November 1979

Volume 21, No. II

$1.75

The Journal Of Atheist News And Thought

Finnish Atheism

VA PAA -AJAll ELIJAl

American41heisl
Volume 21, No. 11

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
DL Madalyn Murray O'Hair
MANAGING EDITO R
Jon Garth Murray
ASSIST ANT EDITO R
G_ Richard Bozarth
READING EDITOR
Barry Cashman
NON-RESIDENTIAL STAFF
Bill Baird
Angeline Bennett
Wells Culver
Conrad Goeringer
Connie Perazino
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke
Elaine Stansfield
Gerald Tholen
The American Atheist magazine is
published monthly by American Atheists, located at 2210 Hancock Drive,
Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit,
non-political,
educational- organization. Mailing address: P.O. Box 2117,
Austin, TX, 78768. Copyright 1979
by Society of Separationists,
Inc.
Subscription rates: $20.00 per year.
Manuscripts submitted must be typed,
double-spaced and accompanied by a
stamped, self-addressed envelope. The
editors assume no responsibility for
unsolicited manuscripts.
The American Atheist magazine is
indexed in:
MONTHLY PERIODICAL INDEX.

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

articles
David Chagall - The Last Peace Cry of the American Indian

11

Edamaruku - The Holy War Among Kerala Christians

32

Arthur R. Maier - The Making of An Atheist

37

features
Editorial - Jon G. Murray - The Right of Reason

Letters to The Editor

Atheist News
Vapaa-Ajattelijat

Action Atheist
Atheists Won-Up Cultists

10

Roots of Atheism - Joseph McCabe, Part 2

20

Columnists
G. Richard Bozarth - Playboy Exposes Religious Decline

?5

Connie Perozino - Born-Again Balderdash

27

Ignatz Sahula-Dycke - Science To The Rescue

28

Gerald Tholen - Phantom Funny Books Strike Again

30

American Atheist Radio Series

Madalyn Murray O'Hair - Thanks Giving
Poems

35
'

38

Film Review - Elaine Stansfield - Life of Brian

39

Book Review - Organized Religion

40

our cover
External View of the Finnish Atheist Center

November, 1979

Page 1

Editorial
Jon G. Morra

The Righi of Reason

Whenever you hear a news media event coming out of the
American Atheist Center, it is usually associated with our
founder, Dr. Madalyn O'Hair. The most common phrase associated with her is: "The most hated woman in America." The
news media delight in zeroing in on those who hate her as the
symbol of Atheism in America.
Americans have been winners, for the most part, since our
victory against King George in the American Revolution. Americans work to win, play to win, love to win and hate to lose,
or even come in second place. Most events are clear cut in their
minds. You either win or you lose. If you win you are right, if
you lose you are wrong. Circumstances around winning or losing mean little to the general public. The media know this and
they cater to it, daily.
Other students may hate the person who gets the A, but
they learn to respect him with time. Such is the case also with
Atheism. The religious community hates us now, but they will
respect us in the future.
At present, however, that hate is played upon in the press.
They focus on it to the exclusion of the circumstances we face
as Atheists. They focus on it as our number one problem. Hate
is the problem of the person that holds that emotion, not the
object of the emotion. Hating takes energy, lots of energy.
YO\l must actively participate in hating someone or something.
That emotion must take the place of other emotions and other
thoughts. In fact, the thought process works at a disadvantage
with emotion in general and hate in particular. Taking into account that thought has little or nothing to do with religion. one
can see why hate comes easily to the religious. History can testify to the hate of religion, by the religious, for other religions.
The Crusades are but one small example. From combat between nations to individual. pugilism, religion has fostered hate
in all of its many forms.
Do we, as Atheists, in turn make hate such a large part of
our day? I don't think so. First, we have no denominationalism to generate hate. You are either an Atheist or a theist.
Second, we operate on an intellectual basis. Therefore, we
have intellectual contempt for things that we feel do not make
sense, but we do not hate them. A computer does not hate an
insoluble equation, it merely does not compute. As an Atheist,
theists do not compute for me. They present something that
does not yield to logic. So, I have an intellectual contempt for
them as an insoluble problem. I would like to solve their problem, but as of now I cannot. Perhaps you could call this frustration, but surely not hate.
I am not a follower of cycle theories, such as the assassination of a U.S. President every so many years. I do, however,
recognize patterns of events that have led to behavior that was
detrimental in the past. The behavior of those religious forms a
pattern, as do relations between church and state. Both church
and state always have a way of getting around to violence as a
means of settling disputes. Intellectual settlements are aimed
for, worked for, sought after, over long periods of time. When
they fail, the same old solution is always at hand, violence.
When intellectual disputes turn into emotional disputes,
emotion must be able to realize itself. It does so in the form of

Page 2

violence. If someone will not listen to you, over a period of

time, you feel that the only recourse left is to make them listen to physical violence. You have all experienced this as a
child or parent. Since one's physical stamina is enhanced by
one's emotion, the emotional person usually wins these conflicts. As emotion wins more and more conflicts with rationality, people begin to see the value, if they like to win, of turn-ing to emotion first. Instead of using violence brought on by
emotion to win, after rationality fails, just skip the rationality
and go straight for the emotion.
Religious thinking has followed these lines very well. Abandon rationality, rely on emotionalism, and get to violence via
a short-cut. In the end the number of disputes settled by violence so far outnumbers the number settled by reason that
violence becomes the in-vogue way to win. And remember,
.Americans love to win.
The increasing incident of violence is alarming. Abortion
clinics are fire-bombed. Hundreds are slaughtered in the Middle East. Blacks and Ku Klux Klan members are at each others
throats. Each group involved thinks it has won, and has won
more quickly because it took the direct route. No negotiations, just violence.
Where does it all stop? It stops with the realization that you
can win through reason. Human problems can be solved
through applied intelligence. That is not to say that emotion
does not have its place. It does, and it is a necessity. As a problem solver, however, it has no place. Time-tested logical methods of arriving at solutions are the answer.
We, as Atheists, must lead the way in showing everyone
that they can win with reason. Once you assume an emotional
basis to' your life you will always be prone to violence on an
unpredictable level. Reason must come first. If we cannot
show people how to win with reason, the continuation of emotion and the violence it generates will bring us down. Emotion,
hate if you will, will find Atheism as its first target, since Atheism, as life through reason, is the death of the undesirable
side of emotion.
Make it a point to demonstrate to all around you that you
can win against the problems of life through reason. The more
of us that they can see doing it, the sooner they will be convinced that their emotional dogma is letting them win the easy
way now, but the hard way in the future. Demonstrate how
easy it is for them to use their heads first and spare their
broken hearts.

November, 1979

American Atheist

Letters to The Editor

Dear Editor,
Most people know there is movement afoot to make abortions unconstitutional. It is generally not known,
however, that certain contraceptives,
such as the birth control pill and the
interuterine device (IUD) can also be
outlawed along with abortions.
The Human Life Center of St.
John's University, Collegeville, Minn.,
directed by Father Paul Marx, has
compiled enough evidence to show
that the pill and IUD are abortifacients.
This means theydo not prevent contraception as most people think they do,
but work upon the body to destroy an
established pregnancy. The Center has
accumulated impressive data to prove
this allegation.
The Center's pamphlet, entitled
The Pill and IUD: Abortive, asserts,
"Together, the Pill and the IUD may
account
for about
nine million
unnoticed abortions a year, a toll that
makes the estimated one million 'legal'
abortions look like a reverence for life."
The same pamphlet concludes: "There
no longer is any reasonable doubt that
the IUD works by causing early abortion. There no longer is any reasonable
doubt that the Pill has the power to
work in the same manner. Couples
who know how these methods work'
but choose to use them anyway are
expressing their willingness to kill
their own children at a tender age if
that is what is required to prevent an
inconvenient birth."
Not true, you say? Well, it does not
really matter whether these charges
are true or not. Once abortions
become unconstitutional, all that has
to be done is to convince Congress and
the courts that these charges are true.
Millions of women will therefore be
deprived of their methods of birth
control.
In 1929, Margaret Sanger's birth
control clinic was raided by the police
in New York City. That was a scant 50
years ago. If abortions become unconstitutional we can look forward to repeat performances in birth control
facilities throughout the United States.
Izzy Siev
New York

Austin, Texas

AA Center people,
Hey! Did you .notice this stamp? It
says "one nation indivisible", not "one
nation, under God, indivisible", which
is the new phrase in the pledge of alliegance. It says "E Pluribus Unum",
not "In God We Trust" - the old
motto, not the new motto.
", .....

,',

t.. 'f'UifkJ8,\'i$

.'.,ii' .
t~

~~',':'
$'
~

-:;r..

~.
tui!rv:~:',.

uS'13

i. __ ......
g."

"

Both are striking departures from

the official theocratic versions of the
pledge and the national motto. That
they would appear together on one
stamp, with no other messages, almost
necessarily implies a premeditated prosecularist intent. Who designed this
stamp? Why did he (or she) choose
to print upon it the two phrases that
were altered to establish religion as
they existed before they were changed?
Why was (s)he successful in getting
this strfkingly non-theocratic stamp issued? Will someone investigate this?
It might help us out on the suit to replace "In God We Trust" with "E
Pluribus Unum". I'd like to hear the
result in the newsletter or in the
magazine.
G. Fahy, Ph.D.
Maryland
Dear Mrs. O'Hair,
While reading your latest article,
"Every Knee Shall Bow", I became
more acutely aware of the scope of
religious involvement in the media.
I have an idea that might be ableto
furnish you with some funds to keep
you going . I regret that the best I
could do this year was to take three
gift subscritions plus my own.
I was thinking of starting a lighthearted bumper-sticker campaign portraying religion as a disease. The
stickers might say: 'Help Prevent
Religious Psychosis", or "Stamp Out
Religious Psychosis in Your Lifetime".
I think this "back-door" campaign or
representation of your goals, in light
of the cult scares, Jonestown, Moon,
etc., might draw more people to sympathize with you. This approach, in
the form of a foundation for preven-

November, 1979

tion of Religious Psychosis, might be

more readily accepted by people who
are sensitive to the word "Atheist" I
hope you are not offended by my
suggesting that you represent yourself
through a 'buffered' image to take the
harshness off the word 'Atheist', in
order to raise money.
Jeffrey T. Levine
New Jersey
Dear Madalyn,
How do you like this jingle?
Oh, hear all the people declare: "That heretic, hussy O'Hair,
"In God she must trust
"Before we all bust
"From shaking our fists in the air!"
Agatha Palven
New Jersey
Dear Dr. 0 'Hair,
How do you think I feel, when five
times each day I see 700 million cyclopean assholes pointed to ME?
G.O.D.
(Nowhere)
Dear Dr. O'Hair and staff,
The August issue of the American
Atheist was absolutely superb; I consider it one of your finest issues (and
I'm a .subscriber since January, '76).
But I do have a complaint:
In the June issue, Gerald Tholen
rendered a genuine" masterpiece of
poetry with his "Summer's Return".
Now, in the August issue, you publish
(p.28) one of the most disgusting
examples of sophmoric acid-headed
gibberish I've ever read! It is an insult
to Mr. Tholen to have trash such as
this is the same magazine to which he
contributes poetry. There, that's off
my chest. Enclosed is $5.00 for
whatever. I just wish it could be five
million.
"In God We Trust Not"*
Jerry N. Britain
California
*Every bill I touch ... !!
Dear Editor,
"A time for dying," by Larry Wood
was like a spring rain. It should be
'must' reading by all high school students who have been inculcated.
stephen kushner
North Carolina

Page 3

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

Vapaa-Ajattelijat
The United States is the bastion of religion in the world.
Church attendance is the highest, the number of churches per
capita is the greatest, religious illiteracy is the most profound
and religious intervention into the affairs of government and
business is of great weight. When the United States is freed
from religion, the world will be cleared for the pockets of insanity elsewhere are assisted financially by American dollars
and supported psychologically by the enormity of the religious
establishment here.
American Atheists have the most difficult job on earth, facing the current juggernaut of Christianity in the mass media,
particularly in the electronic media.
It, therefore, becomes more and more important to reach,
through international cooperation, to an overview of religion's
strength, worldwide; the situation in the United States being
both unique and bad.
It was in this spirit of outreach that Jon Murray, the Director of the American Atheist Center, Robin Murray-O'Hair, the
Director of the American Atheist Library and Archives, and
Dr. Madalyn O'Hair, President of American Atheists visited
Scandinavia in August.. It was particularly in Finland that a
vigorous and articulate Atheist group was found to be flourishing: the Vapaa Aiatteliia, which means "Free Thought." (The
word Atheist in Finnish is written [spelled] "Ateisti.")

President: Timo Vasarna, M.D.

Member: Pekka Hartola

The president, Timo Vasama, M.D., entertained the three

visitors at his home in Karkkila. The vice president, Juhani
Poso, spent a day taking them on a sight-seeing tour and to
relax at his country home where they encountered a sauna,
Teuvo Pyk~nen, the editorial secretary graciously hosted at his
home. Ilmari Huuskonen, now working at the Finnish Center,
was responsible for considerable media coverage which was obtained, when for two days interviewers and reporters crowded

Page 4

HllSlNGIN SJlNOMAT

14. elokuuta

1979

Amerikan
ateistit
kyHi.ssa.
Amerikoista meille on laivat
tu ja lennll.tetty hyvinkammat-

~~ia~Ij\~ollik~~fa:&:
naan. VAlillA tuntuu siltA, ettA
tAssA itsekukin olisi kala, jota
yritetAAn houkutella
Noakin
arkkiin. Mutta jo tull jotain uutta:Amerikanateisteja.
Vapaa4jattelijain
liitcn vieraana maassamme
oleskeleva
valtuuskunta
tahtoo vapaaksi
kehuto.sta mautaan
vapaamman - ateisteilla ei siell1 ole
heidln kokemustensa perusteel.
la hAAvit oltavat.
Valtuuskuntaan
kuuluu Aiti,
poika ja veljenlyUr:
puheer\iohtaja, Iakitieteen tohtcri Mad
IJIl Murray O'Hatr, steistikeskuksen johtaja Jon Garth Murray sekA kirjastonhoitaja
Robin
Eileen Murray O'Halr.
Amerikan
ateletikeskus
on
maailman mahtavimpia: aiihen
kuuluu 70000 perhettA. Mutta
Amerikan kaltaisessa
maassa
ateisteilla tAytyy olla myOs rahaa, jotta he saisivat Unensl
kuuluvtin. Niinpt liike hallitsee
useiden miljoonien dollareiden
reaaliomaisuutta:
VahemmAn
dollarin seteleitA, jcissa lukee
"In God we trust" - luotamme
Jumalaan.
PelkkI raha ei tohtori Mur
ray O'Hairin mielesta. auta:
"Meiltl on pantu kaikki kanavat tukkoon, emme saa ykainkertaisesti
AAntAmme kUH.lU
viin."
"Kaupallisten
televisioyhtiOi.
den studioihin emme piUse surminkaan puhumaan.
Samaan
aikaan
kirkkojen
yhtelsesti
omistama tvyhtiO syytU yOtA
paivA oh,jelmaa 200 000 dollarin
vuorokausibudjetilla",
rouva
puheel\johtaja valinaa.
Hln syyttU Amerikan kirk
koja liikeiaitoksiksi, jotka eivAt
maw
toiminnastaan
senttil

"

MIdaJyn Murray O'Halr, RobIn Eileen,. John GIIrth edUltav.t

l'llhakaata ateilltllllMttl. Suomen pUma}ll heIdIn takanaan
k6yhU.
kiln veroja. Kirkot omistavat
ateteuen
tuUtimusten mukaan
muovitehtaita, hotelle.ja, rautateitA ja O!jy-yhtiditA Ja kAyvAt
nlin hankituilla varoilla kauppaa ihmisten sieluista. Sieluun
uskoo uusimpien
tutkimusten
mukan 65 prosenttia amerikkaIatalsta, helvettiin 40.
Eniten ateisteja trsyttAl vtr.
kaltielto. SyvAn Etell.n valtioissa atetstit
elvat pUse tAbeskAtn kaikkiin t6ihin vakaumuksensa takia. Tohtori O'Hair
pittt ttta. Yhdysvaltain perustuslain vstatsene.
Hln itse ei
esimerkiksi
pUsisi Texasissa
mihinkUn
julkiseen virkaan,
koska osavaltion
lain mukaan
viranhaltijan pittl uskoa jumalaan, Joissakin valtioissa ateistin todistusta ei hyvlksytt
oikeudessa.
"On sattunut, ettA murhaaja
pustettiin vapaalje jalalle, koska hllnet tunnistanut kansalainen oll ateieti", tobtcrt O'Hair
muistaa.
Amerikan ateistikeskus
peruatettiin vucnna 1960. Peruatsmiseen antoi sysl.yksen kylmAn
sodan aikana virinnyt hanke
liittU k..irkko takaisin valtioon.
Amerikan ateistit vastustavat
ttllaista liittoa mitl jyrkimmin

ja ntkevilt yhA uskonnonvapauden vain uskonnon vapautena.

"Koska
olemme
ateisteja.
meidAt
leimataan
oikopAAtl.
kommunisteiksi",
tchtort
O'Hair sanoo.
"Emme
ole kommunisteja,
vaUankumouksellisia
kyllA fe
haluamme
vallankumouksen
tapahtuvan ihmi.sen korvien valissA, mielen vallankumouksena."
Madalyn Murray O'Hair on
kirjoittanut
ateismiata
14 kirjaa, joista yhtl. hln mielellttn
puhuessaan koko ajan siteerae.
Juuri "mielen vallankumous"
toistuu tohtorin jutustelussa.
Amerikan
ateistiliikkeessl
twumorilla
on vankka
sija.
Ateistikeskuksen lehtet, American Atheist'ia,
on Mystetty
nunnien salaista elAmtt eeitte-

Jl~~~~'rij~~~as:~:

~~~~A
Tuo piirre ei tunnu aucmalaisesta oikein asialliselta.
Tohtori O'Hairin mielipuuhaa
on WttlA naisen vapauttaminen
uskonnon romuttamiseen.
"Ntettehtn
mihin tilanne Ira-

~3A~~~~~~~~r:b~e~~
see oikein
mJln."

kunnolla

mUrU-

into the Finnish Atheist Center. There was, indeed, much delight when the Helsingin Sanomat, the largest newspaper in
Finland (300,000 circulation) printed an impressive and long
article concerned with the three American visitors.
Pekka Hartola, a translator/interpreter,
was a veritable
walking-talking pamphleteering machine of Atheist propagandizing. Many of the Finnish standard small illustrations on all
of the literature were effective educational tools on their own,
Since English is taught in all grades in primary and secondary schools, everyone had good understanding of our mother
tongue even if they could not use it with facility. Communication turned out to be no problem at alL
The Finnish free thought movement, which is really openly
Atheistic in this country, is old, established, accepted, and sits
easily on the shoulders of the Finns. One chapter of the organization celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1978 with a large
social picnic. Generally, their meetings are of a social or of an
educational nature, but regular meetings are often of leaders,
officers and regional directors, not membership. All of the
leaders appear, on occasion, on television and radio, but generally speaking their access to Atheists is through their own publication efforts. A regularly and effectively used outreach for
both the organization and its officers and members is through
an active, extensive, "Letters to The Editor" campaign. The
official 24 page, monthly journal of the group, titled also

November, 1979

~I

Tiistaina

American Atheist

~~~~~----~

Vapaa Aiatteliia is in its 35th year of publication, with Erkki

Hartikainen, now, the principal driving force behind it.

VAPAA
AJATTELIJA

3
1979

who are church members must attend church two times a year,
in the school process, being on the first and the last day of
school. The public schools enforce this attendance, since
children are literally marched to the church. Here, again, students who are not church members are excused, but all teachers must be in attendance. The school closing session is characterized by speeches and religious songs as well as prayers. Each
morning in public schools, there is "morning meditation."
The primary activity of the Finnish Atheist Center has been
to reach out and emphasize - to prove - to the people that
the church is not democratic, which is the feature it tries to
project in Finland. There is also a great effort to educate that
teachers, especially, but others also must unite to attain their
rights and that separation from the churches is important to
individual freethinkers. A primary current goal is to have Atheist philosophy taught in public schools "to ensure the ... moral education of their children in conformity with their own
convictions."
When one is a member of the church, one's children are registered there at birth. When Finland was a part of Russia, all
persons were registered through the (Eastern Orthodox)
church. Since the constitution of 1922, freedom of religion
was effectuated and now, when one is not a member of the
church, one's children are given civil registration.

Each year, one cover is featured all year.

The squat, compact, three room office bristles with new

equipment, pamphlets and books. A modest sized library of
predominantly Finnish Atheist and free thought books provides ammunition. The standard is a paperback book or bound
pamphlet or leaflet, with a few scattered hardbacks. Indeed a
feature of the activity of the organization is to provide a traveling book exhibition around the country. In fact, in a characteristic concern for Atheism wheresoever it may be, the group
also supports Atheist Jose Santana, who is attempting an international display of Atheist literature in Stockholm, Sweden.
They have hosted him on a number of occasions and contributed to his projected book-open-forum. Generally-speaking
in certain areas of the country, the populous towns and in '
southern Finland, open profession of Atheism is accepted. In
other smaller and northern towns, this is not the custom. Officially, the country is Lutheran, but no more than 3-4% attend church. There is Lutheran religious instruction in the
public schools, but non-religious parents may, and do, apply
for release from such instruction for their children. Students

Erkki Hartikainen,

Juhani Poso, Madalyn O'Hair, Jon Murray

(Robin behind the camera)

At the President's home, some of those in attendance

In Finland, 1-2% of one's salary is deducted from pay

checks by the employer. This money can be designated for one
of two churches, either the Lutheran, or the Eastern Orthodox. To be relieved of this tax burden one must go to the state
register, or to church, and .sign a statement that one is not a
member. To this time, approximately 330,000 Finns, i.e 6%,
have made such a declaration. (Population of Finland is about
5,000,000.)
_The freethinkers of the Vapaa Aiatteliia own the land and
buildings of Vapaa Ranta, which is a "Free Beach" at Kotka,
Viikari Island. Seminars are held there, as are congresses as it is
used for recreation and for gatherings. Generally, recognition
for Atheist work merits "medals," which are given at the congresses. The Atheist flag is always flown on these occasions.
The flag has a blue field, on which a red elongated triangle is
imposed, together with the free thought insignia and the words
"Free Thought."
The insignia consists of the eternal flame, fire captured by
Prometheus, symbolizing one of man's first major scientific
achievements: his ability to control the use of fire to assist
mankind.

November, 1979

Austin, Texas

Page 5

~------------~

The plot was lh hectare in size. (A hectare is 2.47 acres.)

The population of Kurikka is about 8,000 of which 500 (6%%)
are Atheists. Therefore, the land was purchased from the city
in 1950 for one (1) mark (the Finnish exchange unit). The
first Atheist was buried there in 1951" and there are now 200
graves. The cemetery lot and burial service is free to members
of Vapaa Ajattelija. The charge to non-members is 100 to 150
marks. (Religious burials and cemetery lots run about 1,000
marks.) The Vapaa Ajattelija has, also, gained the legal right to
officiate at burials. Formerly, only the clergy could do so.
When the cemetery was being prepared (a road laid down to
it and short roadways being constructed in the cemetery for
ingress and egress) the Lutheran priest of an adjacent church
and cemetery erected an illegal sign in the middle of the access
road in order to halt the gravel trucks and preclude the land
from Atheist cemetery usage.

I
.. . .

The Atheists of Finland early in their history recognized

the need to be free from religious domination at the time of
death and began immediately to form their own associations
to obtain burial grounds. They now have ten Atheist cemeteries and quite often hold local congresses there. Death is not
an enemy to be feared, but the final, inevitable conclusion of
life well spent. The Murray-O'Hairs visited one such cemetery
in Kurikka, about one hour's drive southwest of Helsinki. It
was a place where comrades lay, a place for memories, a place
for resolution to be made that life should be a celebration of
being on a day-to-day basis. It was a pleasant visit with the
live Atheists being roisterous, accepting that they, too, would
absolutely terminate, but that they would be remembered and
buried by friends.

Cemetery at Kurikka

Page 6

Typical cartoon used on handbills.

In Finland, the custom is to store the demised in a cold

vault until relatives can be assembled for the funeral, which
may be held several days or several weeks after death. The Atheists of the city are currently completing the building of
such a vault on the basis of volunteer labor. To that end, the
city of Kurikka donated fifteen (15) trees, over the protests of
some of the religious in the city.
In winter 1978, the Vapaa Ajattelija held courses in Atheism, using a basic book written and compiled by Erkki
Hartikainen, who teaches mathematics at gymnasium (high
school) level in the public schools. The book is based on the
results of a survey which was recently (1977) concluded. The
organization had made request of the government of Finland
for a grant to enable a sociological study of religious ideology
and of the incident of free thought in the populace. Erkki and
the staff at the Finnish Atheist Center formulated the questions and (the Finnish) 'Gallup' was employed to do the
survey along scientific principles. The findings were analyzed
in the book which Hartikainen issued. A copy of this is now in
the library of the American Atheist Center and will be issued
when a translator is found.

November, 1979

American Atheist

--------------~
The Finnish Vapaa Ajattelija had an origin different than
most Atheist organizations. In that country, Atheists started
with small 'local chapters, usually affiliated with labor. The
oldest chapter, in Kotka, is still functioning and was the one
which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. These chapters
then combined to form a national organization. The Finnish
Atheist Center rents its offices from a labor organization for a
minimal cost. There was not a "great leader" to begin, as with
Robert Ingersoll in the United States, or Charles Bradlaugh in
England. Erkki's grandfather was an Atheist, who came to the
United States and returned to Finland with an Atheist 9ook,
so that there has been some Ingersoll floating around, but by
and large Atheism in Finland is a home-grown product. The organization functions along democratic lines, with elected officials, but all officers are non-paid and honorary. Women comprise 30% of the group.
Blasphemy laws still exist in Finland, but are not enforced
unless a specific complaint is made. A small humorous note
needs inserted here. The old Baltic god was Perkele, but the
Christians adroitly transformed him into Satan, so that Perkele
(pronounced "Perrrr-ke-Ie") is now a "swear word" equivalent
to gawdamn (god damn).

Erkki Hartikainen
Teuvo Pykonen , Editor; Madalyn O'Hair; Member

Finland has female majorities in colleges - and "99%" of

the pharmacists of the nation are women. However, as in the
United States, men receive higher wages for the same employment. Women receive lesser social security benefits than do
the husbands. Medical and dental care are free. Education
through college level is also free.
The Vapaa Ajattelija, as an educational organization, is subsidized by the Finnish government, receiving about one-half of
its income from that source. In 1979, it received an extra stipend for international travel enabling Errki Hartikainen to
complete a five week travel tour to Geneva, the Netherlands,
Brussels, Germany, Italy and France, trying to locate and meet
with officers of a very old freethought organization:WUFT.
WUFT (World Union of Freethinkers) was founded as the
International Federation of Freethinkers in 1880 (with the
name changed to WUFT in 1936), the sponsors included D.G.
M. Bennett, American Atheist and Charles Bradlaugh, English
Atheist and was first promoted by Ernst Hagckel, German Atheist. It later fell into the hands of the less' courageous European continent freethinkers to become, by and large, a literary
society. The body began a course of "taking part with believers in dialogues of public interest," and of collaborating with

Cold vault at cemetery

The Finnish Atheist organization is taxed 2% on its real

property, 3% on its personal property (furnishings, machihery,
equipment) for the benefit of the churches. The organization
has gone through administrative appeals to be relieved from
this tax and has been refused. It has no other recourse and
although the sums involved are very small, the organization is
opposed to the payment of this tax. There are no legal channels. There is no statutory provisions or constitutional relief
such as in the United States.
Membership costs 25 marks a year and now includes a subscription to the magazine.
The Finns were tightly controlled by the old Russian Eastern Orthodox Church and there were formerly no non-church
marriages. Then an old Swedish law (from before 1808) was
found concerned with the incident of rape. When this occurred, a woman could demand the raper as a husband through
the civil courts. The first civil marriages were of this nature. To
avoid church marriages, they came into practice about 190710 and later simple civil marriages were permitted, circa 1920.
Abortion is available in Finland, to the twelfth week for
social reasons and after the twelfth week by a doctor's decision. The cost is 25 marks for an abortion.
L

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

A good time was had by all.

Page 7

~-------------the Humanists and Ethical Culturists who sacrificed principle

for acceptance and respectability. The WUFT never published
a journal, its main activity being the holding of Congresses.
For most of. its history WUFT has been centered in Brussels,
except for a brief period in 1931 when the headquarters were
in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The international organization
never was able to match the bravery and tenacity of some of
the national organizations which supported it, Finland included.

Secretary: Erkki Hartikainen

of the old officers of this very old union. Already, the Center
is in touch with them concerned with the United World Atheists and how best to work together,
A group of the Finnish Atheists has visited an Estonian
Atheist group and communication continues with the curatordirector of the Atheist Museum in Leningrad. The latter has
visited the Finnish Atheist Center. All of the lines of communication to these two groups are now open to the American
Atheist Center.

Typical cartoon used in literature distributed. Caption says,

"He will do anything for you, even pray - as long as you pay."

WUFT is factually defunct but continues a paper existence,

although of undefined legal status. The free thought and Atheist organizations of the diverse nations have been subjected
to pressures and harassments by the states in which they were
situated. For instance, as soon as Hitler came into power in
1933, he seized the buildings and assets of two such German
groups and imprisoned the leaders, with the president of one
(Max Sievers) being beheaded. In 1926, two years after Mussolini carne to power, free thought organizations were declared
to be antinational in Italy and were dissolved, with the state
'seizing their funds. (Ironically, Mussolini in his youth was an
Atheist and had even written a pamphlet titled La Bibbia e Immorale which was published in Geneva about 1905.) In Netherlands, the editor of the freethought magazine there (Jan
Hoving) was convicted and imprisoned (two months) in 1938
for blasphemy and all freethought was suppressed during
World War II. In Poland, without baptism, an Atheist's child
had no name or civic status and freethinkers and Atheists were
buried beside criminals. These examples are typical of recent
past history of WUFT member organizations. In the United
States, of course, Charles Smith, was imprisoned in Arkansas
in 1926 for openly advocating Atheism.

:'\

/
/

: 'I

I:

Errki's five week trip in Europe was an effort to locate surviving, albeit aged officers, and it met with but mixed and
minor success for many of the organizations barely survived
the persecutions. Most of the records of WUFT disappeared,
along with its then secretary, several decades ago.
Hartikainen was happy to oblige the representatives of the
American Atheist Center with all of the names and addresses

Page 8

November, 1979

rrr

'J

l[-"

,) .'. .r: ~..

_._~_.--J

.".

"

~ '.

.~\..

Typical magazine cartoon.

American Atheist

Vapaa Aiatteliia is, also, very impressed with the importance of international outreach and extended every courtesy to
the visiting Americans.
The day that the Murray-O'Hairs were scheduled to leave
Finland was the first day of school there, August 15th, 1979,
when Erkki was scheduled to lead his class to church and
there expected to pray. With news media including television
and radio in attendance, Erkki made a significant protest.
This was, in actuality, a follow-up to his prior activity in a
series of protests over the enforced prayer. In April, 1978, he
had contacted the United Nations to complain that he was
forced into prayer in this situation. (For a parallel case see the
Bruce Hunter story, American Atheist, May, 1979 issue, Vol.
27, No.5, p-12.) The Human Rights Commission, after consideration, since Errki had exhausted all of his domestic (Finnish) recourses, decided to accept the complaint and is currently processing it with Finland.
Errki Hartikainen is a totally committed Atheist, a happy
person and deeply involved with the Vapaa Aiatteliia. He will
be one of the delegates to WAM-II (World Atheist Meet Two) in India in December, 1980.
In Helsinki, alone, this Finnish Atheist organization has
1,000 signed up members and considerable reputation. They
are obvious, openly operating, proud, effective and welded
with comradery and an esprit de corps which is energizing
even when only briefly associated with - as on this visit.
The Atheists of the United States could well take example
from this courageous and dedicated group.

Robin in apple orchard at country home of Vice President

MAAKUNTAJUHLAT
"IJARVI.NPA4SSA
13 _ 1')_81'1

I~ . : I ~~.~.~~.Hl~,

Amtrikall .telsdktskakHtll
kolmlhtnklnta
"altuaskun on parham m uamme Vap ajauelijaJa
11I1011
viera . - KU'VWII lillon tcnnmce
edustaUa pubeelljohtaJa Mad .,.. Marra), O'HaIr (vas.),
IIltlsUkeskuksea
Johlaja Jon Garth Murray Ja keskakul!
klrjutollhollaJa
Robia ElIte. Mum)'
O'H,II.

USA:n ateistit vaativat

jumalaa pois dollarista
Farewells: Errki Hartikainen,

Madalyn OHair, Jon Murray

In God we trust - Jumalsan

me turvaamme.
Torno teksti on palnettu jokaikiseen
Y~dysvaltain dollariin.
Taman tekstin amerikkaJaisel
ateis .
tit haluaishat
pois maansa rahoista.
Kampanja
dollarin slistimiseksi
on vain yksi Yhdysvaltain
ateistien
toiminnan
tiimlinhetkisisti
pOiikobteista,
joista USA:n ateistikeskuksen
Suemessa vlerailevan
valtuuskunnan
jasenet kertolvat
ellen Helsinglssa.
Vilme perjantalna
VapaaajatteliJaln
Uiton
vieraaksl
saapuneeseen
kolmihenkiseen
valtuuskuntaan
kuuluvat
Amerikan
atelstikeskuksen
puhe@njohtaja,
Iakitleteen
tohtcrt
Madalyn
M u r ray
O'Halr,
keskukeen
jchtaja
Jon Garth M u r ray
ja keskukseo
klrjastonholtaJa
Robin
Eileen
Murray
OHair.
Ateistlkelkukseen
kuuluu
ooin 70000 perhettA,
mutta
sen valkutus ulottuu hucmattavasU
laajemmaUe,
kertc!
pubeenjohtaja
O'Halr.
xeskus perustettlin
vuonna
1960
ja se on til.lli betkeliA suurtmpia atelstisla
jirjest6j!
kapltaHsUsiua
mahsa.
J!sentiedotteen lilAksl keskus julkaisee kerran
kuussa American
Atheistnlmlsta
tebtes.
Amerlkkalaiset
ateistlt kateevet Joutuvansa eiamian jato
kuvasti
melkoisen
valnon
alalsena - jonkinlaisina
Carterin tctslnajattetevina.
Hell-

Ii on esiUn
lukulsla
estmerkkeji
atelstien
erlarvolsesta
asemasta
"kunnon'
kansalalsiin
verrattuna.
Heldin mukaansa
erilss!
oslssa
Ybdysvaltcja
el ateistln
todlstusta byviksytA
ctkeudessa. Kerrotaan Jopa tapauksesta, Iesse murhaaja oU tunnlstettu, mutta binet vapautettlin koska tunnlstuksen
suorittanut
benkll6
sattui
eremaan etersu.
Ybdysvailo!ssa
er atebtlen
mukaan
venttse
uskoDnon
vapaus, vaikka
penutuslaissa tiUalsesta
puhutaankln.
Perustusiakia
rikotaan Iatkuvasti ja lIsiksl
momen csavaltioiden
Ialt ovat selvlsti
ristiriltaisia
perustuslain
kanssa. Viidessa csavantossa
mm. laki vaatii, etta julkisessa vtrassa toimlvan on uskottava juroalaan.
Yhdysvaltalalnen
lain tulkinta on saaut ateistikeskuksen verstn hllpelltikin
tuntuvlln tolmlntamuotolhin.
Kes-

kus on mm. penJstanut

Amerlkan ateistlen klrkoD, Janka
suojeluspyblmyksl:Di
biAria
Mark Twain Sokrateen
viitta
kainalossa.
Huumorlakin
stts
kiytetUn
aseee.
uskonnon
yUvaltaa vasta an.
Amerlkan
atelsUkftkus
paheksuu
erU.I.ten
klrkkojen
harrastamaa
luju
lliketoi
mint , jota nlmA iainsll
dlnn6n mukaan vol vat tebdl
vlellpl
verovapaa.U.
My6.
uskonnon
NOla,
klyttlmi
Den poll1ttlsten
tark.oltusperien byvAlul sa. atelsteUta
tuomionsa.
USA:n
atelsut
llilstlvlt
jyrkisti
olevansa
kornmunis
tinen
jlrjest6.
MieluummiD
be sanovat
tukeutuvansa
sttoutumattqmlin
konservatU
velhln j. vUUaavat
mlellpidetutkh:nukaihl,
jolden
mullaan soslalislej.
Ja kommu
nistej.
on yam
kouralUnen
heldin
jllenteDsl
Joukolsa.
Pubeenjobtaja
O'Hair esteierklksl on oUut sltoutumattomien ehdokiaana
vaalelssa.
Suomessa
amerlkkalaistell
atebtieD valtuuskunta
OD tutustunut
vapaa-ajatteUJalD
lIIton toimintaan
ja kiynyt
keskusteluja
lilton
iobdon
kanssa.
Helsinlin
lisiksi
amerlkkalalset
vleraat
ovat
kiyneet Porvoossa ja KarkklIassa, jossa ohjelmaan
sisaltyi myos tutustuminen
vapaaajattelijain
bautausmaaban.
Huomenna
amerikkalalset
atelstit
jatkavat
Euroopan
kiertomatkaansa
Ranskaan.

This small cartoon appears often on pamphlets.

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

Page 9

ACTION
ATHEIST

Atheists
Won-Up
............

...................

Cultists!

On any Sunday, Venice Beach in

California is a place alive with bicycle
riders, roller skaters, skateboarders,
body builders, sidewalk retailers, street
performers, musicians, comedians, and
thousands of beach-goers and people
who just want to be where the action'
is.
But when you add an event like the
Third Annual Festival of the Chariots
by the Hare Krishnas, you are bound
to draw, thousands of additional
people. The beach becomes a human
zoo. They dispense free food along
with propaganda on their religion,
which attracts beggars, winos, astrologers, revolutionary communists, and
Jesus Junkies. The crowds are so
heavy, traffic is backed up for miles
and movement only happens in herd
fashion.
The Hare Krishnas claim this
festival is over 2,000 years old, supposed to commemorate the visit to
this planet by their Lord Krsna some
50,000 years ago to help us to the
spiritual world. The story goes that
once he took this chariot ride to the
rural northern Indian village Vrndavana,
replica of the spiritual world, where
everyone practices pure and ecstatic
love for him -like the Jew's promised
land or the Christian's heaven.
So - on Sunday, July 29, 1979,
the parade started in Santa Monica
with three brilliantly colored 30' high
chariots pulled by chanting followers,
with decorated elephants walking in
front. At their destination, tents and
booths
were staffed
by smiling
chanters who extolled the virtues of
Krishna, sold books and records,
screened .movies, served vegetarian
food, answered questions, even offered elephant rides. They sang religious songs and modeled at the spiritual fashion booth.

Page 10

Having attended the festival last

year,
I noted that, although other
kinds of spiritualists set up tables to
cash in on the act, no one was there to
tell the virtues of logical Atheism.
Therefore, I suggested that this year
we get right in there and pitch, so half
a dozen of us from the Los Angeles
Chapter set up a table right where the
parade was scheduled to end, with
books, pamphlets, and copies of the
American Atheist magazine. We were
there from noon until 7 PM and at
least 20,000 of the estimated crowd of
50,000 must have walked by our table,
for we gave out all our magazines and
could have used more, and we passed
out upwards of 1,000 pieces of literature. To our pleased surprise most
people were not only surprised but
appreciative. Over 25 people said they
were Atheists and signed our mailing
list, lingering to talk to us or to the
public.
Of course we had our share of
dissidents, but they were not nasty perhaps it was' too nice and sunny a
day! We heard later that it was our
booth
which disturbed
the Hare
Krishnas the most - apparently they
were comfortable with the astrologers
and the reincarnation aficionados, etc.
A couple of them picked up our
pamphlets and tucked them in their
pockets, which was a step in the right
direction, for surely they intended
either reading them or giving them to
their leaders later on. At least they
didn't act as if it were burning them.
They earnestly gave us some of their
papers.
_
One of the most amusing encounters was a young man on a bicycle
who stopped to comment, "Hey,
Atheists, don't you know that Atheist
information is no information?"
"Did you ever rea'd what our position is?," we asked him.
"I wouldn't touch it," he said in
supreme illogic. "Anyway, it's Communist." He paused. "I've got some
good Hare Krishna literature here you
ought to read."
We held out one of our pamphlets
to him. "Make you a deal. We'll read
yours if you'll read ours."

November, 1979

~/

He hesitated a long time, but

finally curiosity - or whatever it
was - did overcome him and he
concluded the transaction hurriedly
and went off, with a high wave of his
arm which looked suspiciously like
simultaneously giving u~-.the finger.
Some
people
good-humoredly
noted that we were "bucking the establishment" while others queried us
about our stand on taxing the churches concerned that we had no chance
"if you want to tax every church and synagogues too?" We carefully explained that most churches had little
to fear from the plan if they'd never
amassed the wealth to buy big real
estate. We think we changed some
peoples' minds that day.
All in all it was a great and stimulating experience, particularly as we
were generally well-received, had a lot
of discussions, and generated much
interest.
Next year we'll get a hundred
Atheists to bring their folding chairs,
suntan lotion, and friends, for a real
show of strength. Will you come, too?
This year we were interviewed on
tape by two UCLA students. Next
year we'll gun for network television.
Why not?

American Atheist

The Last Peace Cry of

The American Indian
David Chagall
"Our people will never take another step backwards. We are
making our stand. In our lodges, in our ceremonies and in our
sun dances we pray for peace because we know what our
people will do. They can no longer stand back and take what's
happening. Our legends and traditions tell us - this generation
of Indians must do something or we are lost! So this is what
we will do."
After you listen to Ernie Peters talk awhile, you come away
impressed. A large dignified man in his mid-forties, Peters has a
wife and six children to use as an excuse for caution - but he
chooses not to do so. He speaks softly but with implied power
behind his words and there is a solid determination sparking
the steady brown-eyed gaze. A product of the South/ Dakota'
reservation system and a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, he
has joined his destiny with the American Indian Movement to
fight for the survival of his people and their much-abused
treaty rights.
"Our people are tired of taking the bullshit that the government's handing out. At Pine Ridge the Indians are not allowed
to raise their own cattle. They have to lease out their land to
white ranchers who make millions of dollars a year while the
Indians get $25 an acre. And out of that $25 an acre, the Bureau of Indian Affairs takes part of it for its paper work. This
is a program set up to keep Indians suppressed so they have to
depend on the B.I.A. As long as we depend on theB.I.A., this
is going to happen. This is why Wounded Knee happened.
"Right now, this very minute in South Dakota, there's martial law 24 hours a day - enforced by the F.B.I., federal marshals, SWAT teams and by Dick Wilson, the puppet tribal
chairman and his 40-man goon squad. People are being killed
and harassed even as I'm talking to you. It's not Indians
against Indians, like they want everybody to believe. It's Indians against the U.S. government!"
Mrs. LaDonna Harris, wife of presidential candidate Fred
Harris and herself a Comanche, backs up these claims about
the new Indian wars going on in South Dakota. As she reports
it"Two hundred F.B.1. officers in unmarked fatigues intimidate citizens inside the reservation. Two helicopters with manned machine guns fly at low altitudes all over the reservation,
police break into private homes without warrants. Even in
Denver, local law enforcement people go into Indian social
gatherings without warrants because somebody happened to
have a Pine Ridge or South Dakota license plate. I think the
F.B.1. and the Justice Department are both responsible.
"The Indian people have discovered that they have rights,
not only civil rights but treaty rights. And, as people, they
have come to understand they must exert themselves. If the
institutions such as government and education are not responsive, people will flare out in frustration. We want to believe in
the F.B.I. as a law-enforcement agency, but the facts indicate

Austin, Texas

:
.
'

that it has not handled itself according to the Constitution and

the law in which we believe. The people at Pine Ridge are
being terrorized - they are! We've got a stack of complaints
and we are still getting them and these are from outstanding
citizens of South Dakota who are being treated this way. It is
just unforgivable. Nobody else would tolerate such behaviour
by law enforcement people."
At the bottom of this face-off is the question of sovereignty. According to the anthropologists, native Americans have
been here at least 25,000 years. Only during the past few hundred years has their relationship with the land been disturbed
by the coming of the Europeans. Much of the early relationship between the settlers and the various tribes was marked by
a spirit of cooperation and friendliness.
Because of the Indian world view, ownership of the land
was never a question. To the Indian, land cannot be owned but
only held in trust - only He who made the land can own it.
The children of the Great Spirit, according to Indian beliefs,
should live in the same relationship with the land as with other
living things, both animal and human as well, ecologically. One
does not own other creatures, one harmonizes with them and
has his nurture with and from them. So when the Europeans
came to the Indian shores with ideas of private property, domicile laws and death-dealing guns to enforce these views, the
Indian peoples found themselves at war with a culture they
could not understand.
During the 19th century push west, they were slaughtered
and starved, their lands were confiscated andadded to federal
land holdings and any treaty agreements between the government and the individual tribes were constantly violated. Whenever a piece of land seemed promising, Congress passed a law
to take it away. From a starting point of 150 million acres ceded to the government in the Treaty of 1854, land holdings of
all Indian tribes are today placed at under 50 million acres and shrinking. This amounts to a land area about one-fourth.
the size of Texas.
The real quarrel is not- so much the amount of land but the
fact that even what little they have Indian peoples are not permitted to use in any true way. It is administered for them by
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which traditionally leases out
land to non-Indians at a fraction of its real value. Nor can the
Indians complain or renegotiate these deals since, according to
the law, they are incompetent.
"We are a sovereign nation," Ernie Peters emphasizes. "The
U.S. government does not make treaties with its own people.
It only makes treaties with a sovereign nation. Okay, it makes
treaties with our people. The last one was made in 1973 at
Wounded Knee. That has to tell the people something. Nobody is that stupid. And a half hour after they signed that
treaty, again it was broken."
LeRoy Mills is a Yakima and a member of Survival of

November, 1979

Page 11

American Indians Association. In his late twenties, he speaks

passionately about the injustices inflicted on his people but
pessimistically over this nation's will to remedy them.
"Survival is after the same thing as the A.I.M.," he explained. "Only, we are more cautious. That's why we have been
running a peaceful campaign. That's not what the American
public wants us to do; they want to show Indians up in arms
so they can kill us. We know what they have in store for us.
Whenever you take our reservations away and give us one acre
in return and that acre is a graveyard, I already know what
you have in store. This has happened on damn near each and
every reservation - the land ripoffs!

"What the government wants is what it's always wanted land. And the end result will be death for the Indian people.
Because there's just one way to get land now and that's by getting rid of the landlords. Today, though the Indian people
hold about 150 million acres by treaty they only have about
50 million acres in reality throughout the entire United States.
And now they're trying to relocate us and rip us off that land,
too.
"In these relocations, it's always a loss of land. Whenever
we move, we lose. Bill Frank, a Seneca, is a good example. He
owned 250 acres at Frank's Landing in Washington State and
right after World War One the government came in and condemned his land because it wanted it for Fort Lewis. For
compensation it gave him six acres across the river. Now the
state of Washington wanted to take away even those lousy six
acres. They had to go to court to prove they were Indians, that
there was still a tribe called the Nisqually Puala. Judge Goodman there said, 'No, there are no more Indians in this area,
you guys are all white!' And here are 330 Indians standing out
there while he's telling them they don't exist. So we won the
case and what do they do? They release a dam on us every
flood season when it rains real hard and it's washing away our
land. We're down to two or three acres off which we're surviving, so we told them we had to have some other land in return.
But they told us - 'When you lose that land, that's it!!' Yet,
there is Fort Lewis sitting on forty or fifty thousand acres of
land which was originally all our land."

Page 12

Roxanne Mathieson, a pretty woman in her mid-twenties, is

from the Quinalt reservation in western Washington state. Reserved and quiet-spoken, she tells of the hardships placed on
her family by the harsh governmental treatment of Indians.
"In Washington State we have the most valuable timber in
the United States. Some of the most valuable cedar is there.
My brothers and I own 350 acres but they won't even let us
put up our house on it. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has leased our land without me or my brothers agreeing to it or signing anything. It has leased it out for a hundred years and we
got nothing when it leased it. LT.T. Rainier cut 24 acres of
my land last summer. LT.T. Rainier made 131h million dollars
off that timber while my brothers and I were paid just stumpage rates on what was left - a few thousand dollars.
"I've looked up some of the contracts my mother was made
to sign by the B.LA. when she was 13 years old. She was uneducated. She only went to the 8th grade and she signed that
contract when she was underage. It's not legal to sign a contract until you're twenty-one. Even so, all that the piece of
paper said was that the Superintendent of the B.LA. gets
$10,000 on the first cut of timber - and that's all it says. So
the rest should be coming to my family, not LT.T. They told
my mother she had to sign this paper before she would get any
money from them so she signed it. They do this kind of stuff
all the time to Indian people everywhere.
"We can't renegotiate any agreement because legally we are
declared incompetent. Legally all Indians are incompetent,
even if they have their doctorates. So the B.LA. signs everything for us. That's why the B.LA. was set up - to govern Indians. It's supposed to be looking out for our best interests.
It takes 10% of everything that comes off my land for handling my affairs. And we have no jurisdiction and no peace,
not even on our own land.
"Last summer my brothers were going to build a house for
us to live in on our land. Then the B.LA. police came in and
told them they had to get off the land. 'No we don't,' my
brothers told them. 'We don't have to leave this land because
we own it.' And they said, 'You had better leave or else" - and
they tried to throw them out forcibly. My brothers took up
their weapons and told them, 'Nobody is kicking us off our
own land!' The B.LA. sent in 12 police cars and surrounded
them, so they had to give in. They got thrown in jail for being
on our own land. The B.LA. acknowledges that we own the
land legally, but that's all it does. It acknowledges it - and it
treats it like it belongs to B.LA. We can't build on it; we can't
lease it to whom we like at a fair price - it's our land in name
only. So we get no profits off it, just a little money for stumpage rates. And we're not allowed to live on it. On the Quinait
reservation, where I am from, nobody can build on our own
land. .You have to buy a lot from a non-Indian if you want to
build a house."
LeRoy Mills points out that the treaty guarantees (to let Indians "live on and use the land in their accustomed ways forever") are not only violated by forbidding people to build
homes' but even from fishing at their traditional lakes and rivers.
"The shootout at Ontario on the Columbia River is a typical example of what goes on allover this country. In the Treaty of Medicine Creek 1854, our guarantee states we have the
right to fish in our usual and customary places. This contract
was upheld by Judge Bolt's decision in April 1974, which says

November, 1979

American Atheist

we have the right to 50% of all fish and natural resources that
come out of the water, We are guaranteed that. Then the state
of Washington, not the federal government, says we can't do
it. It will regulate it for us - and the way the state regulates it
is that it closes the river to us while the sports fishermen can
fish all they want, because they have 33,000 members to
lobby for them and Governor Dan Evans is one of the top
board members of the fishing lobby. All we have is just 33
fishermen trying to make a living. And the state said we're /

)
.

~
~

Jh~\~/
/

:4

'depleting the run of salmon,' we're 'killing them off.' But a ~.:/ ~
company like the New England Fish Company which fishes all 1
the Indian rivers will take more in one catch from one of its
boats at Frank's Landing than the Indian people take in a
whole year. Yet the state says we are depleting the waters and
/1
VI' t./'/
it forbids us to fish.
"So our people tried to do some fishing and there was a

"
-,

~;:

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\ ~

'

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r-'tWJ/ ~~

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t

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shootout
withlike
the Dennis
police. Banks
Some of
of the
In- '~I
I.,.
y~
!
dians looked
andthem
thereclaimed
was a one
charge.
In an,
~, .
other incident, some guys castrated an Indian on a dance floor
~
at Custer, South Dakota and he bled to death while everybody
watched. A trial was held and the guy got off with 2nd degree,
\
so Dennis protested and led a march. Banks said the state
_ :-..".
couldn't do that, our treaty rights guaranteed that the suspect
.fIOAe~~
"'"
had to be tried by our own courts for the killing of one of our
~
"..
own people in our own jurisdiction. That was all it took ~
~~
every time they see him now they shoot at him. That's why
~
~
Dennis Banks went underground. The F.B.L's Most Wanted
~_
l~.
List has 28 Indians on it who never committed a single crime
~
except asking for their treaty rights. These rights are guaran~
teed by the Constitution which states that all treaties signed
~
with foreign nations shall be the supreme law of the land. And
"My brothers and sisters are all Indians," LeRoy insists.
they put us on the Most Wanted List and shoot at us when we
"But the B.LA. says we're white because we weren't born with
protest."
a card in our hands. It has three ways of wiping Indians out in
Mills was born and spent much of his childhood on the YaAmerica. One is by out and out war, which is happening right
kima reservation in Washington. When his parents separated,
now in North and South Dakota. Two is paper genocide,
he went to live with his grandmother and that was when the
which says 'We do not recognize him as an Indian because he's
state stepped in. It said she was too old to give him proper
got two or three different tribes in him but not enough of any
guidance and the courts upheld the state. Despite LeRoy's
one kind so he's no Indian at all.' And tbree.Tt encourages us
pleas to stay on the reservation with his grandmother, he was
to marry outside our nationality. Eventually there will be no
sent to Father Flanagan's Boys' Town in Nebraska. From that
Indians left at all. If the B.LA. keeps that up, we're all going to
blend off. It's happened before - tribes have been known to
moment LeRoy was erased from the B.LA. rolls of Indians. Its
disappear by marrying slaves down South."
justification was that because of his "mixed" heritage - inThere is a saying among Indians, "First they send the misvolving three tribal groups - he was no longer considered to be
sionaries, then the army and last come the settlers to steal our
an Indian. Through similar paper exterminations, a large numland." So it is no surprise that one of the main priorities
ber of Indians have been "merged" - and at the same stroke
among traditional Indians is the practice of their own religion.
money obligations and treaty guarantees are also wiped out.
For centuries, the government's policy was geared toward
According to most Indian people one talks to, this kind of
"wiping out their pagan ways." Less than a hundred years ago,
paper genocide is a standard ploy of the Bureau of Indian
four major Christian denominations - Roman Catholic, EpisAffairs.
\
copalian, Baptist and Presbyterian - arranged through the Department of the Interior to divide the Indian reservations among them. Each church obtained a franchise over a reservation and became its absolute religious mentor. Any other denomination could enter its reservation only with the written
permission of the host church. Missions were built on Indian
property and the children were - and still are - required to attend church boarding schools. In these schools the Indian religion is denounced and the children made to feel inferior before European culture, traditions and religion. Mills describes
it more colorfully "They have these boarding schools where they take our

.......

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

Page 13

kids all year until they bring them home for the summer. The
churches take the kids and teach them that Jesus Christ walks
on the water and that everything the Indians believe in is no
good - it's heathen. They tell the kids we never had a God. Jesus Christ and God didn't arrive in America until He came
with the Mayflower in 1492. We are just dirty heathen, they
tell us. Well, any time you can take an Indian and tie him to a
pole. and beat him because he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ,
that's supposed to be Christianity. And that's how they teach
our people.
"The truth is, we Indians have 372 different kinds of faith
but we all believe in the same thing - The Creator. In our
faiths, He talks to all of us in different ways. All things live
and have life. We are here and we are just caretakers of the
land. If we kill one thing off, we are causing a chain reaction.
Our faith is also our culture and our way of living. It's all one
thing, not like Christianity, where you say one thing and you
do another and it's forgiven anyway."
Ernie Peters remembers well his own childhood experiences
at the mission school.
"When I first went to school, I wasn't able to speak English.
But the people teaching us were German people who couldn't
speak English, either. And they were our teachers, these Catholics who couldn't speak English. They deprived us of our
language, our culture, our traditions - and they tried to teach
us their religion. They were trying to learn English, I guess,
and they forced English on us. Can you imagine, those people
who are supposed to be religious, they punished us whenever
we talked our own language! They beat us and some of us
were even chained in the basement if we would not turn over
and go through the system. This happened 30 years ago when I
went through it and it still happens now.

"Children who go through this lose their identity. They

cannot speak their own language; they don't know their own
ceremonies. The whole system is a genocidal program to wipe
out the Indian. We are still deprived of using our own Ianguage. Our people are told that the religious ceremonies we
have are savage and heathen. Every church tells us, 'You won't
go to heaven; you'll burn in hell.' All the churches on the
reservation do that. The biggest one is the Roman Catholic
Church, but they got Protestant and Methodists and Holy
Rollers and you name it.
"Our own religion has not varied since the beginning of
time. And never does our religion ask anyone for a single cent.
These others are asking all the time. Nor do we have those
great castles or whatever you want to call those big buildings.
We don't have any maids or servants. Our church in Rosebud,

Page 14

South Dakota is called Crowducks Paradise. It is in the open

air. Our church is the trees, the river, the valley - this is our
sacred ground. On November 6, 1975, the F.B.I. and the marshals raided our church. If you are a fugitive and go into any
other church, you are given sanctuary and they cannot touch
you. But they raided our church and took seven people out of
there and arrested all seven. They did not have a warrant.
They did not get permission from the tribal chairman. They
did it because they are afraid of the Indians.
"The word GOD turns my stomach, because this is what
they have forced on us - their God. They said that we don't
have a God. But we have the same Creator as they have, we
just call Him by a different name. In my language we call him
Okampa which means The Holy One. We had our God a long
time before they wrote that book with all the words in it, their
Bible."
According to the original documents, the mission churches
stand on the land temporarily. According to Mills, agreements
made with the four denominations when they first leased the
sites for their church buildings provided for the return of the
property to the Indians.
"When churches leave the reservation, they cannot sell the
land. They have to give it back to us. This is a law from the
1800's and the Indian people have never given up their rights
granted by these agreements. But the churches feel that if they
can sell that property for a million dollars, then to hell with
the Indians. When those treaties were signed, they read 'When the Indians get civilized, then they are allowed to take
this land and develop it for their own use and the use of their
community.' But they make sure they never see us as being
civilized. That's how they get away with it.
"Now we've set up our own schools. I'm a teacher at one of
them. I'm not incompetent but I have to take incompetency
tests all the time. My school is the Frank's Landing Indian
School and they have one at Pine Ridge, too. At ours we teach
the Nisqua\ly language and culture. It's a fisherman's culture
with history, traditions, religion, the whole works. The kids go
about six hours a day, five days a week. Sometimes on weekends we take them up into the mountains for a field trip.
We've got about eighteen kids in the class from 3 to 6 years
old, and we're trying to set up a high school, too. But what
happens? The first day we opened the Frank's Landing school,
30 cops marched in there with guns pulled saying that they've
come to check out our nets. We tried to stop them but they
had those guns on us, so what can you do? And this is the
first thing our kids have to see when they're growing up."
Ernie Peters gets tight-lipped when he thinks about the
many ways the police pressure Indians at Pine Ridge.
"In the fall our women go up into the mountains to pick
berries and wild turnips. They dry this food for the winter.
Tliis is our traditional food supply. But the F.B.I., they're
paranoid so they rush up into the hills after them and stop
them. If the women refuse, they're forced down. They are
pushed back and some of them have been knocked down by
the butt of an M-16. These men all wear khaki army uniforms
without insignia but we know them to be F.B.I. agents and
marshals and the SWAT teams. They all wear the same uniform - they wear the uniform of the United States government and they harass us and intimidate us 24 hours a day.
"There are about 11,000 Indians at Pine Ridge and each
and every Indian is subjected to this ordeal every day. Every

November, 1979

American Atheist

small group of people is dispersed. Last June, Gladys Bisonette, who is a strong Indian leader, had her grandson killed in
Portland while he was marching in protest in front of the
B.I.A. offices. He was shot through the head, the police say
'accidentally.' So we took him home to bury him at the
Wounded Knee cemetery. There must have been forty mourners there - and here comes the tribal police to 'disperse the
crowd.' They couldn't even let us alone to bury our dead! But
fortunately we had enough of our A.I.D. defense people who
were armed. We put up roadblocks and held them off with a
show of weapons long enough to keep them away while we
buried this small boy.
,

~...\....-=
------~

----

"Right here in Los Angeles I am stopped. Last Saturday

I went to U.C.L.A. to speak. A woman called me and told me
a meeting had been set up there, so I went down to the'school,
At the gate I gave the guard the address the woman told me
and he got on the phone, spoke to somebody and then said
'I'll tell you where you have to go'. So he gave me directions
and I went. When I got over the hill, here were all these police
and I thought some trouble was going on with the students so
I put my car in reverse and started to back up. Then some
cops closed in behind me and from the front they came and
then I knew who they were after.
"They searched the whole car, my briefcase, me - and I
had a pair of binoculars and so on. After they searched and
searched and couldn't find anything they wanted, they asked
questions and I said I wouldn't answer unless I had a lawyer
with me. As soon as I said that, one of the police got mad and
said - 'What are you trying to do, interfere with an arrest?'
and another one said 'I've got half a notion to put some cuffs
on you and run you in.' I started to get mad but then I realized that's what they wanted me to do - resist. So I didn't do
anything and I didn't say anything. After they got done, instead of saying 'I'm sorry' they said, 'Get in your car and get
the hell out of here!' We get this kind of treatment every place
we go, just being an Indian is enough. The thing was, they
never even asked for my driver's license - I don't even have
one! When I got back to where I was staying, they told me
that the address I was supposed to speak at was at a different
place and that the woman who called was a plant - she called
just to set me up. They were waiting for me there.

Austin, Texas

"That was one reason the American Indian Movement got

started. Indian people were tired of taking all this bullshit the
government's handing out to them. So the Movement was
officially started at Minneapolis in 1968 by Dennis Banks,
Clyde Bellecourt and George Mitchell. It was a ghetto patrol
at first, they were sick and tired of Indian people getting harassed by the police. You'd be downtown and maybe there was
a fight and if there were any Indians just standing nearby, they
were arrested and the others were let go. It was a regular harassment procedure against Indians because they didn't want
them coming off the reservations. So the police were telling
them - 'We don't want you here!' That's how the Movement
got started. Now treaty rights are our biggest involvement,
making more of our people aware of their rights under the
Treaty of 1868.
"But the Government won't even let us educate our people.
The F.B.1. uses threatening tactics against us. They threatened
many of our families, They told us - 'We know where your
kids go to school'' where your wife works. We know the route
they take home, so beware!' They do this to harass us. When
we go to colleges and other places to speak, they do the same
thing. They stop us, they harass us. They're looking for an
excuse to arrest us. They want us to get mad and show our
civilization, to show that we can get mad so they arrest us.
And once they get us in jail, they put on every trumped up
charge you can think of. They know where I've traveled all
over the country and maybe they can hold me On something
they say I've done right now on trumped up charges. They put
the bail so high on them that we- can't get out. We don't have
money any more to get our brothers out of jail."
Movement co-founder Dennis Banks went underground last
year to escape such South Dakota "justice." For almost six
months he hid under a false identity in El Cerrito, California
where he attended classes at Contra Costa College studying Indian history and political science. At the time of his arrest
in January 1976, he was being sought on a charge of unlawful
flight from South Dakota, where a Rapid City court had convicted him in August 1975, of an assault during it riot. Dennis
Banks is 44, a soft-spoken man who looks much younger than
his years.
"The American Indian Movement is fighting mostly in the
courts right now. Not only in the criminal courts, but we're
into civil suits. We've entered into Indian claims questions,
we're fighting the dams and people who are trying to destroy
the environment.
"We. have a right to our. own cultural identity. When we
look back on the past hundred years, the right to maintain
a cultural identity has been denied to the Indian people. In
1898 the Interior Department framed a criminal code where
they prohibited and banished our Indian religion. These laws
called for jail terms for any Indians who attended ceremonies.
The first people sentenced were 18 Hopi Indians in January of
1898, and they spent seven months in Alcatraz. The Hopi nation was completely outraged and finally forced the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to send them back home. But the right to
maintain a cultural identity has to be given to every society.
You have the right to be Irish and practice Irish traditions,
or German or Swedish or whatever race you are.
"The Attorney General of South Dakota made a statement
during a cocktail party in October of 1974, which was being
attended by other attorneys. One of them, John Gribby III,

November, 1979

:j

Page 15

came to us later with a signed affidavit saying that Janklow,

the attorney general, said the only way to solve the Indian
problem and the only way to solve the AI.M. problem was to
shoot the A.I.M. leaders. He said, 'Just put a bullet in that
guy's head and he won't bother us any more!' Other such
statements were made by prison guards two months ago and a
statement just yesterday by the warden of the penitentiary
there that he wouldn't want to be responsible for any accidents that happened to me in prison. That's the main reason
why I feel California can help me survive. They want to extradite me to South Dakota and only a response from the Citizens of California could turn it in my favor. Right now this
extradition is in the hands of Governor Brown and if the
people wrote him and asked him not to extradite me then I
can survive. I've even offered to do my time right here in
California because I know I'll win the appeals. They made
some terrible mistakes during the hearing and the case which
convicted me.
"There was an all-White jury. There was a chance for an
Indian to sit on that jury, but the judge struck him because he
had been a witness to the events that day. The assumption was
that he was prejudiced against me - but what that man saw
was that I didn't commit any crimes at all. A government survey was conducted before my trial and it revealed that 90% of
the people believed I was guilty of crimes and murder before
I even went to trial. And I've never committed any murder or
crimes. I have not even been charged with that - but the
people there in South Dakota believed that.
"We were demonstrating that day in Custer. The reason for
the demonstration was that an Indian named Bad Heart Bull
had been stabbed by a White man at a bar in Buffalo Gap and
killed him and no arrest was made. Finally our demonstrations
pushed the attorney there to arrest Darald Schmitz and charge
him with manslaughter. There were six eye-witnesses to the
murder, but no harder charges were going to be brought. So
a meeting was scheduled with the county attorney, the prosecuting attorney, the mayor of that city and the sheriff of Custer County to discuss that evidence. First they agreed to meet
with us, but when we got there they said - 'No, we-won't
meet with you people!' So a fight started between a police officer and the mother of the slain boy, and after that there was
complete chaos.
"Now I am a fugitive," he said wonderingly. "There is an
active warrant out for my arrest at this moment. But as long
as I stay in California, I am safe. A fugitive in my own homeland is something I've never been before. It was awfully
strange during the time I was actually underground, not
being able to speak my mind and heart. I have many children
and while I was in hiding, they were in South Dakota. It's not
easy to hide, not if you have a family and you are interested
in social programs. It's awfully hard because you want to be
involved. I actually looked forward to being arrested in California!"
The frustration of American Indians runs particularly
high this year during the country's celebration of its own
independence. To most Indians, it represents the birthday of
official tyranny against them. While daily reports in newspapers and on TV reveal the operations of C.I.A. and F.B.I.
informants among the various protest groups, there is one
salaried F.B.I. informant who reportedly was never asked to
testify. Even when attorneys for the Indian Movement begged
the Senate committee to call this certain witness, they were
answered by a stone wall of silence. John Howell- tall, grim,
Movement worker in his mid-thirties - bitterly recalls this
Judas in their midst.
"The F.B.I. and the Congress work together against us,"
he said. "They supoenaed one lady who informed against the

Page 16

V.F.W. and another man who worked inside the Ku Klux

Klan. But they would not subpoena
., who was
an F.B.I. infiltrator into the American Indian Movement . _1
was our national security leader - but Senator Church
won't even let the Indian Movement be mentioned in his committee meetings. The way I feel, Senator Church and his committee probably hold F.B.I. badges. Right at this very moment

is traveling with the John Birch Society and

making speeches against us - and he's still an F.B.I. man.
"
_ _.
first came to Wounded Knee as a photographer with credentials from some phony paper. He's a good
PR man and worked for the Mafia running road houses before
coming to South Dakota. He talked his way in with us. He
could fly a plane and he had one to fly. He knew about wiretaping and stuff like that, he told us he would keep the F.B.I.
from tapping our phones. What we didn't know was that he
was a cop in Des Moines and was fired after he beat his pregnant wife to death in 1964. The F.B.I. holds that over him.
They never convicted him because the case was thrown out on
a technicality. He committed the murder in one county and

._I

.:
they tried him in another.
"
was with the A.I.M. for two years. He sat in on
private, confidential meetings between our people and their
lawyers, between attorneys and their clients. And the information he leaked out, the reports he wrote on us - these were
used by the F.B.I. against us. He gave out information on
groups and people who supported us, church groups that are
now targeted for harassment by the F.B.I. - a Lutheran
church, a Catholic church, any individual or group who supported us in any way is now a target of the F.B.I. We have
proof of all this - we have memos, grand jury testimony, eyewitnesses. If __
was subpoenaed by the Government,
they would have to admit that the F.B.I. infringed on the
rights of Indians. If they called him in, they would have to
drop charges against all the Indian people they are holding
in jail right now - for nothing. They did not do one criminal
thing!
"So here is
right now traveling the John Birch
Society lecture tour, making lots of money saying what bad
people Indians are. And the John Birchers are out to get our
leaders - one way or another. They've already attacked our
main office in Minneapolis and the Birchers shot four Indian
people who are still in the hospital.

November, 1979

American Atheist

"But it's not just Indian people. Remember this! Once

the Indian people are all suppressed by the Government, when
they get rid of us they're going to come down heavy on the
rest of you next. The media don't report what is happeningso nobody knows what is happening to us. That shows you
how the media can control the people of the United States.
So who controls the media? The Government. And the Goverment, through the media, is controlling the people."
Time and again one hears the cry of "media blackout"
from Indian people protesting abuses against them. There is
no coverage, they say. Why isn't there? Doesn't anybody
care? We are bleeding and dying and the American people
don't even know enough about it so they can ask why.
"That's one of our goals in this campaign," LeRoy Mills
explained. "To get the media into the educational process,
to show the people: 'Look! Here's what's really happening
on the reservations.' Show the killings, show the rapes, show
them beating up our women. I have a film that shows these
things. It's called AS LONG AS THE RIVERS RUN, a sixtyminute film. It shows our families sticking up for their fishing
rights and their treaty rights all over this country - and it
shows the cops coming in and doing their little trip on us. It's
a documentary on the struggle, produced by the people. We've
talked to all thes~ people who say they are reporters, and sat
down and negotiated. But they've never even let us screen the
film for them. We're still waiting for a lousy screening!"
Ernie Peters joins in - "We got all kinds of leaflets and
pamphlets saying what's happening. We talk to everybody who
comes to us. We're trying to work with local TV people here
in Los Angeles, anybody. We hope they may finally have a
conscience, because we're speaking with them and putting the
facts to them very simply, very plainly. We are letting them
know this is our last resort. It's only through the news media
w can let the rest of the country know what's happening to
the American Indian.
"Look, I myself and my brothers have gone overseas and
fought for this country and then after I come home I have
to fight against that same flag, that same Government, because
it's trying to control our people. We have our own flag, our
own nation. And after July 4, we are going to show our colors.
They are going to have to honor our treaties. They will have
to annihilate each and every Indian - man, woman, and
child. But before this happens, it's going to involve all nationalities. Because we are 'all sick and tired of the Government.

Austin, Texas

There's no one to look up to, no one to admire. No one whatsoever. "

So heavy were these talks with reservation and Movement
people that I felt the picture was perhaps being overstated. So
I sought the comments of a responsible "establishment"
Indian to balance these views. Judge Fred W. Gabourie who
sits on the Los Angeles Municipal Court is a former lawyer
who was sent to Wounded Knee to mediate between the
Indians and the Government. A Seneca whose father migrated
to California from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada,
Gabourie is a powerfully built man of 53 years. Tattoos on his
right forearm reflect a rugged youth during which he acted in
films as a stuntman, falling off of many horses as one of the
slaughtered "bad Indians" in B-westerns.
His office behind the courtroom had mostly modern furnishings, wood panels and an entire wall lined with leatherbound law books. Hanging from his walls were clear reminders
of his Indian heritage - a poster showing a young Indian brave
hugging an American flag while the legend reads "America Love It or Give It Back." A wall calendar with entries under
each day detailing the history of Indian maltreatment by the
Government from Colonial days clear up to Custer and the
Wounded Knee warfare. Between sitting in his judicial robes
for a case that was in progress and rushing back to his office
during breaks for our talks, Gabourie displayed the capacity
to switch gears from solemn arbiter to passionate eye-witness
of Indian grievances.
"Indian folks throughout this nation have been victims of
a giant ripoff," he said. "Wounded Knee was just a device to
Indians. When people are surrounded by so many coercive
pressures, just getting through each day can be an accomplishment. For example, at Wounded Knee and other places, there
are little trading posts. And if you're on foot at Wounded
Knee, you've got a 17-mile hike to get anywhere else. If you
don't do business at that trading post, you've either got to
go to Nebraska, the main community of Pine Ridge or to Hot
Springs, South Dakota. If you're an older person, or any person without wheels, and you're a craftsman who wants to sell
what you've made, you either sell it to that community
trading post or you sit on it. In other words, you are coerced
by the very nature of your isolation into selling crafts for
whatever they will give you.
..
"There are no buses, no public transportation of any kind.
You're isolated. So if you make and sell crafts to help support
your family, you have to sell and trade at that post. People are
de-humanized at these posts. Like you have an item you
worked many, many hours on and it's going to be sold for
twenty times more than they pay you. Say you make a pair of
beaded moccasins. You go in there and the person at the
trading post will give you $3 or $5 - in trade, not cash. They
give the excuse, "We are keeping the people from buying
booze," but what the hell- are we our brother's keeper? And
they take these moccasins and resell them to the public for
$50, $60, or $75. These are typical prices. Now the fact they
pay in trade is another ripoff, because that means they've got
a customer who's locked into the community. He can't take a
17 -mile walk just to buy his coffee somewhere else. So the coffee and other items are 30-50% higher at the Wounded Knee
trading post, or in any small Indian community, than it is in
the next large town.
"People in the trading post also hold on to Government
checks in many instances and cash them without permission.
These are checks sent to people on the reservation - the
trading post is also the post office, you see. And they will
hold onto these checks, particularly if someone in the family
owes them money.
"I get ticked off because Government agencies have not

November, 1979

Page 17

protected Indians on the Pine Ridge reservation as they should.

The F.B.I. went in there and people were guilty until proven
innocent. There are lots of cases where Indians were harassed
and are being harassed right now. The reason those two F.B.1.
agents were shot in the first place was because of harassment.
Had the F.B.I. treated those people the way they would treat
,...
someone in Beverly Hills, they would never have been fired on.
I was very disappointed with the attitude that those F.B.I.
agents have toward Indian people. You can kick the Constitution in the ass, as far as they are concerned. If they want to
walk into a house, they just walk into a house. And those poor
Indians don't have a damn person up there who gives a tinker's
damn about them! It makes me angry just to think about it.
At Pine Ridge, things are rampant - they've even declared ----martial law in there!"
Gabourie had been softly pounding his desk with his fist
as he relived his experiences in South Dakota. When he spotted
me observing it, he became self-conscious, fiddled with his
fingers, and then grinned.
"I don't like to get worked up like that," he said. "But
Indian rights have been trampled on all over the place. And the
courts have allowed a cancerous situation to grow. First,
they've overlooked the treaties. Second, they overlook the
rights of the individual living on the reservation - he's treated
A1
as a second class or less citizen. And third, the Government has
they are full of shit. Dennis Banks is a credit to the United
not met its obligation to protect individual rights in the cities,
States of America and to its people. The federal Government
the towns contiguous to the reservations. Towns like Hot
Springs, South Dakota, Hardin, Montana, in any state that has is out to stamp out the Indian Movement because it's a voice
a White/Indian division. Even in California, like in San Diego, for certain Indians. Not all Indians abide by the A.I.M. tenets,
but if you're a Republican, does that mean you should stamp
there are a lot of ignored water rights. It's an economic thing
with racial overtones. I think this Government would just love out all Democrats? I think dissension is a good part of the
American system. If the Indian people don't like A.I.M.,
it if all the Indians would disappear.
they'll kick it out. They don't need Uncle Sam to tell them it's
"If they could eliminate the Indian, they would eliminate
no good. Some of these charges are being trumped up to disthe treaties. We'd eliminate all the reservations and the cultural
credit the A.I.M. leaders. If you keep charging someone with
aspects, all the personalities - Indians would just be a polyglot.
You've got the fight over land, the fight over payments, the a crime, pretty soon he's discredited - he's considered an
agitator or whatever.
mineral rights, the oil and everything else. It would eliminate
"If the Movement has any Communist connections, I'm
a lot of the Government's problems if the Indians would just
go away. But it's not right. I know a lot of people in Govern- not aware of it. But even if there were a few, so what? If
another political form is better than what we've got, we'd
ment want to eliminate the Indians as a culture and as a people.
"Senator McGovern made a bad mistake at Wounded Knee. better listen. And if we've got a better political form, it will
He did not understand what was going on and did not take the survive. The worst thing this Government does is say 'You
time to understand it. It's easy to call a person a rebel, to pin can't do this or that!' If you can't belong to the Communist
labels on them without understanding anything. McGovern
Party, there are some people who will join just to spite you.
could have brought peace to that community if he had stepped
Now me, I'm a Republican - almost a Constitutional Repubin and done a few things - which he failed to do. They all lican. I feel strongly that a man has the right to free speech
failed to do it. The Wounded Knee incident could have and if he wants to espouse the tenets of Communism, I think
reached a media peak and sensitized the nation about the pro- he has that right. And I think people have the right to answer
blem and reached a peaceable settlement in 14 days or less - if him. But they "don't have the right to answer him with a stick
they would have allowed the communities within Pine Ridge or a gun.
to vote freely without fear or violence or coercion in honest
"The American Indian Movement is merely trying to bring
elections to determine who they wanted on the tribal council.
a bad situation to the eyes of the public. How many nonthe tribal chairman, was the bone of contenIndians in the American public realize that it's just been since
tion there. If they would have had an honest election,
1956 that Indians are allowed to buy alcoholic beverages?
everyone would have been satisfied. But they used coercion
How many people know that an Indian charged with a crime
and pure violence - because that police department there is, or misdemeanor does not have his Constitutional right to a
something else! When you have felons as policemen, you've
trial by jury? Or his right to private counsel? Many reservagot a bad police department. And those tribal police working
tions are still that way and it's true right now at Pine Ridge!
for
former felons. Now they've just held a In some reservations people don't have the right to bail or
new election and AI Trimble won. I know AI Trimble and he's other Constitutional rights like the right to remain silent withan honest man, his heart is in the right place: He is supposed
out getting your ass kicked!
to take full control in April - if he lives.

is such
"There's no question in my mind that when the Movement
an evil force there he would try to destroy anybody that gets people say they're going to blow the candles out this year,
in his way.
they mean it. It saddens me that people can be suppressed to
"These are the kinds of things the American Indian Move- a point where they must die to bring the picture to the public,
ment is against. Dennis Banks is a friend of mine and someone just to get basic rights. I think anybody that scoffs at them is
I respect. His being on the F.B.I.'s Most Wanted List is just a crazy. These people are very serious, very dedicated. Unless
lot of hogwash. Now I don't want to demean the F.B.I., but somebody pays attention, it will happen."

*'

"_._.1,

_._.Iwere

Page 18

November, 1979

American Atheist

..

So while the Euro- and Afro- and Asian-Americans get

ready to celebrate our 200th year as a free nation, the IndianAmericans are preparing to commemorate their 25th millenial
on' this land. Their planned festivities are a marked contrast
to the red, white and blue bunting adorning auto decals and
streamers on street lamps. LeRoy Mills describes that Indian
feeling "As human beings, Americans have been here for 200 years.
Whereas the Indian can say 'Here in this land we have been in
existence since time.' Every treaty was signed with the European people, the Asians and the other people who form that
group called "We the People." "We the People" is everybody
who isn't Indian. They signed those treaties as we did. Now
we are asking them to honor those treaties. We are on our last
peaceful campaign. We don't want to go to war. But whatever
it takes, whatever tactics, we will use them. I can't even afford
to discuss our plans because it's that way with us know. We're
talking about 372 different Indian nations that want to declare
war on the American public. And it's not only going to be the
Rockefellers and Fords and Sinclairs and the Kennedys who
are going to get hurt. It's going to be the public. Because we
are at the stage right now where we don't care what the hell
you do. You have done everything to us you possibly can."
Ernie Peters sums it up -

"It used to be that the people controlled the Government.

They told the Government what they needed and it was up to
the Government to see that they got it. Now it's the other way
around. Now the Government controls the people, the whole
world. Everybody knows that. And we no longer can do anything about it. So we are left with no alternative. This generation has got to make the change or we're all lost. I just hope
somebody hears us before it's too late."
"Aren't you afraid at all?" I asked.
"I'm afraid of only one thing," he said. "I'm afraid that
I'll be thrown in jail on some trumped up charge. I'm only
afraid that I won't be able to stand up and be with my people
when it counts. That's all I'm afraid ofnow."
The article above was submitted to the American Atheist
magazine in Spring, 1976. Your editor ordered it printed again
and again and again. In each instance, the managing editor
quietly would slip it into the bottom of the stack of manuscripts, to kill the article. Time after time, returning from a
trip, your editor would find it again and leave it for inclusion.
Now, without a "managing editor" the article is in.
The impotency and inadequacy built into the Indians in our
nation, through their enforced Christianization, is clearly evidenced in this article. The editor simply wanted to bring this
to your attention - in this dramatic, sympathetic, form.

"Say jeez."

November, 1979

Austin, Texas

Page 19

Ro rs --------of theism
JOSEPH
McCABE
Part 2

Joseph McCabe, at 35 years of age

[Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from Joseph

McCabe's Twelve Years in a Monastery and 80 Years a Rebel]
"Monasticism, inseparable as it is from every great religious system, seems to emanate spontaneously from the fundamental religious idea." So begins Joseph McCabe's first major
literary success, Twelve Years in a Monastery. It is not autobiography so much as it is analysis and indictment of monastic life, and the priesthood, based on his experiences as a monk
in the Franciscan Order of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is a supreme irony that one of the superstar intellectuals
of Atheism should also provide one of the most detailed and
authoritative views of the interior of the Roman Catholic
priesthood. For revealing the sleazy nature of this body of
men the Roman church tries to sell to the unknowing world as
a group of men who are as a whole, uniquely moral in a world
full of sin and corruption, he earned the bitter enmity of the
entire Roman establishment. What he revealed was that priests
and monks are less moral, less educated, and less mentally
healthy than the average sheep they supposedly are to shepherd to heavenly glory.
True, Atheists and Agnostics and Deists have always maintained this, but Neitzsche was never a monk, nor were Ingersoll, Jefferson, Voltaire, Bradlaugh, etc. The Roman Catholic
defenders could charge them with casting ignorant, bigoted insults on a body of men and women they knew little about.
Not so with McCabe. Here was an Atheist whose inside knowledge of the priesthood could not be disputed or discredited.
For this the Roman Catholic Church did its best to ruin
McCabe's reputation and to ruin him economically.

Page 20

But, as McCabe told Theodore Roosevelt once, his policy

was that "if any man smites me on one cheek, I smite him
promptly on both." The cheeks of the Roman church stung
smartly, while their blows never once even knocked him off
balance.
That an English citizen could ever have been a Roman
Catholic monk in England would have astounded Oliver Cromwell had anyone suggested such a future to him when he was
the victorious Protestant dictator of England. During the Reformation, Catholicism and all its priests and monks and nuns
were booted out of England. For a long time the Roman
church tried to get back into England (and reinstated as the
state religion) by plotting with other unhappy nobles to
place a Roman Catholic heir on the English throne. Mary
Queen of Scots is probably the most famous Roman Catholic
claimant to the throne, and Elizabeth I had a cutting comment
on her part in the Roman church's attempt to regain England.
The Vatican got back into England eventually by the low
road, imported in the faithful minds of French and Irish immigrants. At the same time the spirit of religious toleration
created by anti-Christian Deist, Agnostic and Atheist intellectuals was reducing general hostility to the papal sect. The Vatican was quick to exploit this by insisting their sheep needed
shepherds. England let the Roman Catholic church back in,
though with restrictions that the church did not suffer in the
so-called Catholic countries.
The Franciscan Order of Catholic monks was brought to
England by Agnellus of Pisa in the 13th century. After being
kicked out, the Grey Friars (so called because they originally
wore grey habits, though by McCabe's day the color was
either brown or yellow) sent covert monks over from France
to stir up trouble into the 19th century. Then, in.the middle
of the last century, the Belgian provice (a province is a national section of the order) of Franciscans sent a colony over to
England to revive the nearly extinct English province. This it
managed to do.
However, by the 19th century the Franciscans had split into three distinct factions; the brown-robed Belgians, the
yellow-robed French, and the bearded Capuchins. All three
claimed to be the True Descendants of the Grey Friars, and
McCabe found himself caught up in a nasty feud as each faction tried to damage or ruin .the other. This viciousness was
one of the conditions that compelled him to seriously question
the claims of the church and the religion it propagated.
The unique nature of the English orders was that the
Vatican considered them missionary missions. In a Catholic
dominated country like Belgium, monastic life had no "secular" functions - that is, no parish full of sheep to tend to.
In England, each monastery had a parish to tend to as welL
This played a part of driving McCabe from the Roman church;
he despised parish work, particularly confession.
Such was the state of monasticism when McCabe began at
age 16 to study Latin at the preparatory college at the Gorton
monastery in the Manchester suburb of West Gorton. His tender age was the rule, not the exception. Theoretically, a man
or woman received a "vocation" to become a priest or nun.
In other words, god called them to the job. In the 19th een-

November, 1979

American Atheist

\
I

tury, god evidently was no longer interested in his corps of usually expurgated (after an .unsuccessful attempt, unlier Pius
heaven-hawkers, because the rate of "vocations" was so low, IX, to abolish them altogether), and the whole generously inthe Vatican urged the orders to recruit adolescents before terlarded with spiritual and ascetical exercises. The "humanthey became old enough to have a realistic idea of what tak- ities" succeeds a course of scholastic philosophy, which usualingvows meant.
ly occupies two years, and which now usually includes a few
The main source of recruits were the parochial schools, carefully expurgated and commentated lessons on physical
which is one of the main reasons the Roman church struggles science - for ecclesiastics are beginning to take the bull by
the horns (very gently, and with much soothing language).
so .hard to revive its declining parochial school enrollment
Finally, the student is treated to a three years' course on
by getting parochiaid from the state and federal governments.
First, the priests or nuns have years and years in which to in- theology, passes a severe examination, and is admitted to
doctrinate vulnerable children's minds to an inclination to see ordination. "
Such was the scheme. In reality, this six years of education
the priest's or nun's life as a desirable one. Second, they can
discover the brightest kids and work especially hard to recruit was compressed to less than a year (June, 1884 to May, 1885)
them. Third, they can insure no knowledge harmful to religion for McCabe's class. Even in the 19th century, the Roman
Catholic Church was desperate for warm bodies to fill up the
disturbs those young minds with heretic thoughts.
McCabe was the brightest lad in the school and the Fran- ranks of the priesthood. The need totally overwhelmed whatciscans drooled over this prize. But they were cool. The monks ever value education was thought to have. Also, and just as
hinted and subtly prodded him about joining. The dirty work significant, to wait six years would be to lose most of the
of seducing the youth went to a lay-brother. Lay-brothers
adolescents if allowed to reach 20 or so before ordination.
were the "enlisted" men of the orders. They were "usually
Needless to say, the "severe" examination was about as difmen of little or no education" who did "the menial offices of ficult to pass as the "intelligence" tests given to military
the community." The "officers" were the clerics, who were draftees and volunteers of the Vietnam era. Of course, had it
the only ones who enjoyed the distinctive title of Father. been as severe as it was supposed to be, McCabe would have
McCabe experienced no calling. There were three reasons, passed it without a sweat. At no time did the Roman church
all secular, for his joining the monastery.
give him a real intellectual challenge.
[1] In those days the priest enjoyed enormous prestige
McCabe entered the Franciscan Order and gave up his
among the common people. McCabe's mother considered them civilian clothes for the "uncomfortable
and unsanitary"
uncanonized saints. Also, the life of the priest was easy com- brown habit. He also gave up his name, for this is the symbol
pared with that of the average worker in the era of lO-hour that the new monk "is henceforth dead to the world." McCabe
days, six-day work weeks, and seven-dollars-per-week wages. became Father Anthony.
From the outside, it seemed like an envious life.
[2] At 16 he had no idea what celibacy meant. Of course,
in Victorian England sexual prudery was supreme, and celibacy was idealized in a way it no longer is today. Secular
society accepted fully the ugly description of human sexuality
sectarians offered from the "divine wisdom" of the Bible and
early Christian theologues. None of this contributed to a
16-year-old's ability to make a rational decision about committing himself or herself to a life of celibacy. In McCabe's
particular case, he didn't know even what sexuality was.
Childhood illnesses and, he believed, too much studying delayed his puberty. In fact, thanks to the terrible dyspepsia
he caught after joining the order, he did not reach puberty
until age 24. Unlike many ex-priests, the unnaturalness of the
celibate life never played a serious role in souring his opinion
of the priestly existence.
[3] His family, particularly his mother, wanted to give a
son to the church. His mother had put him under the patronage of St. Joseph at birth hoping the saint would see to it that
he was that son. (However, his family, especially his father,
realized what the vows of the priesthood meant, and told him
that they did not want him to commit a life-long mistake; if he
quit, they would approve of his decision. Twelve years later
they did not let him down.)
So it was that after learning Latin at the preparatory college
(and after a change in leadership at the Gorton monastery
that had turned him down because of the disagreement his
father had had with the Grey Friars there), Mcffabe was "received as a pupil and aspirant to the monastic life." This involved a more extensive "education" while he still lived at
home.
"The scheme," as McCabe described the grand education
he was later accused of turning against the church, "is divided
broadly, according to universal ecclesiastical usage, into three
sections. The preliminary training consists of the usual course
Joseph McCabe, at Brisbane, Australia, in 1920
of classics and mathematics: the classics being more than

November, 1979

Austin, Texas

Page 21

He began the year of the novitiate at the monastery at

Killarny in Ireland, which was an introduction into real asceticism. Discipline was harsh. Life consisted of a lot of praying.
The rule of silence was rigidly enforced. "Profane" study was
prohibited, and the rebel nearly got booted out for being
caught studying a Greek grammar book.
Here he got one of his first introductions to the intellectual
idiosy that permeates Roman Catholicism. Prayer sessions
were so long no normal, sane individual could keep his mind
on "holy" thoughts. Secular thoughts, he was taught by one
novice-master, were caused by surrendering to the temptations
of ugly, little demon imps that stood on their shoulders. The
novice-master assured them many of the elder brethren had
seen the critters.
The conditions and the demands of the novitiate were unhealthy. During this period McCabe came down with a severe
case of dyspepsia that tormented him like a papal curse for
30 years. McCabe summed the novitiate up with these words:
"The whole scheme of discipline is crushing and degrading ....
Everything is done to crush the last particle of self-respect, to
destroy and pervert character to monastic purposes."

a Lutheran seminary professor disclosed the results of his

study of alcoholism in the priesthoods of all sects (see the American Atheist, March, 1976, p. 6), and it is as serious a problem as McCabe described. The Roman Catholic clergy leads the
other priesthoods in the abuse. Generally, as in McCabe's days
of "holiness," the saintly alcoholics are plateau drinkers constantly inebriated but still able to function on the get-by level.
One of the gravest crimes of the monastery was that the
teenagers recruited into it were thrust into a life of heavy
drinking that was encouraged by the example of their superiors.
It was the hypocrisy of the priesthood that repelled
McCabe the most, and was a major factor in creating doubt in
his mind that led him to question not only monasticism, but
the most sacred dogmas of the church.
During the novitiate, every effort was made to keep the
novice from learning, even in theory, about the joys of sex.
To do so, severe "ethico-theological" scarecrows were erected
to terrify any thought that should stray near sex, which accounts for the ugly anti-sexuality that is one of the more remarkable features of Roman Catholic clergymen, particularly
the older ones "educated" more
McCabe was.

Only those really perverted did not avoid what rigors they
could. For instance, though the old self-tortures of the
"saints" and the hideous implements they had used on themselves were inside jokes at the monastery, each novice was expected to lock himself in his cell and flog himself with a knotted cord three times a week. Outside in the corridor the
superior would recite the "Miserere" aloud while McCabe and
the other novices religiously flogged their desks or any other
resonant surface to produce satisfying sound effects.
Should there be, though, some pious "saint" who took the
whole thing seriously, the friars had insured that the "instruments of torture were guaranteed to be perfectly harmless,
even in the hands of a fanatic." McCabe in all his twelve years
found no fanatics. Only the faithful in the pews were to be
led to believe that their shepherds piously believed the psychotic self-tortures of the "saints" were acts of supreme virtue
and holiness.
McCabe quickly discovered that monastic life was corrupt
with hypocrisy. The monks were not inclined to obey the
restrictions to fish on meatless days, and beat that mild act
of obedience by theologically ruling water-fowl such as ducks
and geese were fish! The Franciscan Order forbid smoking, but
the monks puffed away in sanctity because the Order perJoseph McCabe, at the top of a Queensland Mountain
mitted the use of tobacco if "medically" prescribed. McCabe
was to learn that there was not "yet a constitution [all the
The result was that the boys never had a chance to really
monastic orders had constitutions that stated their aims and
understand what a vow of celibacy. actually meant in human
purposes and the unique laws that distinguish them] in which
terms, which was exactly-the church's intent.
a theologian could not find a loophole and pass through it
Every three months the monastic community voted, using
with unruffled dignity."
white and black marbles, on the worthiness of the candidates
Drinking alcohol was prodigious. The maximum permitted
for the order. With warm bodies in such short supply, blackwas a pint of beer at dinner, another at "tea" time, and more
balling rarely occurred. So, at the end of twelve months,
beer at supper. On festivals, a half bottle of wine was allowed
McCabe and five other boys went through the impressive
each at dinner. During fasts, because drink does not break ceremony in which they vowed to observe the rule of St.
fasts, "any amount of beer or wine may be taken." Whiskey
Francis and "to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience for
was forbidden, but flowed freely, if more discreetly.
the whole time of their lives."
-McCabe discovered that those his mother believed were
In 1886 McCabe and the other five reported to the Forest
"saints in the terrestrial phase" were mostly alcoholics, alGate monastery in East London to start their studentship.
though few were falling-down drunks. The term today is
This was a resumption of "profane" study, largely on the
"plateau drinker"; though their consumption was far above
same plan as that prior to the novitiate, only in greater deaverage, so was their tolerance, and even if they could not
tail. Actually, the year of the novitiate sufficed to obliterate
be called sober, they could function well enough to get by.
even in McCabe's mind almost all the hurried, compressed,
McCabe. knew many a monk in his 50s and 60s whose mind
mutilated "education" given to the boys. Now that the church
was ruined from alcohol abuse.
actually had them solid, she could relax and allow a more
That this is not a malicious lie spread by a vindictive malrealistic attempt to educate the shepherds of her flocks.
content 'is proven by a study nearly 100 years later: In 1976
Or, so it was supposed to be in theory .....

Page 22

November, 1979

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American Atheist

In the first place, the goal of studentship was not education

by any honest definition of the term. The main purpose was
to thoroughly convince the student that the Roman Catholic
"scholastic system is so clearly and uniquely true that all
opponents are either feeble-minded or dishonest - usually
the latter alternative is urged." This was accomplished by
either excluding or presenting a grotesquely inaccurate version
of rival philosophies. While learning was encouraged, thinking
was not. (If anyone is so kind-hearted as to believe that this
is a sin of the 19th century church, read the article on Atheism
in the Catholic Encyclopedia.)
The vigor of the student's mind, if not ruined during his
novitiate, was numbed by having to deal with questions of
grave human importance such as "whether the influence of
grace on the soul is physical or moral; whether Christ would
still have come upon the earth if Adam had not taken to
apples; whether (as it was once put to me) the soul will spend
its eternity in careering around the divine essence or in plunging deeper and deeper into it, etc." No wonder, when the pope
speaks, he seems little in touch with reality.
The result was that few priests bothered with scholarship.
McCabe, having come into the priesthood with a scholarly
spirit, kept it still. He was intolerant of the inferior instructors
who were too ignorant on the subject to teach it to a person
as intelligent as McCabe, and he was a ringleader in getting
many of the instructors canned for incompetence. This might
have gotten him into quite a bit of trouble if he had not pursued mastery of scholastic theology on his own, and won such
an esteemed reputation that after his studentship, he was
given the chair of philosophy at Forest Gate.
However, his intensive study of the schoolmen was not
from zeal, but a determined effort to find satisfactory answers
to the doubts he was troubled with in the greatest of the Roman Catholic thinkers.
Here at Forest Gate he came under the influence of Father
David, who he credits "for the formation of habits of industry
and precision" that in later years allowed him to write so
many books (over 200) on so many diverse subjects. Father
David, himself skeptical of the church's dogmas; was McCabe's
sympathetic confessor and the youth was extremely grateful
to have such an understanding, tolerant person to discuss his
troubling doubts with. Father David tried to win him to his
practice of hypocritically being privately skeptical, publicly
faithful - a common trait among priests, McCabe was to learn.
He failed and became one of McCabe's most vicious enemies
after he left the church.
At Forest Gate the curriculum that was designed to last
years while the student slowly earned his way through eight

In the Australian Bush (McCabe is the first on the right)

orders until he graduated at last as a full priest endowed with

all the magical powers the Roman church claims for her clergy,
was in fact mutilated so that in two years,.at age 19, McCabe,
after another "severe" examination, became a member of the
Roman Catholic priesthood. Once again, the major motivation
was the desperate shortage of priests - and this in the '19th
century.
For the Franciscans, though, there was another reason.
One of the main sources of income for the order was selling
masses. Of course, it wasn't called selling, for that was prohibited. The person desiring a mass made a "present" to a
priest, which by order of the bishop in McCabe's day had to
be no less than half-a-crown. A priest could say a mass for
free if he wanted, but then the order's income would fall and
that priest would come into disfavor. A student could not say
mass; only priests could.
.
Also, as priests, the monks could earn money for the order
hiring out to fill in for a vacationing "secular" priest (one not
attached to a monastic order). They could earn for the order
a handsome income by travelling to parishes and holding
revivals rather like' the Protestant evangelists do (including
hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, which an old pro had recommended to McCabe as the most effective). Also, in these parishes, they were expected to recruit boys for the order, and a
poor recruiting performance would reflect badly on their
chances to advance in their career. All this was called missionary work, something a student could not do.
McCabe was lucky. His impressive mastery of scholastic
theology got him the chair of philosophy at Forest Gate, and
his teaching duties plus recurring bouts of dyspepsia freed
him from missionary work and excessive involvement in
sacerdotal functions as confession and, because English monasteries had charge of parishes, visiting local families. For this
he was glad; he hated such activities.
McCabe found that monastic "life was extremely insanitary, and there was much sickness [as he could personally
attest!] among us. During three years we lost six of our young
men, and almost all of us entered upon our active career with
deeply impaired constitutions." The main evils were lack of
exercise, too much booze, and "the isolation, the dull, soulbenumbing oppression of monastic life." Though no expense
was spared on the sick, the care was incompetent and unskilled.
In such an environment McCabe lived, teaching the nonsense of scholastic theology to students, studying extensively
on his own, performing those sacerdotal duties he could not
avoid, and doubting, always doubting. He was in an agonizing
transition from faith to Atheism, but he did not see it in this
positive light. He saw it negatively as only losing faith, and
he fought it with the surest weapon to guarantee defeat reason!
In 1893, due to a reorganization, he found himself without
students. His superiors thought it an opportune time to fill
in a gap in their curriculum by sending McCabe to study Hebrew at Louvain University in Belgium, the principal institution for higher learning for the Franciscans in North Europe.
Earlier he had had a chance to attend the order's university at
Aracoeli, which was one of those "laboratories for inoculating
the cleverer priests from all lands with the true indestructible
papal virus." Fortunately for McCabe, Forest Gate's need for
a competent philosophy professor had saved him.
At Louvain, McCabe naturally exploited the opportunity
to take besides Hebrew, a course in Syriac, an elementary
course of biblical criticism, and a higher course of scholastic
theology. There he got another example of the true extent
of Catholic numbers. Out of a student body of 1,600, there
were only 50 priests at the university dedicated to educating
priests. The other 1,550 students were not there for ecclesias-

November, 1979

Austin, Texas

1/

Page 23

tical studies.
For those who did not get much out of vicarious kicks,
McCabe was glad to go to Belgium where he could see and treated their vow of celibacy as hypocritically as any
"pure" monastic life in a Catholic country where the Vatican
other vow, confession did not have to be done in the conhad enough political power to cause the civil law to be written
fessional box, where anything other than obscene talk was imto protect what it arrogantly claims are its "divine" privileges
possible. These priests would encourage their regular women
In the case of monks, the laws allowed them to translate the
customers to be "sick" so that confession would need to be
monastic ideals of their various constitutions into active life.
done in their homes - while the husband was away, of course!
For instance, individual Franciscans -could travel on Belgium's
Naturally, the Roman church claimed, and still claims, that
railroads without having to pay themselves (the railroad billed
confession was a moral prophylactic, but McCabe had seen
the bishop), for the Franciscan constitution forbid individuals
from the inside that confession provided no moral influence
of his fellow monks, and having grown up in Catholic neighhandling money. In England, the civil law scoffed at such nonborhoods, he knew the sheep were not outstanding examples
sense, and monks there were required to pay for train tickets
of morality - unless compared to their shepherds. The real
like any other citizen.
purpose of confession, he came to understand, was that "it
He was shocked to find the Belgian monks on the average
creates a vast gulf between clergy and laity, and considerably
a worse lot than the English monks. He was disgusted by "the
accentuates the superiority of the former."
miserable hypocrisy, the sordid mixture of ascetic professions
Though he knew that theologians agreed, to do so was a
and greedy, greasy practices." He was probably offended most
sure ticket to hell, McCabe was proud he never indulged in
by the fact that most of the lazy, alcoholic slobs didn't even
"the hateful practice of interrogating on malodorous subtake a bath - of course, they claimed they were imitating
St. James, no doubt to raise a holy stink god could smell in
jects. "
heaven.
Yet, in England the Belgian monasteries had been presented to him as perfect models of monastic life. What he
came to realize was that the English monks were generally
a better bunch of men not because of the moral influence of
religion or monastic life, but because the pressure of living in
McCabe
a largely Protestant country where they were always under
at age 80
critical examination by a people willing and eager to rub their
faces in their failings. The English monks, as sorry as they
were, were nevertheless superior to the Belgian boys only to
escape Protestant criticism - certainly not to win god's
approval.
McCabe also discovered in Belgium how much the Roman
church exaggerated its numbers. Although religious pageantry
would draw big crowds, McCabe discovered the hard way how
much the religion meant to people there. He assisted three
In 1895, he eagerly jumped at a chance to escape sacerdotal
people in dying. All three were supposedly Catholics, and
duties. His confessor and best friend Father David wanted to
final confession for a Catholic is extremely important.
create a college for the preparatory classical studies, and finalOne fellow didn't want to confess, but agreed to do it if
ly he was able to do it. It was called College of St. Bernardine
it would make McCabe happy. Another man he had to coax
and was located in Buckingham.
into confessing, but the fellow refused adamantly to receive
He wanted McCabe to be the rector, but by now McCabe
communion and extreme unction. The third person was unhad many enemies. He was too independent, too-moral, and
conscious, but her friends present were indifferent if he perhe was highly critical of monastic life. A war of disgusting
formed his priestly services for her "immortal soul."
intrigue and opposition developed, which Father David won.
McCabe's experiences and disillusionments in Belgium gave
But McCabe's appointment as rector raised a bitter and secret
his doubts the upperhand in his mind, perhaps for the first
hostility in those who controlled the financial fate of the
.time, Before his bouts of doubt would alternate with absolute
college. The result was that for the five months McCabe ran
conviction of the truth of Roman Catholicism and god's exthe place, money was always tight, but as soon as the opposiistence. After Belgium, his struggle was not with a declining
tion got a rector to their liking, money poured in.
faith, but with working up the nerve to secede from his vows,
McCabe performed his duties well and honestly after
his order, and his religion.
opening St. Bernardine in October, 1895. All the while, he
In 1884, Forest Gate again had students in need of Mcwas resolving his last doubts and steeling himself for the
Cabe's teaching, and he was prematurely recalled from Louordeal of secession. He had much against the church, beginning
vain. Now he found himself burdened with his professional
with the dismal, nasty reality of the inner-life of the priestduties, but also thoroughly immersed in the sacerdotal duties
hood.
he hated. Confession was at the head of the list. Of this funda- .
But he also saw that "girls educated by nuns are less premental Roman Catholic sacrament, he wrote, "Nothing could
pared for the difficulties of life and much more liable to come
be more degrading, to priest and penitent alike, than the practo grief than other girls."
tice of auricular confession."
The Roman church proudly claimed to care for the poor,
The most degrading aspect of confession was the detailed
but he saw the poor of London in conditions of poverty that
probing into sins required by the priest before he could grant
not even the poorest Americans suffer today; meanwhile, the
absolution. He considered this totally corrupting as he discovchurch collected enormous sums to build a useless, though
ered that it provoked-a shameless orgy of imagination. Women,
magnificent, cathedral in London.
both young and old, often developed a perverted pleasure in
He discovered that though the Roman church loudly prodrawing the priest into a pornographic dialogue as they conclaimed to have 250,000 faithful in London, actually nearly
fessed imaginary sex-exploits. Needless to say, too many
80,000 of that total were Catholic only by virtue of having
priests also enjoyed this sick expression of twisted psychobeen baptized such as infants.
[Part 3, next month]
sexuality.

Page 24

November, 1979

American Atheist

A JOYOUS ATHEIST
G. Richard

Bozarth

AlDerican Atheist Report:

Playboy Exposes Religious Decline
The current religious revival, based on the latest expectations that Jesus Christ will come again soon, does not reflect
a renewal of religious belief in the average citizen. As Bertrand Russell observed in the 60s, the intellectuals of all nations are mostly Atheists, Agnostics, or Deists. Increasingly,
this is true of the "common" person of scientifically advanced
cultures. That religion appears so mighty in the U.S.A. is only
because of the wealth it can accumulate, without having to
account for a cent to anyone, under this nation's unconstitutional tax-exemptions.
The most recent revelation of religion's weakness in the one
place it cannot afford to be weak - the human mind - is
"The Playboy Report on American Men" published this year.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc., commissioned Louis Harris & Associates, Inc., to conduct the poll "because a comprehensive
study of the American male had not been done in many
years," as Hugh M. Hefner explained in a letter enclosed with
the book.
Louis Harris intensively interviewed 1,990 men representing
a cross section of the male population in America. These men
were put into one of four categories, each category being a
nearly equal percentage of the whole. The categories are:
Traditionalists (23%) - "Defenders of the past, men who
are deeply committed to time-honored values. They rally
round what is secure and familiar, persisting in old allegiances
and finding little value in new alternatives."
.
Conventionals (27%) - "Also prefer what is established and
familiar; but, unlike Traditionalists, these men are more ready
to consider new alternatives - after they have gained acceptance and approval by society in general."
Contemporaries (25%) - "Prefer the new, but their inclination is tempered by a concern for continuity within the established order. Men in this category are usually fashionable
but rarely aoanie-garde:"
Innovators (25%) - "Show a strong enthusiasm for what
is new. Their preference is marked by a willingness to experiment with traditional forms. These men are not the inventers
of new alternatives, but they are generally the first to try them
out."
The age range of the sample was from 18 to 49, and each
category was represented by all ages, but, of course, not
evenly. For instance, the Traditionalists consisted of 20%
18-22, 41% 23-39, and 37% 40-49. The Innovators break
down into 32% 18-22, 57% 23-39, and 11% 40-49. The two
middle categories also have reasonably fair representations of
the ages considering the life-attitudes they represent.
Religion was one of the subjects investigated, and the results will not make the pope or Billy Graham or the Mormon
president smile.
The sample consisted of 53% who considered themselves
Protestant, 29% Roman Catholic, 3% Jewish, 4% "Other"
(i.e., the minority religions like Buddhism, Islam, and the
cults), and 10% were described as "None." This last term can
only mean Atheist/ Agnostic, but evidently neither Playboy

nor Louis Harris wanted to actually admit this. The term

"none" is meaningless, unless it means that 10% of the sample
had absolutely no definable position on religion and religionrelated questions. This is very unlikely.
The response to the first question would bring smiles to
the face of any religious leader. "Do you believe in a supreme
being?" brought an 82% "Yes" response. (Traditionalists 93%; Conventionals - 87%; Contemporaries - 80%; Innovators - 67%) However, it was revealed single men were less
likely to believe in a supreme being than married men, and
older men believed more than younger men.
It is curious that only 10% of the sample claimed to be
Atheist/Agnostic as a classification (even if that classification
was a vague "none"), but in reality 18% proved to be Atheist/ Agnostic in belief! At the time of the survey, there was an
estimated population of 46 million American men between
the ages of 18-49. That means the male Atheist/Agnostic
population between those ages is 8.1 million - and this only
represents those bold enough to confess it anonymously to
Louis Harris! We are not alone; but, alas, most of. us are still
deep in the closet.
The results of the following question quickly take some of
the joy religious leaders would feel at the above 82%. "Do
you believe that there is some form of life after death?" drew
only a 68% "Yes" response. (Traditionalists - 82%; Conventionals - 73%; Contemporaries - 63%; Innovators - 56%)
So, to the 18% who do not believe in god, add 14% whose religious beliefs do not conform to those that can be described
as Christian or Jewish or Moslem or Morrnorror even most of
the cults. Though at least 85% claimed to belong to one of
the major religions teaching as one of their most essential
dogmas life after death, there are really 17% of the 18-49
male population who are not Christian or Jewish in belief
despite their claim to be Protestant, Jewish, or Roman Catholic.
Probably this 17% - particularly the Jews - call themselves a member of one of these three sects for cultural, rather
than religious reasons. What they define as Protestant or
Roman Catholic or Jewish involves most likely the social environment in which they grew up, which most likely was heavily dominated by one sect. That this 17% still claims to believe
in a deity no doubt represents a residue of their childhood religious indoctrination - they won free of organized religion,
but stalled still in theism. A more accurate term for this 17%
would be Theist.
To move to the next question will bring outright frowns
on the faces of those who lead organized religion. "Do you
attend a place of worship regularly?" limped away with a
damning 30% "Yes" response! Only among the Traditionalists
did a majority answer "Yes" (56%). The others don't even
come close to a majority: Conventionals - 32%; Contemporaries - 22%; Innovators - 10%. A further breakdown shows
only one in three husbands answered "Yes," while it was one
in four for single men and one in eight among divorced men.

November, 1979

Austin, Texas

Page 25

The lower income classes registered only a 23% "Yes" response compared to 37% for the upper income classes.
This shows dramatically how weak religion is in America.
Of the 68% who believed in both a god and an afterlife, well
over half of them do not believe that god worthy of serious
worship in order to insure their position in the afterlife is a
favorable one. The only conclusion that can be reached is
that for the vast majority of American men, their religious
beliefs are only the pale, lingering shadows of the religious
brainwashing of their childhoods. Their belief is only an
answer to a question, not a vital, living part of their lives.
This conclusion is shown by the percentages of "Yes"
answers to two questions. Only 16% answered "Yes" to "Is
religion among the two or three most important things to
you personally?" (Traditionalists - 33%; Conventionals 18%; Contemporaries - 9%; Innovators - 5%) However,
35% answered "Yes" to "Is religion among the two or three
least important things to you personally?" (Traditionalists 16%; Conventionals - 28%; Contemporaries - 39%; Innovators - 56%)
Imagine that! Out of 46 million men, only about seven
million consider religion of any real importance. 16 million
men don't believe religion is of any significant importance
at all. The other 23 million are somewhere in between, with
more leaning towards the unimportance of religion than towards the importance of religion.
Yet, every day the electronic and print media bombard us
with the message that religion is the most important thing in
human life. At least once a month President Carter tells us
this. If a religious leader gets an opportunity to appear in print
or on radio or TV, he or she does not miss the chance to stress
the supreme importance of religion. Even Nixon has had more
success selling his innocence with far less effort than religious
leaders have had selling religion's importance with the most
sophisticated,
well-financed, government-aided propaganda
campaign ever unleashed on a helpless population.
To think that out of 46 million men, only 16% accept the
message of that propaganda campaign is staggering. It is reasonable to conclude that if that ceaseless, massive, all-pervasive
propaganda effort were to stop for a moment, religion probably could not hold this last 16%. This is why religionists fight
so viciously to deny Atheists any access to the media; religion's hold on the human mind is so tenuous that any competition from Atheism on a fair basis would wipe it out!
One of the greatest PR efforts conducted by religion is to
convince us that religion is essential to morality, which must
include the concepts of mental and physical well-being, for
those who are harmful elements in society are most often
those who are mentally or physically dysfunctional. If religion
can succeed in this with a person who ceases to believe in its
gods and dogmas, then religion will only lose a mind, but not
gain a foe. This succeeds very well, as the historians Will and
Ariel Durant show. In the eleven volumes of their famous
Story of Civilization, these Agnostics honestly record the,
ghastly horrorstory of Christianity - but nevertheless claim
a dozen or more times per volume that religion not only produces morality, but is essential to it.
This must account for the contradiction represented by
the results to the question "How useful do you feel each system is in promoting physical and mental well-being?" The
choices were: Organized Religion, Individual Psychotherapy,
Group Therapy, Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Consciousness-Raising, Erhard Seminar Training, and New Religious
Movements (Krishna, Moon, etc.). The percentages given are
the total of those who answered "Very Useful" or "Somewhat Useful." This, unfortunately, is a dilution of the impact
of the response, for there is a vast gulf of meaning between

"Very Useful" and "Somewhat Useful." The former indicates

certainty, while the latter indicates uncertainty. The two
should not have been combined.
However, the two replies were, and so it stands that all
categories of men responded that organized religion was
the first among the selections as being very or somewhat
useful to promoting physical or mental well-being. (Could
this have been the reason for combining the dissimilar answers, to cause organized religion to come in first?) The total
response was Organized Religion - 73%; IP - 55%; GT 51%; Yoga - 32%; TM - 30%; CR - 26%; EST - 13%;
NRM - 9%. The breakdown of organized religion was Traditionalists - 83%; Conventionals - 79%; Contemporaries 70%; Innovators - 59%.
The 18% who revealed themselves to be Atheist/Agnostic,
and therefore those most likely to seriously investigate religion's claims, show up as having no faith in the good effects
religion insists it has. Add to that another 9% who are of the
same opinion. This 9% is probably made up of the Theists,
for along with Atheists and Agnostics, Theists have historically
been a group that will investigate critically organized religion.
Without a breakdown of that 73% into what percentage
answered "Very Useful" and what percentage replied "Somewhat Useful," the real significance of the response cannot be
accurately gauged. However, the response to another question
indicates how misleading that 73% rating is. Only 44% answered "Very Satisfied" to the question "How satisfied do you feel
at the present with your religion?" (Traditionalists-59%;
Conventionals - 43%; Contemporaries - 38%; Innovators - 36.%)
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that satisfaction
with religion and a certainty that religion is very useful in promoting physical and mental well-being must be closely related,
if not directly connected. It becomes unlikely that the positive
response of "Very Useful" is much more than the 44% response of "Very Satisfied." It is safe to say that half or more
of the 18-49 American male population does not consider religion the primary source of physical and mental well-being.
This last conclusion is revealed by the percentages of those
who replied "Very Important" to the question "How important is each item to you personally for a happy, satisfied life?"
Health. ". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. :"-;
89
Love
,
85
Peace of Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Family Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Work
65
Friends
63
Respect of Others
58
Education
57
Sex
49
Religion ................................
41
Money
39
Little more needs to be said. The majority of American
men are pragmatically Atheist; that is, though they may have
religious beliefs and even attend church, they in fact live each
day as if there were no god! The ten elements judged most
important for attaining happiness are all secular - and all
Atheist, for what Atheist would argue that the ten most important facets of human life in this survey are not in the life
of ev,ery Atheist also the most important components of human happiness?
Religion is strong only because of its tax-exempt wealth
and the few million single-issue voters it can still command,
which it uses ruthlessly to keep politicians cowered and criticism suppressed. In reality, religion is extremely weak in the
human minds of America. It can attract few to church; it cannot muster a majority who are satisfied with it; it is not considered very essential to human happiness.
[continued

Page 26

November, 1979

nl

on page 29]

" American Atheist

Connie Perozino

'l'lIpestr~
Born-Again Balderdash
Jimmy Carter, in seclusion for 11
days seeking divine guidance in resolving the nation's inflation and energy
crisis, arose from from Camp David
to declare, "Americans must stop cursing and start praying." Not an unexpected commandment from a self-confessed born-again Christian, but a
totally unacceptable dictate to Atheists - free from the bondage of religion - and an absurdity from the
leader of a democratic nation.
Carter's address to the nation was
more a sermon, rife with religious overtones, replete with those "Oh thou
of little faith" insinuations designed
to intimidate straying sheep back into
a socially acceptable fold and beseechments that if we say anything, we say
"something good about America."
Well, sir, I welcome the opportunity
to good-mouth my government, but
the instances in which I can justify
my doing so are, alas, few and far
between. As to my being of "little
faith," I have incontrovertible faith
in what is reasonable, logical, and no
evidence has been presented to me to
substantiate that supplications into
the wind will solve any of my problems, including the skyrocketing costs
of fuel and my inability to locate that
purportedly scarce commodity.
Bemoaning the public's "loss of
confidence in their government," Carter avoided dealing with our potent
reasons for such a "loss" and, instead,
attempted
to rekindle a patriotic
spirit of national pride in disgruntled
Americans. One more glowing example
of the political leader who has not yet
come to grips with the fact that the
days of "my country, right or wrong"
have gone with the wind, blown away
by such a consistent pattern of governmental deceit that few of us any
longer trust a word they say.
Neglected Details
Many of Carter's suggested remedies are terribly naive and either the
man is in over his depth, or has a passel of incompetents advising him. He
proposes setting up a new energy program - to cost $143 billion over the

next ten years - designed to assure us

that "never again will our nation's independence be hostage to foreign oil"
and says those costs will be absorbed
by the oil industry, through a windfall
profits tax to be imposed upon them.
That proposal is problematic.
First, nobody, not even the bureaucratic mechanisms created to do so,
has ever been able to get a financial
handle on the profits being amassed
by the oil industry. Carter neglected
to detail how we will succeed where
all others failed, but one can assume
prayer will play an important role
in his scenario.
The President is asking Congress to
deregulate the gas and oil industry's
prices in order to impose the windfall tax and sternly warned "they
must cooperate" by not gouging the
consumer. A brief history of the
ethics often practiced by that industry will illustrate what hope Americans
can hold for that cooperation.
Last November, a Ralph Nader
group reported that nine members
fo the -Senate Finance Committee,
which approved a series of tax breaks
for the oil and gas industry, received
contributions from that industry totalling $547,000 during the last three
years. Some of the more notable recipients were: Sen. Lloyd Bentsen,
Democrat of Texas and a leading advocate of natural gas price deregulation, who received the largest contrilmtion, $265,181; Sen. Robert Dole,
a Kansas Republican; Sen. Mike Gravel, an Alaskan Democrat; and Sen.
Russell Long, a Democrat
from
Lousiana.
Late in 1979, Gulf Oil was fined'
$229,000 for illegal campaign contributions and had previously paid a
$5,000 fine for spending corporate
money on political campaigns. Gulf
admitted doling out $10-12 million in
political contributions here and overseas, and set up a $10 million slush
fund in a subsidiary in the Bahamas,
so the money could not be traced,
which allegedly was disbursed through
a Swiss bank account and delivered in
sealed envelopes to American politicians.

Nonsense!
Gulf also paid a $36,000 fine after
pleading guilty to illegally providing
trips for an Internal Revenue Service
accountant in charge of Gulf's tax account. Gulf is not the only oil corporation to be caught performing such
illegalities. Phillip's Petroleum, for example, has pleaded guilty to one
count of a five-count charge that the
company made illegal campaign contributions and evaded taxes on a political
slush fund' totalling $3 million.
Given the industry's financial ability to confer, and some governmental
officials proclivity to receive, I hold
little hope either group will "cooperate" unless such collaboration proves
a means to their personal ends. .
Does Carter really expect us to believe the oil industry's corporate officers and shareholders will pay the
$143 billion in costs for his proposed
energy program? Nonsense! Those
costs will be passed along to the consumer. The best we can anticipate if
this program is implemented will be:
even highers gas and oil prices; a
switch from playing hostage to foreign
oil interests to playing-hostage to the
American oil industry plus one more
bureaucratic maze.
"Nuclear power must play an important role in the United States to
ensure our energy future," said Carter,
who also pushed for the development
of more synthetic fuels. Those presidential committments
have the nation's major environmental
groups
shuddering and they vow to launch a
grass-roots political drive against them.
They claim the development of "synfuels" will wreak serious damage to
the quality of air, land and water in
America and say they are alarmed by
the vast powers Carter's plan would
give to two non-elected energy agencies.
rich could "run roughshod over
civi. and political liberties."
Nuclear power creates radiation,
which is deadly, and the synfuels will
further harm our already polluted environment, thus what Carter offers
future generations of Americans is not
an "energy future," but the ultimate
[continued

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

on page 29]

Page 27

ON OUR WAY
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke

Science
It isn't front page news, but worthy
of comment, that currently within the
scientific 'community,
specialists in
psychogenies are showing considerable
interest in the possibility of employing moods to repair or conserve health.
Some of the experts, for example,
postulate that optimism is sanitogenic
- that through cortical feedback such
moods stimulate and activate the foci
that support health by regulating the
body's metabolic balance.
As in the primary stages of most
scientific studies, in this one, too,
there are two schools of thought.
Hence, although the preceding lines
pretty well paraphrase the way their
spokesmen premised this matter, let
rrie say here at the outset that their
premise would be more to a biochemist's liking were the upcoming clinical
study organized to first of all determine whether it is or isn't the status of
our health that brings on our depressed or buoyant moods.
Since I'll be pointing out the interfering part Western christianism will
as usual without invitation be taking
in this scientific game of blindman's
buff, my comments are as likely to be
amusing as pertinent, but at all odds
not as abstractive as those spouting
from the religionary territory.
The Wily Game
The Western people's basically
christianistic attitude, and the mass
outlook resulting from it has been
impeding rationality
and sanguine
comportment ever since the year 771
when Pope' Adrian crowned Charlemagne emperor of all the West. These
two subsequently cooperated scratching each other's back - combined
the forces of politics and religion,
and set a' pattern for theocratic rule,
which, thenceforth, until the Reformation, prevailed over the Western
masses, most of whom in those days
peopled Europe. (The first government to emerge from this morass of
subjugated humanity was ours, giving
its citizens in 1776 the freedoms
craved by the peoples of Europe for

Page 28,

to The Rescue
more than a thousand years.)
To resume: Pope Adrian now having tasted the heady wine of political
power, the papacy. afterwards attracted to itself the astute, who ever after
rarely departed from the chessboard
of the wily game that exploits the
West's superstitious and god-indoctrinated humanity. One way or another, belief in supernatural concepts
has since those early times, especially
since the last quarter of the 18th century, steadily declined, mostly due to
advances in the sundry fields of
science within which at the present
time bubbles the aforementioned stew
about moods and their supposed
effect on health.
The Fly In The Cultural Ointment

It has been a pet conceit of mine

for many years - a good fifty of
them - that the bizarre religious melange called christianity is to be held
primarily responsible for the instability of the various governments that
existed first in Europe, next in the
Americas, and presently in parts
of other continents. With but few exceptions, all these still contain enough
of the original christianistic outlook
that ever since the fourth century kept
the Western nations at each other's
throats and the rest of the world in
constantly recurring uproar.
The important, but largely unperceived, testimony that christianism
is the fly in the ointment of Western
culture appears in the Westerner's behavior. He consumes an unbelievably
enormous quantity of various drugs to
keep his taboo-crammed mind from
exploding and blowing his body all
to pieces. A tranquilizer for this, a
stimulant for that. Especially he of
the cities doesn't know how to relax,
is always edgy, can't sleep, is paranoiac, schizophrenic, desperately hypochondriacal, overwrought, a sucker for
all kinds of distillates and therapies,
euphorics and narcotics ad infinitum;
engaged in an unabating search for

November, 1979

something he swears he'd recognize

once he laid eyes on it.
Occasionally, when his common
sense burrows its way from his subliminal into his consciousness, he hears
it whispering to him that his christianism marks him as a remissive thinker something that he should correct. He
does nothing about it; the habit has
too firm a hold on him. He emerged
from childhood into maturity so brainwashed, so christianized, he doesn't
even suspect that it constantly bothers
him.
He's completely unaware that a
good part of the time he's searching
for a way to rid himself of the depressing enslavement to his religion. Like
other Americans, he often rants about
the advantages of civic freedom, but
even while he's at it has a firm sucking
hold on the nipple of its sworn enemy.
His behavior is disconcerting. Like
most American citizens, he keeps his
psychiatrist busy analyzing.
So, as mentioned, specialists are
now examining how his health might
be maximized through the-evoking of
optimistic moods. He doesn't suspect
that free thinking can take him out of
his dilemma.
He doesn't know that buoyant
health, both mental and physical,
which results from the mind's rejection of its belief in supernatural concepts such as gods, demons, and angels, is his whenever he sufficingly desires it: Were he determined to do this,
then, as others have testified, the grass
would look greener, the sky bluer,
the air cleaner; everything would be
improved and everything that superstition spoiled in him after he was
born would come to rights once again.
Talk about resurrection!
Imaginary Ills

Atheism is qualitatively far above

any religious compendium either as a
philosophy or mental and physical
therapy. Atheism doesn't require indoctrination or brainwashing of any

American Atheist

kind, only the necessity of one's being

born. People are born Atheistic; afterwards, when religion spoils their minds
with supernatural concepts, this weakens whatever is essentially good and
admirably human in them to the
detriment of their mental and physical
congenitally acquired heritage.
Witness the West's crowded mental
institutions; note the articles in medical journals that speak of the imaginary ills for which the patients seek
medical help; the thousands bedridden
in hospitals for treatment of drugoverdosing of sundry kinds, which in
many instances these people took to
escape or forget religiously induced
guilt, panic, or sense of personal
worthlessness.
So, after all, while any scientifically
conducted
examination
of moods

might not add much of value to the

sum total of man's knowledge of his
reactions to existence, we can be sure
that since in most instances it is likely
to be conducted by people without religious prejudice, the result will be a
lot more authoritative than if contrived by researchers inhibited by religious taboos and theologically constructed hurdles.
Regarding all this, the Chinese
philosopher Mencius was on the beam,
and way back in 600 B.C., far in the
van of our times, when he said that
benignity prevails where people are
instructed in the art of human mutuality - in practical altruism. The altruist
is usually an optimist; such people adjust easily to their environment, are
fit to cope with it, being happy of
mood. Their body chemistry works

as it should. When thinking, they almost invariably do it Atheistically.

The Western peoples have thousands of times been cautioned by history's greatest and most respected
minds about the insidious effects of
religion upon their life - but, sad to
say, largely all in vain. These warnings
were given to us at great risk, often at
the cost of the givers' lives. These men
and women are honored for having
aimed to make the world into a place
of joy and laughter - not of religion's
tears and suffering. Their lives disclose that most of them professed being non-believers or Atheists. Who
knows but what the stir about moods
going on in the domain of science may
eventually lead to the warning on
every bible: "It has been determined
that trusting this book is injurious to
your health."

r~estry

lconMe

A JOYOUS ATHEIST
G. Richard

Bozarth

What the Playboy Poll reveals is

that America is past the half-way point
in the transition from obsolete religion
to weltanschauung Atheism. A majority already live Atheist life-styles and
esteem Atheist life-values. It is now a
question of making this majority
aware of their pragmatic Atheism so
that they attain full freedom by becoming philosophically Atheist. And
when this last act of the transition
is accomplished, it will be the final
act for religion in America.
Religion knows this, and religion
is afraid. Only a theocratic America
can halt and reverse this transition.
This is why religion is using all its
political power and vast wealth to get
theocratic laws passed. Every erosion
of the wall of separation of state and
church enhances religion's capability
of stopping this transition. And it
can be stopped!
We Atheists are close to victory,
but all the major battles are yet to
be won if we are to be finally victorious. Religion will not magically
vanish. It has to be, as Voltaire
pointed out two hundred years ago,
CRUSHED!

Perozino

annihilation of their planet. That may

be an acceptable end of things for
those pitifully misguided folks who
have been led to believe there is life
after death, but, as an Atheist, I must
reject Carter's energy proposals as
tantamount to a death warrent issued
for my heirs, a legacy I refuse to bequeath them.
Captain Christian
It is imperative that Atheists, and
other rational Americans, join together
in demanding perceptive alternatives
to Carter's parochial plans. Environmentalists claim that twice the amount
of energy the synfuels would produce
could be saved by forging ahead with
a massive conservation program, which
would be a faster and cheaper goal to
attain and would avoid the risks of
cost overruns and the thechnological
failures now plaguing the nuclear industry. We must insist that programs
to develop the fullest potential of nonpolluting resources, like solar energy,
be funded to- the maximum and that
the ongoing poisoning of this gentle
earth in the name of profit be stopped.
While some say a "new, more forceful Carter" emerged from seclusion
at Camp David, still others are wondering who really makes the presidential
decisions. Is it the duly elected official, using all the knowledge available
to that office in a bona fide attempt to
most equitably meet the needs of "we
the people?" Is it the member of that
sinister Trilateral Commission, whose

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

,
goals are to subserviate the masses and
further corporate power? Is it Captain
Christian, fundamentalist foe of Americans courageous enough to publicly
confirm they do not "believe" and demand more promising solutions to the
nation's problems than prayer? Or, is
it the Captain's faithful southern companion, who travels the land clanking
her chastity belt to attract an even
larger share of the born-again Christian
vote?
Whoever, the decisions have been so
ineffectual that America stands on the
brink of disaster. Some economists
are predicting a depression that could
make the "Great Depression" of the
1930s pale in comparison. Inflation
is running amok, devastating our
elderly trying to survive on a fixed
imcome and financially brutalizing
low and middle income families.
Forecasts of an up to 70 percent increase in the costs of energy are commonplace, which could sound the
death knell for some of the poor living in the snow belt.
Carter's directive, "Americans must
stop cursing and start praying," is an
abomination;
a presidential
edict
which strikes fury in an Atheist; outrages supporters of the Constitutional
guarantee that there shall be a separation of state and church and should
cause every rational American to
seriously consider the dangers invovled
in voting a born-again Christian - or
religious zealot of any persuasion into public office.

Page

29

NATURE'S WA
Gerald Thole
PHANTOM FUNNY BOOKS
STRI KE AGAI N
A recent telephone conversation with Pat Voswinkel of
Charlotte, NC has focused my attention on an interestingly
incredible series of events that has been going on for some
time. She and I both, it seems, are the innocent recipients of
continued mailings which include an assortment of religious
"comic books."
On an almost monthly basis an unidentified religious fanatic (from Austin, Texas) has seen fit to mail this junk to various members of American Atheists, Inc. These little two inch
by four inch pamphlets are published by Chick Publications of
Chino, California and Life Messengers Publications of Seattle,
Washington. (There possibly may be other such infantile publications involved). The books contain comic strip style artwork depicting biblical mythology and seem to be directed
toward 2 to 6 year old mentalities. Their "words of wisdom"
are channeled to a reader audience that would be impressed
by the "hellfire and brimstone" syndrome and afford a pleasurably amusing study of the continuing and irrational components of religious intellect.
I do not feel that these booklets represent the beginnings of
the "Comic Book Phantom," however ...
Early in 1978 I
began to receive lengthy evangelical type lecture letters attentioned only: "To The Atheists." These pitiful attempts at
intellectual exchange were apparently laboriously typed because they were permeated with typographical errors and pen
marked corrections. As would be expected, they were all
replete with biblical "verse and chapter" quotations.
I will not bore you with the details of their messages, but
rather, I would like to aim this writing at the psychological
significance of such childish activity. None of the mentioned
communications were identified by a return address and only
the lecture letters were identified by: "Sincerily yours - Robert Holt."
I do not know if the misspelling of the word "sincerely"
was an honest error or if it was intended to discretely hide the
fact that Mr. Holt wasn't truly sincere. Due to the amateurish
structure of the writings I feel that Mr. Holt just doesn't know
how to spell "sincerely."
Overlooking their lack of artful construction, if one would
choose to waste time perusing their "inspired messages," one
'fould readily see that they represent the usual idiotic defenses
that avid religionists disgorge when confronted by factually
oriented biblical contradictions. Some of them, of course,'
were written as repudiations to certain American A theist
magazine articles, introductory pamphlets, and other published materials that we (A.A., Inc.) use as educational information.
I must assume that Mr. Holt has comprised a mailing list of
persons mentioned or recognized by our organization, but I
have no present knowledge of the extent to which our colleagues are currently receiving his garbage. Chances are that if
you have been mentioned or have had material published in
American Atheist magazine you are also receiving your "funny
books." I also must assume that Mr. Holt, whoever he is, has
become disenchanted with the tiring task of trying to type

Page 30

lengthy "sermons" for all his American Atheist opponents and

has simplified his operation by becoming the present pusher
of "Phantom Funny Books."
Now I am quite sure that many of you have received tons
of material similar to this current epidemic of irrational mail
droppings. I have received mail from other sources which contains similar evangelical nonsense. I could not appropriately
describe to you the incredible mountain of garbage that Madalyn has received over the years. It would seem that the U.S.
Postal Service would be getting rich off this religious mail income alone. The thing that continually amazes me is the tenacity that such maladjusted individuals seem to possess. It is
apparent that any attempt to discourage these endeavors by
THE GRE~T TR\8UL~TlON WILL BEGIN "'S
SOON AS THE TRUE BELIEVERS ARE SAFELY
REMOVED FROM THE EflRTH.--THE
BIBLE
CALLS IT"THE BLESSED HOPE:' WE CALL IT
"THE RAPTURE,H

AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FI ST:

THEN WE WHICH ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN ---

ignorance to influence intelligence are as hopeless as attempts

to rid ourselves of cockroach infestations. It must necessarily
be noted also that the people who persistently try to influence
and convert Atheists continually display practices and tactics
that one would intellectually identify with cockroach mentality. Their historic ability to maintain a primitive intellectual
existence is well documen ted.

November, 1979

American Atheist

I have written several lay articles concerned with the psychiatric implications of religious fanaticism. I am therefore reminded by these "comic book" approaches in literature that
irrationality has become a principal industrial resource for the
churches and their publishing house cronies. The individual,
unwitting distributors of their fecal productions may then be
viewed as the addicts that ply the backstreets of human intellect in search of equally miserable companionship. There is, as
is in the case of heroin addiction, no cure for these poor afflicted derelicts. The only hope for improvement for displaced
mental ability lies in proper reeducation and environmental
change.
Presently a number of our congressional representatives
are similarly using "comic book" mentality in attempts to
disrupt civil government by encroaching their cockroach intellect into the field of Constitutional privileges of American citizens. They seem to want legislation established whereby all
people are made amenable with respect to ghostworshipping.
Apparently all the sweet little children in public schools have
not had callings to pray to the "good boogie" without the
exuberant leadership of their teachers and/or principals.
When "comic book" mentality reaches such magnitude that
it stands ready to crush democratic principles, its activities
cease to be amusing. It is a relatively easy matter to deposit
my junk mail, along with other refuse, in the waste basket. It
is an entirely different matter when we finally become faced
with the task of disposing of theocratic regulations imposed by
congressional lunacy. Perhaps we have forgotten our rebellion
from English theocracy.
The ironic part of all this is that if Mr. Holt, after reading
this article, decides that I am inhospitable to his literary endeavors, he may elect to remove my name from his mailing
list. I would surely experience a certain sentimental loss if I
were suddenly denied my little funny books. I am well aware
that laughter is an important attribute to pleasurable existence. I recall with nostalgic sadness the tragic loss of a tremendous source of laughter when Stan Laurel and Oliver
Hardy died. It seemed like an irreconcilable end to a hilariously enjoyable era and I'm sure that the world shared the loss
with me.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Holt will continue to brighten my
days by sending to me my funny books, as well as all the other
Atheists to whom he brings uncontrollable belly laughs. Perhaps the laughter that they afford will, in some small way, discount the misery and tears that religion has also rained on
humanity.

By Wells Culver

"God says, 'Go to Hell.'

He don't like your face."

YOU MAY NEVER GO TO HEAVEN-OR HELL

BUT DO COME TO THE AMERICAN
ATHEIST CONVENTION
DETROIT MICHIGAN
-APRIL, 1980 FOR

Cf'1te ~irrte

fJ:f ~crur ~ife

We'.e the .ight people.

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

Helen Weaver
Chapter Coordinator
Detroit Chapter
American Atheists
P. O. Box 37056
Oak Park, M I 48237
Page 31

One Vie", froIn India

Edamaruku

The Holy War

among Kerala Christians
The following article written by Edamaruku, the director of
the Indian Atheist Center in New Delhi, was originally printed
in a popular magazine "Caravan" in India. Although some of
the Indian parties are mysteries to us in the United States,
they are also mysteries to many in India. The article is brought
to you as written, for the thrust of it is clear, if the names and
places are not!
Right from its birth, on November 1, 19'56, when the
three small States of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar were
merged, Kerala has remained a problem State. It has often
chosen parties opposed to the party at the Centre to rule it.
Thus in 1957, Kerala made history by voting into power
the undivided Communist Party.
Again, three years later, Kerala chose a United Front of
Congress-PSP-Muslim League to rule it. This was the first
United Front Ministry in the country since independence. And
last year, Kerala remained unaffected by the so-called Janata
wave and rejected all Janata Party candidates in the Lok
Sabha elections.
Kerala's peculiar performance is not limited to the political
field alone. It also extends to communal and caste prejudices,
Even Mr. E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), admitted recentlyjit
the
World Malayalam Conference, that political parties cannot
function in Kerala without taking note of caste and religion.
This is an admission of the fact that though harmful and
dangerous, the major castes and religious groups are well-organized, and therefore, very powerful. Some, like Nairs and
Eshavas, have even formed their own political parties. Then
there is the powerful Muslim League which has shared Ministerial power ever since 1960 by shifting its allegiance from
the Congress to CPM and now to CPI-Congress. Christians too
are a force to reckon with. Almost all parties are influenced
by them. Besides, they have their own vanguard, the Kerala
Congress.
The Christians have always taken an interest and played
an active role in Kerala politics. The liberation movement
of 1959, which eventually brought down the first Communist Government of E. M. S. Namboodiripad, was the net
result of the powerful Christian-Nair joint efforts. Since then,
the Christians and church leaders have played an effective
role in the State's politics.
The recent communal troubles in Kerala apparently started
because of an old and long-standing dispute between two different sabhas (sects) within Christianity.
But the real reason seems to be different. The former
Chief Minister, Mr. K. Karunakaran, who was forced to reo
linquish the Chief Ministership following the infamous Rajan
episode, is presently leading the Indira faction in the State.
He is reported to be conniving with one of these Sabhas. His
obvious intention seems to be to put obstacles in the way of
the Ministry under the Chief Ministership of Mr. A. K. An-

Page 32

tony, who belongs to the Congress led by Mr. Swaran Singh.

But Mr. Karunakaran's party is not the only one involved in
these interreligious quarrels to achieve political gains. All
other parties, too, are directly or indirectly involved in them.
At present, the Christian population in Kerala is 50 lakhs
(one lakh = 100,000) and divided into various sub-groups and
sub-castes.
About half the Christian population is Roman Catholic
and recognises the leadership of the pope in Rome. The remaining 25 lakhs belong to various Sabhas like Orthodox
Jacobites, Marthoma, St. Thomas Evangelical, Malabar Inde~
pendent Syrian, Caldean Syrian, Church of South India, etc.
All these factions, groups and sects quarrel with one another.
Cause of Controversy
The present trouble that threatens the Ministry in Kerala
is the result of a controversy between two of these - the
thodox Sabha and the Jacobite Sabha.
The Orthodox and the Jacobite Sabhas were united till
the beginning of this century. In 1912, following a controversy
on the question of leadership, they split. The controversy resulted in prolonged litigation in court. Finally, in 1958, the
Supreme Court came out with the verdict favouring the Orthodox Sabha. Thereafter, the Jacobites recognised the Orthodox
superiority and joined it.
But their unity did not last long. Mutual suspicion soon
separated them again.
Two rich families from Kottayam, which is the centre of
Christians in the State, played an active role in the controversy
right from the beginning of this century. Even now, these
families are the backbone of the two rival Sabhas.
The total number of followers of these two Sabhas would
not cross 10 lakhs. The controversy between them is of historical nature. Each of these two Sabhas claims that its memo
bers are original convertees and disciples of St. Thomas, who
supposedly reached Kerala in the first century and converted
several Namboodiri Brahmins.

0;-

No Evidence
But history does not support their contention. In fact,
there were no Brahmins in Kerala in the first century. Nor is
there any evidence to prove the arrival of St. Thomas. Moreover; it seems that there were no Christians living in Kerala even
up to the beginning of the 6th century. These two Sabhas are
apparently tracing their ancestry to Namboodiri Brahmins to
gain respectability. It may be mentioned that convertees from
Harijans and other suppressed classes to Christianity were not
well-treated till now.
The Christians were united till the Portuguese reached
Kerala. Like Hindus, they believed in Punarjanmam (rebirth),

November, 1979

American Atheist

followed the practice of untouchability and accepted Indian

names. As they had no connection with the pope of Rome,
their limited connections outside India were the church
leaders of Baghdad (Iraq), who used to come to Kerala occasionally.
In 1498, the Protuguese captain, Vasco da Gama, reached
Kerala. The distinct traditions and behaviour of the Christians
in Kerala embarrassed Vasco da Gama, a Roman Catholic, for
he had never come across Christians living outside the influence of the pope. Therefore, the Portuguese tried to bring the
Kerala Christians in to the mainstream of Roman Catholicism,
and the Keralites showed initial interest in the move.
But when the Portuguese started condemning their beliefs
as totally wrong, the Orthodox leaders within the Kerala Christian Sabha took objection. However, the Portuguese Church
leaders, tactfully using money and strong-arm methods, challenged these leaders. Thus in 1599, at Udayamperur, south of
Cochin, the Portuguese convened a conference of priests and
other church leaders, known as Udayamperur Synod. This convention declared that the Christians in Kerala had adopted the
principles of Roman Catholic authorities.
After this, the Orthodox Church in Kerala faced a lot of
trouble. Dom Menezes, who was then Portuguese Viceroy and
Supreme Head of their church in India, pressured and punished the dissidents.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Kerala came under

the influence of the British. The Hindu kings both at Travancore and Cochin became puppets of the British.
Colonel Munroe, the British Resident Representative, became the Diwan of both these states. He belonged to the
Anglican Church, a Protestant sect to which the British Queen
belonged. Therefore Colonel Munroe prepared a plan to bring
all those non-Roman Catholics in Kerala into his sect. For
this purpose, he brought several Christian missionaries from
England.
The English missionaries started an English-medium school
at Kottayam, and a seminary to train priests. These new missionaries, for tactical reasons, did not question the beliefs of
the Jacobites, but started propagating
their Protestant
thoughts and customs. This led to a further split inside the
Jacobites.
Harijans And Slaves
By this time, these Christian missionaries started converting Harijans and slaves on a large scale to their religion. This
created frustration among many Orthodox Christians. Therefore, a separate Christian Church was established for those
converted from Harijans and slaves. This is known as the
Church Missionary Society (CMS), which later joined with
the Church of South India (CSI).

"Koonan Cross"
The dissidents' struggle, conducted without a proper
church-head, failed to achieve any result. As there were some
non-Roman Catholic Patriarchs in countries like Iraq, Turkey,
Syria and Iran, the dissidents in Kerala thought of bringing one
of them to guide their struggle. However, this was found to
be difficult because of Portuguese superiority in the Indian
Ocean. But the dissidents did manage to send a letter out of
India. In accordance with this invitation, a Patriarch reached
India, but was subsequently arrested by the Portuguese.
When the news about his arrest spread, a large number of
Christians gathered in front of the Portuguese fort at Cochin,
demanding his immediate release. The Portuguese were adamant and Eletermined to suppress the Orthodox Christians.
Finally, the demonstrators took a vow at Mattanchery, a suburb of Cochin, and announced their disaffiliation from the
Roman Catholic Church. This was the well-known Koonan
Kurisu sathvain (oath at Koonan Cross) in 1653.
Later they converged at AJangad Church and declared the
First Marthoma as their archbishop.
But then, a problem arose. According to the custom, a bishop could be crowned only after another bishop had touched
his head with his hand. And there was no other bishop to perform this important ceremony. The Portuguese exploited this
fact and succeeded in weaning away many from the dissidents.
Ten years later in 1663, the Dutch forces defeated the Portuguese at Cochin. The Dutch, being Protestants, helped those
who had opposed the Portuguese. Accordingly, they favoured
the non-Roman Catholics by bringing Bishop Mar Gregorios
from Jerusalem in 1665. Bishop Mar Gregorios was under
the supremacy of the Antioch In Turkey. Until the arrival of
Mar Gregorios, the Antioch Church was not connected with
the Kerala Christians.
The dissident non-Roman Catholic Christians gave a hearty
welcome to Mar Gregorios. Thus, began the holy war between
Roman Catholics, under the influence of the Portuguese, and
non-Roman Catholics with Dutch support. The section which
sided with the Dutch later came to be known as Jacobites.

Austin, Texas

-.

.>

The State of Kerala

Mathews, a Syrian Christian who studied in the CMS

Seminary, Kottayam, became the Jacobite Archbishop in
1852. Later, he came to be known as Mar Anthanasios. He
went to Antioch and was consecrated by the Patriarch of
Antioch.
"Maharajas"
When Mar Anthanasios returned to Kerala, the British and
their puppet maharajas rendered all help to him. Later he
started preaching Protestant ideology and was opposed by the
conservative section.
This conflict reached its climax when Mar Anthanasios was
excommunicated by the same Patriarch of Antioch and the
Conservatives selected a new archbishop.
The supporters of Mar Anthanasios formed their own
church, known as Marthoma Sabha. These two groups were
involved in a long struggle for property and other belongings

November, 1979

Page 33

of the churches. Finally, the pro-patriarch (Jacobite) won, and

Marthoma established their headquarters at Thiruvalla, about
25 km south of Kottayam.
The rulers of the Jacobite Sabha, Mar Dionysios, who lived
in the first quarter of this century, was a brilliant tactician.
Though he never opposed the superiority of the Patriarch of
Antioch, he always rejected his involvement in the internal
affairs of the Kerala Jacobite Church. But Mar Abdulla, the
then Patriarch of Antioch, was a person who wanted to establish the same control and superiority that the pope of Rome
enjoyed over the Roman Catholics the world over. Therefore,
when Mar Abdulla reached Kerala, he interfered in the affairs
of the Archbishop of Kerala, which resulted in a controversy
between them.
Certain groups which had ill-feeling towards the family of
Mar Dionysios, sided with the Bava (the priest who is superior
to an arch bishop is called Bava in Kerala, meaning "father."
Here it is Mar Abdulla.)
Because of the influence of these groups, Mar Abdulla issued an ordinance relieving Mar Dionysios of all ruling power
related to the church.
Mar Dionysios, the Archbishop, questioned the right of the
patriarch to issue such an ordinance. Thus began the "BavaMetran" (patriarch -arch bishop) controversy.
Origin Of Struggle

Mar Abdulla immediately consecrated another archbishop

to replace Mar Dionysios. With two archbishops at one time,
the real controversy was about their right to remain as the
leader of the Sabha. Thus began the struggle in which church
leaders and priests and rich elements within the Christians
joined.
In the Dionysios camp, two eminent press barons, K. C.
Mamman Mappila and O. M. Cheriyan, were important functionaries. They had a sound knowledge of the Christians living
in the Middle East. Therefore, they could expose the Church
of Antioch. In the entire Middle East region, the Patri.arch of
Antioch had less than 10,000 followers. The Patriarch of Antioch was a puppet in the hands of the powerful Muslim Sultan
of Turkey, and had come to Kerala in a bid to gain power.
Puppet

Patriarch

There was a patriarch in Antioch named Abdedu Misiha

who fought against the Muslim Sultan of Turkey. And the sultan removed him and appointed another patriarch. This puppet patriarch was none other than Mar Abdulla.
The two leaders and Mar Dionysios, therefore, invited Abdedu Misiha to Kerala. This Abdedu Misiha consecrated Mar
Poulose Ivanios as "Catholicos," a position equal to patriarch.
Thus, a section within the Jacobite Sabha in Kerala almost got
independence.
But this development led to trouble, and a case in court
known as the Case of Vattipanam (uatti means interest;
panam means amount).
In the name of the Jacobite Sabha, there were about ten
thousand rupees in the British Treasury over which both archbishops made their claims. Failing to decide the actual church
leader out of them, the British refused to pay the interest to
either of them.
Thus, this case on the interest amount started in 1913 in
the Court of Law and continued up to 1958.
During this period, many archbishops and priests belonging
to both the sides expired, but those who succeeded them continued the case. It was not a question of money only, but
also of the identification of the real "Viceroy of God." The

Page 34

two groups spent millions of rupees on the case, a major part

of it going to the advocates belonging to other religions whom
the Christians call "pagans."
In 1958, the Supreme Court finally closed the case file by
declaring the Mar Dionysios group as the real heir to the amount. And Basaelius Catholicos, the then Archbishop of the
independent group, took both - amount anti interest from the
government.
The Patriarch of Antioch, the loser in the case, rose to the
occasion, showing brilliant tactics. He felt that in the absence
of a peace-pact between the two groups, his group was likely
to lose all its property and churches. Thus, a peace-pact followed between the two rival groups, as a result of which both
the Patriarch of Antioch and Catholicos of Kottayam recognised each other. Thus the controversy that lasted for half a
century came to an end.
But certain powerful people in Kottayam felt that peace between the two groups was contrary to their interests. They
started their moves to re-establish the controversy. Some
propagated that the Patriarch of Antioch had no right in
Kerala while others claimed that the Catholicos was functioning under the Patriarch of Antioch. The propaganda helped
to create doubts and suspicions, which ultimately helped to
rekindle the old controversies.
The patriarch became angry when his efforts to establish
superiority on the Church of Kerala failed. On the other hand,
Catholicos opposed the move of the patriarch to impose his
leadership in Kerala.
Ruling Rights

The patriarch immediately used his old weapon of issuing

an ordinance in an effort to relieve Catholicos from the ruling
rights.
In reply, Catholicos rejected the patriarch's ordinance. Again the patriarch_ tried to elevate certain priests as bishops in
a bid to get control. The rich elements in Kerala supported the
patriarch, who crowned another Catholicos.
The present trouble is between these two Catholicos. Both
groups have a total number of 1,065 churches and their
properties.
Mar Mathews I, who is the anti-patriarch Catliolicos, maintains from Kottayam, his headquarters, that the rebel Catholicos should leave the Sabha and claims the right to possess all
the churches and properties. However, the rebel Catholicos,
Mar Poulose, claims considerable influence in certain churches
and wants to control them. This case is now pending in the
court.
The second split in the Congress also influenced this interreligious trouble in Kerala.
Mr. John Jacob, the Food Minister in the present Antony
Ministry, is a prominent figure within the Catholicos under
Mar Mathews I in Kottayam. On the other hand, the political
rival of the Congress Ministry, Mr. K. Karunakaran, who is
the leader of the Indira faction in Kerala, though an ardent
Hindu believer, joined the rebel Catholicos headed by Mar
Poulose. It is because of the support of Mr. Karunakaran that
the rebel bishops volunteered to start agitation even though
the case is awaiting court verdict.
It is disgusting to hear, during the controversy, the provocative speeches of these priests. Not only do they make
derogatory speeches against each other, but also resort to
physical violence. They preach that belief in religion will
lead to real peace. But they themselves are spreading hatred
and sowing seeds of discontent which are bound to spoil the
peace.

November, 1979

American Atheist

........

.......................................................

The American Alheist Radio

Madalyn

Murray

O'Hair

Thanks Giving
Program Number 420

Hello there,
This is Madalyn Murray 0 'Hair, American Atheist, back to
talk with you again.
What could Thanksgiving mean to an Atheist?
Thanksgiving is one holiday peculiarly American. In common with other lands we honor the dead, focus upon the laboring class, commemorate notable days in our history, and
celebrate particular holidays 01' the majority religious heritage.
Yet America has an additional type of holiday. The government by a special act sets aside a day in which one is enjoined
to be grateful to God for blessings received; this holiday is
called Thanksgiving. Each fall icons of the common heritage
are brought forth and again Bible-carrying pilgrims inspire
citizens to meditate upon their religious and political traditions. Frequently this meditation is combined with injunctions
to renewed dedication to the will of God and the destiny of
the country, between which there is sometimes little discernible difference. In the main the day is an enjoyable one, for it
continues the many delights long associated with harvest festivals. However, the holiday is open to serious questions on both
political and theological grounds.
The holiday results from a fusion of religious and governmental functions. It provides perhaps the clearest institutionalized example of what may be called the sacralization of government, i.e., the fusion rather than the radical separation of
religion and politics. Other examples of sacralization are easy
to find and range from the trivial (sic) fact that we place "In
God We Trust" on our coins, to the more serious issue of
prayer in the public schools. The abuse which the Supreme
Court has suffered as a result of its recent decisions in this area
reveals that the issue of sacralization is far from resolved. The
celebration of Thanksgiving thus provides an appropriate
moment to re-examine some of the liabilities of a close identification of religion and government. We begin by a closer look
at Thanksgiving itself.
Thanksgiving is infused with a politico-religious myth. It is
a functional myth which serves to give identity and self-awareness to a people, and it therefore has great power. One may
find various statements of the myth, but at least it includes the
element that this country was founded by a god-fearing, austere people who out of religious zeal came to these shores to
further God's kingdom on Earth. The American founders
emerge from the myth as uniformly Christian, and because
they are Christian, they are seen as capable of governing the
land in accord with God's will. Government is baptized with
pietistic faith, and the life of the community is seen as an
extension of the church.
The details and applications of the myth are hardly historical. Thieves, political oddballs, and reluctant slaves had as
much to do with the establishment of this country as did the
pilgrims. While certain colonies had a clear religious motive,

Austin, Texas

such was by no means the universal rule. The more pedestrian

drive to make money was as frequent a motive. The temptation, so readily succumbed to on Thanksgiving Day, to forget
the thieves and focus on the saints in our history, is, to say the
least, misleading.
That the truth-value of a myth is somewhat askew is hardly
a serious charge in itself. The stuff of myths is regularly drawn
from a wider terrain than the historian can discover. More ominous are the implications of the myth, for living myths inspire
a faith which extends far beyond the mere details of the myth
itself. The faith which tends to grow from Thanksgiving is the
belief that God's will and American destiny are but two sides
of the same plan. To be sure, the blatant forms of this faith
have disappeared from public pronouncement. One no longer
hears reference to a manifest destiny; neither does one find a
McKinley justifying foreign policy by invoking God's will;
however the faith continues.
One of the most striking aspects of America's political heritage is that the direction of the government has been and is
secular. It was a secularity which received much from the traditions of Christianity, but one which saw itself as separate
from that tradition. The founders were bold to believe that
government was a human affair; consequently they took certain precautions. The elaborate system of check and balance is
a token of the secular basis of the government. If the truth of
God were available for government policy there would be no
need for checks. The secular character is also indicated by the
centrality of compromise and debate. Both presuppose the inability of anyone man or group to hit upon the political truth
in its pure form. Rather the correct political path is seen as
that which emerges from a process. A corollary to this is that
no one or no policy is immune to criticism. To conjoin religion
(with its hostility to compromise) and politics is to cheat, to
load the dice on the side of one alternative. It is to introduce
into the system an authority and sanction which the system is
not prepared to handle and control. In this regard it is perhaps
to the point to remind ourselves that the most recent thoroughgoing attempt at the sacralization of government was Hitler's Germany. Once the principle is allowed, there is no guarantee as to which religion will control.
_ To allow religion into the decision-making processes of government is thus to open the possibility that a policy will be
justified and enacted upon religious authority without receiving sufficient human considerations. There is a conspicuous
case in point in the reluctance of the government to sponsor
birth-control measures as an official policy. This brings us to
another serious point. One never allows "religion" into government, for there is no such thing as religion-in-general. There
are only particular religions. The decision to allow policy to be
controlled by the dictums of one particular religion is a threat
to those citizens who share geographic, but not spiritual, proximity. America's religious pluralism, including those who confess to no religion, is a political fact which must not be ig-

November, 1979

Page 35

nored. Tolerance toward dissenting views is not a virtue which

comes easily to man. This is true even on the part of those
whose intellectual traditions encourage tolerance. The hostile
treatment which conservatives receive from the hands of professed liberals aptly illustrates the point. Tolerance comes not
from within the person, but from without. It is only by submitting to an external structure, e.g., that of a political system
or an abstract scientific method, that functioning tolerance is
achieved.
It would be easy to continue on the general theme of the
evils of the sacralization of government (one could, for example, point to the debilitating love of the status quo which often results), but enough has been advanced to illustrate the
political liabilities involved in the fusion of religion and government. Thanksgiving may also be questioned from theological grounds. I advance these criticisms not as one having a theology, but as a philosopher examining the implications and
presuppositions present in the usual theological framework of
Thanksgiving.
The criticism turns upon an analysis of the concept "giving
thanks." What does it mean to be grateful and when is expressed gratitude appropriate? At the outset it is clear that one
is grateful only to persons. One may have his life fortuitously
saved by an opportune thundershower in the desert, but it is
only in a manner of speaking that he would address thanks to
the rain. Gratitude is addressed to persons, and only to persons, because it involves a recognition on the part of the
thanker that the person thanked has consciously acted for the
good of the thanker. Consider the case of John's walking along
a crowded path. The way is momentarily blocked by another
person who soon moves on. His moving clears the way for
John, but the other person is not aware of this; in fact, he is
totally unaware of John's existence. In such a case it would be
outright odd for John to thank the person for moving. Should
thanks be tendered, the person might rightly retort, "Don't
thank me; I had nothing to do with it." It is only if he sees
John, realizes that he is blocking John's path and deliberately
moves to allow him to pass, that gratitude is in order. Hence
gratitude is reasonably expressed only where some other person has consciously ordered events for one's good. One may
feel gratitude in many other situations, but the gratitude will
go unexpressed for lack of a proper object. The emotion of
gratitude is in no way a guarantee that gratitude can be reasonably expressed. The man in the desert suddenly saved by
the rain will undoubtedly feel grateful to the rain, but as we
saw he does not thank the rain. Being well-trained in the amenities of life, it is only natural that most of us, when confronted
with something pleasant, will look about for someone to
whom to say "thank you." The emotion may indicate good
breeding, but whether or not the gratitude is expressed should
be an intellectual decision in light of the above analysis of the
meaning of "being grateful."
What has this analysis of the meaning of gratitude to do
with Thanksgiving? The point of contact is that when we gather around our tables and in our churches to address thanks .to
God for his blessings, it has clear implications as to the nature
of God and his relationship to us and the rest of the world.
Some of the points are obvious. To thank God is to consider
God a conscious being who has made deliberate acts for our
benefit. One cannot reasonably thank an impersonal force, a
cosmic creative event, an unmoved mover, the ultimate ground
of all being, or the abstract character of good. Should one's
conception of God be one of these, or an analogous concept,
then it is quite literally nonsense to address gratitude to God
at Thanksgiving or at any other time. One may use the words
for their symbolic or poetic value, but never as straightforward
communication.

Page 36

However, most practicing Christians would gladly accept

the interpretation of God as a conscious person. Nevertheless,
addressing thanks to God has other implications perhaps less
palatable. If we in our bounty can reasonably address thanks
to God for physical goods, this implies that God by some deliberate act accounted for this bounty. God is thus viewed as
being intimately related to in the physical processes of the
world. The correct amount of rainfall which insured a good
crop as well as the successfully executed business deal must be
resultant of God's actions. If the general affluence which
makes possible our bounty is not the direct result of God's
work, then there is no reason to honor him with our gratitude.
Those people throughout the world not so fortunately situated
may, on the same theological grounds, gather around their
near-empty tables to blame God for withholding his blessings.
If the blessings come from God, the adversities come from
him also. There is no need to bring forward the starving millions to make the point. If we thank God for our blessings,
then we should complain against God for our misfortunes.
Thanksgiving might have a grim mode of justification if it were
followed immediately by a Complaint Day, in which we were
as free in our blame as we had been the previous day in our
praise. The Old Testament prophets were close to this view,
except that they viewed the adversity as God's judgment. Surely in this day of expanded knowledge of other peoples, common decency forbids such a narrow and presumptuous approach.
Participation in the usual forms of Thanksgiving celebration
in a world so clearly marked with tremendous evils places
upon the participant a theological burden difficult to bear. If
one accepts the implications of his gratitude and affirms that
there is a power in direct, physical control of every minute of
the day, and then acknowledges to himself what fills these
minutes for many persons, his God emerges as such an evil that
there would be no alternative to despair. One might easily
argue in this context that the moral act is to ignore God.
As would be expected, theologians have ways of escaping
the force of these simple arguments. One obvious and popular
approach admits, in effect, the validity of the criticisms. Few
theologians today are willing to argue for a God who is in direct physical control of the world. One reason.ino doubt, for
the reluctance is that philosophic attention to- principles of
verification has made theologians cautious of allowing their
conceptions of God to compete in the same arena as the natural sciences. For whatever reasons, the symbolic and spiritual
aspects of God's power receive primary attention. Yet on this
interpretation of God's power, it is difficult to understand
why one should be thankful for physical blessings, since God
was not directly and consciously involved in the fact that we
receive them.
Another tack is to stress human freedom as the necessary
source of evils. Perhaps this escape also works, but it too cuts
both ways. To the extent that one's own freedom is operative
in securing his status as a "have" or a "have not" then to that
extent thanksgiving from the "haves" is misplaced. Finally
there is an understanding of Thanksgiving which completely
bypasses the criticisms. This approach is suggested by an incident in the New Testament in which Jesus asked the woman in
dire straits if all were well; the woman replied that all was well.
If .one's gratitude to God is not just for one's blessings, but for
all of life-its good and its ill, then the above theological points
would not apply. However, it is far from clear why, in this
context, the worship is called gratitude. In any case, worship
of this last sort is not appropriately expressed in a festival
which focuses upon earthly goods. Those holding such a rarified view of gratitude to God should be the first to reject the
current holiday practices.

November, 1979

American Atheist

Given our emotional conditioning, most of us will continue

to feel grateful and will wish to thank someone for those aspects of life we consider pleasant. Those who are extremely
"well-trained" religiously may even feel emotions of gratitude
to God at such trifles as finding a penny. The emotion may be
acknowledged, but should go unexpressed. There are parallels
for similar restrictions upon religious emotions. One of the
first in the Christian tradition was Paul's advice on speaking in
unknown tongues. Further there are few religious persons who
are not tempted to engage in magic from time to time; that is,
there is the urge to use God's power for personal ends. However, the tradition has regularly taught that urges to magic are
to be repressed. In a similar way one should reprJss his emotions of gratitude to God for goods received.
The conclusion is clear. From the standpoint both of religion and of government, the tendency toward sacralization
present in Thanksgiving should be resisted. There is no reason
that America should not have its harvest festival, but let it be
a day of joy and merriment, not of thanksgiving.
This essay on Thanksgiving appeared in the Age of Reason
Magazine, in the November-December issue, in 1966. It was
titled "Let Us Not Be Thankful" and was written by Allen B.
Calhamer.
This informational broadcast is brought to you as a public
service by the Society of Separationists, Inc., a non-profit,
non-political, educational organization dedicated to the complete separation of state and church. This series of American
Atheist Radio Series programs is continued through listener
generosity. The Society of Separationists, Inc., predicates its
philosophy on American Atheism. For more information, or
for a free copy of the script of this program, write to PO Box
2117, Austin, Texas. That zip is 78768.

II

DANGEROUS THOUGHTS!

The Mailing
of An Atheist
Arthur R. Maier
As children, we are completely dependent upon our
parents for food, clothing, shelter and affection. Having our
parents there assures us that our needs are going to be met.
We have a feeling of security.
But, as we grow older, we must stop depending upon our
parents. We must provide our own food, clothing, and shelter
and we must seek affection elsewhere.
We learn to do this, but we miss the old feeling of security
which our parents' presence used to give us. So the world
offers us a surrogate parent, called a god. We are told that
this god will look after us as our parents did, seeing to it that
we always have enough of the necessities of life.
As long as things are going well, we never doubt that this
god is taking care of us. Inevitably, though, at some point in
our lives this god lets us down. We are shocked with the realization that god, unlike our parents, doesn't offer security.
Then we don't know what to think. On the one hand, it
seems doubtful that god really exists; on the other hand, if
he doesn't exist, all our previous conditioning has been
wrong. We are prone to rationalize this failure of god and go
on believing. But our certainty has been weakened.
As we grow older, and god fails us again and again, our
belief weakens further. Perhaps we even become agnostics,
but clinging to the hope that maybe - just maybe - he does.
If we review the history of man's worship of god,
however, we can come to realize that dramatic changes have
taken place in man's concept of god over the ages, and that
Atheism stands as the logical culmination of this evolutionary
process.
In the early days of man's presence on earth, he
worshiped purely abstract forces - the sun, the rain, the
sea... .
,.
As he grew more sophisticated, man began personifying
these elements - he invented a sun god, a rain god, a god of
the sea, and many more living gods.
Gradually these gods left their high places on the tops of
mountains and in the sky. They condescended to visit the
earth and speakto man, to engage in adventures involving
man, even to fall in love with human women.
The next step was for god to actually be born as a man,
live as a man, die as a man. God had nearly completed the
evolution from the abstract.to the particular. Over the years
he had become less and less god-like and more and more
man-like.
The final step is for man to drop the abstract entirely, to
realize that there is no god and that he stands alone as a man.
At first, this can be a frightening thought - the realization
that there is no one up in the sky watching over us. But it
becomes less fearsome when we realize that this make us
masters of our own destiny
. control of all that we see. We
alone are responsible for ti.e world and to the world. There
are no other forces. We have no enemies except ourselves. We
have acheived the total power and the total responsibility of
Atheism.

II

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

Page 37

THE GOD-FEARING

CHRISTIAN

He thinks if he.doesn't
do as he's told,
Fiery hell is, for him, God's plan.
He's so scared to death,
That he gets out of breath.
He's a very self-frighteous
man.

IN

RELIGION'S

PLACE

-So H. Crane

You rob us of a/l that is sacred,

Of Bible, of God, and of Grace;
But when you thus take our religion,
What else do you give in its place?
- The Old, Old Story.

FUNERAL

When o'er my cold and lifeless clay

The parting words of love are said
And friends and kindred meet to pav
Their last fond tribute to the dead
Let no stern priest with solemn drone
A formal liturgy intone,
Whose creed is foreign to my own.

The Bible wide open, the preacher,

As its pages he pounded and pawed,
Denounced the devices of Satan
And exalted the glory of God.
"All fable and myth!" cried the Skeptic;
"Contradictions
absurd on their face!"
"I know it," assented the other,
"But what will you give in their place?"
A traveler once in the Southland
Discovered a people in chains;
When he read them the story of Freedom,
They gave him sour looks for his pains.
Said they: "We are told by our masters
That chains are God's gift to our racer
Before you have riven them from us
Say what you will give in their place."

Let not a word be whispered there

In pity for my unbelief,
Or sorrow that I could not share
The views that give thear souls rei ief.
My faith to me is no less dear
Nor less convincing and since~e
Than theirs, so rigid and austere.
Let no stale words of church-born song
Float out upon the silent air
To prove, by implication,
wrong
The soul of him then lying there.
Why should such words be glibly-sung
O'er one upon whose living tongue
Such empty phrases never hung?

>

o Captive,

we wrest from you nothing The creeds that beguiled are untrue.
'Tis your bondage to falsehood we sunder
When we rob Superstition of you.
The cry comes from goblins and phantoms
That hover about for a space,
And, fleeing, still hope to dismay us
With "What will you give in our place?"

-J.L.S.

THE STING OF SATI RE

I n your place! We give reason and knowledge,

Where before were belief and mistake Fresh joys, that can thrive but in freedom,
For every chain that we break.
The gods that oppressed men shall vanish
To unthinkable realms. In disgrace
Their reign shall be ended forever,
And Free Thought shall stand in their place.
-George E. MacDonald

Page 38

INSTRUCTIONS

November,

Ah yes, I know I raise a welt

When I strike below the Bible Belt
But if you can bear to be so meek~
I dare you-turn
the other cheek.
-Kendal

1979

Bush

American

Atheist

Film
Review

Life of Brian

elaine stansfield
Too Boring To Be Blasphemous
The Life of Brian was originally entitled Jesus Christ, Lust
for Glory, but it ran into difficulty getting the financial backers needed - in fact, one bowed out completely, The present
executive producers, George Harrison and Denis O'Brien, as
well as John Goldstone, then put money in and the title was
changed, Today the film is making waves, and I'm sure the
producers are very happy that much unpaid publicity is being
generated by condemnation from many religious sources. This
was what determined me to see it, and my expectations were
so high, I suppose I was doomed to disappointment, (My
friend Queen Silver of the Los Angeles Chapter once told me
she thought I should get a medal for sitting through so many
awful movies in the interests of Atheism.)
If there was ever any true genius in the Monty Python clan,
it has escaped me. I watched their TV shows and finally came
to the conclusion it was not I who was stupid. I walked out
on Holy Grail after realizing that one sight-gag (knight topples
into cardboard cutout) after another doesn't constitute intelligent satiric symbolism. Now I have reluctantly given them
another try in The Life of Brian because (a) the local priests
have castigated and banned it, and (b) I was led to believe it
was a great satire on the biblical life of Christ.
But though that may have been the original intent, Brian
is obviously not intended to be Christ, and the "true" Christ
figure appears - maybe - in a couple of different guises.zo
you are never sure if it was intended or not. I found it to be
not so much irreverent as rambling, and not so much a blast
on religion as a commercial play on people's insecurities about
what to believe.

The laughter at the show I attended was sparse and uneasy.

Some decisions by the clan are just plain bewildering, such as
the fact that Brian's mother is played by a burly man (Terry
Jones) in skirts speaking falsetto, and that one of Brian's
temporary rescues from the Roman guards is in a space ship
manned by grey creatures that seem to be a kind of caricature
of a big head with heavily lipsticked mouth. The language is
current-day Monty Python's England, generously peppered
with "bug off" alternating with "fuck off." Some of the
vernacular is impossible for an American to understand,
spoken midst loud sound effects, while some of it is screeched
enough to damage the sound track.
None of this is to say that the picture doesn't have some
fine moments, even if most of them are milked far too long.
But the opening wherein the Three Wise Men mistake Brian for
the Christ-child, followed by a skeptical crowd gathered to
hear the grown Christ tell them, "Blessed are the peacemakers" ("What did he say?" asks one in the back. "I think he
said, "Blessed are the cheese makers'," someone answers), and
"Blessed are the meek" to which one cynic says, "What he
fails to appreciate is that it's the meek who are the problem.").
Another in the audience, fed up with trying to hear with no
public address system, says, "Aw, come on, let's go to a stoning," and the other replies, "We can go to a stoning any time."
They do, in fact, later go to a stoning, passing by a street
vendor selling the very best stones.
Antic humor has a way of boomeranging on the perpetrator, most especially when they're trying to fill up a two hour
movie with a single theme joke. The Judean People's Front
really misses fire, and the gruesome bloody body-parts in the
Some Fine Moments
arena can scarcely justify the funny sign "Children's Matinee."
Jokes about the crucifixion ("Hurry along there, we have 140
If this is an outrageous demolition of the cliches of biblical
to process today") somehow belabor the gruesome point in
spectacle, then I might opt for something a bit more subtle.
the style of killing a bug with a baseball bat.
I don't mind something that sets me thinking dark and cynical
The credits tell us that this epic was written by its stars,
thoughts, but I do mind being hit over the head with lines like:
John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones,
"Without crucifixion, we'd be in trouble."
Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, who obviously believe they are
Granted, however, there is one section that did do it to me.
writing for their own gifts and interests. It almost never works
When the crowd finally decides he is their messiah, and starts
out. It takes stunning talent to write for yourself, star, and
following him all over town, pointing the way for the Roman
direct yourself, and worry about the money. Chaplin did it,
guards to find him, they stick like glue and always respond to
. and Orson Welles comes to mind, but so few .... .It does exwhat he says in unison. He begs them to get lost, but when
plain how much of it seems thrown together, for it's easy to
that proves hopeless, he gets serious: "You don't need to folimagine days on the set when they would consider it a pricelow me," he hollers. "You don't need to follow anyone. You
less gem to be kept in the movie every time they broke each
are all individuals. You've got to work it out for yourselves."
other up.
But he gets no glimmer of intelligence from this crowd.
Depending on your personal proclivities, and how the rest
"Yes, we're all individuals," they parrot. "We've got to work
of the film has managed - or not managed - to amuse you,
it out for ourselves," they intone, without moving an inch.
the ending will leave you pleased and satisfied, or totally
They have made talismans of the gourd he had purchased
annoyed. There is little point in leaving you in suspense,
from a vendor, and of his shoes. One woman holds up the
since it was inevitable that the final crucifixion would include
gourd and cries, "This is his gourd." If the Python group do
Brian. It was OK that they all looked comfortable enough,
frequently use the name Brian to represent one who is utterly
with their feet on little platforms, and the ropes slung loosely
banal and ordinary, then he is out of his gourd for sure.
[continued

Austin, Texas

November, 1979

on page 40 1

Page 39

Book

Review

The Great Game of Make Believe

Organized Religion, The Great Game of Make-Believe, by
Hiram Elfenbein, is a 5%" x 8W' hardback book of 239
pages, printed by the author through Philosophical Library
in 1968. The cover is buckram with a sturdy binding. The
book is out of print now and hence priced at $10.00.
Elfenbein devotes the first chapter to the "hallowed,"
not-to-be-criticized, position of theism and shows that by
the simple device of putting the subject out of reach, the
churches and religion maintain their positions through manipulation and not through merit.
He moves from this quickly to those immediately apparent
gross errors in the Bible which should be picked up byeveryone - but are discovered by none since the reading of the Bible is hardly done as a unit-reading. The name of the religious
game is to take one chapter or one verse out of context and
then to enlarge on that in sermon. Elfenbein discloses the absurdity of this by taking a grim look at the whole.
In one delightful chapter he, for example, dwells on the
camaraderie of Jesus and Satan, which is generally ignored
by the species religious.
"Free Will," which is still, regrettably, with us as long as we
continue to engage in the game of religion, is reviewed in three
separate chapters as Elfenbein looks at the apologetics of
Kant, Mills and at the phenomenon of prayer as it effects the
concept of free will.
He stops at nothing when he heads a chapter with the
query, "Did Jesus Really Say That!", and then continues for
twenty-seven pages to analyze the irrational, the-childish,
even the idiotic values which are proposed as having issued
from Jesus Christ. Elfenbein's criticism of the famous Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount is severe, as is his interpretation of the meaning of "sin."
For a teaser, listen to his words on Jesus Christ:
"Instead of charity in action, the Gospels reveal him as
evading a forthright answer about paying taxes or tributes
to Caesar, the foreign despot. Instead of good deeds, the
Gospels present him in a fit of vanity driving some shepherd's
swine into the sea - at the request of devils. Instead of simple
benevolence, the Gospels show him as a conceited man who
insults his mother just to show off to his confreres. Instead
of himself giving or collecting alms for the poor, he promises
that 'whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath.' "
The author is not any easier on Paul [Saul?] of Tarsus as
he reviews his pre-occupation with fornication and with circumcision, his erroneous advice in respect to dieting and
all-in-all his great incompetence in trying to give either meaning or purpose to a garbled religious idea which he probably
did not understand himself.
Elfenbein clearly delimits why it is so important to dethrone Jesus Christ.
"Obviously, if you deleted from the New Testament, the
one all-important detail of Jesus' divinity, we see the collapse

Page 40

November, 1979

of the whole story of his prophesied birth and death, his

miracles, and his long mistaken and misunderstood expressions, which together in an inseparable union form the foundation of Christianity.
"No sensible individual will maintain his own intellectual
self-respect and still declare, 'Of course, I don't believe a word
of the New Testament about the birth or miracles or death of
Jesus. Yet I am a devout and believing Christian (Christworshiper).'
"And this contention is verified by the Apostle Paul himself. 'For,' he wrote in I Corinthians XV, 16, 'if the dead
rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ is not raised,
your faith is vain .... .' "
Elfenbein concludes that Christianity is congenitally
hypocritical, a sham, a pretense to moral goodness, based on
fabulous lies and irrational utterances of fabricated personages
unknown of history or to real life.

JDIII]IJIIIDDDllIIIIIIlIIII

Film

Review
elaine stanafiaId
around their wrists, but since this concluding sequence is also
existentialist, I am convinced that the graphic quality of film
does not lend itself to a presentation of this philosophy. I
have no objection whatever to the idea that "life is just absurd,
a piece of shtt, so one should look on the bright side," but I do
object to the 140 on their crosses bursting into song to tell us
so, in a little ditty called "Always Look on the Bright Side."
One might have been better prepared to hear "Look for the
Silver Lining."
'.
The Catholic Conference Office for Film and Broadcasting
has sent a formal complaint to the Motion Picture Assn. of
America. They consider the entire film blasphemous. For me,
I think it was much too boring to deserve such attention with
so pompous a word.
Short Takes
If movies are supposed to be entertainment and nothing
else (and a good case can be made for that point of view)
trundle on down to see the James Bond film Moonraker
with Roger Moore as the imperturbable 007. It delivers exactly
what it promises, it's the foolish kind of science fiction that
delights young boys and amuses everyone else, for no one
could possibly take seriously the make-believe violence, the
villain's plan to control the world from space, or even the preoccupation with sex during times of deathly crisis. Roger
Moore is charming, and since (as Catholics used to say in
another vein) the ending is never in doubt, all you have to do
is sit back and enjoy it with a perfectly empty mind. It's obvious that no character in the script ever had a religious
thought in his life and even the 200% Americanism is there
just for the frolic, so everyone, especially the viewer, has fun
with the special effects.

American Atheist

PI"

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
P. O. BOX 2117,
AUSTIN, TX 78768

Don't Be Chicken! Membership: $15.00 a Year

That's a cheap price .to defend your liberties.

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redress of grievances . AMENDMENT

I Congress shall make

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