Looking around the world today, it is easy to measure the progress
of the different peoples by the degree in which they have attained
religious liberty. The strictly Catholic countries, where least light
has penetrated, and where the right of the church to control the
lawmaking power and to dominate public education has been longest
recognized, are precisely those most backward in all the essentials of
civilization; and in each of these lands, any uprising of the people on
behalf of liberty and progress is invariably accompanied by an open war
against the special privileges of the church. Thus France and Portugal
have found it impossible to win and hold their fundamental liberties
except by shaking off the ecclesiastical yoke; and in these lands
the clerical element is foremost in the evil work of plotting the
restoration of the monarchy and the annihilation of the rights of man.
In Mexico, the priesthood has been fully recognized as the most deadly
enemy of the people. In Spain, the founder of secular education,
Francisco Ferrer, was brutally murdered at the behest of the clerics;
and their associates in this and every land have not ceased to spread
abroad lies that are intended to blacken his memory and to excuse his
assassins. The anti-clerical and republican movements in Spain and Italy
go hand in hand.
The United States of America started right in theory, although it has
not been always firm and loyal to the democratic principle. Observing
the evils of a state church, as they had existed in Europe and in the
American colonies, our forefathers wisely incorporated into the federal
Constitution strong provisions intended to save our land from
religious tyranny. By this fundamental document, the right of political
organization is expressly derived from the people, and not from any
supposed divine sanction. No recognition of any religious doctrine
appears anywhere in the instrument. To make perfectly clear the
democratic purpose of the Constitution, a bill of rights, consisting of
eleven amendments, was added as a condition of the ratification of the
instrument by the original states. To the eternal honor of the framers
of this bill of rights, the first words of its first article are:
"_Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof_." The Constitution itself
contains the no less highly significant clause: "_No religious test
shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust
under the United States_."
The various state constitutions, while not so thoroughly and
consistently secularistic as the fundamental document of the nation,
in practically every instance contain a general provision guaranteeing
religious liberty. The legislatures and courts have often enough
betrayed their trust, and have imposed on the people of the respective
states measures of the grossest unconstitutionality and of the most
shocking disregard of private right in this regard. Rarely, however,
is warrant to be found in a state constitution for legislation looking
toward the patronage of any form of religion by the state. The numerous
existing encroachments on our liberties are as unlawful as they are
immoral.
* For a fuller discussion of the principles of Secularism
(the democratic doctrine of absolute separation of church
and state) and of improper religious legislation in this
country, see "The American Secular Union" (J. F. Morton,
Jr., 5 cents), "Christian Sabbath" (J. E. Remsburg, 3
cents), "Congress and Sunday Laws" (3 cents), "The Fourth
Demand" (Woolsey Teller, 10 cents). All for tale by The
Truth Seeker Co.