The Profits of Religion, Fifth EditionSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
Let us have an illustration of this clerical camouflage. Here are the
wives and children of the Colorado coal-miners being shot and burned
in their beds by Rockefeller gun-men, and the press of the entire
country in a conspiracy of silence concerning the matter. In the
effort to break down this conspiracy, Bouck White, Congregational
clergyman, author of "The Call of the Carpenter", goes to the Fifth
Avenue Church of Standard Oil and makes a protest in the name of
Jesus. I do not wish to make extreme statements, but I have read
history pretty thoroughly, and I really do not know where in nineteen
hundred years you can find an action more completely in the spirit and
manner of Jesus than that of Bouck White. The only difference was that
whereas Jesus took a real whip and lashed the money-changers, White
politely asked the pastor to discuss with him the question whether or
not Jesus condemned the holding of wealth. He even took the precaution
to write a letter to the clergyman announcing in advance what he
intended to do! And how did the clergyman prepare for him? With the
sword of truth and the armor of the spirit? No--but with two or three
dozen strong-arm men, who flung themselves upon the Socialist author
and hurled him out of the church. So violent were they that several of
White's friends, also one or two casual spectators, were moved to
protest; what happened then, let us read in the New York "Sun", the
most bitterly hostile to radicalism of all the metropolitan
newspapers. Says the "Sun's" report:
A police billy came crunching against the bones of Lopez's
legs. It struck him as hard as a man could swing it eight
times. A fist planted on Lopez's jaw knocked out two teeth.
His lip was torn open. A blow in the eye made it swell and
blacken instantly. A minute later Lopez was leaning against
the church with blood running to the doorsill.
And now, what has the clerical camouflage to say on this proceeding?
Does it approve it? Oh no! It was "a mistake", the "Outlook" protests;
it intensifies the hatred which these extremists feel for the church.
The proper course would have been to turn the disturber aside with a
soft answer; to give him some place, say in a park, where he could
talk his head off to people of his own sort, while good and decent
Christians continued to worship by themselves in peace, and to have
the children of their mine-slaves shot and burned in their beds. Says
our pious editor:
The true way to repress cranks is not to suppress them; it
is to give them an opportunity to air their theories before
any who wish to learn, while forbidding them to compel those
to listen who do not wish to do so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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