* March 19, 1893. Written after a debate at the Hall of
Science, London, between the writer and the Rev. C. Fleming
Williams, on "Christian Ideas of Man and Methods of
Progress." Mr. Branch, of the London County Council,
presided, and there was a very large attendance.
My recent friendly discussion with the Rev. C. Fleming Williams was
most enjoyable. It is so-pleasant to debate points of difference with
an opponent whom you fully respect, towards whom you have not an atom of
ill feeling, and to whom you disclose your own views in exchange for
the confidence of his. The chairman said that he had visited the Hall of
Science many years ago, and frequently heard discussions, but they were
generally acrimonious, and seldom profitable. No doubt he spoke what he
felt to be the truth; at the same time, however, he probably left out
of sight a very important factor, namely, the tone and temper which
Christian critics are apt to display on a Secular platform; the
assumed superiority, which is not justified by any apparent gifts
of intelligence; the implication in most of their remarks that the
Freethinker is on a lower moral level than they are, though it would
never be suspected by an indifferent observer; the arrogance which is
often the undercurrent of their speech, and sometimes bursts forth into
sheer, undisguised insolence. Christian critics of this species have,
perhaps, stung Freethought lecturers into hot resentment, when it would
have been far preferable to keep cool, and continue using the rapier
instead of seizing the bludgeon. It is always a mistake to lose one's
temper, but it becomes excusable (although not justifiable) under
intense provocation. On the whole, it is safe to say that Christians
have received more courtesy than they have shown in their controversies
with Freethinkers.
So much for the debate itself. What I want to deal with in this article
is the plea of the chairman, and also of Mr. Williams, for a more
charitable understanding. Christians have abused, ill-treated, and even
butchered Freethinkers in the past, but the best Christians are ashamed
of it now. Let us then, it is urged, bury the past; let us forgive and
forget.
So far as it concerns _men_ only I am not insensible to the appeal. Far
be it from me to blame Mr. Williams for the follies and malignancies
of his Christian predecessors. On a question of character, of merit or
demerit, every man stands or falls alone. Imputed wickedness is just as
irrational as imputed righteousness. I no more wish to make Mr. Williams
responsible for the butcheries of a Torquemada or an Alva than I wish
to be saved by the sufferings of Jesus Christ. So far as Mr. Williams
is concerned, I have no past to bury. I am not aware that he has ever
desired anything but absolute justice for all forms of opinion; and
I know that he denounced my imprisonment for the artificial crime of
"blasphemy." Evidently, then, Mr. Williams' plea is more than personal.
It is really a request that I should judge Christianity, as a great,
ancient, historic system, not by what it has in the main taught and
done, but by what a select body of its professors say and do in the
present generation.
Now this is a plea which I must reject. In the first place, while I
admit it is unfair to judge Christianity by its _worst_ specimens,
I regard it as no less unfair to judge it by its _best_. This is not
justice and impartiality. The Chief Constable of Hull* is probably as
sincere a Christian as Mr. Williams. I have to meet them both, and I
must take them as I find them. The one pays me a compliment, and the
other threatens me with a prosecution; one shakes me cordially by the
hand, the other tries to prevent me from lecturing. The difference
between them is flagrant. But how am I to put Mr. Williams to the credit
of Christianity, and Captain Gurney to the credit of something else?
What _is_ the something else? They both speak to me as Christians; is it
for me to say that the one is a Christian and the other is not? Is not
that a domestic question for the Christians to settle among themselves?
And am I not just and reasonable in declining to take the decision out
of their hands?
* This gentleman was trying to prevent me from delivering
Sunday lectures at Hull under the usual condition of a
charge for admission.
In the next place, since Christianity is, as I have said, not only a
great, but an ancient and historic system, its past _cannot_ be buried,
and should not be if it could. History is philosophy teaching us by
example. Without it the present is meaningless, and the future an
obscurity. Now history shows us that Christianity has been steady and
relentless in the persecution of heresy. We have therefore to inquire
the reason. It will not do to say that persecution is natural to
human pride in face of opposition; for Buddhism, which is older than
Christianity, has not been guilty of a single act of persecution in the
course of twenty-four centuries. Another explanation is necessary. And
what is it? When we look into the matter we find that persecution
has always been justified, nay inculcated, by appealing to Christian
doctrines and the very language of Scripture. Unbelief was treason
against God, and the rejection of Christ was rebellion. They were more
than operations of the intellect; they were movements of the will--not
mistaken, but satanic. And as faith was essential to salvation, and
heresy led straight to hell, the elimination of the heretic was in the
interest of the people he might divert from the road to paradise. It was
simply an act of social sanitation.
I am aware that this conception is not paraded by "advanced" Christians,
though they seldom renounce it in decisive language. But these
"advanced" Christians are the children of a later age, full of
intellectual and moral influences which are foreign to, or at least
independent of, Christianity. Their attitude is the resultant of several
forces. But suppose a time of reaction came, and the influences I
have referred to should diminish for a season; is it not probable,
nay certain, that the old forces of Christian exclusiveness and
infallibility, based upon a divine revelation, would once more produce
the effects-which cursed and degraded Europe for over a thousand years?
Such, at any rate, is my belief; it is also, I think, the belief of most
Freethinkers; and this is the reason why we cannot forgive and forget.
The serpent is scotched, not slain; and we must beware of its fangs.