The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read

The Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read is a wonderfully diverse anthology whose contributors range from atheists to liberal religionists.  As with all anthologies, some of the articles are stronger than others, since there is no uniformity of belief (or non-belief) and no concurrence of opinion among the writers.  Nonetheless, all the articles are worth reading, and some are worth savoring.

There are ten sections.  One of the best of these is entitled “Consequences.”  One of the articles in this section is Frank Mortyn’s Blood on the Ground, Churches All Around.  This article should be read aloud to any religious person who starts harping on the supposedly negative influence of secular humanism on our society.  Mortyn gives us a stellar example of what once happened when Christianity reigned supreme and atheism was unheard of.  He vividly describes the horrific devastation wrought in 532 C.E. by the Praetorian Guard under the emperor Justinian.  This massacre was in reaction to the uprising against the emperor by the youth of Constantinople, the most Christian of Christian cities.

Most of the book is focused on the Bible and on Christianity.  Some of the articles are reprints of older free thought classics such as a portion of Kersey Graves’ 1875 work entitled Sixteen Crucified Saviors.  Graves describes the figures of antiquity that served as the “role models” for the probably mythical figure of Jesus Christ.  Graves rightly notes, “so far as there has been any borrowing or transfer of materials from one system to another, Christianity has been the borrower.”

A preponderance of interesting trivia is also offered through ought the book.  For example, a little-known fact about Christopher Columbus is that in 1501 he proclaimed himself to be the Messiah as prophesied by Joachim!  This fits right in with the bloodthirsty enslaver of native peoples that is only now beginning to emerge from the archives of history.  Another piece of trivia concerns Theodore Roosevelt, whose likeness adorns mount Rushmore as one of our nations’s finest.  He once said, “This great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages.”  This little gem is from the same man that referred to Thomas Paine as that “filthy little atheist.”

The notion that religion is essential for morality is convincingly demolished by another early writer, John E. Remsburg.  He discusses the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, and then utterly trashes the reputations of some of the key figures in the Bible by exposing their real moral character.  Despite this, many are still seen as role models!

Other highlights: Stephen A. Hoeller’s Hermes vs. Puritans draws a fairly distinct line from the early Puritans to some of their modern counterparts in today’s right-wing Christian fundamentalists.  Edd Doerr’s article on church/state separation is an avid illustration of a key concept embraced by all freethinkers.  Finally, Austin Miles exposes the ludicrous tax-exempt status and favoritism shown to this country’s churches.

I would like to have seen a couple of brief articles on some of the rationalizations traditionally offered for the existence of god, e.g. the first cause rationalization, the rationalization from design, etc.  But even without those, this is a tantalizingly varied work and is commensurate with the best books on freethought.