p. 6 | Freethinkers and Intolerance

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 10, 1908

Freethinkers and Intolerance

It is one of the boasts of infidelity that the world is indebted to it for the freedom of mind and of practise in religious things which are enjoyed at the present time. The facts in the case and the evidence furnished by those making such a claim, both contradict the assertion. For instance, at a recent congress of freethinkers held in Paris, resolutions were passed instructing the members of their party in the legislature to propose a law forbidding parents to have their children baptized or confirmed. The members of their party were made to take oath never to participate in a religious act of any kind. Such an act has no relation to freedom of conscience. It is a kind of slavery acquiesced in “for a consideration,” and instead of encouraging liberty, debases the character of those who permit themselves to be a party to it. An infidel, in conversation with the editor of a religious journal, advocated the idea that parents had no right to talk to their children of religious things, and declared that every one who dared to do so ought to be shot. How different is the principle of true religious liberty enunciated by Jesus: “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not.” That is true religious liberty, and so far as such liberty is enjoyed in any country, it is the product of true Christianity. To it the freethinker can not legitimately lay claim; for the spirit and the inspiration of it are foreign to the instincts of the human heart.