Arrows of FreethoughtFoote, G. W. (George William)
Religion
Arrows of Freethought
Foote, G. W. (George William)
Free thought
Why cannot Englishmen enjoy their Sunday's leisure like the French?
Because we are still under the bondage of Puritanism; because our
religious dress is nothing but Hebrew Old Clothes; because we follow
Moses instead of Jesus; because we believe that man was made for the
Sabbath, instead of the Sabbath for man; because, in short, there are
in England a lot of sour Christians who play the dog in the manger, and
will neither enjoy themselves on Sunday nor let anyone else. They often
prate about liberty, but they understand it as the Yankee did, who
defined it as the right to do as he pleased and the right to make
everybody else do so too.
Let us all be unhappy on Sunday, is the burden of their song. Now, we
have no objection to their being miserable, if they desire it, on that
or any other day. This is supposed to be a free country; you decide to
be wretched and you select your own time for the treat. But you have
no right to interfere with your neighbors. This, however, is what the
Christians, with their customary "cheek," will insist on doing. They
like going to the church and the public-house on Sunday, and those
establishments are permitted to open; they have no wish to go elsewhere,
and so they keep all other establishments closed. This is mere
impudence. Let them go where they choose, and allow the same freedom to
other people. Those who advocate a free Sunday ask for no favor; they
demand justice. They do not propose to compel any Christian to enter a
museum, a library, or an art gallery; they simply claim the right to go
in themselves.
The denial of that right is a violation of liberty, which every free man
is bound to resent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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