ike, who believes "There
are no poor people,
only
people who are not aware of
the
riches
of god within
them,"
has 16 Rolls-Royces,
six deluxe homes and tailored
suits that cost up to $1,000.
Though Ike gets a relatively modest salary-$50,000
a
year-he
has an unlimited
expense
account.
And he

Scientific Tests Debunk

Theory That Noah'S Ark Exists
Perhaps the last hope that the battered
remains of
Noah's Ark exist on Mount Ararat near the Turkish-Soviet
border has been washed away by a new wave of scientific
evidence.
Recent tests at the University
of California
at Los
Angeles, La Jolla and Riverside all conclude that a piece of
timber found at the Ararat site is only about 1,200 years
old - some 2,700 years younger than the first known
account of the Ark.
Despite similar findings at England's National Physics
Laboratory
in the early 1960's and at UCLA in 1970,
speculation that the pile of oak timber found on Ararat
might indeed be part of the Ark increased in the last several
years. The interest has been fueled by a recent movie that
strongly suggests the wood is part of the Ark.
But the new UC experiments
confirm the timber came
for a tree chopped
down
around
A.D. 700, UCLA
archaeologist Rainer Berger reported at a recent symposium

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

-8

NOTICE: Membership in American Atheists does not incl

subscription
to the American Atheist magazine. If you
not subscribed,
this issue is a sample copy. To receive
American A theist on a monthly basis, please fill out and
the business reply envelope form enclosed.
ALSO: Subscription
to the American Atheist magazine
not include membership
in the organization.

claims, "If I can do it, so can

you."
He often cries, "Oh bless
you, money,"
and claims he
wants
to revolutionize
the
poor people's attitude toward
making money.
Black leader Jesse Jackson
agrees. "These
people
have
lost their inspiration to make
money.
It is a poor
persons's complex. They assume
money has a negative value.
"In
part,
Ike
breaks
through the valley of indecision
and
offers
economic
goals that have to be fought
for. "
Ike
began
worshipping
money
at age 5 when he
walked four miles to school
every day. "I didn't let myself hate the rich folks who
drove by in fine automobiles
splattering
mud on us," recalls Ike. "I determined
I was
going to have one of those big
cars. "

"I
'What

thought
to
kind of god is
sittmq up in heaven
I'm down here catching
That's when I decided
out of the ghetto and i
mo' (money)."
When he was 14, he
preaching
in
ba
Though he claims to
degree in religion, Ike
to reveal what sch
attended.
Ike married Eula
the 1960's, and she 0
the United Church's h
in real estate, publishi
various educational
tions.
The couple h.
son, Xavier, 11.
Ike, who receives
two
million letters a
-most
filled with
proclaims,
"I don't
you think I'm god,
as you think the same
about yourself."

at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadel

Berger believes the wood - discovered more
years ago packed in a snow and ice-filled crevice 1
feet up the mountain - might be the remants of a sh .
Using carbon-14
dating, Berger recently repea
1970 study on a piece of Ararat wood and came up
the same results. In separate tests, R.E. Taylor of Ri
and Hans Seuss of La Jolla obtained similar findings.
Taylor extracted the solid cell wall (lignin) porti
part of the wood and dated that sample at 1,210
minus 90 years.
French industrialist
Fernand
Navarra first foo
Ararat
remains
in 1955, almost immediately tri
speculation
among biblical scholars that the wood m'
part of the Ark.
Genesis says that the Ark landed in the Ararat .
Berger notes, but he questions
whether this is the
Ararat of ancient times.
However,
Berqer does say the wood is cu
apparently
shaped by man.
He proposes that a scientific excavation team
patched to Ararat in an effort to reconstruct exactly
type of structure stood there.

Teacher Fights For Job

Is He Satanist Or Scholar?

lastspring,
advice Controversial Figure
to school
to a ban
.... a monk? Satan?
nsored
and nearly a year before Smith was
unting and typing teacher without
official reason.
ght nothing more about the little
I this year, when it resurfaced among a
mors, complaints and accusations
hiswife, Judee,an English teacher.
s wife, who wouldn't allow her name
id recently. "1 haven't seen it, mind
say he has a figure of the Devil in,
heworships."
is an inexpensive, lacquered monk
t bearing a small white cross and
ing a book. Mrs. Smith bought it for
'x or sevenyears ago in a Myrtle
, "It's not a religious symbol,
s had respectfor the Benedictine
it's just kind of a spiritual link with
through the ages.The monks were
studied and thought and led us
Ages."
rship is reflected in a 3-inch-thick,
k stamped with gold lettering:
usingPublic Funds for Religious
reted by Federal Court Decie doctoral disertation and it

led to a copyrighted 1975 book on "Law and the

North Carolina Teacher" and numerous articles on
educational law in journals and magazines.
In April 1975, while Smith was an assistant
professor of education at Methodist-related Pfeiffer
College in Stanly County, one such article in North
Carolina Education magazine questioned the constitutionality
of public taxes financing churchrelated colleges.
Under pressure to leave Pfeiffer, Smith says,
he resigned and in January 1976 accepted a job
offer by Paul 'Heaton, principal at nearby North
Stanly High.
In April 1976, Smith filed a federal suit to end
North Carolina state support for 38 church-related
colleges. He lost the first clash in March, but the
case recently was appealed to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Smith's troubles at North Stanly began mounting last fall, after he cautioned against illegal
facu Ity-sponsored devotionals.
A week-by-week faculty roster asked teachers
"to help provide devotionals that will be meaningful and inspirinq."
Animosity
spread to include Smith's wife.
Smith received threatening, anonymous notes.
Mrs. Smith got "hate letters." Students sent editorials to the school paper. Some students complained to their parents and pastors about various
classroom incidents. Some parents got riled.
About 200 people showed up March 7 at an
emotion-charged school board meeting at the
Albemarle courthouse.
Mike and his tearful wife left the meeting. They'
said they were called Atheists, devil worshippers,
satanists and "rotten" people. One mother said
Mrs. Smith "cast spells on children in the classroom."
But several teachers and students defended the
Smiths' teaching abilities and character.
Subsequently, the school board, advised by its
attorneys, issued a policy statement permitting "a
moment of reverent silence" in schools rather than
the devotionals.
A petition, circulated in churches and signed by
800 to 1,000 people, asked that Smith not be rehired "due to the unrest."
Smith was told April 20 the school board would
not renew his contract for next year. No reason
was given because Smith was untenured. Later,
board Vice Chairman Jack Ingram said his reason
was Smith's "insubordination."
Smith complained to the U.S. Department of

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 9

(Is He Satanist Or Scholar?)

Health, Education and Welfare, contending he was

fired because of the religious issue, not job performance. The written complaint has been passed
on the the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.
"Blunt Questions"
Another letter, written to Smith by a man in
Florida who learned of the ruckus in Stanly
County, asked such blunt questions as:
"Would you write and tell me something about
yourself? Are you a native of Stanly County?
Where you attended school? College? Religion?
Parents? Teaching experience? Subjects? Married?
Children? Just Anything?"
Smith has not satisfied such curiosity by responding. To many in Stanly County, he is unknown except by hearsay, which tends to cast him
as mystifying or sinister.
"We don't have anything to hide," he said. "I'm
really not a mysterious guy. I'm not a crusader;
I'm just a kid from Belmont. But I've come to see
what they mean: if I see discrimination or injustice, I'll speak out.
"That people would ask, 'Are you really a devil
worshiper?' just astounds me. In the first place,
that was not the issue. The issue was the First
Amendment principle of separation of church and
state, of whether to have tax-supported, schoolsponsored religion.
"I've never taught satanism anywhere, period.
I wouldn't even know how to begin. In fact, I was
first introduced to the word by those people at
that (March 7) meeting."
Smith's views are still expanding and evolving.
He has been reading the philosophers, particularly
existentialists, who stress freedom and responsibility of the individual.
Smith said, "1 kind of live my philosophy day
be day. I don't mind showing what I think. You
only live a certain amount of years and you've got
to live with yourself."
The Smiths first were stunned by the March 7
attacks, Mrs. Smith said, "Never in a million years
did I dream that could happen in America today."
Later they felt angry and stubborn.
Smith reflected: "We said, if we start running
now, we'll never stop. My goal right now is to override this thing, to win my casewith my colleagues,
to be able to walk back into the educational establishment with my esteem intact. I worked hard
for my credentials."
Those credentials include a 1971 Ph.D. in school
administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which he thought would enable
him to get a principalship in the Stanly County
System.
Mike Smith married Judee Foster 15 years ago

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -10

Mike And Judee Smith

, .. , fighting for their case
High School in 1957.
Mrs. Smith, 34, grew up in North Wil
and was graduated from Wilkes Central
School in 1959.
They liked beautiful, pastoral Stanly
and their new, modern-rustic dream house
"Lebensraum" (German for "living space,"
ing breathing room) beside Badin Lake.
"This place, we've dreamed about so
Smith reflected, "is one reason I can't leave
County, even if I have to commute to work
where else."
"Striking Irony"
If Smith is just an ordinary "kid from Bel
one striking irony is that he evokes such
saint-or-sinner images.
To the Rev. Belvin Cox, 39, pastor
London's Highland Baptist Church, Sm'
bodies an "almost defiant, deceitful cr
and is "very wily in his implications."
Cox, who spoke at the March 7 m '
circulated petitions in his church and el
said later, "1 have not called anybody
said something is rotten in the spirit of
munity that had to be cut out, that the I
stays the more it stinks."
He said he has heard students at his chu
plain. He resents Smith being "the law at
Stanly High. He tries to act as a school
Then he turns around and acts as the
tendent.
"I've never met him. It's just the wh
over the community. Kind of keeping my
the ground. It's a lot of hearsay, but if

oughtto look for the fire."

Howard Laney, 51, who wrote the
at the urging of a woman in his conat AndersonGrove Baptist Church and
movedto a Wilkes County church, said
aboutthe Smiths, whom he never met,
the students,stories they came home
schooL"
, "If he wants to be an Atheist, that's
But heshouldn't sell his pack of goods
Ildren. I hope the man well wherever he
he'll haveto change or he never will do

fN.

rch 7 meeting, Laney told of an enI yearsago with a young man who
from Pfeiffer Collegeand was teaching
on satanism at Albermarle High
't certain that was Smith. "From
, I thought it was right and if it wasn't,
r Smith denied ever teaching
at
Igh School or teaching satanism anythe Rev. Wendell Davis, pastor of
tist Church in Charlotte and a
nationaladvisory council of Ameria Baptist dominated group, called
chap" and an honest man who "is

"

Davissaid, when he was a pastor in

was called a Communist for not
taughtin the public schools."
AmericansUnited, which has about
I members and 4,000 to 5,000
ions representing 33 denominaith's suit againstthe church-related
Bryson,a 48-year-old professor of
UNC-Gwho taught the Smiths at
, said, "They don't make any
Mike and Judee Smith. I'm very
happeningto them."
much of Smith's research on
at UNC-G and served on his
Is a wonderful person, one of the
s people I've ever met," Bryson
hasa personal value system that
ought to be delighted to have
rm person who places human
's a first-classscholar.
ely religious person in the
, just in love with this universe.
iation of god's universe. He's
t into an organizedchurch.
way to a first-class career in
might be tough salvagingthat
have to guard their freedom
mob action."
, owner of Mauney's Feed Mill

at New London, a member of Highland Baptist

Church and chairman of the North Stanly High
School Advisory Council, said Smith "tried to go
over the principal's head to get things done.
"He's a brilliant man, undoubtedly, but you
just can't do things like that. That's insubordination and that's all I'd need to fire him, no more
questions asked. I'm against the man and I don't
care who knows it. I've never met him, but I just
don't think he ought to be here.
"The biggest thing I thought about the man was
he made trouble at Pfeiffer College and then came
in here and stirred people up.
"I'm sure he's a very good teacher, as far as I
know, but he can't get along without trying to
change things. You just can't come into a community and try to change the way people do
things."

Carter Urges Baptists

.To Expand Foreign Missions
By William Willoughby
Washington Star Staff Writer
KANSAS CITY-While most Protestant denominations have been retrenching their foreign missionary forces, President Carter strongly urged his
fellow Baptists to increase theirs by at least 50
percent within the next few years.
In a video-taped message to some 15,000
Baptists assembled for the annual convention of
the biggest of the Protestant denominations, the
President pledged personally to underwrite a
volunteer couple for two years.
Carter had taken the initiative by calling a White
House meeting of Southern Baptists leaders to help
map missionary strategy.
Although the President's appeal was enthusiastically received by the Baptist representatives, his
behind-the-scenes activities at the White House are
expected to raise objections, both from churchstate separatists and from leaders of those denominations which feel a missionary presence only
serves the objectives of the U.S. government
abroad:
CARTER INVITED the 10 leaders, including
the top paid executive of the 12.9 million-member
denomination and the Rev. Charles Trentham,
pastor of Washington's First Baptist Church, where
the President is a member. During the luncheon
meeting the President noted that the Baptists had
geared their missionary program to the year 2,000,
but he said he could seeno reason why they should

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -11

(Carter Urges Baptists To Expand Foreign Missions)

not greatly step up the program immediately.

"Th ere is an immediate, documented need to
increase the number of foreign missionaries by 50
percent, he told the convention, "but our official
approved goal for the rest of this century is only
2.5 percent net growth per year. Once we set such
modest goals, it is highly unlikely that we will
greatly exceed them.
Even though the agenda for convention business
had been printed when messengersarrived for their
annual conference, the SBC Executive Committee
hastily added a measure that would double the
Baptists' home and foreign missions force by 1982,
largely through volunteers. This was more than
what the President had asked.
IF THIS GOAL is realized, it will mean that the
denomination would have 10,000 missionaries in
foreign outposts and in remote areas of the United
States, such as Appalachia, Alaska, and Indian
reservations.
The Baptists are being asked to name a special
committee to implement the President's appeal problably with guidelines for recruiting and assigning the volunteers.
The SBC has the second-largest paid Protestant
foreign missionary force in the world. Wycliffe
Bible Translators, based in Huntington Beach,
California, is the largest, with some 3,500 personnel abroad and in some locations in the United
States and Canada.
Carter's action is believed to be the first overt
action by a president while in office to promote
missionary interests since President Abraham
Lincoln made a significant contribution to foreign
missions
through
Washington's
Foundary
Methodist Church. Lincoln's contribution stirred
no controversy, but given the situation concerning
foreign missionary work today, Carter's could have
repercussions.
CARTER TOLD the Baptist leaders that he
called them to the luncheon to discuss missionary
activity for two reasons. Earlier, he said, he was
inspired by a Sunday school lesson taught by Fred
Gregg, the regular teacher of the class Carter
attends and occasionally teaches. Gregg spoke
before the convention.
But the President also cited the highly touted
missionary program of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latterday Saints (Mormons). The 3.6 millionmember Mormon church has a voluntary missionary force of 25,000 to 30,000. It largely is
made up of young people devoting two years of
their life to this type of activity without pay.
Carter urged the Baptists to follow example and
stressed the need for those who would volunteer a
similar amount of time and, where possible, pay
their own way.
He had told the White House guests, "The test
of a church is not in its building or in its staff, but

in the number of people reachedfor C

The convention elected on the
Dr. Jimmy Allen of San Antonio asp

II

II

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -12

Judge Forces BibieCI

on His Courtroom Def
FRESNO (AP}-A black,
Bible-toting
judge
has
launched a personal crusade
against separation of church
and state, reasoning that he
who keeps god out of
government shall find a lock
on the gates of Heaven.
Devout
Baptist
Hugh
Wesley Goodwin, 54, explains simply, "You can
separate
religion
from
government or any other
phase of life, but you
can't separate god."
Since his appointment by
Gov. Brown last year, the
demure, soft-spoken Municipal Court judge has offered more than 200 misdemeanor defendants the option of attending church or
Bible-study classes instead
of going to jail.
The practice has not ingratiated him
judicial authorities.
Equally unpopular are his widely
opinions of California's legal hierarchy.
State Commission on Judicial Performa
an investigation of Goodwin early this
judge told reporters the commission was
crucify the Lord."
the one that was crucified on
Easter - was completely innocent, and I'll
the commission not to make the samemi
"1 also intend to remind them the Lord
ing very closely what they are doing,that
better be very careful, for someday they
to account for it - not to me - but to
who really has some power.
Such words can create an imageof G
a feverish evangelist who spouts sermons
with warnings of hellfire and damnation.
Actually he is a reserved, mild-manner
balding man with glasses whose cont
heartfelt opinions generally are accompani
disarming smile.
The controversy over Goodwin's piety
II

II

when he was sworn into office in February, 1976.

He discarded the traditional, solemn oath-taking
ceremony in favor of a religious service reaffirming
his allegiance to god, and questioned the constitutional separation of church and state, saying
Christians incorporate their beliefs into all their
activities.

Judge Investigated
"If it [the U.S. Constitution] can be interpreted
to mean that a man can't serve the Lord where he
is, it should not only be rewritten, it should be
taken out," Goodwin said after learning of the
investigation.
Goodwin said he interprets the meaning of the
separation of church and state clause to be "that
the church will not rule the country."
When the Santa Clara County Human Relations
Commission wrote to Goodwin deploring the
action, he sent back this reply:
"Whether you like it or not, the commission is
an instrument of god. It is better that you know
this now, while you have time to straighten out
your own thinking rather than find out later when
it is too late and claim surprise."
The State Judicial Commission took its first
action in February, informing Goodwin it had
launched an investigation into charges he violated
the separation of church and state doctrine and
had "brought the judicial office into disrepute."
When the judge replied by publicly warning
commissioners to worry about their own salvation,
they sent him another memorandum "telling me
to keep my mouth shut," Goodwin said.
Within hours after he received it, Goodwin
gavethe memorandum to the press.
The commission was silent for about two
months after that but sent another letter warning
him to choose between "your ministry and your
civil responsibilities."
The letter also said his actions impinge on the
rights of members of other rei igions and nonbelievers.
Goodwin denies that he wants everyone to
become a Baptist. He said in an interview that he
would permit a Jewish defendant to attend a synagogue as a condition of probation or a Moslem to
visit a mosque.
"But I don't think they'd get anything out of
it," Goodwin added. "I'd pray that they find the
error of their ways."
There are no comments as to where the judge
would tell an Atheist to go.
In response to the State Judicial Commission's
warning, Goodwin wrote: "Destruction must come
to any nation, to any judicial system, which rests

on any foundation other than JesusChrist."

The judge sees no reasons why others consider
this a dangerous attitude.
"The issue is not whether I am imposing my
religion on others. The legal question is 'what suggestions do I have a choice to offer?'"
He maintains that offering a defendant the
option of attending church is in no way a threat
to religious freedom.
From the standpoint of law enforcement,
Goodwin contends that church is far more rehabilitative than prison. He said only five of the more
than 200 defendants who have chose church
instead of jail have committed crimes again.
"And five is a liberal estimate," he said. "I've
seen a lot of lives change."
.
He said the investigation "is directed not so
much at me as toward the Lord's having a hand
in everything that's done. If you ask me if I mingle
the Lord with my work, I do. I mingle the Lord
with everything I do."
Goodwin told reporters he received a revelation
from god in August 1974, about how to handle his
judicial responsibilities even though he wasn't appointed to the bench by Gov. Brown until 16
months later.
Goodwin said he will explain to the commission
that his practice of offering options of church and
Bible-study "was the result of a direct revelation,
but I don't expect them to understand that."

Judge Overruled
One of the go-to-church sentences handed down
by Bible-toting Municipal Court Judge Hugh Wesley Goodwin has been ruled unconstitutional by
the presiding judge of the Fresno County Superior
Court.
An 18-year-old admitted rapist who was being
held in the California Youth Authority facility in
Stockton for violating that term of his sentence
was recently freed as a result of the reversal.
.
Sentencing criminals to go to church instead of
prison violates the sparation of church and state
provisions of the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution, Superior Court Judge Hollis
G. Best ruled.
The government, including judges, is banned
from ordering anyone to attend or avoid any religious services or beliefs as a condition to anything,
Best ruled.
"The court, as an arm of the state, is prohibited
from using its power to compel a person to attend
church," the judge's written decision says.
"Despite a laudable secular purpose of rehabilitation, such has a primary effect which advances
religion. As the record here indicates, it involves

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -13

(Judge Forces Bible Classes on His Courtroom Defendants)

the court and the probation officer in active participation with the church as a means of monitoring compliance by the probationer with his probation.
"The court makes itself both a sponsor and a
participant in rei igious activity."
The decision upholds Goodwin's motives for
more than
200 go-to-church
misdemeanor
sentences since Gov. Brown appointed him to the
bench last year.
lilt is apparent, however, that the condition was
imposed not for punishment, deterrence or reparation, but for a different purpose specifically
recognized (by law), that of reformation and rehabilitation of this youthful offender," Best's decision says.
The ruling came in a writ of habeus corpus application filed by Fresno Public Defender Melvin
Nitz In behalf of Samuel Allen Alford, who was
given a year's suspended sentence Dec. 30 on the
condition he attend St. Rest Baptist Church.
Alford who pleaded guilty to raping a girl, failed
to attend the church, however, and was ordered
to the Stockton facility in February.

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE?
Churches Say No
The Washington Star
Legislation now before a House subcommittee
requiring financial .disclosure by all organizations
soliciting charitable contributions by mail is unacceptable to religious organizations, according to
testimony by several religious spokesmen, Baptist
Pressreports.
lilt is not acceptable because ... it violates the
constitutional requirement that church and state
be separated," John W. Baker, associate director
in charge of research services of the Baptists Joint
Committee on Public Affairs, told the Postal Personnel and Modernization Subcommittee of the
House Post Office and Civil Service Committee.
U.S. Rep. Charles H. Wilson, D-Calif., chairman of the subcommittee, re-introduced the measure after it failed to reach the House floor in the
last Congress. The bill "would require organizations solicitng charitable contributions from the
public to disclose at the time of solicitation some
basic information concerning how the money
collected is actually spent," Wilson said.
Baker asserted that H. R. 41's provisions for
establishment of uniform accounting systems and
the development of procedures to assure compll-

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -14

ance with the act "would, beyond all r

doubt, result in excessive government
ment with religion."
Edwin Dill, a Catholic priest and pres'
the National Catholic Development Co
(NCDC), an organization of religiousandch
fund raisers, echoed Baker's concern over
government entanglement with religion,
"The NCDC is opposed in principle to
tion in any way imposing itself upon religi
raising. This reflects our deep belief that
ing and alms-asking are essentially actsof rei
Dill told the subcommittee.
"Our belief that fund raising in the
religion should be completely unencum
is based purely and simply on the t
attitude of the government vis-a-visreli '
attitude which we believe leansfirmly on
tional guarantees," Dill said.
Dill referred specifically to the Pall
Catholic order recently disciplined by the
Church for abuses in fund raising. Desp
abuses, Dill said, he does not favor I
which would interfere in the personalact
table giving.
"There are, I bel ieve, more than suffici
at work both to expose and to remedya
in fund raising and to protect the interests
the public and legitimate charities," Dill sa'
He cited the press, the Internal Revenue
(I RS), statutes on postal fraud, and codes
of religious and secular groups of fund
Above these factors, he noted, "this
portant fact - donations to charity are,
tion, free will. There is no tax-like force
people to give."
Another issue the witnesses raisedwas
ficulty of adequately defining suchterms
bership" or "religion" in legislation.
The bill provides for the exemption
bona fide membership organization with
to any solicitation for contributions by
by such organizations exclusively to the
of such organization."
George F. Harkins, general secretary
Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., told the
mittee that any effort by the government'
a common definition of the term 'm
on the religious community" would be
"Such an effort would involve an implicit
cal judgment, and would fail to respectthe
tic nature of the religious community
diversity of heritage and hierarchy.
"The question of who is and who
member of a local congregation is not a
ject for governmental decision," Harkins
Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., expressedhis
over the right of the federal government
date financial disclosure by churches.'
probably be the one, or one of the ones,

an amendment to the bill exempting religious organizations," he said. "This is a serious First
Amendment problem in my view. The track record
of the federal government in the area of regulation
is bad. It frequently becomes harrassment."
Wilson opposes any exemptions, including religious organizations, as do most charitable organizations like the American Lung Association, the
National Kidney Foundation and others.
Both Harkins and Baker expressed the fears of
churches about regulations which would be created
to enforce the bill. "Regulatory agencies often
adopt elaborate and subtle definitions which go beyond the intent of Congress, even where the congressional intent is clear," Harkins noted.
Baker conceded, "We are gun-shy because of
such things as the I RS regulations on 'integrated
auxiliaries' of the church which far exceed the
intent of Congress and attempt to define the
ministry of a church."
Rep. Gene Taylor, R-Mo., also questioned the
effect of the bill. "My concern is for the thousands
of small churches all across the country trying to
do their job. Congress has unintentionally imposed
bureaucratic boondoggles on people by passing
laws without thinking of the consequences. I want
to know if the First Baptist Zion Church of
Theodocial, Mo., will have to fill out a lot of forms
because they wrote me for a contribution. I'm
not a member of that church but my mother was
and I went to Sunday school there as a boy."
Dill objected to the provision which would require a statement as to what percentage of the
money collected was used for the actual charity
and what went for administrative costs.

Florida's Senator Dick Stone was the man who

introduced the amendment. Senator Stone, who is
Jewish, said: "Like the United States, the Vatican
is engaged in humanitarian programs throughout
the world, and the two states should not be barred
from diplomatic contact."
What will happen when the bill with its amendment reaches the Senate floor, we can't predict.
While times have changed in the last quarter of a
century, it doesn't seem likely it could go through
without some protest being raised by those who
would claim diplomatic relations with the Vatican
would involve questions of separation of church
and state.
What should the position of Catholics be? We
hope no Catholics look on it as a religious issue.
If it is the best interests of the United States to
have diplomatic relations with the Vatican then
that is good, let it come. But it is in no way a
Catholic issue and no one should support it
because it would offer a recognition of the center
of the Catholic Church in the world. That would
be a reason that would justify charges of violation
of separation of church and state.
If it is something that would be in the best interests of the nation and the world then we hope
Senator Stone's amendment will be accepted. If
it is not then it should not be accepted. We hope
this is the way everyone approaches the question.

Church's Anti-Gun
Lobby Under Fire
By Robert Herzberg

Spotlight

VATICAN AMBASSADOR?
Our Sunday Visitor
Almost since the founding of the nation, the
United States has had diplomatic contact with the
Vatican. In 1848 full diplomatic relations were
established but in 1867 Congress passed a bill
prohibiting any appropriations for formal relations with the Vatican.
Since that time this nation has kept in contact
with the Vatican, sometimes through special envoys, sometimes through the ambassador to Italy.
A quarter of a century ago there was talk of reestablishing full diplomatic relations but that
broughtsuch furor the whole idea was dropped.
But in mid-May the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee adopted an amendment to a State
Department funding bill that would allow the
present Administration
to establish diplomatic
relationswith the Vatican if it wished to do so.

A complaint filed in Washington with the Internal Revenue Service charges that the Board ofChurch and Society of the United Methodist
Church is acting as a tax-exempt front for the
National Coalition to Ban Handguns.
If true, it violates conditions of the tax exemption granted the church organization. The organization could lose its exempt status for church
work and be forced to pay back taxes.
The anti-gun group would also lose its chief
source of funds: contributors who take a tax reduction by giving to an anti-gun lobby through the
church organization.
The complaint was filed by the Citizens Com,
mittee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The complaint referred to a brochure published
by the anti-gun group which states it is "financialIy administered" by the church group. It is further
charged that "individuals inquiring about the
exempt status" of the anti-gun group are "pro(Continue on page 19.)

JUl V, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 15

The'INSIDE STORY'

/'

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 17

'

Blhle-helt JournalisDl
All of us, no matter what part of the country we
hail from, are subjected regularly to "Bible-belt
journalism". The local reporters dish it out, and
so do the national wire services. I refer specifically
to the "miracle" and "narrow escape" story that
credits all happy endings with the power of prayer.
One of the midwest's leading daily newspapers is
the Milwaukee .Journal. It thinks it is good, journalism professors tell their students it is good, and it
has wide readership in Wisconsin. My own opinion
of it is that it has always been a somewhat sterile
newspaper. Except for one excellent, irreverent
social and political cartoonist, the paper tries so
hard to be objective that it has lost its own personality in the process. But one area where objectivity is regularly by-passed is in its reporting of the
efficacy of prayer.
Earlier this year a woman, who was never apprehended,
kidnaped
an eight-month-old
baby
at a shopping center in Greendale, a Milwaukee
suburb. The baby was being wheeled in his stroller
by his five-year-old brother while his mother
shopped,
when-the
kidnaper approached
the
older boy and asked if he were looking for his
mother. Although the boy responded that he was
not, the woman wheeled the stroller away. A
short time later the child was found unharmed in
a grocery cart at another shopping mall. The
Tournal's coverage of this incident was titled:
"BLESSED EVENT; KIDNAPED BABY FOUND
IN OUTPOURING OF PRAYER".
The .Journal reporter pulled out all the religious
stops in writing the story. "BABY RECOVERED
AMID TIDE OF PRAYER" was the secondary
headline,
and "The
power
of prayer came
through," was the mother's opening quote. The
story went on to describe how the mother, after
reporting the kidnaping to police, phoned a friend
and "fellow" member of the Schoenstatt movement of the Catholic Church, and asked her to
pray that the woman who took the child would
have a "change of heart". This woman phoned
others and asked them to pray.
"By the time all the phone calls were completed,
we had 200 persons whose prayers were storming
heaven," the mother is quoted as saying.
Prayers are still being said, according to the
Journal, for the woman who took the baby so that
she will get "what she really needs-a child of her

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST -18

own." (I must digress here to wonder at

mentality that would pray for an obviously
balanced woman to reproduce-think
of the p
helpless infant! I also wonder at the acumen of
Milwaukee Police Department
which apparen
could not find the abductor despite her unu
appearance. According to the Milwaukee Joumt
"She was described as white, about 28, 5 feet I
inches and thin, with blond hair worn in a du
boy cut, buck teeth, a pimply face and a limp.")
One expects Bible-belt reporting in Athe
Georgia and Springfield, Missouri, but when it'
served up in a metropolitan paper that prides it
on objectivity, we really must take alarm. Wem
also take alarm that letters to the editor regard'
"Bible-belt journalism"
rarely will be publish
My letter to the Milwaukee Tournal, challenzi
their reporting, met every requirement for publi
tion. It was four short paragraphs, properly ty
and double spaced. It carried my name, my add
and my telephone number. In addition, although
do not live in Milwaukee, I am a Milw
.Journal subscriber. Yet my letter was never used.
I had pointed out, of course, that the lostba
was not found by prayer. I said that if Green
police had chosen to pray rather than put
description of the baby on teletype, had su
market personnel chosen to pray rather than re
a found baby, and had suburban police chosen
pray rather than work on the case, the child wo
still be lost.
I told the Journal that to imply that org .
prayer changed the kidnaper's mind was r
the most baseless of speculative reporting, and
they were bolstering superstition and futility .
such unenlightened coverage. I suggested that
corny journalism belonged in medieval Cath
magazines such as "Immaculata", not in the me
politan press. I asked them to be respons
enough and objective enough to spare us
schmaltz when they had no facts to support
conclusions. And, of course, the letter was nei
printed nor acknowledged.
The media is very powerfu1. It is an atti
maker. When it will not criticize religion itself
will not print anyone who criticizes religion,
how are nontheistic views ever to be heard?
Recently, wire stories flooded Wisconsin p
regarding a near catastrophe where the prin .

(Bible-belt J ournaJism)

again attributed their success to prayer. A spring

forest fire near Black River Falls, Wisconsin caught
two men who were trying to save some lumbering
equipment. The two reported that they doused
their clothing with water from a spray-can and
jumped into a sand depression in a clearing-they
had made the depression themselves with a bulldozer. And this is how they escaped although the
fire burned around them.
"Did you pray?" questioned the United Press
reporter.
Oh, yes, they responded,
and the
resultant story was titled: "Tall praying saves
lives." Well, obviously if the men did not have the
moxie to do the practical things to sustain their
lives, they would have perished. They knew,
despite the reporter's leading question, that their
actions saved their lives. They know, as everyone
knows with the exception of fanatics, that praying
did not save them; intellect did. People die every
day while praying that they may live, as any clergyman can tell you.
Just this spring everyone in the country who
reads a paper, listens to radio or watches television
heard about the religionists in Pennsylvania who
were seeing Jesus Christ in an altar cloth in a small
Episcopal church! ABC actually gave this utter
nonsense a long segment of serious coverage, with
the announcer speaking in the lowered, respectful
tones usually reserved for papal appearances or, at
least, golf tourneys. ABC never tried for any

balance in its segment, interviewing half a dozen

persons who "saw Jesus", but not one doubter
or dissenter. Of course, with the power of an unaccountable television network behind it, trivial
superstition
takes on credibility. And letters of
complaint are brushed aside.
It really is too much. We must all start screaming about this silly, harmful reporting. We must
phone and complain. We must open fire on Biblebelt journalism, on the reporter if there is a by-line,
on the editor if there is none. Even though our
letters are not published, we must still write them.
We must let the media people know how disgusted
we are with those hours of repetitive nonsense
religious groups may air for free. When Billy
Graham usurps prime time, we must run for the
phone and give the station manager, or whomever
we nail, an earful.
Alduous Huxley said that religion can survive
only as a "consciously accepted system of makebelieve." The problem is that religion is not only
surviving, it is smothering us because the "makebelieve" is not being challenged. We shrug off the
miracle-of-prayer
stories when we should all be
complaining about them. We must start to demand
objectivity
and balance.
Because
the media
problem is serious. The ground floor of cable
television in most cities has already been occupied
by the Catholic Church. Can you imagine what our
TV fare will be in a few years' time if we don't
start to do something now?
0

(Church'sAnti-Gun Lobby Under Fire, continued from page 15.)

videdwith the exemption letter" of the church organization.

The complaint charges that the anti-gun group uses the church group
to shield its political activities from taxation.
The church group is engaging in similar relationships with other
political organizations as a "substantial portion of its activities relate to
political activities and action organizations ... in violation of income
tax laws," the complaint said.
The church group is "knowingly accepting contributions earmarked
to non-exempt organizations," the complaint said.
The information will be "carefully evaluated ," Gerald Portney, IRS
districtdirector, said of the complaint.
All 135 members of Congress who serve on the pro-gun group's
advisoryboard were sent copies of the official complaint. If IRS fails to
act,according to inside sources, Congress may investigate the IRS.
THINK AHEAD
TheEighth Annual American Atheist Convention will be held in San Francisco, California in
Aprilof 1978. Contact the convention coordinator, John I. Mays, for information on how you
canprepayyour expenses with monthly payments.
Weare expecting hundreds of people more than attended the Chicago '77 convention. Please
contactus early so we will be able to reserve the correct number of rooms.
For information write to:
John I. Mays, Convention Coordinator
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768

Fellow
Atheist
Realtors
Let's exchange referrals
and referral fees.

AREA CODE (213) 248-8640

BLACKWELDER REALTY
2722 FOOTHILL BLVD.
LA CRESCENTA,
CALIFORNIA 91214

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 19

CSlttd-tu'e(J't~,'U'M't~SM4te4-

Catholie Propaganda in Press,

TVAnd Radio
By means of taking over the media
possible the Catholic Church attempts
the nation and eventually the world.
gandistic, dogmatic and censored

as much as
to take over
It is propathoroughly.

Second Vatican Council, The Decree on The Instruments of Social Communication: "Whether

it [a Catholic press] is published or run by direct

ecclesiastical authority or by Catholic laymen, let
it be clearly edited with this goal: That it may
form, strengthen, and spread public views which
are in harmony with the natural law, and with
Catholic
teachings
and precepts ... " Albert
Nevins, ex-president of the Catholic Press Association said, "The Catholic Press was a defensive
press, created to defend Catholic doctrine and to
answer calumnies". "No [Catholic] publication in
recent years has retained its identification
as
Catholic directly against the express mandate of a
bishop ... "
Editors of Catholic press stated as their purpose:
"Function as the organ of the bishop, aiming at
propagandizing (in the right sense of the word)
the people of god in the diocese," present Catholic.
news, promote Catholicism,
etc. The Catholic
Press Directory for 1966-1967 gives 497 Catholic
press publications circulating around 27,580,000
copies. (Enough for one in every six North American Catholics.) "The primary news service for
Catholic newspapers is NC, the news service of the
Press Department,
United States Catholic Conference. The conference
is an agency of the
Catholic bishops of the United States ... " The NC
has been accused by Catholic newspapers of slanting news and censoring.
The
Federal
Communications
Commission
favors and requires religion as one element of
broadcast programing, according to the lawyer,
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, in Freedom Under
Siege. She also states that in 1965 there were at
least 94 religious radio stations. This is to establish
a religion in violation of the First Amendment.
The FCC even requires a certain amount of religious programing. The National Association of
Broadcasters, TV Code part IV, section 5 forbids
attacks on religion. (Also NAB radio code, Section
F, part 8.) FCC and NAB, etc. held they are not
obligated to give non-religionists air time (free or
paid). Religious people can attack Atheists on the
air but Atheists cannot attack religion.

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 20

There are about 515 Catholic periodicals and 94

Catholic publishing houses. Catholics often are
required
to subscribe to Catholic newspapers.
Catholics produced their own Catholic Encyclo.
pedia. The Catholic Television Network of Chicago is the largest diocesan network in the as.
(1976 Catholic Almanac, p. 64). Catholic booksellers must sell only Catholic approved boob.
A recent example: The Washington Post, March 17
1976, states that the Jesuit Georgetown Uni
sity censored and eventually took its radio stati
WGTB-FM off the air because it did not conform
to its Catholic policies. The station began to diJi
cuss subjects honestly and openly rather thaa
merely support the church. Two main characterstics of Catholicism
are 1) One single Catholic
dogma, 2) Censor all else.
Catholic Superiority
And Separatism
Catholics are separatistic. They think and bell
their religion is superior to all else. The Ch
power is based on religious discrimination
obedience. There is constant watch on the ex
of an individual's belief.
It is racial in practice, with Irish Catholics
peting with German, Polish, or Italian-Am .
Catholics. In America the Irish Catholics have
the power. It is racist as well as sexist.
National Council of Catholic Women and
Catholic Daughters of America oppose the
Rights Amendment. National Congress of Ca
Bishops (October 7, 1975) stated that women
not to be ordained to the priesthood.
Catholic Almanac.)
In July, 1975, the Pope called for a halt to
disobedience
called liberty." "Enough of
disintegrating interpretations
of pluralism."
Catholic Alamanc, p. 87). Pope Pius XI in
Christian Education of Youth" wrote, '
not in nature itself ... anything to su
equality of the two sexes." Coeducation
regarded as "False ... and harmful to
education. "Nuns are recruited from teen
They pledge themselves to poverty, celi
obedience for life. They give up their
families and old friends. This exploits their
gence in youth and separates them by ce

(Catholic Propaganda in Press, TV And Radio)

and prejudice.
Spanish Catholics especially are violently antiSemitic. Hitler's anti-Semitic line appealed to many
Catholics in Germany as elsewhere. The Catholic- .
Jewish marriage is frowned on even more than the
Catholic-Protestant
marriage. For mixed marriages
to be allowed the non-Catholic is required to be
instructed in Catholicism, all children are required
to be baptized and raised as Catholics, and the only
ceremony will be the Catholic ceremony. Catholics
do not recognize marriages by non-Catholic ministers or civil authorities. Before 1966 this would
result in excommunication.
For the Catholic, Protestantism is often regarded
as even more dangerous than communism. Canon
1937: "Catholic children must not attend nonCatholic, neutral, or mixed schools." "Too often
the Irish Catholics in America have lived, thought,
voted, played, married, and gone to school as Irish
Catholics rather than as citizens of the United
States." Pluralism or allowing a plurality of views
in society is the view of the state. But it is not the
view of, for example,
the Catholic religion.
Catholics favor pluralism to have their religion
favored but their own religion is absolutely opposed to pluralism or any non-Catholic
belief.
The Catholic religion is intolerant of the secular
and of other religions. The Church of Christ, which
subsists in the Roman Catholic Church is necessary
for salvation. (Art. 14, Vatican 11). Under Catholic
Canon 1325 all Protestants are heretics and along
with Jewish religion, denied as a faith. Believers
in all non-Catholic religions are damned to hell.
On the Catholic view all non-Catholics will and
should after death burn in hell forever and they
will always be conscious of the pain and torture.
In Spain, non-Catholics are discriminated against.
In Spain, Protestants are treated as criminals and
subversives. Regarding Catholic oppression of Protestants in Spain the Christian Century (1950)
wrote, "Not even Russia presents a similar spectacleof systematic cradle-to-the-grave discrimination
againsta religious minority." (F 57).
The Spanish Catholic Church up until the 1870's
excommunicated Catholics who ate with Protestants. In Italy a member of the Church of Christ
wassentenced to six years in prison for criticizing
the Catholic Church.
Portugal a completely
Catholic country constantly carried out inhuman
exploitive policies in its colonies. In Angola
hundreds of Protestants were killed by Catholic
Portuguese troops. These troops tortured and
slaughteredover 30,000 men, women and children.
Doctrineof Catholic missionaries is: "The pilgrim

Church is missionary by her very nature." "Go

therefore, and make disciples of all nations." "He
who does not believe shall be condemned."
(Mark
16: 15ff). (1976 Catholic Almanac, p. 583).
One of the reasons for anti-Americanism
of
Spanish speaking countries is that they are Catholic
and
oppose
American
secularism.
Catholics
separate and segregate children, censor and isolate
them from our society. Protestants work with the
state, Catholics separate from the state. They are
Separatists and intolerant. Catholics would and
have even rejected their own children because they
were not also Catholic. It is thus seen that it is not
the state but rather religion which discriminates.
Catholicism
demands to be tolerated and even
tax-exempt but does not return the favor to the
secular, the state or other religious groups.
Mystical Authoritarian Anti-Humanistic
Catholic Dogma (Enlightened Dogma)
The Catholic must hold that Catholicism is the
only true religion. The Catholic Church cannot
change or be reformed. It is thought to be the
work of god. Vatican II is "enlightened dogma."
This is an oxymoron and a contradiction. The dogma is largely the same but some liberalization of
practice has taken place. It is a deceptive technique
to appear more liberal than it is so as to obtain
believers and to gain power. "The faith of the
Church [Catholic] is understood to be identical
with that taught by Christ and his Apostles and
contained in Bible and Tradition, i.e., the original
deposit of faith, to which nothing new may be
added." (I. P. Almanac, p. 94,' I 976). The conscience. Certain acts are left to the individual by
the Church as "a conscience dutifully conformed
to the divine law itself, and should be submissive
toward
the Church's
teaching
office, which
authentically interprets that law in the light of the
gospel." Vatican II.
Catholics are often as deeply opposed to their
Church
as non-Catholics.
Their
opposition,
however, counts for little in an authoritarian
divinely inspired dictatorship. If a Catholic denies
even one article of faith he is treated as a freethinker or non-Catholic. (Canon 646). Bishop Leo
Maher of San Diego said in an April 7, 1975
pastoral
letter:
"No person who claims and
professes views that are contrary to the teachings
of the Church can claim to be a practicing Catholic.
Nor are they to be admitted to the sacraments.
One who admits publicly to be a member of an organization that promotes abortions, such as the'
NOW organization, must be refused the sacra-

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 21

(Catholic Propaganda in Press, TV And Radio)

ment." In three San Diego churches more than 30

pro-abortionists were refused the sacraments.
In Ireland those who fall away from the Catholic
church are treated with extreme intolerance and
force is used to bring them back to the faith. Their
businesses may be boycotted. Catholics cannot sue
their priests without threat of excommunication.
(Canon 2341). Catholics are forbidden to read
books critical of the Catholic faith. (Canon 1384).
"The Church has the right to demand that the
faithful shall not publish books which she has
not previously approved by her judgment; she also
has the right to forbid for a just reason books
published by whomever." (Commentary 1935).
According to the Jesuit constitution one must
" ... let those who live in obedience allow themselves to be disposed of at the will of their superior
like a corpse ... " P. Blanshard, American Freedom and Catholic Power, p. 26.
Jesus Christ is the only spouse to the Catholic.
It is to unite with god mentally, sexually and in
every way. In a Thomist journal it was stated that
when a Catholic has marital sex it is mainly sex
with god. The Catholic Church tolerates marriage
now but marriage is not as holy as celibacy and
chastity. (Pope Pius XII). For the Catholic, even
marriage is subservient to the Church. Marriage is
merely a way of worshiping god. (Vatican II).
"By their very nature, the institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the
procreation and education of children, and find in
them their ultimate crown." (Vatican II). "Married
love is too often profaned by ... illicit practices
against human generation." (Vatican II). Vatican II
gives the meaning of marriage in accord with the
Bible, "Increase and Multiply." (Genesis 1:28).
Pope Pius XII, typically, believed that women are
only fulfilled by motherhood.
This is in direct
opposition to the liberationist view. Pope Pius XI
in Casti Conubi took the main purpose of marriage
to be procreation. Canon 1035-Marriage is mainly
for propagation and for the purpose of propagation of the Catholic religion! (Commentary 1935).
Canon 1013 "The primary end of marriage is the
procreation of and the education of offspring."
(Commentary 1935). Canon 1035-Bans those who
are infertile from marrying. (Commentary
1935).
"Those merit special mention who with wise and
common deliberation, and with a gallant heart,
undertake to brin~ up suitably even a relatively
large family." (Author's underlines). (Vatican II).
Pope Pius XI banned birth-control. "Sons of the
Church may not undertake methods of regulating
procreation which are found blameworthy by the

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 22

One out of every four of your neighbors, friends, busi

ness associates, acquaintances and relatives are Atheists.
They don't know where to go to fortify their beliefs. They
are worried to say out-loud what they believe.
You can help them. You can give them hope. You can
assure them that they are not alone.
We have three brochures (and more coming up) which
you can use to enclose with your gas and light bills when
you return them, to send into the bank with your mortgage
payment, to leave at the motel the next time you travel.
Atheists are everywhere-they
may be opening mail at the
utility company, or at the telephone company. They may
be the next occupants of the room in the motel.
Give them a break: tell them that there is an organiza
tion working for them. Go to the library and put one of
the brochures in some of the books on the racks, in the
magazines in the reading room. Offer them to your Uni
tarian Church for their display table.
If you will do this-we will send you 50 copies of any
of the following three for $1.00, postage paid.
(1) What on Earth Is An Atheist!

In the mode of a questionnaire that makes the

reader evaluate where he stands on many major
issues.
(2) Spiritual Guide to Gracious Living
The disgusting, obscene, irrational, atrocious parts
of the Bible.
(3) A Few Bible Contradictions
Excerpts of god against god as he utters one
admonition in one book of the Bible and refutes
that, or rejects it in another.
Send $1.00 for each 50 copies of the pamphlet of
your choice to
AMERICAN ATHEISTS
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768
Texas state residents add 5% tax.

teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding

of the divine law." (Vatican II). Catholic hospitals
still have a strictly religious medical code. Catholics
long prevented birth-control,
resulting in great
harm to society and the emotional life of men and
women. (RE: Abortion)
"Everyone should be
persuaded that human life and the task of traJIIo
mitting it are not realities bound up with this
world alone." (Vatican II). The concern about
abortion is with the next life not with this life.
Medicus in Medical Essays (a text used in Catholit
seminaries) states: "A living human fetus, e
though a monster, may not be sacrificed to save
the human lives in the world." Catholics te
"pastoral medicine" and impose this on Cath .
doctors. The soul must be saved even at the
pense of the body and life of the individual.
many as 2,000 American women may have .
unnecessarily each year because of this rule [
Catholic hospitals which ban therapeutic a
tion] ."

bacf

mon
the
abou
was

in re
T
cern

INGERSOLL ON THE
HOLY BIBLE, PART I
No. 437-May, 1977
Hello there,
This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American Atheist,
back to talk with you again. For the next several
months, I am going to acquaint you, in depth, with
the writings of Robert G. Ingersoll, who lived just
about 100 years ago in the United States and who
was the bravest spokesman we had up to that time,
in respect to Atheism.
This-which
I read now-is Robert Ingersoll concerning the Holy Bible:
"Somebody ought to tell the truth about the Bible.
The preachers dare not, because they would be driven
from their pulpits. Professors in colleges dare not,
because they would lose their salaries. Politicians dare
not. They would be defeated. Editors dare not. They
would lose subscribers. Merchants dare not, because
they might lose their customers. Men of fashion dare
not, fearing that they would lose caste. Even clerks
dare not, because they might be discharged. And so
I thought I would do it myself.
"There are many millions of people who believe
the Bible to be the inspired word of god-millions
who think that this book is staff and guide, counselor
and consoler; that it fills the present with peace and
the future with hope-millions
who believe that it is
the fountain of law, justice and mercy, and that to
its wise and benign teachings the world is indebted
for its liberty, wealth and civilization-millions
who
imagine that this book is a revelation from the
wisdom and love of god to the brain and heart of
man-millions who regard this book as a torch that
conquers the darkness of death, and pours its
radianceon another world-a world without a tear.
"They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred
of liberty, its religious persecution; they remember
heaven,but they forget the dungeon of eternal pain.
"They forget that it imprisons the brain and corruptsthe heart. They forget that it is the enemy of
intellectualfreedom.
"Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to
attackthe Bible.
"I will tell them:
"This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto

death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and
stopped the onward movement of the human race.
This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
"This book is the enemy of freedom, the support
of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in
families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork
of kings and tyrants-the
enslaver of women and
children. This book has corrupted parliaments and
courts. This book has made colleges and universities
the teachers of error and the haters of science. This
book has filled Christendom
with hateful, cruel,
ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to
kill their fellows for religion's sake. This book
founded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of
torture, built the dungeons in which the good and
loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in
their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died.
This book piled fagots about the feet of the just.
This book drove reason from the minds of millions
and filled the asylums with the insane.
"This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed
the blood of their babes. This book was the auction
block on which the slave-mother stood when she was
sold from her child. This book filled the sails of the
slave-trader and made merchandise of human flesh.
This book lighted the fires that burned 'witches' and
'wizards.' This book filled the darkness with ghouls
and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with
devils. This book polluted the souls of men with the
infamous dogma of eternal pain. This book made
credulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation the
greatest of crimes. This book filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns-with the pious and the useless.
This book placed the ignorant and unclean saint
above the philosopher and philanthropist. This book
taught man to despise the joys of this life, that he
might be happy in another-to
waste this world for
the sake of the next.
"I attack this book because it is the enemy of
human liberty - the greatest obstruction across the
highway of human progress.
"Let me ask the ministers one question: How can
you be wicked enough to defend this book?
"That book [the Bible] is the chain that binds, the
dungeon that holds the clergy. That book spreads the
pall of superstition
over the colleges and schools.
That book puts out the eyes of science, and makes
honest investigation a crime. That book unmans the
politician and degrades the people. That book fills
the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear.
"The Bible has been the fortress and defense of
nearly every crime.
"Across the open Bible lay the sword and fagot.

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 23

(Catholic Propaganda in Press, TV And Radio)

ment." In three San Diego churches more than 30

pro-abortionists were refused the sacraments.
In Ireland those who fall away from the Catholic
church are treated with extreme intolerance and
force is used to bring them back to the faith. Their
businesses may be boycotted. Catholics cannot sue
their priests without threat of excommunication.
(Canon 2341). Catholics are forbidden to read
books critical of the Catholic faith. (Canon 1384).
"The Church has the right to demand that the
faithful shall not publish books which she has
not previously approved by her judgment; she also
has the right to forbid for a just reason books
published by whomever." (Commentary 1935).
According to the Jesuit constitution one must
" ... let those who live in obedience allow themselves to be disposed of at the will of their superior
like a corpse ... " P. Blanshard, American Freedom and Catholic Power, p. 26.
Jesus Christ is the only spouse to the Catholic.
It is to unite with god mentally, sexually and in
every way. In a Thomist journal it was stated that
when a Catholic has marital sex it is mainly sex
with god. The Catholic Church tolerates marriage
now but marriage is not as holy as celibacy and
chastity. (Pope Pius XII). For the Catholic, even
marriage is subservient to the Church. Marriage is
merely a way of worshiping god. (Vatican II).
"By their very nature, the institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the
procreation and education of children, and find in
them their ultimate crown." (Vatican II). "Married
love is too often profaned by ... illicit practices
against human generation." (Vatican II). Vatican II
gives the meaning of marriage in accord with the
Bible, "Increase and Multiply." (Genesis 1:28).
Pope Pius XII, typically, believed that women are
only fulfilled by motherhood.
This is in direct
.opposition to the liberationist view. Pope Pius XI
in Casti Conuhi took the main purpose of marriage
to be procreation. Canon 1035-Marriage is mainly
for propagation
and for the purpose of propagation of the Catholic religion! (Commentary 1935).
Canon 1013 "The primary end of marriage is the
procreation
of and the education of offspring."
(Commentary 1935). Canon 1035-Bans those who
are infertile from marrying. (Commentary 1935).
"Those merit special mention who with wise and
common deliberation,
and with a gallant heart,
undertake to hrin~ up suitably even a relatively
lar~e family." (Author's underlines). (Vatican II).
Pope Pius XI banned birth-control. "Sons of the
Church may not undertake methods of regulating
procreation which are found blameworthy by the

JULY,1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST - 22

One out of every four of your neighbors, friends, busi

ness associates, acquaintances and relatives are Atheists.
They don't know where to go to fortify their beliefs. They
are worried to say out-loud what they believe.
You can help them. You can give them hope. You can
assure them that they are not alone.
We have three brochures (and more coming up) which
you can use to enclose with your gas and light bills when
you return them, to send into the bank with your mortgage
payment, to leave at the motel the next time you travel.
Atheists are everywhere-they
may be opening mail at the
utility company, or at the telephone company. They may
be the next occupants of the room in the motel.
Give them a break: tell them that there is an organiza
tion working for them. Go to the library and put one of
the brochures in some of the books on the racks, in the
magazines in the reading room. Offer them to your Unitarian Church for their display table.

He

ba

If you will do this-we will send you 50 copies of any

of the following three for $1.00, postage paid.
(1) What on Earth Is An Atheist!

In the mode of a questionnaire that makes the

reader evaluate where he stands on many major
issues.
(2) Spiritual Guide to Gracious Living
The disgusting, obscene, irrational, atrocious parts
ofthe Bible.
(3) A Few Bible Contradictions
Excerpts of god against god as he utters one
admonition in one book of the Bible and refutes
that, or rejects it in another.
Send $1.00 for each 50 copies of the pamphlet of
your choice to
AMERICAN ATHEISTS
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768
Texas state residents add 5% tax.

teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding

of the divine law." (Vatican II). Catholic hospitals
still have a strictly religious medical code. Catholics
long prevented birth-control,
resulting in great
harm to society and the emotional life of men and
women. (RE: Abortion)
"Everyone
should be
persuaded that human life and the task of transmitting it are not realities bound up with this
world alone." (Vatican II). The concern about
abortion is with the next life not with this life.
Medicus in Medical Essays (a text used in Catholic
seminaries) states: "A living human fetus, even
though a monster, may not be sacrificed to save all
the human lives in the world." Catholics teach
"pastoral medicine" and impose this on Catholic
doctors. The soul must be saved even at the expense of the body and life of the individual. "As
many as 2,000 American women may have died
unnecessarily each year because of this rule [of
Catholic hospitals which ban therapeutic
abortion] ."
0

ce

d
I
t

a
t
t

i
fi

INGERSOLL ON THE
HOLY BIBLE, PART I
No. 437-May, 1977
Hello there,
This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American Atheist,
back to talk with you again. For the next several
months, I am going to acquaint you, in depth, with
the writings of Robert G. Ingersoll, who lived just
about 100 years ago in the United States and who
was the bravest spokesman we had up to that time,
in respect to Atheism.
This-which
I read now-is Robert Ingersoll concerning the Holy Bible:
"Somebody ought to tell the truth about the Bible.
The preachers dare not, because they would be driven
from their pulpits. Professors in colleges dare not,
because they would lose their salaries. Politicians dare
not. They would be defeated. Editors dare not. They
would lose subscribers. Merchants dare not, because
they might lose their customers. Men of fashion dare
not, fearing that they would lose caste. Even clerks
dare not, because they might be discharged. And so
I thought I would do it myself.
"There are many millions of people who believe
the Bible to be the inspired word of god-millions
who think that this book is staff and guide, counselor
and consoler; that it fills the present with peace and
the future with hope-millions
who believe that it is
the fountain of law, justice and mercy, and that to
its wise and benign teachings the world is indebted
for its liberty, wealth and civilization-millions
who
imagine that this book is a revelation from the
wisdom and love of god to the brain and heart of
man-millions who regard this book as a torch that
conquers the darkness of death, and pours its
radianceon another world-a world without a tear.
"They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred
of liberty, its religious persecution; they remember
heaven,but they forget the dungeon of eternal pain.
"They forget that it imprisons the brain and corrupts the heart. They forget that it is the enemy of
intellectualfreedom.
"Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to
attackthe Bible.
"I will tell them:
"This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto

death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and
stopped the onward movement of the human race.
This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
"This book is the enemy of freedom, the support
of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in
families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork
of kings and tyrants-the
enslaver of women and
children. This book has corrupted parliaments and
courts. This book has made colleges and universities
the teachers of error and the haters of science. This
book has filled Christendom
with hateful, cruel,
ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to
kill their fellows for religion's sake. This book
founded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of
torture, built the dungeons in which the good and
loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in
their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died.
This book piled fagots about the feet of the just.
This book drove reason from the minds of millions
and filled the asylums with the insane.
"This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed
the blood of their babes. This book was the auction
block on which the slave-mother stood when she was
sold from her child. This book filled the sails of the
slave-trader and made merchandise of human flesh.
This book lighted the fires that burned 'witches' and
'wizards.' This book filled the darkness with ghouls
and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with
devils. This book polluted the souls of men with the
infamous dogma of eternal pain. This book made
credulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation the
greatest of crimes. This book filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns-with the pious and the useless.
This book placed the ignorant and unclean saint
above the philosopher and philanthropist. This book
taught man to despise the joys of this life, that he
might be happy in another-to
waste this world for
the sake of the next.
"I attack this book because it is the enemy of
human liberty-the
greatest obstruction across the
highway of human progress.
"Let me ask the ministers one question: How can
you be wicked enough to defend this book?
"That book [the Bible] is the chain that binds, the
dungeon that holds the clergy. That book spreads the
pall of superstition
over the colleges and schools.
That book puts out the eyes of science, and makes
honest investigation a crime. That book unmans the
politician and degrades the people. That book fills
the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear.
"The Bible has been the fortress and defense of
nearly every crime.
"Across the open Bible lay the sword and fagot.

JUl Y, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 23

(Ingersoll on the Holy: Bible, Part I)

"Let us free ourselves from the tyranny of a book,

from the slavery of dead ignorance, from the aristocracy of the air.
"One of the first things 1 wish to do, is to free
the orthodox clergy. 1 am a great friend of theirs, and
in spite of all they may say against me, 1 am going
to do them a great and lasting service. Upon their
necks are visible the marks of the collar, and upon
their backs those of the lash. They are not allowed
to read and think for themselves. They are taught
like parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with
the fewest mistakes, the sentences they have been
taught. They sit like owls upon some dead limb of the
tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots that
have been hooted for eighteen hundred years.
"Nobody ever saw anybody who had seen anybody
who had heard of anybody that had ever seen
anybody that had ever seen one of the original
Hebrew manuscripts.
"A surgeon once called upon a poor cripple and
kindly offered to render him any assistance in his
power. The surgeon began to discourse very learnedly upon the nature and origin of disease; of the curative properties of certain medicines; of the advantages
of exercise, air and light, and of the various ways in
which health and strength could be restored. These
remarks were so full of good sense, and discovered so
much profound thought and accurate knowledge,
that the cripple, becoming thoroughly alarmed, cried
out, 'Do not, I pray you, take my crutches. They are
my only support, and without them 1 should be
miserable indeed!' 'I am not going,' said the surgeon,
'to take away your crutches. I am going to cure you,
and then you will throw the crutches away yourself.'
"What can I be expected to give as a substitute for
perdition? It is enough to show that it does not exist.
What does a man want in place of a disease? Health.
, "Notwithstanding
the fact that infidels in all ages
have battled for the rights of man, and have at all
times been the fearless advocates of liberty and
justice, we are constantly charged by the church with
tearing down without building again.
"Now let me make myself plain upon one subject,
perfectly plain. For instance, I hate Presbyterianism,
but 1 know hundreds of splendid Presbyterians.
Understand me. 1 hate Methodism, and yet 1 know
hundreds of splendid Methodists. I hate Catholicism,
and like Catholics. I hate insanity but not the insane.
"I do not war against men. I do not war against
persons. I war against certain doctrines that I believe
to be wrong.
"There is no necessity of attacking people-we
should combat error. We should hate hypocrisy; but
not the hypocrite-larceny,
but not the thief-super-

JULY. 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 24

stition, but not its victim. We should do

our power to inform, to educate, and to
fellow-men.
"There is no elevating power in hatred. Th
reformation in punishment. The soul gro
and grander in the air of kindness, in the s
in telligence.
"I do not know what takes place in the
world called the brain, inhabited by the
something we call the mind. All that takes p
is invisible and soundless. This mind, hidd
brain, masked by flesh, remains forever
the only evidence we can possibly have as
occurs in that world, we obtain from the
the man, of the woman. By these actions we
the character of the soul. So I make up my
to whether a man is good or bad, not by his
but by his actions.
"Under no circumstances can the expre
honest opinion,
couched in becoming
amount to blasphemy. And right here it
enough to inquire: What is blasphemy?
"A man who knowingly assaults the
knowingly endeavors to stain the pure, who
ly maligns the good and noble is a bl
man who deserts the truth because it is un
a blasphemer. He who runs with the hounds
that the hare is in the right is a blasphemer.
"The believers in the Bible are loud in
nunciation of what they are pleased to
moral literature of the world; and yet few
been published containing more moral flltb
inspired word of god. These stories are not
by a single flash of wit or humor. They
above the dull details of stupid vice.
cannot afford to soil my pages with ex
them; and all such portions of the Scrip
to be examined, written upon, and exp .
clergy. Clergymen may know some way
they can extract honey from these flo
these passages are expunged from the Old
it is not a fit book to read by either old
contains pages that no minister in the U
would read to his congregation for any re
ever. There are chapters that no gent!
read in the presence of a lady. There
that no father would read to his child.
narratives utterly unfit to be told; and
come when mankind will wonder that
was ever called inspired.
"We are continually told that the Bible
foundation of modesty and morality;
its pages are so immodest and .
minister, for reading them in the pul .
instantly denounced as an unclean

(Ingersoll on the Holy Bible, Part I)

woman would leave the church, and if the men

stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastising
the minister.
"Is there any saving grace in hypocrisy? Will men
become clean in speech by believing that god is unclean? Would it not be far better to admit that the
Bible was written by barbarians in a barbarous, coarse
and vulgar age? Would it not be safer to charge Moses
with vulgarity, instead of god? Is it not altogether
more probable that some ignorant Hebrew would
write the vulgar words? The Christians tell me that
god is the author of these vile and stupid things. I
have examined the question to the best of my ability,
and as to god my verdict is:-Not guilty. Faith should
not rest in filth.
"Every foolish and immodest thing should be expunged from the Bible. Let us keep the good. Let us
preserve every great and splendid thought, every
wise and prudent maxim, every just law, every
elevated idea, and every word calculated to make man
nobler and purer, and let us have the courage to
throw the rest away. The souls of children should not
be stained and soiled. The charming instincts of
youth should not be corrupted and defiled. The girls
and boys should not be taught unclean words were
uttered by 'inspired' lips. Teach them that these
words were born of savagery and lust. Teach them
that the unclean is the unholy, and that only the pure
is sacred.
"The fact is that good things in a book do not
prove that it is inspired, but the presence of bad
things does prove that it is not.
"After all, the real question is not whether the
Bible is inspired, but whether it is true. If it is true,
it does not need to be inspired. If it is true, it makes
no difference whether it was written by a man or a
god. The multiplication table is just as useful, just as
true as though god had arranged the figures himself.
If the Bible is really true, the claim of inspiration
need not be urged; and if it is not true, its inspiration
can hardly be established. As a matter of fact, the
truth does not need to be inspired. Nothing needs
inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake. Where
truth ends, where probability stops, inspiration begins. A fact never went into a partnership with a
miracle. Truth does not need the assistance of
miracle. A fact will fit every other fact in the Universe, because it is the product of all other facts. A
lie will fit nothing except another lie made for the
express purpose of fitting it."

of man must be emancipated from religion.

I'll continue Ingersoll next week.
This informational broadcast is brought to you as
a public service by American Atheists, a non-profit,
non-political, tax-exempt, educational organization
dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of
state and church. This series of American A theist
Radio programs is continued through listener generosity. American Atheists predicates its philosophy on
materialism. For more information, or for a free copy
of this particular script, write P. O. Box 2117, Austin,
Texas. That zip is 78768. If you want a free copy of
this script ask for number 437. The address for you,
again, is P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas,and that zip
is 78768.
I will be with you again, next week, same day of
the week, same time, same station. Until then, I do
thank you for listening-goodbye for now.
0

In order to payoff
this mortgage within
three years, which
is our goal, we need
$3,888.00 monthly
in contributions. Or
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mortgage in five
years, we need
$2,333.00 monthly
Building
in contributions.
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Barometer

GOOd

I have been reading to you from the writings of

Robert G. Ingersoll, who lived in the United States
just about 100 years ago and who felt that the mind

JULY, 1971/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 25

America's Greatest FreethinkerA Sketch of His Career

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
By Carl Shapiro
Does it not seem strange that a man who was the
most illustrious lawyer and. orator of the late
nineteenth century, a national spokesman for the
Republican Party, who was interviewed and written about countless times by
major newspapers, a champion
of causes only in fashion in
recent times, and who has left
a legacy of twelve engrossing volumes - is hardly even
heard of nowadays?
That man was (Col.) Robert
G. Ingersoll,
an ex-Union
Army officer who because he
was such an artist with words,
was called "The American
Demosthenes,"
and due to his
high style of living was affectionately
dubbed
"Royal
Bob" by President Garfield.
To find out why Ingersoll
has been virtually ignored in
most conventional and school
history books since his death
in 1899, is quite simple,
when we realize that he was
also known as the "Great
Agnostic."
From the mid1870's and until he died at age
66, Ingersoll went up and
down the country shedding
enlightenment
through
a
multitude of controversial and
anti-religious
lectures.
But
they were much more than
mere lectures. An evening of
Ingersoll was an inspiring and
uplifting experience, and that
is no doubt the reason his
commanding presence packed
the halls with avid, enthusiastic listeners.
But do not think for a
moment that all of Ingersoll's
admirers agreed with his secularist views. Indeed, many did not, but they came
and filled the houses - in many instances just to
hear his thrilling words, thoughts that were fueled

by caustic wit, common sense and biting

Ingersoll's speeches, though often devasta
critical of orthodox and puritan religion,
infused as well with beautiful and heart
sentiments. Ingersoll was a libertarian to the
a domestic philosopher, a lover of demoer
a tireless advocate of justice and equal rigb
all. His Humanist-Agnostic Creed was exp
different ways at separate times, but the
message was poetically set forth thusly:
"Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
Ignorance is the only slavery.
Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be
here.
The way to be happy
make other people
Needless to say,
did not believe in an
nevertheless
he
hated and spoke ou
the religious dogma
nal punishment for
an t sinners." His
manity could not
idea that a deity w
even a single human
"everlasting fire."
heaven and hell
to this lover of m
honest man, the
the happy child,
to fear, either in
in the world to
view of such a t1
bunker of supe
concept of hell
"all the meann
revenge, all the
the cruelty, all
the infamy of
heart of man is
To get an idea
famous and res
still was, despite .
agnosticism, it
enough to say
him would fill
Numbered amo
friends and ve
were some of
brated figures in
gion and the
stance, Mark Twain called Ingerson
beautiful spirit." Walt Whitman,
orator, said he was a "consuming

ultal/9-1899

JULV.1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 26

blast for the new virtues." The noted clergyman,

Henry Ward Beecher, who, though a religious
liberal for his time, but who opposed Ingersoll's
scepticism, nevertheless called him "the most
brillian speaker of the English language of all men
on the face of the globe ... one of the greatest
men of the age." Those are but a few accolades.
It goes without saying that the generous publicity afforded to Ingersoll by the press prompted
numerous debates with the clergy. Newspapers
carried stories about them across the land. One of
the hottest religious controversies of the time was
a published debate between the Rev. Henry M.
Field, editor of the New York Evangelist, and
Ingersoll, on the subject, "Faith or Agnosticism?"
The debate had actually been an invitation to both
parties by the editor of the North American Review, and the series of articles by the combatants
appeared in that periodical throughout 1888. In
fact, the eminent English statesman, The Right
Honorable William E. Gladstone, as well as the
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Henry Edward Manning, entered the battle on the side of
Christianity. Apparently the Rev. Field needed
help, and Gladstone was especially anxious to
oblige, as Ingersoll was, as one observer put it,
"The one American adversary worthy of Gladstone's steel." At any rate, the printed debate
drew reaction from many quarters, pro and con,
but the outcome was that the popularity of the
"man who defied god" only increased!
In addition to his intrepid freethinking, Ingersoll
was far ahead of his time in many other areas of
social concern - a prophet who poured forth ideas
and opinions on issues we have only come to
recognize, formidably, in the last decade. Ingersoll
despised injustice of every sort, and practiced what
he preached: no hatred or bigotry, except against
the haters and bigots "who live in an ignorant
village, surrounded by ignorant neighbors."
For example, Ingersoll lashed out against segregation of. the races and denounced civil inequality:
"I see no reason why the white and black people
cannot live together in the same land under the
same flag. The beauty of liberty is you cannot have
it unless you give it away, and the more you give
away the more you have. .. Men are not superior
by reason of the accidents of race of color ...
They are superior who have the best heart - the
best brain."
Ingersoll's thoughts on war would doubtlessly
have impressed war protestors and pacifists: "As
long as nations meet on the fields of war, as long
as they sustain the relations of savages to each
other, as long as they put the laurel and oak on the
brows of those who kill, just so long will citizens
resort to violence, and the quarrels of individuals
be settled by dagger and revolver."
He also criticized the intellectual provincialism
of most of the colleges of his time. Ingersoll

believed more in natural talent than what he

called "acquired talent." So far as so-called higher
education was concerned, "For the most part,
colleges are places where pebbles are polished
and diamonds are dimmed."
Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other
reformers of his day, Ingersoll was an implacable
champion of the rights of women, and believed
that if given equal opportunity women would
equal men in all endeavors "because they are the
intellectual equals of men." Against the puritanical fashion of his time, he supported birth control,
declaring that true civilization could only be
attained when the woman becomes "the mistress
of herself." He placed his faith in the benevolence
of science which he said would give woman "the
power to decide for herself whether she will or will
not become a mother. .. This frees woman ...
The babes that are then born will be welcome."
While he considered marriage as "the most important, the most sacred contract human beings
can make," Ingersoll also felt that marriages in
which two people ultimately "abhor each other"
should be dissolved through uncomplicated,
prompt divorce. He also called for laws to grant
quick divorces to women who suffered physical
cruelty from "brutal husbands."
Ingersoll generally disapproved of free love, but
almost paradoxically he proclaimed that "love is
not a crime ... men and women should be proudly
natural; they need not grovel on the earth and
cover their faces for shame."
As powerful a lawyer as he was a lecturer,
Ingersoll relentlessly campaigned for penal reform
and fiercely opposed capital punishment. He contended that cruel punishments degrade society and
"produce in the individual a tendency in the same
direction." Consequently, "the citizen is apt to
imitate his nation."
His outcry against demoralizing slums is
poignantly relevant to the ghetto shame of today:
"The tenement house breeds a moral pestilence.
There can be in these houses no home, no fireside,
no family. There is no sacredness, no feeling, 'this
is ours.'"
Ingersoll maintained law offices, successively, in
Peoria, Ill., Washington, D. c., and New York City.
He acquired a huge income from his lucrative
practice and his lectures and enjoyed living affluently with his wife, Eva, "a woman without
superstition," and two daughters. Nothing was
more important to Ingersoll than family life. Without a doubt, "the holiest temple beneath the stars
is a home that love has built. .. I believe in the
religion of the family." Ingersoll also loved music,
literature, painting, the theatre - and lots of good
food. And eat he did! To this jovial bon vivant,
"The inventor of a good soup did more for his race
than the maker of any creed." He meant every
word; Ingersoll weighed at least 300 pounds! When

JULY. 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 27

(Robert G. Ingersoll)

once warned of the danger of becoming too fat,

the corpulent orator cheerfully replied, "My belly
has not yet stretched to its fullest capacity!"
Yet despite his own financial and social success,
Ingersoll's heart wasn't with the establishment
when he felt things needed change. Not only did
he give generously to the needy, but the lawyer
constantly
attacked
the
greedy
commercial
magnates "who take advantage of the necessities
of the poor." He earnestly hoped the day would
come "when the purchaser will wish to give what
a thing is worth; when the employer will be
satisfied with a reasonable profit" and would be
willing "to pay the laborer the full value of his
labor." Summarily, he looked upon the inequity
between corporation and society with a vision of
national justice: "I do not believe in protecting
American industry for the sake of any class, but
for the sake of the whole Nation. And if I did not
believe that it was for the best interests of the
whole Nation I should be opposed to it . .. What
we want is not simply for the capitalist, not
simply for the workingmen, but for the whole
country." The Ralph Nader of his day!
Ingersoll was equally as famous as a patriotic
speaker. For this reverent lover of liberty, the stars
and stripes made up "the holiest flag that ever
kissed the air." He soared in the highest flights of
idealism, regarding the Great Republic as "the
chart and beacon of the human race." Ingersoll's
America was a country "bounded
by the seas,
walled by the air, domed by heaven's blue, and lit
with the eternal stars ... I love the Republic; I
love it because I love liberty. Liberty is my
religion, and at its altar I worship, and will
worship."

SPIRIT, SOUL,
AND MIND
By Frank R. Zindler
Whenever I peruse a dictionary, I am struck by the
amazing number of words which refer to nothing at
all in the real world. Many of the words are obviously fabulous: leprechaun, unicorn, gremlin, Philosopher's Stone, Zeus, elf, Fountain of Youth, ghost,
etc. Others, though referring equally to non-existent
things, are less obviously fabulous: The Mean Sum,
The Average Citizen, vital force, spirit, soul, and in at least some of its accepted meanings - mind.
Why the human species has invented so many

JULY, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 28

It is in teresting to recall that Ingersoll acted as

defense counsel in a well-publicized case in 1887,
known as The Morristown Blasphemy Trial. In
many respects, the event was really the first public
Scopes-like
trial, predating
the most famous
Tennessee trial almost forty years. Here Ingersoll
defended a man charged with distributing literature
ridiculing the Bible, etc., in violation of an unconstitutional
but very old New Jersey statute.
Though he "lost" the case, and paid the entire
expense from his own pocket, including the fine
imposed
upon his client, Ingersoll's eloquent
lecture-summation
was a masterpiece of soulshaking oratory. The address, in behalf of freedom
of thought, speech, and of the press, held the
packed courtroom
motionless for nearly three
hours, and was praised by the judge as "beautiful,
splendid in sentiment and expressed with a vigor
to thrill every heart." It was in his magnificent
speech to the Morristown jury that Ingersoll'
genius and matchless ability to demolish with
words all sham, pretense and hypocrisy produced
an oration of sublime and penetrating power, a
brief extract of which is communicative to aD
seasons: "To live on the unpaid labor of men that is blasphemy. To enslave your fellow-man, to
put chains upon his body - that is blasphemy. To
put manacles upon the brain, padlocks upon tho
lips - that is blasphemy. To violate your
science - that is blasphemy. The jury that gives
unjust verdict, and the judge who pronounces
unjust sentence, are blasphemers. The man
bows to public opinion against his better judgm
and against his honest conviction, is a b
phemer . .. Whoever increases the sum of h
joy, is a worshiper. He who adds to the sum
human misery, is a blasphemer." The concl
words which refer to nothing in reality is a
interesting question for scientific investigation,
probably would require a complete book to
cida te properly. In this article I shall only attemp
deal with a few words, specifically, the words
'soul', and 'mind'.
It is a striking fact that nearly all languages
world, extinct as well as extant, have - or have
words which could be rendered as 'spirit' or
in English. At first glance, it would seem that
a good argument in favor of the real exis
souls and spirits. For, would it not be imp
that so many different peoples and languages
be mistaken? If so many different unrelated I
have independently
invented words for soul,
not a good reason to believe they did so beca
really is such a thing?
I think not. The first clue to the solution
puzzle comes from etymology, the study
origins.
While the origin of the English word '

appeal in this towering edifice of lofty wisdom was

Ingersoll's directive to citizens that nothing can be
more sacred to a free people than "to preserve the
inestimable gem of human liberty," and "I sincerely hope that it will never be necessary again for a
man to stand before a jury and plead for the
Liberty of Speech." Emotionally moved by the
passionate speech, no less than a Presbyterian
minister shook the lawyer's hand and approvingly
remarked, "Colonel Ingersoll, I must say that was
the noblest speech in defense of liberty I ever
heard!"
Truly, Ingersoll's utterances were on the lips
of millions - believers and unbelievers alike. There
is not nearly enough space here to quote from his
innumerable gems of thoughts. But where have
we heard a more expressive and meaningful definition of Love: "It is the morning and the evening
star. . . It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet,
patriot and philosopher. .. It is the air and light
of every heart - builder of every home, kindler
of every fire on every hearth. .. It is the perfume
of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without
that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less
than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are
gods." No wonder the great naturalist, Luther
Burbank, said of Ingersoll: "His life and work have
been an inspiration to the whole earth, shedding
light in the dark places which so sadly needed
light. "
It is not surprising, then, that when Ingersoll
died the entire nation mourned. No other national
figure, with the possible exception of Lincoln, had
ever been so widely and tenderly eulogized. In
Peoria, where Ingersoll practiced law for twenty
(Continue on page 30.)

scure, the word almost certainly had its origin in a

word which meant 'breath' or 'wind' or 'air' or something like that. The word 'spirit' - generally a
synonym for soul - comes from the Latin spiritus,
and clearly meant breath. 'Spiritual' and 'respirator'
both derive from the same root!
Moreover, if we check the Greek and Hebrew
Bibles to see which words are translated as soul, etc.,
in the King James Version, we will find many whose
literal meaning is 'breath' or 'wind'. For example, the
Hebrew word neshamah (literally meaning 'breath')
is twice rendered as 'spirit', once as 'soul'. The
Hebrew-Aramaic word ruach (lit., 'wind') is rendered
240 times as 'spirit', six times as Mind. The word
nellhesh (lit., 'breath') is rendered 'soul' 428 times,
'mind' 15 times, 'ghost' twice, and 'life' 119 times.
Turning to the Greek Bible, we find pneuma (lit.,
'breath') rendered as 'ghost' 91 times (including the
rendering 'Holy Ghost') 292 times as 'spirit'. The
reader will recognize the same root in. the .word
'pneumonia' a word referring to a disease of the
organs of breath. And finally, in this somewhat

pedantic parade of words we may note the important

word fsyche. As expected its literal meaning is
'breath. As expected, it is rendered as 'soul' 58 times,
'mind' three times, and 'life' 40 times.
The fact that nearly all words now meaning 'soul',
'spirit', 'ghost', 'life', etc., trace their origins to words
meaning 'breath' or 'wind' leads me to conclude that
the derived meanings were an outgrowth of the inability of primitive men to solve a basic biological
puzzle, namely, what constitutes the difference
between a live body and a dead one?
To the ancient authors of the Bible - men who
still thought they were living on a flat earth beneath
a solid sky ('firmament') the solution seemed deceptively simple: living things breathe, dead things
do not. At first, only animals (from Latin anima,
meaning 'breath' or 'breeze' orginally) were considered fully alive. The case of plants was viewed
with confusion for a long time. Some authorities
considered them live, others did not. The ancients
did not realize that 'souls' were really only a gaseous
(Continued on page 32.)

JULY. 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 29

FREE~THOUGHr------~
THE HONKERS

CALL

Nothing stirs the hunters heart

When leaves begin to fall
Like bugling in the autumn sky
The chilling "Honkers" call

But preachers ranting from their stands

Like goose horns blaring loud
Pretending god will conquer all
And save this anguished crowd

That white hair in my mirror

And eyes not quite so clear
Say now my summer's over
My autumn's almost here

Patient hunters far below

With goose horns pointed high
Vainly try to fool the king
The "Honkers" sense their lie

What foolish people mortals be

To quote poetic drawl
And foolish people never hear
The truthful "Honkers" call

I still will roam life's marshes

Hunt truth along the way
And maybe I will last to see
Lies end within my day

If only men could feel the truth

The way these creatures do
We'd all be wiser day by day
For wiser men are true

So now they live their life of fear

And pray it never ends
Their dying's just another way
Of lying to their friends

And then to welcome winter

And never mind at all
Contented now I'll take my bow
I've heard the "Honkers" call

A CROSS OF GOLD

THE LUNATIC

In days of old, when knights were bold,

men died for the touch of gold.

The Christian is a superstitious clod

Who tries, upon the world, to force his god.
If he no longer burns the heretic
It's not because he is less mentally sick
It's just because the world is not so mad
As to allow his former burning fad.

The Church, it is said, chopped many a

head, to have its cross of gold.

ar
te
di

10
er
no

ex
du
un
ha
de

The Church, it is certain, goes on with

its hurting ... all for the cross of gold.
SERVILE
Its business sublime, its members supine,
it takes what is yours and mine.

Religion!
prolific fiend,
Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men,
And heaven with slaves.

Help fight this great crime, save yours

and mine!
or be burdened till the end of time.

-Alan H. Schwartz

RELIGION

Spirit of Nature! all-sufficing

Necessity! thou mother of the world!
Unlike the god of human error, thou
Requirest no prayers or praises.

POETRY-

-Shelley:

"Queen Me."

(Robert G. Ingersoll, continued from page 29.)

years, citizens formed an Ingersoll Monument Association, expressing

their grief in a hearfelt invitation to donors:
"The late Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll was a conspicuous figure in the
history of the present century. Of heroic character, indomitable perserverence, and fearlessness, born of what he believed to be right, he
was at once the gentlest, most affectionate, lovable, and the strongest
character of his day."

NOAH--------------------------------------------------------Nut who built a huge wooden boat he named the S.S. Ark.
He got word from the Boss that it would rain for forty days and forty nights and that he had
better get two of each species of animal on board this boat so that the conservation people would
be happy.
He built the boat and then he got all those elephants, camels, zebras, dogs, cats, cows, goats,
worms, insects, hawks, eagles, sparrows, dinosaurs, and many others on the boat. It was really
crowded!
Then, for forty days and forty nights ... nothing! No rain ... nothing!
God laughed and laughed at Noah for getting suckered on such a hairbrained hoax.
(Noah was sore at god for a long time after that. Have you ever smelled a wooden boat with
fifty-six thousand animals on board after forty days and nights?)
------------------------------------------JULY,1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST - 30

-More of the World's Worst Jokes,

-AL BOLISKA

SUMI-E

STUDIO

28239 Ridgebrook ROllI

Farmington Hills, Michiglll
George and Mary B

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JULY, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST - 31

Plato's - where perfect 'triangularity'

exists in
triangle-heaven,
and
so
on.
mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, contaminated with
Because mind was a noun, it was conceived to be
varying amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and
- depending upon what one ate, and whether or not a thing. Because it was thought to be a thing, it was
he brushed after every meal - varying amounts of thought to have existence apart from the brain.
Because it had independent existence, it was thought
aromatic substances!
capable of survival after the death of the body. And
In the Genesis Creation Myth, the animating power
of breath is clearly depicted. God, after having millions thought that to be good reason to invest
molded Adam from the dust, has to breathe into him millions in the greatest of all businesses, religion.
But neurobiological studies show all these ideas to
the 'breath of life' in order for him to become a
be quite worthless. Mind is a process, a dynamic
'living soul'. Breath is life.
The manner in which breath became equated with relation, and not a thing. If we change the processes
life is not difficult to discern. A man newly dead, say, of the brain, we change the mind. The psychedelic
drugs have taught us that fact, if nothing else! The
of a heart attack, is not anatomically much different
from what he was like before he died. He still has five history of Western philosophy and religion, as well as
fingers per hand,a tongue in his mouth, a brain in his science, would have been quite different if the word
'mind' had developed as a verb instead of as a noun.
head, and a heart in his breast. The ancients, unconTo wonder where the mind goes after the brain descious of the microcosmic fever of chemical marriages
cays is as silly as asking where the 70 miles-per-hour
and divorces that we call metabolism, could see only
one obvious difference: the lack of breath of the have gone after a speeding auto has crashed into a
dead. When a man 'expired' (lit., 'breathed out'),
tree. Just as the relative motion of an auto can be
his spirit (lit., 'breath') left his body, and he died.
altered only within certain limits and still represent
the process called speeding, so too we can alter the
When a man sneezed, his spirit was forcefully ejected
from his body, and one had to say "god bless you" or the functioning of the brain only so much before the
make a magical gesture, such as the sign of the cross, process called mind or thinking becomes altered out
of existence.
very quickly, before evil spirits could come to take
over the momentarily spiritually-vacant carcass!
Now that scientists recognize mind as a process
The modern biologist, unlike the ancient makers of rather than a thing, they are making rapid advances in
myths, knows that all the phenomena
of living understanding
the specific brain dynamics that corsystems can be reduced to physical and chemical
respond to the various subjective states collectively
terms. He has no evidence of any 'vital force' or known as mind. Certain drugs are known, for exmystical spirit - and no need to seek for such. He ample, that affect certain neural paths and centers in
recognizes the 'fully alive' body and the newly 'dead'
the brain to produce the 'psychic' state known as
body to be but two arbitrary
points along a euphoria. Others affect other circuits and produce
continuum of decreasing organization.
depression or sleep. We can implant electrodes in the
So much for 'spirit', 'soul', and 'ghost'. Originally
brain and cause the subject to 'hear' bells and
denoting breath or wind, they were words which have symphonies that aren't 'there' at all. We can cause
acquired a host of mystical connotations
as pre- him to 'see' figures and lights without using his eyes,
scientific men attempted
to account for the dif- by stimulating the visual cortex at the back of the
ference between life and death. But what of the word brain. We can cause to appear the emotions of rage,
'mind'? Does it refer to anything real? Or is it, too, sexuality,
sorrow, etc., by altering the dynamic
a fabulous entity?
functions of the brain in appropriate ways. We are
Unlike the analysis of spirit and soul, the analysis
beginning to understand how neural circuits compete
of mind is not at all simple. This is so largely through
with each other to give us the illusion of free will.
the grammatical accident that in all the European
In short, we are on the verge of being able to write
equations,
relating the physico-chemical states of
languages, ancient as well as modern, the word 'mind'
the nervous system with the subjective, 'mental'
is a noun.
states described by psychologists and other mystics.
Now we tend to think of nouns as substantive:
'table', 'chair' and 'plumb-bob' are all nouns, and all We are learning to study subjective-states objectively.
Whether or not we shall be any more responsible
are substantial. There are many words, however,
which though grammatically nouns, are not at all in the application of this new knowledge than we
were in the application of fire, dynamite, and atomic
substantial. Words like 'beauty', 'truth', and 'velocity'
energy, remains to be seen. Even the un-average man
would be examples. Unfortunately,
man's thinking
tends to be hedged around by the grammar and plays ill the part of Prometheus. Unless we, collectivehidden assumptions of the language with which he ly the new Prometheus, judge wisely what to do with
thinks. And so it happens again and again that ab- our new psychobiological powers, we may find ourstract nouns come to be thought of as representing
selves chained to rocks, our vitals torn by eagles. Or
0
things just as substantial as those represented by com- worse.
mon nouns. And thus we have the basic confusion
"The noblest of occupations is to search for truth."
necessary to found philosophical systems such as
-ROBERT
G. INGERSOLL
(Spirit, Soul, And Mind, continued from page 29.)

JULY. 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 32

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It lSii
~her

raxes e h,gh

Protestanu

0,1. own less lan.d,have

less cash and smalle'
,nventorles
than the Rom~n Catholoc Church
owns ,n JUSt ,eal estale alone'

A new card is sent on an annual basis.

Rath

Ihem

',-

Kling

your

the

h;Js been

certam

Bul.

Immeclllttly

and bus.ness

'g.mmld(,

.Ione

B~.

Relogiou$

Oil of fIIew Jeney.

Unitt(}

f,<woe
wh.ch.s

church

ta es so thit

back'

Flfl!Slone

operate
Ford,

the

CoowentoOn

es mucri.

Standard

their

the

ce tam

with

"leawbKk

to tlM! 01"l91Oai owners.

on

to cheat

\1llk,

televiSion,
have

'leI}iIl glmmlcl<'.

arrangements
.s called

The

buslneliS
for churches

W.th

operate

spec,,1

what

mtthod

Inher'tance
and

01 the

tile

property
YIeld from

holdm~.

Achurch'purc~'abuslness

then
back'

bus"

on our economy.

holdings

not in

businesses,

In WIlls, Of the

made

for

Stales

all ccrpcraucn

or9'lnilatlons

the

therr

the

Iwic!iIS
industry

a year, eces

cr bond

very

II

haw

to keep

estate.

rre United

Journal,

and

In res.earch

Catholic

tilx.

nwy

ceru,nlychurches.n

are acqUOflng a Slr'nglehold

taxes

enormous

$,J1es

They

holdIngS,

bus.nesses

real

-. the

thaI

annuallvis
theleath!.

billion

received

money

the" Slock

motl~ated

.n lhe Un.ted

from

the churches

about

rentals,

repOMs

OOt by a belief

In hidden

free

sell I product

Service

ThiS figure,

log"
Yet,
pays

churches

card.

Revenue

mUCh as the total

ctooe

In the

persons

illlendaroceisabout3t05tlme'i

by sac,al and bus,ness

reasons
the church Ooelflnes
,nd dogma.

must

churchesglveonlyprom,ses

cuhdonal10nsto
Only one peuon

Membership

compames

All 01 those

profIt
Internal

regularly

heavy

goers in America

Church

tromyou.

Newsletter.
of the Ameri-