_Question_. What do you think of the prospects of Liberalism in
this country?
_Answer_. The prospects of Liberalism are precisely the same as
the prospects of civilization--that is to say, of progress. As
the people become educated, they become liberal. Bigotry is the
provincialism of the mind. Men are bigoted who are not acquainted
with the thoughts of others. They have been taught one thing, and
have been made to believe that their little mental horizon is the
circumference of all knowledge. The bigot lives in an ignorant
village, surrounded by ignorant neighbors. This is the honest
bigot. The dishonest bigot may know better, but he remains a bigot
because his salary depends upon it. A bigot is like a country that
has had no commerce with any other. He imagines that in his little
head there is everything of value. When a man becomes an intellectual
explorer, an intellectual traveler, he begins to widen, to grow
liberal. He finds that the ideas of others are as good as and often
better than his own. The habits and customs of other people throw
light on his own, and by this light he is enabled to discover at
least some of his own mistakes. Now the world has become acquainted.
A few years ago, a man knew something of the doctrines of his own
church. Now he knows the creeds of others, and not only so, but
he has examined to some extent the religions of other nations. He
finds in other creeds all the excellencies that are in his own,
and most of the mistakes. In this way he learns that all creeds
have been produced by men, and that their differences have been
accounted for by race, climate, heredity--that is to say, by a
difference in circumstances. So we now know that the cause of
Liberalism is the cause of civilization. Unless the race is to be
a failure, the cause of Liberalism must succeed. Consequently, I
have the same faith in that cause that I have in the human race.
_Question_. Where are the most Liberals, and in what section of
the country is the best work for Liberalism being done?
_Answer_. The most Liberals are in the most intelligent section
of the United States. Where people think the most, there you will
find the most Liberals; where people think the least, you will find
the most bigots. Bigotry is produced by feeling--Liberalism by
thinking--that is to say, the one is a prejudice, the other a
principle. Every geologist, every astronomer, every scientist, is
doing a noble work for Liberalism. Every man who finds a fact,
and demonstrates it, is doing work for the cause. All the literature
of our time that is worth reading is on the liberal side. All the
fiction that really interests the human mind is with us. No one
cares to read the old theological works. Essays written by professors
of theological colleges are regarded, even by Christians, with a
kind of charitable contempt. When any demonstration of science is
attacked by a creed, or a passage of Scripture, all the intelligent
smile. For these reasons I think that the best work for Liberalism
is being done where the best work for science is being done--where
the best work for man is being accomplished. Every legislator that
assists in the repeal of theological laws is doing a great work
for Liberalism.
_Question_. In your opinion, what relation do Liberalism and
Prohibition bear to each other?
_Answer_. I do not think they have anything to do with each other.
They have nothing in common except this: The Prohibitionists, I
presume, are endeavoring to do what they can for temperance; so
all intelligent Liberals are doing what they can for the cause of
temperance. The Prohibitionist endeavors to accomplish his object
by legislation--the Liberalist by education, by civilization, by
example, by persuasion. The method of the Liberalist is good, that
of the Prohibitionist chimerical and fanatical.
_Question_. Do you think that Liberals should undertake a reform
in the marriage and divorce laws and relations?
_Answer_. I think that Liberals should do all in their power to
induce people to regard marriage and divorce in a sensible light,
and without the slightest reference to any theological ideas. They
should use their influence to the end that marriage shall be
considered as a contract--the highest and holiest that men and
women can make. And they should also use their influence to have
the laws of divorce based on this fundamental idea,--that marriage
is a contract. All should be done that can be done by law to uphold
the sacredness of this relation. All should be done that can be
done to impress upon the minds of all men and all women their duty
to discharge all the obligations of the marriage contract faithfully
and cheerfully. I do not believe that it is to the interest of
the State or of the Nation, that people should be compelled to live
together who hate each other, or that a woman should be bound to
a man who has been false and who refuses to fulfill the contract
of marriage. I do not believe that any man should call upon the
police, or upon the creeds, or upon the church, to compel his wife
to remain under his roof, or to compel a woman against her will to
become the mother of his children. In other words, Liberals should
endeavor to civilize mankind, and when men and women are civilized,
the marriage question, and the divorce question, will be settled.
_Question_. Should Liberals vote on Liberal issues?
_Answer_. I think that, other things being anywhere near equal,
Liberals should vote for men who believe in liberty, men who believe
in giving to others the rights they claim for themselves--that is
to say, for civilized men, for men of some breadth of mind. Liberals
should do what they can to do away with all the theological
absurdities.
_Question_. Can, or ought, the Liberals and Spiritualists to unite?
_Answer_. All people should unite where they have objects in
common. They can vote together, and act together, without believing
the same on all points. A Liberal is not necessarily a Spiritualist,
and a Spiritualist is not necessarily a Liberal. If Spiritualists
wish to liberalize the Government, certainly Liberals would be glad
of their assistance, and if Spiritualists take any step in the
direction of freedom, the Liberals should stand by them to that
extent.
_Question_. Which is the more dangerous to American institutions
--the National Reform Association (God-in-the-Constitution party)
or the Roman Catholic Church?
_Answer_. The Association and the Catholic Church are dangerous
according to their power. The Catholic Church has far more power
than the Reform Association, and is consequently far more dangerous.
The God-in-the-Constitution association is weak, fanatical, stupid,
and absurd. What God are we to have in the Constitution? Whose
God? If we should agree to-morrow to put God in the Constitution,
the question would then be: Which God? On that question, the
religious world would fall out. In that direction there is no
danger. But the Roman Catholic Church is the enemy of intellectual
liberty. It is the enemy of investigation. It is the enemy of
free schools. That church always has been, always will be, the
enemy of freedom. It works in the dark. When in a minority it is
humility itself--when in power it is the impersonation of arrogance.
In weakness it crawls--in power it stands erect, and compels its
victims to fall upon their faces. The most dangerous institution
in this world, so far as the intellectual liberty of man is concerned,
is the Roman Catholic Church. Next to that is the Protestant
Church.
_Question_. What is your opinion of the Christian religion and
the Christian Church?
_Answer_. My opinion upon this subject is certainly well known.
The Christian Church is founded upon miracles--that is to say, upon
impossibilities. Of course, there is a great deal that is good in
the creeds of the churches, and in the sermons delivered by its
ministers; but mixed with this good is much that is evil. My
principal objection to orthodox religion is the dogma of eternal
pain. Nothing can be more infamously absurd. All civilized men
should denounce it--all women should regard it with a kind of
shuddering abhorrence.
--_Secular Thought_, Toronto, Canada, 1888.