Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-08-31
FREE THINKERS,

At Watkins Glen, Schuyler county,
New York, on Sabbath last was convened
a convention of Free Thinkers, so called,
numbering some six hundred persons.
They claimed to be the representatives of
National Liberal League of anti-re-
ligionists, whose common and only bond
of union is opposition to the church.
This national league welcomes to its en-
brace people of all forms of irreligious
belief and conviction, such as Spiritual
lists, Nationalist, Deists, Agnostics,
Atheists, and any and all other classes of
infdel free thinkers, if such there be.
A series of resolutions was adopted,
surcharged with the usual platltudes eX-
alting "science" and arraigning the faith
of the church, and denouncing ''the
clergy" whose alleged material interests
are promoted by ignorance" a professed
object is to ''defend themselves against
the wiles of the church and to secure
the secularity of the National Constitu-
tiOn;' to oppose the non-taxation Of
church property, and to abolish the en-
ployment of chapIains "to say prayers for
the religious qualification of Congress
men, soldiers and sailors"
Is not the constitution already sufii-
GENTLY secular? There is no provision
for "God in the constitution There is
no claim for a 'union OF church and
state" but the contrary. 1t is expressly
provided that congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of re-
ligion, or prohibit the free exercise there
Of; or abridging the freedom of speech
and the press, or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, etc." BY the pro-
visions of the constitution, the con-
clave at Watkins Glen, were protected
in their assemblage and expression
of free thought, even to the extent of de-
nouncing and falsely eliminating the
church and its clergy
The point best taken is opposition to
the exemption of church property from
taxation. This exemption may well be
objected to, and doubtless will, sooner or
alter be rectifed without the Intervention
of national infidel league to accomplish
it; and as to the employment of chap
lains, their limited number will, proba-
bly,, not bankrupt the national treasury.
or fatally violate any Fprinciple of free
government.
The violence of opposition to the
church, seems TO be graduated in its
quality by the strength of the infidel's un-
belief, the atheist being the most bitter
of all. The clergy are the objects of es-
pecial hate, and are assailed with meas
ureless abuse.
But after all, can the world well afford
to dispense with the church? Not free
from defects and faults, 1t is nevertheless
the very conservator OF the peace and
safety of society. Its banner is that of
peace and love. Its conservative plat
form is that of virtue and purity. 1t
aims to restrain the wicked passions and
vices of men, and to turn their footsteps
into paths of uprightness and just doing.
The church is the very safeguard of
civilization itself. Without its benign
influence the world would relapse into
savage barbarity.
Only where the church is maintained,
and its influence felt, Is civilization adj
vanced and social life elevated, and civil
life secure. The church is not coercive
in its modes, but persuasive, and aims to
win men to its tenets by argument and
just appeals. Infidel free thinkers, such
as met at Watkins Glen, are indebted
fnr
ioyment and expression of their sliberap'
ideas to the conservative influence and
generous spirit of the church itself.
which they so tiercely denounce.
Why should "liberals," free thinkers.
or the avowed infidels of every form and
degree, widely differing among them
selves as they do from the church, band
together to persecute it, and meet in
conclave to denounce it. The church
does not infringe upon their rights.
They are not coerced to adopt Its tenets.
They are only invited upan conviction to
adopt its belief. Why, then, should not
the church be left free to enjoy its thought,
as well as the sceptic his!
Here is solecism, and the free-think-
er denies TO the church what he claims
for himself.
The GLoBE does not propose
to set itself up as the especial
champion Of the church, but 1t
does propose to sustain the right
of free thought and its unobstructed, en-
joyment and expression, in and out of
the church, having due regard to decency
and proprlety. And it does not hesitate
to avow the belief, that the safety of
society, and the welfare of the human
race, even in this life, to say nothing of
that beyond, are intimately involved in