The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candourPhelips, Vivian
Religion
The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour
Phelips, Vivian
Rationalism
History is repeating itself to-day, and my previous allusions to the
present situation in Russia are all too brief. I would ask my readers
kindly to put to themselves the following crucial questions: To what
party do the religious bigots and their partisans belong? Is it not to
the reactionary party, the party that sets its face against reform? On
what do the reactionaries chiefly rely for the retention of their hold
upon the bulk of the people? Is it not on a peasantry wallowing in
ignorance and steeped in superstition? What are the actual instruments
employed for maintaining their power? Do they not consist of corrupt
officials and cruel Cossacks? Who are responsible for shameless acts of
persecution, and, indeed, very largely for all the bloodshed, strife,
and anarchy? Is it not the orthodox Church and her supporters? Is it
too much to say, with the Rev. J. Lawson-Forster, that "the Russian
Church has become the tool of murderers"? (Mr. Lawson-Forster expressed
himself in these words when presiding at the great public meeting held
at the Brondesbury Synagogue to protest against the recent outrages
in Russia.) To what party do the Freethinkers belong? Are they not
all, everyone of them, adherents of the party desirous of reform
and of religious toleration? With regard to religious persecution
generally, Christians might study with advantage Buckle's History of
Civilisation in England, or Lecky's History of the Rise and Influence
of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, or C. T. Gorham's Faith: Its
Freaks and Follies (Rationalist Press Association), or the latest work
on the subject, Religious Persecution, by E. S. P. Haynes (Duckworth;
a revised edition has now been issued by the R. P. A. at 6d.). Few
realise that the favourite method for overcoming the scruples of the
heretic--torture--was used in England so late as 1640.
Pp. 371-2, lines 31 and 1-3.--History, viewed as a whole,
is nothing but a succession of struggles for existence among
rival nations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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