Untitled article by C. P. B.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · October 9, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 40

Congress of the American Secular Union.

By C. P. B.

The Fourteenth Annual Congress of the American Secular Union has been appointed by the Board of Directors to meet at Portsmouth, Ohio, Friday evening, October 31, 1890, and to continue its sessions on the Saturday and Sunday following. The meetings will be held in the Grand Opera House, corner of Sixth and Court streets.

We quote as follows from President Westbrook’s published call for the Congress:—

The object of the American Secular Union, as is well known, is to secure the total separation of Church and State, in fact and in form, to the end that equal rights in religion, genuine morality in politics, and freedom, virtue, and brotherhood be established, protected, and perpetuated. While we unite on what is commonly known as the Nine Demands of Secularism, we propose to emphasize the following at the coming Congress:—

1. The equitable taxation of church property in common with other property.

2. The total discontinuance of religious instruction and worship in the public schools, and especially the reading of any Bible.

3. The repeal and prevention of all laws enforcing the observance of Sunday as a religious institution rather than an economic one, justified by physiological and other secular reasons.

4. The cessation of all appropriations of the public funds for educational and charitable institutions of a sectarian character.

The American Secular Union is strictly unsectarian and non-partisan in both religion and politics, but will use any and all honorable means to secure its objects as above stated. It is not, either publicly or privately, committed to the advancement of any system of religious belief or disbelief, but heartily welcomes all persons, of whatever faith, to its membership, on the basis of “no union of Church and State.” The word “secular” is here used in the broadest sense, as applied to the State, and not to any system of religious philosophy.

To discuss these questions in an orderly and friendly manner, and to devise ways and means to promote these objects, let us come together at this Congress as Free Thinkers, Spiritualists, Unitarians, Universalists, Free Religionists, Quakers, progressive Jews, and liberal Christians, and laying aside our peculiar views on religious questions, unite as American citizens on the one broad platform of no union of Church and State, and the complete administration of our secular Government on purely secular principles.

The Nine Demands of Secularism referred to in the foregoing are as follows:—

1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall be no longer exempt from just taxation.

2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, in State Legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in prisons, asylums, and all other institutions supported by public money, shall be discontinued.

3. We demand that all public appropriations for

educational and charitable institutions of a sectarian character shall cease.

4. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the Government shall be abolished; and especially that the use of the Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text book, or avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited.

5. We demand that the appointment by the President of the United States, or by the Governors of the various States, of all religious festivals and feasts shall wholly cease.

6. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts, and in all other departments of the Government shall be abolished, and the simple affirmation, under the pains and penalties of perjury, shall be established in its stead.

7. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed.

8. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of “Christian” morality (as such) shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal rights, and impartial liberty.

9. We demand that not only in the Constitution of the United States, but also in the practical administration of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be conceded to Christianity or any other special religion; that our entire political system shall be founded and administered on a purely secular basis; and that whatever changes shall prove necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly and promptly made.

It will be observed that the four points to be “emphasized” by the Portsmouth Congress, are identical with demands 1, 3, 4, and 7, of Secularism, with this difference, that while the seventh demand of Secularism is the repeal of “all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath,” the American Secular Union demands repeal of “all laws enforcing the observance of Sunday as a religious institution, rather than an economic one, justified by physiological and other secular reasons.” This we regard as quite an important difference.

Sunday is, and always was, a religious institution. It was such in the old Pagan world, and it is such now in the Christian world, and we deny the right of the State to require its observance upon any grounds whatever. True, it is regarded as a holiday by many who have no religious regard for it, or indeed for anything else, and they have a perfect right to so use that, or any other day, so far as their fellow men are concerned; but we deny the right of one portion of the community or State to fasten upon the other portion, that is upon the minority, no matter how small a minority it may be, the observance of Sunday, or any other day, for any reason either religious or otherwise.

We do not deny the right of the State to make any day or any number of days legal holidays, leaving the individual citizen free to observe or not to observe such days just as he sees fit, as is now the case with the Fourth of July, and other holidays; but to require the observance of such days, or to forbid upon one day, acts which are freely permitted on other days, is an abuse of the power of the State. The American Secular Union should lay the ax at the root of the tree, and “demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday” upon any pretext be repealed. C. P. B.