It has been a long, ongoing and seemingly never ending battle to defeat those who would have a theocracy in place of our democratic republic...
But never, ever give up the fight and one day we will have a truly secular United States of America.
Dedicated to the pioneers and martyrs of the Freethought movement in the United States.
From the 'Index' by Francis Ellingwood Abbot, later included in Issue #1 of 'The Truth Seeker' periodical of DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett:
"That great and growing evils render it a paramount patriotic duty on the part of American citizens, who comprehend the priceless value of pure Secular government, to take active measures for the immediate and absolute secularization of the state, and we earnestly urge them to organize without delay for this purpose."
THE NINE DEMANDS OF LIBERALISM
1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall be no longer exempt from taxation.
2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, and in the 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 textbook 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 the religious festivals and fasts 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 that a 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 We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed.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 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 and of the several states, but also in the practical administration of the same, no privileges 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 whatever changes shall prove necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly, and promptly made.
On September 1, 1873, D.M. and M.W. Bennett released the first tabloid edition of The Truth Seeker. Its masthead announced its purpose as follows:
"Devoted to: science, morals, free thought, free discussions, liberalism, sexual equality, labor reform, progression, free education and whatever tends to elevate and emancipate the human race."
"Opposed to: priestcraft, ecclesiasticism, dogmas, creeds, false theology, superstition, bigotry, ignorance, monopolies, aristocracies, privileged classes, tyranny, oppression, and everything that degrades or burdens mankind mentally or physically."
Charles Darwin, on reading Abbott’s 1871 tracts that included “the extinction of faith in the Christian confession” and the development of a humanistic free religion, wrote, “I admire them from my inmost heart, and I agree to almost every word.”
Many have fought and sacrificed so that truth should stand as the ONLY gauge by which all should be measured and have left to us the legacy of their efforts, but more importantly the obligation to continue the struggle in a time when so many wish to turn progress back and re-instate superstition and dogma. Be brave, speak out at every turn and know that you are not crazy and not alone.
