The Profits of Religion, Fifth EditionSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
(3) The purport of creation. The man was not created for the
woman, but the woman for the man.
(4) Results in creation. The man is the image of the glory
of God, but woman is the glory of man.
(5) Woman's priority in the fall. Adam was not deceived; but
the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression.
(6) The marriage relation. As the Church is subject to
Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands.
(7) The headship of man and woman. The head of every man is
Christ, but the head of the woman is man.
I say there is no modern evil which cannot be justified by these
ancient texts; and there is nowhere in Christendom a clergy which
cannot be persuaded to cite them at the demand of ruling classes. In
the city where I write, three clergymen are being sent to jail for six
months for protesting against the use of the name of Jesus in the
wholesale slaughter of men. Now, I am backing this war. I know that it
has to be fought, and I want to see it fought as hard as possible; but
I want to leave Jesus out of it, for I know that Jesus did not believe
in war, and never could have been brought to support a war. I object
to clerical cant on the subject; and I note that an eminent
theological authority, "Billy" Sunday, appears to agree with me; for I
find him on the front page of my morning paper, assailing the three
pacifist clergymen, and making his appeal not to Jesus, but to the
blood-thirsty tribal diety of the ancient Hebrews:
I suppose they think they know more than God Almighty, who
commanded the sun to stand still while Joshua won the battle
for the Lord; more than the God who made Samson strong so he
could slay thousands of his nation's enemies in a righteous
cause.
Right you are, Billy! And if the capitalist system continues to
develop unchecked, we shall some day see it dawn upon the masters of
the world how wasteful it is to permit the superannuated workers to
perish by slow starvation. So much more sensible to make use of them!
So we shall have a Bible defense of cannibalism; we shall hear our
evangelists quoting Leviticus: "#They shall eat the flesh of their own
sons and daughters.#" Or perhaps some of our leisure-class ladies
might make the discovery that the flesh of working-class babies is
relished by pomeranians and poodles. If so, the Billy Sundays of the
twenty-first century may discover the text: "#Happy shall be he that
taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.#"
#Moth and Rust#
It is especially interesting to notice what happens when the Bible
texts work against the interests of the Slavers and their clerical
retainers. Then they are null and void--and no matter how precise and
explicit and unmistakable they may be! Take for example the Sabbath
injunction: "Six days shalt thou labor and do all that thou hast to
do." Karl Marx records of the pious England of his time that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account