The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-04-23


Billings, Mont, April Fl, 1s4l
Dear Mr.. Bruce:
I have been reading The People
Voice for some time and have enjoyed
many of the fine editorial articles
There is one column, however that
throws out a challenge to all progress
sive students of either history OF
philosophy; a challenge that should
not go unanswered. | am referring
to the column What About IT., by
O'Boyle.
Mr.. O'Boyle has gone to great
lengths to interpret history to MS
readers and has had much to say
about democracy Now he winds up
in the April issue by telling us that
democracy is a bundle of Christian as
sumptions and that "our democracy
here and now is doomed to survive
or perish with the fate of this Chris
tian idealism." If Mr.. O'Boyle Is
makingthe mistake of assuming that
democracy and capitalism are one ana
the same thing he is probably rlght'
because capitalism does depend upon
the teaching of Christian idealism Tor
its continued existence. But II ne
means democracy without capitalism
he is all wrong. Real democracy is
a matter of social and economic or
ganization. 1t has nothing whatever
to do with religion and is more nkely
to discourage than to foster the wor-
ship of man, beast, idol, or God
Let us ask ourselves what part the
Christian religion has played and IS
playing in the long struggle OF man
for freedom and democracy. Is 1t nee
essary to do more than mention the
names of some of the countries
(Spain, Russia, Mexico, etc. where
religion played a large part in the
great drama of history? Does not
everyone know that religion always
and without exception aligned itself
behind the forces of reaction and OPP
preston? Does not everyone know
that when the great Catholic Church
was in power heretics were burned at
the stake and crucified by the dozens
And who were the heretics? just
anyone who refused to bow and scrape
before a vicious and brutal clergy.
But | can hear Mr.. O'Boyle saying,
Yes, | admit that the religious lead
ers have misused the Christian IDEAL
ism and have not been true Chris
tians, but that does not mean that
the philosophy is wrong" Which may
sound fine and may even fool some
people but is very misleading. The
truth of the matter is that some OF
the sayings of Christ were very fine.
Those are the sayings which deal with
here and now living, but they had
nothing to do with the philosophy or
Christian idealism" and were not
even Christian. Take, for instance,
the Golden Rule: Therefore all
things whatsoever We would that men
should do to you, do ye even so TO
them" Is the Golden Rule Christian?
1t is Not! 1t was used by both Con-
fusius and Buddha hundreds of years
before Christ. Many of the other
teachings of Christ were very excel
lent and very ancient, but those that
are of value in the struggle for democ-
racy have nothing to do with rellg-
ious idealism.
Idealism is the philosophy which
teaches that in external perceptions
the objects Immediately known are
ideas. That is, that external oDJects'
such as this paper, exist only III the
imagination. The Catholic clergy are
the greatest supporters of this phllos-
ophy and they use it as an argument
against the philosophy of materlallsm'
which teaches that external oDJects
are real and have real existence OUT
side and independent of the magma
ton or mind. Do you see where thls
takes us? Idealism would have us
believe that material things don't real
ly matter anyway as they are only
creations of our own IMAGINATION
while materialism teaches that ex-
ternal objects do have some import
ance and must be dealt with. IL US
ually comes down to this: IL ideallsm
is right l have nothing to worry about
for all will be solved in the spirit
and I'll have pie in the sky when
die. If materialism is right (most
Christians have pretty materiallstlc
tastes it seems to mel, then we mad
better get busy and see II we can
have our pie here and now; real ma
terial pie and not spiritual pie. the
IWW had a song about that. Do you
remember. We'll have pie in the
sky when we die, it's lie" Kari
Marx said religion is the opiate OF the
people, and he wasn't talking about
anything else but Christian idealism.
This sort of bunk about Christian