The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-20


earthly life, offering them very cheap justif-
cation for all their exploiting existence, and
selling at current price the tickets to heavenly
blessedness. Religion is the opium of the peo-
pie. Religion is a kind of spiritual drug, in
which the slaves of capital drown their human
image, their demands for even a little of life
worthy human being.
But slave, conscious of his slavery and
rousing himself to fight for his liberation al
ready partly ceases to be a slave. The con-
temporary conscious worker, who is educated
city life, contemptuously throws away religious
superstition, leaves heaven to the priests and
bourgeois hypOcriteS and conquerS for himself
a better life here on earth. The contemporary
proletariat is on the side of socialism, which
adopts science in the struggle with the religious
fog and frees the worker from the belief in a
life beyond, and makes him more fit for the real
fight for better life on earth.
Religion must be declared a private mat
ter''-with these words the attitude of social
lists towards religion is commonly expressed
But the meaning of these words must be de-
fined exactly in order to avoid any miSconcep-
ton. We demand that religion be private
matter in relation to the state, but we cannot
by any means regard religion as a private mat
ter in respect to our own party. The govern
ment should have no say in matters of religion,
state power. Everybody should be given full
liberty to preach whatever religion he wishes
or not to recognize any religion, that is, to be
an atheist, as every socialist commonly is. Any
differences between citizens who claim certain
rights because of their religious beliefs is i'm
permissible and should not be allowed. All
mention of citizens creed must be wiped off
from official documents. There should be no
taxes for the state church, no government APP
preparation to church and religious societies,
which must be entirely free, independent of the
state power, and free togereate. religious con-
gregations with their fellow believers. Only the
complete fulfllment of these demands can end
the infamous and cursed past, when the church
was in feudal dependence upon the govern
ment, and the Russian citizens were in serf-
dom to the state church. when there were med
iaeval laws of inquisition (Which up to this
date are in our criminal laws and regulations),
which prosecuted for belief or disbelief violated
the conscience of the man, and levied taxes and
tithes for several clerical fakes The complete
separation of the church from the state-that
is the demand the socialists, the proletariat
presents to the present state and the present
church.
The Russian revolution must realize this de-
mand as a necessary and essential part of pol
itical freedom. The Russian revolution is in
this respect placed in very favorable position,
because the loathsome slavery of absolutism
has provoked dissatisfaction, resentment and
indignation even among the clergy. However
degraded, however ignorant the Russian ortho-
dox clergy is, even they are aroused by the
thunder of the fall of the old, medieval order in
Russia. Even the clergy leans towards the de-
mand for liberty, protests against the bu
reaucratic license, against police outrages, con-
nected with the serving of god"
We, the socialists must support this move
ment developing the demands of the sincere
and honest elements among the clergy to their
logical conclusions, Selling upon their words
about liberty, demanding that they decisively
cut the bonds between religion and police
Either you are sincere, and then you must
stand for the complete separation of the church
and state, and the school and church, for the
absolute and unconditional declaration of re-
ligion as private matter Or, you do not ac-
cept these consistent demands of libery-and
I,.a., .tiu