( Winter 93/94

"Ivan the Terrible' The Evidence - Re-Examined Joe Nickell

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WINTER 1993/94, VOL. 14, NO. 1 ISSN 0272-0701

Contents Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larue, Gordon Stein 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Executive Editor: Timothy J. Madigan Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski FAITH HEALING: MIRACLE OR MIRAGE? Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, Joe E. Barnhart, Berman, 4 Introduction: Faith Healing Revisited Paul Kurtz H. James Birx, Jo Ann Boydston, Bonnie Bullough, Paul Edwards, Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles 5 The Faith Healing Claims of Dr. Peter May W. Faulkner, , Levi Fragell, Adolf 7 Who Is Morris Cerullo? Hector Avalos Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Jean Kotkin, Thelma Lavine, Ronald A. Lindsay, Martin, Delos 12 The Biblical Roots of Faith Healing Paul Kurtz B. McKown, John Novak, Howard Radest, Robert 14 Faith Healing in the Black Community Rimmer, Michael Rockier, Svetozar Stojanovic, Norm R. Allen, Jr. Thomas Szasz, V. M. Tarkunde, Richard Taylor, 15 `Psychic Healing' and Alternative Medicine James Randi Rob Tielman 20 EDITORIALS Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Thomas Flynn, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee John Paul II: Humanist? Timothy J. Madigan / Progress in Nisbet Ireland, Dick Spicer / The Rocky Road to Victory, Skipp Porteous Editorial Associates: / Update on 's Ark, Gerald Larue Thomas Franczyk, Roger Greeley, James Martin- Diaz, Molleen Matsumura, Warren Allen Smith

24 ON THE BARRICADES Chairman, CODESH, Inc.: Paul Kurtz 25 Are We Approaching the End of the Age of Books? Chief Development Officer: James Kimberly Prometheus at Age Twenty-Five: Paul Kurtz Public Relations Director, Executive Director, African-Americans for 29 State and Church in Modern Germany Hans Sebald Humanism: Norm R. Allen, Jr. Executive Director, Secular Organizations for 34 Through the Looking Glass: An Update on the Sobriety: James Christopher Who-Was-Jesus Movement R. Hoffmann Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour

37 An Interview with Tai Solarin Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes 42 `Ivan' Revisited: Was John Demjanjuk `Innocent'? ... Joe Nickell Graphic Designer: J. J. Chrystal 48 Matilda Joslyn Gage Lois K Porter Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass Staff: 51 BOOKS Georgeia Locurcio, Anthony Nigro, Ranjit Sandhu

Disputing the Charge of a Cultural Conspiracy, Robert Alley / FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Read It and Weep, Molleen Matsumura / Examining `Creation Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit Science,' Richard Huett / Books in Brief corporation, 3965 Rensch Road, Buffalo, NY 14228- 2713. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©1993 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class 55 POINT/COUNTERPOINT postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by In Response to Grünbaum's Defense, Seymour Cain International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Seymour Cain's Jeremiad: A Rejoinder, Adolf Grünbaum Beach, . FREE INQUIRY is available from University Microfilms and is indexed in 63 READERS' FORUM Philosophers' Index. Subscription rates: $25.00 for one year, $43.00 for two years, $59.00 for three years, $6.25 for single 66 IN THE NAME OF GOD issues. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Cover photo by John Hassen /ratz Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. All manuscripts must be typed double-spaced and should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. be performed as part of a church service. There is passion, drama, and depth of Letters to the Editor feeling in every part—the same kinds of emotions that inform his greatest operas and give us such deep satisfaction. They have nothing intrinsically to do with religious dogma. I believe that one of Are Rites Right? The observance could be as simple the reasons we have music is its power as lighting a candle or as involved as to lead us into realms of thought and "Should Secular Humanists Celebrate our imagination will take us. feeling that have no parallel in words. the Rites of Passage?" (FI, Fall 1993) got right to the core of what, for me, Arttie Piar Gómez Christopher Bonds has been the most challenging part of Pittsfield, Mass. Wayne, Neb. being a secular humanist. Celebrations are a central part of human society. They draw us together Historically rituals and ceremonies have School Choice in a focus on shared values. Marriage helped humans to focus the mind and celebrates a commitment of two people the emotions on important aspects of life I disagree with Skipp Porteous's con- to build a common life together. The and by symbolism pass on generation tention that school choice imple- Fourth of July celebrates Americans' to generation basic human values. In mented via a voucher system violates the commitment to building a nation based response to the suggestion of Molleen constitutional provision for a separation on personal freedom. Birthdays celebrate Matsumura I submit the following that between church and state ("Whose the passage of time in an individual's life. I have used for our family dinner at Choice?" Fall 1993). If the contention The Christmas and New Year holidays recent Thanksgiving celebrations. were true, the state would have to take celebrate the gathering of families and steps to ensure that all transfer payments friends. Unfortunately, religionists have Let us close our eyes for a moment to citizens be used only for things devoid and concentrate on the power of love of religious content. For instance it actively taken ownership of many of within us. The love we feel for each these celebrations. other and the love we feel toward every would not be permitted to buy kosher We humanists have not had good person we influence. Let us recognize foods with food stamps, hold a religious alternatives to these rituals and celebra- that love is the means by which we ceremony in a public housing apartment, tions to offer to those who are question- care for each other and share with each or use veterans benefits to attend other; by caring and sharing we make ing their religious beliefs but need a sense our individual contribution to the Brigham Young University or Notre of community. By emphasizing our contentment and happiness among Dame. It seems to me that the separation shared values and searching for those ourselves, and, hopefully, peace and amendment is intended to keep the areas of common ground, we will find understanding among all peoples of government from sanctioning a religion, more opportunities to help people see the world. On this day of Thanksgiv- not to prevent persons who receive ing we give thanks to each other for that it is possible to live meaningful and friendship and understanding and government aid from practicing their happy lives without resorting to the love. religion. Vouchers are intended to buy crutch of religion. If we are passionate a basic education for a child. So long about our beliefs, it is just those Florien J. Wineriter as that purpose is accomplished, the opportunities we should be looking for. Salt Lake City, Utah religious content of the education should not be a concern of the Brian Falony government. South Bend, Ind. A statement in George Rowell's "The Think of the positive uses to which Sunday Regression Service" was difficult the vouchers can be put, rather than for me to accept as a professional dwell on what the religious nuts will do Molleen Matsumura ("Holidays for musician and professor of music. Briefly with them. For instance, they can be used Humanists") closed with the words: "I mentioning the role of music in religious to put a child in a school that provides hope readers of FREE INQUIRY will observance, he writes: "all religious a good scientific education including respond to this symposium with sugges- music sounds the same—even a Verdi thorough and honest studies of evolu- tions for holidays we could enjoy Requiem, or Haydn oratorio." Verdi's tion, cosmology, and philosophy. together." Just like we traditionally Requiem is a magnificent work in every celebrate the birthdays of friends and respect. I don't consider it a religious John C. Glasgow II family we could also celebrate the work in spite of the text, and I don't Fort Walton Beach, Fla. birthdays of scholars and writers who believe Verdi did either. It is a great piece have had an influence on our lives. of theater, and was never intended to (Letters, cont d. on p. 65)

Winter 1993/94 3 FREE INQUIRY Symposium Faith Healing: Miracle or Mirage? This issue of FREE INQUIRY revisits the question of faith healing, for a new wave of faith healers is going strong. This time we focus on Morris Cerullo, an American evangelist who has taken his ministry abroad. We are very fortunate to be able to publish a special study of Cerullo's work by the British physician Peter May. We have also invited James Randi to do a follow-up article on Stephen Turoff, who claims to be able to do `psychic healing." Unverified claims accepted by a gullible and credulous public are found in both cases. We conclude that we are dealing with more mirage than miracle.

Introduction: Faith Healing Revisited Paul Kurtz

pioneering work in faith healing in- went on for five hours, involving music, found outright deception. Some of the vestigation was undertaken in 1986 song, and prayers. Hundreds of people faith healers led the audience to believe by the conjurer James Randi in coopera- came forward to attest to their cures. that they could read minds or receive tion with FREE INQUIRY magazine. This Our procedure was to follow as many revelations from God. W. V. Grant had study focused on fundamentalist faith of those as we could out of the au- developed a memory system and used healers then active, including Ernest ditorium, to get their names and ad- cue cards that he peeked at during the Angley, W. V. Grant, Peter Popoff, Oral dresses, and later, if possible, their doc- prayer meeting. This was his alleged Roberts, , and others.* tors' names and addresses, in order to pipeline to God. But later Randi disco- Faith healing had become an extremely do follow-up studies. vered how Peter Popoff, a popular tele- popular part of the religious landscape, What we discovered as we investi- vangelist, used a tiny radio receiver hid- with the faith healers regularly appearing gated other noted faith healers was den in his ear to receive information on television. They appeared in huge am- disheartening. First, many faith healers transmitted by his wife backstage that phitheaters or convention centers packed were all too willing and able to deceive she had previously been given by par- with fervent and often desperate people gullible audiences. For example, as ticipants. Popoff would tell the person seeking miraculous healings. Many of Randi reported in FREE INQUIRY, the his name, address, ailment, and doctor. these latter-day faith healers claimed that Reverend W. V. Grant brought a truck- But all of this had been compiled earlier. they cured hundreds, even thousands, of load of wheelchairs with him. When an people every night. They were not talking aged or deformed person hobbled in, ndoubtedly faith healing can pro- about ordinary cures of ulcers, alco- often he or she would be invited to sit vide a psychological uplift for some holism, arthritis, and other such mala- in a wheelchair and be rolled up front. people. Attending a session can be a dies, but of life-threatening illnesses like During the height of the faith healing passionately charged cathartic event, and terminal cancer, advanced diabetes, mul- service, these people would be called many people are emotionally moved by tiple sclerosis, and arteriosclerosis. upon to "be healed" and to stand up it. For some, the placebo effect has some Those of us who watched their the- and push their own chairs. We followed curative power if they truly believe in atrical performances were stunned at the one case, a man from Rochester, New the power of the healer. But if it does, great number of believers who claimed York, whom the audience was led to its impact is entirely naturalistic, for it that they were cured. People would believe had been "healed" by Grant. Our is the power of suggestion that has a throw away their crutches or get out of follow-up study revealed that there was significant effect on the person who is wheelchairs and walk; many claimed that no improvement in his condition. moved. There is no occult or miraculous their afflictions had been overcome. As Another woman, from Syracuse, New cause at work. reported in FREE INQUIRY, the first faith York, whom Grant had pronounced healer we witnessed directly was Ernest cured of cancer, died two weeks later. *This work has been written up extensively in Angley. James Randi, myself, and a team Indeed, after several months of first- FREE INQUIRY. See especially the Spring 1986 of four others journeyed to his electronic hand investigation, James Randi could Special Issue on "An Investigation of Faith church in Akron, Ohio. We were deeply Healing," and articles in Summer and Fall 1986 find no single, incontrovertible case of issues. See also James Randi's The Faith impressed by the dramatic display, which a miraculous cure. In some cases he Healers (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 1987).

4 FREE INQUIRY case. The average person attending, they discovered, came more than four times. Although it was called a "mission," 94 percent of those who "responded" to The Faith Healing Claims Cerullo's preaching were already church members, mostly from independent and of Morris Cerullo charismatic house churches. Less than a quarter of them were of British origin Peter May, M.D., recently had the opportunity to evaluate the faith while Afro-Caribbeans accounted for healing claims of Morris Cerullo, an American evangelical who took nearly half the total. Women outnum- his healing crusade to Britain. Although a committed Christian and bered men by 2 to 1.2 Anglican authority, Dr. May is skeptical of Cerullo's alleged healing It was said that 476 of these people powers and tells why.—EDS. had claimed to be healed, although advertisements for Cerullo's 1993 Mis- sion put the number at 2,250. From these, Morris Cerullo took one month Dr. Peter May to produce a short list of nine cases, while only seven of these provided written laims to miraculous healing have consent to approach their doctors. One been made on American television of these consents was subsequently C "What is a miracle? Is a healing regularly for many years. They have not withdrawn and another was found to passed without critical scrutiny, which always a cure?" have claimed to have been healed at a does not seem to have altered their different event some two years previ- popularity. Only recently has there been investigator. "Best cases" would also ously. an attempt to broadcast such programs imply that the other cases were not as in Britain. Yet widespread claims to good. Results miraculous healings already occur regu- While it was claimed that 70,000 larly in Britain and throughout the people had attended the mission and that f the six who provided access to world. Many of these are associated with they were a representative group of Otheir records, the following details the so-called Charismatic movement of Londoners, a survey done by the mission emerged: Pentecostal-style which has organizers showed that this was not the 1. Back pain. Sheila Lambshead was over the last twenty years spread within all the mainstream denominations. However, such claims are made more widely. Filippino psychic surgeons, New Age and "spiritual" healers, and alter- native therapists of varying descriptions claim to perform miracles of a sort.' Confusions about the diagnosis and prognosis, the use of other therapies that are not declared, misunderstandings about what the doctor actually said, and irrational beliefs and fears that patients have about their conditions all contrib- ute to the testimonies of those who believe that something quite remarkable has happened to them.

Method

Z public challenge was issued to faith Ahealer Morris Cerullo to produce details of his three "best cases" from his ó week-long "Mission to London" (MTL) in June 1992. By allowing him to select t the cases, it was hoped to avoid any suggestion of bias on behalf of the Morris Cerullo

Winter 1993/94 5 a forty-five-year-old woman who and astigmatism. This initial test sug- performed three weeks after the mission attended a Cerullo meeting in 1990. She gested very poor vision in the left eye and showed two ovarian cysts, but no gave a fifteen-year history of constant . A review appointment was awaited. fibroid. back pain which she attributed to a At follow-up, a better reading was 5. Lump in groin. Ann Terry was a slipped disc. It had caused her to give obtained for the vision in the left eye, fifty-three-year-old woman who feared up work and had reduced her to using which Azam's mother saw as evidence she had cancer. A malignant melanoma a Zimmer frame indoors and a wheel- of a miracle. However, the orthoptist had been removed from her leg in 1981. chair outside. She had been treated with believed it was because the child was less She presented to her surgery in the week analgesics, physiotherapy, acupuncture, tired and confirmed that the underlying of the mission with what she described and a corset. At the meeting, Cerullo problem remained. She felt that unless as a pain in the groin and feared was had put his hand on her head and prayed the better eye was covered, Azam was a recurrence of her cancer. A locum for her. She claimed that the pain had in danger of losing his vision in the weak (physician on duty) general practitioner left her body immediately and that she eye. The parents agreed to allow him saw her and recorded a one-line entry has subsequently remained well. to wear his glasses again and wear a in her notes: "Small inflamed cyst. An earlier x-ray of Lambshead's patch for a while on the right side in Perianal. Advised." She prescribed only lumbar spine had shown marked nar- order to exercise the left eye. The child a sun block lotion. The doctor recalled rowing of her L5/ S 1 disc space with has subsequently made good progress the consultation and confirmed that this osteophyte's formation. This was although he has required stronger lenses was just a little spot. No treatment, repeated after her healing and was for each eye. investigations, or follow-up were unchanged. A subsequent promotional leaflet thought appropriate. Three days later, Given the severity of the degeneration from Morris Cerullo boasted this true after attending the mission, Miss Terry of the base of her spine, her orthopedic but entirely misleading testimonial from went back to the surgery. She saw surgeon concluded that the disease seen the child's mother: "My son has very another doctor who recorded only that on her x-ray was causing the symptoms poor eyesight and could not see out of the patient now believed herself to have she experienced. However, a discrepancy his left eye.... Since MTL, he has been been healed. No clinical observation was was noted. Her pain extended into her healed and is now able to see clearly out recorded but the patient claimed that she neck and arms. He did not feel this was of both of his eyes." was re-examined and the doctor had a condition to put her in a wheelchair, 3. Knee pain. Arlene Braham was a commented to her that he could see and he and another colleague com- twenty-six-year-old woman who claimed where the spot had been. mented on "functional overlay." It was to have been healed of a twelve-year 6a. Back pain. Maureen Dawes was also observed that her symptoms had history of knee pain. She said she had a forty-three-year-old woman who made her "very depressed," so much so been offered surgery which she had claimed to have had an eight year history that she wanted her life to end. declined. Her G.P. reported that some of back pain that had not responded to Her visit to the meeting in 1990 had fifteen months previously she had seen ultrasound therapy but was healed given her a new reason for living. She an orthopedic surgeon who found no instantaneously at the mission. Her came away with a newfound faith, and significant clinical abnormality but general practitioner confirmed that she a very real sense of her life having taken reported that x-rays showed signs of had been off sick a long time due to on a new significance. She found an inner chondromalacia patellae. She was reas- chronic back-pain. An x-ray of the sense of peace and joy, and claimed new sured there was nothing significantly lumbar spines in February 1992 had been capacity to love others. The mission had wrong and that surgery had nothing to reported as normal. When I spoke to made a great impact on her spirituality, offer her. At that time, she asked her her by phone after the mission, she said and the psychosomatic factors were general practitioner for private physio- she had had no further pain until the clearly very powerful. Her records therapy and had not consulted her day of my call, when it had returned. showed that she had had one episode doctor since. She said that the devil had given it back of back pain since her healing, which 4. Fibroid. Georgine McHale was a to her but she was not going to accept resulted in a prescription for analgesics. forty-six-year-old woman who claimed it as real. However, subsequent publicity 2. Poor vision. Several small children to have been miraculously healed of a from Morris Cerullo quotes her as during the mission were claimed to have fibroid. Cerullo's office stated, "Her saying, "Since that evening I have not been healed from severe visual impair- testimony is very strong and all docu- experienced a twinge of pain...." ments and had their glasses taken from mented." Her doctor reported that she 6b. Cyst in skull. More interestingly, them. The only child whose parents had presented in April 1992 with heavy this same lady also claimed to have been agreed to public retesting was a three- periods. Hormone testing indicated that miraculously healed four years pre- year-old boy, Azam Anjum. Shortly she was approaching the menopause. viously at another Cerullo meeting. She before the mission, his health visitor There was no suggestion in her notes said she had had a lump in the skull suspected a squint and at a routine three- of a fibroid being found on examination causing a "prolapse" of her left eye. Her year test he was found to have a lazy but an ultrasound test had been arranged medical records confirm that she had an left eye. This was due to farsightedness to investigate that possibility. It was obvious swelling on the outer side of her

6 FREE INQUIRY eye socket causing a protrusion of her the waiting list and failed to attend a on the pathology, its resolution, and the left eye. She was seen by a neurosurgeon review appointment. Four years later, possible implications had the diagnosis and x-rays led him to think this was a the swelling is not obvious, but hair been different. mucocele in communication with her covers the site. She refused to allow close These then were the best cases from frontal sinus. He strongly advised inspection or a repeat of the x-ray. She MTL 1992, selected by Cerullo and surgical exploration as he thought the said the pain had stopped instantly and presented for public scrutiny. The day cyst would get bigger, but after attending that her skull had slowly returned to after producing this list, Cerullo held a a Cerullo meeting she took herself off almost normal. One is left to speculate press conference in London in which he Who Is Morris Cerullo? Hector Avalos

n the wake of a power vacuum edly censured several times in Argen- obvious attractions for people who Icreated by the downfall of Jim tina for such outspokenness. In 1981 feel powerless in this world. Bakker and , Morris the Nicaraguan government barred But perhaps the most attractive Cerullo has emerged as one of the him from entering the country. part of Cerullo's Pentecostal message most powerful televangelists in the In 1990 Cerullo helped to pur- is the claim of access to instant healing world. He is a fiery preacher who is chase, reportedly for about $50 power. purports to seen by millions of persons every million, two major elements of Jim be, in part, an alternative or comple- week, especially in the Bakker's former empire: The Praise mentary health care system for its and Latin America. the Lord (PTL) satellite network and clients. It is no surprise that this According to his autobiographical the Christian theme park in Fort movement grows in places where account, From Judaism to Christian- Mills, , known as people can't afford good health care, ity (first published in 1962 and revised Heritage USA. Aside from his own or where conventional health care in 1965), Cerullo was born in Passaic, , money for this purchase has not provided satisfactory results New Jersey, on October 2, 1931. He came from Malaysian bankers and a from the viewpoint of the patient. In grew up in a Jewish orphanage, and number of wealthy, but anonymous, short, the success of Cerullo lies in converted to Christianity as a teen- donors. Eventually Malaysian United his ability to market, and profit from, ager. Industries became the owners of his claim to have immediate access Although Cerullo now heads his Heritage USA, while Cerullo retained to a universal, immediate, and super- own independent ministry, he was control of the broadcasting element. natural health care plan. Whether ordained as a minister for the Assem- The PTL satellite network was esti- Cerullo will be more or less successful blies of God in 1952, the largest mated to reach about seven million in the future may depend on how well Pentecostal denomination in the households in 1990, and his flagship the medical and scientific commun- world. The once television show, Victory with Morris ities can expose the fallacy of his counted Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Cerullo, airs throughout the United claims. Bakker among its ministers. Cerullo States and Canada. pastored churches in New Hampshire In order to understand Cerullo and References and Indiana in the 1950s, but his his popularity, one must understand greatest success came in southern his Pentecostal message. Pentecostal- Morris Cerullo, From Judaism to Christianity California. In , where he ism is a fast-growing Christian move- (1962; revised 1965). "Cerullo Buys PTL," The Christian Century still maintains his headquarters, he ment that stresses that the miraculous (August 8-15, 1990) 728. organized Morris Cerullo World powers attributed to the early Chris- Stephanie Anderson Forest, "You Can't Say , Inc., (MCWE) in 1961. tians in the New Testament (e.g., faith Morris Cerullo Has No Faith," Business Week (December 31, 1990) 59. By the 1970s he had gained wide- healing, speaking in tongues) are still David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning spread notoriety for his television achievable and should be actively Protestant? (Berkeley: Univ. of California appearances. cultivated. These powers are con- Press, 1990) 228-229. Author's monitoring of several of Cerullo's During the 1980s, Cerullo was ferred to believers by an event called broadcasts (1990-93). • probably better known in Latin "Holy Spirit Baptism," which, after America than in the United States. salvation from sin, is one of the He was especially famous for anti- greatest goals stressed by Pentecos- Hector Avalos is adjunct assistant communist crusades filled with un- talism. The emphasis on access to professor of religious studies at Iowa diplomatic rhetoric. He was report- miraculous power is one of the State University in Ames.

Winter 1993/94 7 presented a further twenty stories. She claimed to be totally healed of a to read and write and see perfectly Although I was in the building at the severe hemiplegia. I phoned her at home. without my glasses on. My colleagues time, I was forbidden to attend, and She was very cooperative and gave me at work are just amazed." despite my request, medical verification her doctor's details and agreed to deliver A year later she told her story to a of these claims was not forthcoming. I written consent to him that day. She journalist. She said that after her healing was assured that the Cerullo office would never did. The Cerullo office insisted that she threw away her glasses, but six weeks "be happy to facilitate follow-up" but all my inquiries should go through them later developed severe headaches and eye this promise was not honored. I can only and that my phone call to her was an strain. She then returned to her optician imagine that the many people I wrote "invasion of privacy." I did therefore who told her her sight had deteriorated to had been instructed not to reply, as inquire through them—and heard no and that she needed stronger glasses. She so few did. Some details, however, have more. reported this to Cerullo's office and was come to light. 11. Knee disorder. Luan Spurgeon told that she should pray harder. She 7. Esophageal cancer. Alfred Coom- was a seventeen-year-old girl with a short felt very upset and disappointed. Despite bes was an elderly man who claimed to history of knee pain. At the Cerullo this failure, she still intended to return have been healed of a malignancy in his meeting she walked onto the platform to Cerullo to try once more for mirac- gullet. He readily admitted that he had carrying a crutch which was dramatically ulous healing.4 just had a course of fifteen sessions of thrown across the platform to an 14. Neuroblastoma. Natalia Barned radiotherapy, and thanked God for the assistant. Cerullo publicity now features was a small child who was declared on skill of his doctors. a photograph of the front page of a local the platform by Cerullo to have been 8. Deafness. Cherrelle Grant was a newspaper that headlined her story. She healed of "cancer of the blood and the six-year-old child who was not in the told me that she had attended a local bones." He then made her run for the original list of nine but was mentioned casualty department (emergency room) benefit of the audience. It was obvious in the same letter as someone whose with knee pain. They did not x-ray her that this was a very sick child, yet Cerullo parents had agreed to cooperate depend- and made no firm diagnosis, though they insisted that if she went back to her ing on the result of a clinic appointment said they thought the cause was muscular doctors they would verify her healing. in August. The Cerullo office promised and loaned her the crutch. They did not In the next few days she required further to advise me on the progress, but I heard arrange a follow-up appointment or any blood transfusions and remained nothing more for nearly a year. further investigations. She refused to seriously ill. An inquiry by ITN has It was reported by Dr. Martin Soole3 allow me access to her case notes. Her revealed that she died two months later.5 that this child's story was one of only story has been promoted strongly by Dr. 15. Poor vision. Temitope was one three cases investigated and discussed by Cerullo's organization and appears to be of the children who had had her glasses Mr. Cerullo's own medical panel in June its most sensational case. taken from her by her parents, who 1993. A doctor visited the child at home Amongst the people who were insisted that she had been healed. and discussed her story with her parents. claimed to be healed but whose names Initially they said they would cooperate However, they refused to allow access were not put forward for one reason or with my inquiries and gave me their to medical records so that it could not another, the following details have been address. I therefore visited them at home. be established whether and to what gathered: She had had very thick glasses which degree she was deaf and whether she 12. Displaced hip. J. B. was a thirty- were taken from her during the public could now hear. year-old woman who claimed to have meeting and shown to the crowd. Morris Her case was presented a week later had a congenital hip displacement that Cerullo referred to her healing on at Morris Cerullo's "Healing Sympo- had led to a shortening of her leg and television and at the end of the mission sium" held in Birmingham in July 1993. arthritis in the joint. She claimed she had week invited her back for reassessment, It was claimed that she had been retested been healed of pain in the hip but refused after which he made further claims about and her hearing was now 95 percent a repeat x-ray as she did not believe it her from the platform. I was concerned normal. would have altered. She continued to get to witness her walk home from school 9. Diabetes. Edna Merryman pain in the leg and still walked with a without her glasses. Her parents con- claimed to have been healed of diabetes limp. firmed that they had not been returned at a Cerullo meeting in 1984. Her doctor 13. Poor vision. Janet Nwatu is a to her even though she had asked for confirmed that this was a late onset "type health visitor who claimed to be healed them. They refused to allow me to two" diabetes that had settled but had of poor vision. I was able to find the arrange an eye test. since returned. Although this fact was Health Centre where she worked and 16. Ankle injury. Twenty-five-year- reported on BBC TV in August 1992, wrote to her there. She did not reply old Audrey Reynolds claimed to be her story was still used in Cerullo's 1993 to my letter. Her story was included in healed of an ankle injury. She was so advertisements. Cerullo publicity: "My eyesight was very convinced she was completely well that 10. Stroke. Sharon Oakley, a nurse, bad. On the Wednesday evening of she stopped taking her drugs for epilepsy. gave her testimony from the MTL MTL, I felt like scales were falling from Six days later she had a seizure in the platform before eight thousand people. my eyes. Since then, I have been able bath and drowned. Sir Montague

8 FREE INQUIRY Levine, the Southwark Coroner, con- the past year. With cluded, "It is a tragedy that she went 0 such a history, a to this meeting and thought she had been o cure would be cured of everything. Sadly, it led to her erser9 highly unlikely in death." the normal course Prior to his 1993 Mission to London, of events. Cerullo set up a medical panel to , 20. Deaf-mute. examine some of the claims in order to l 614ENLING Elijah Lewis was present cases to a special conference he six years old when had organized. In a press release6 he had R1TIVAL* he appeared before promised that this would be a medical *ez the cameras during symposium at which "irrefutable evi- the 1992 Mission dence" of miraculous healing would be to London. His presented. In the actual event, his panel parents said he had of doctors only discussed three cases in MEET Nryo been born deaf detail) Cherrelle Grant's parents, it was and could not learned, would not provide medical speak. Now we documentation of her deafness (case 8 were told he was above) and Georginia McHale's fibroid healed. Cerullo story (case 4) remained unimpressive. tried to get him to One further claim was considered. count, but resorted 17. Collapsed lung. Gloria Malcolm to using fingers claimed to be healed of a partially when he realized collapsed lung. Her doctor however he could not hear reported to the panel that a chest x-ray him. The child had shown she had had some consol- grunted in re- idation in her lung but it did not show sponse, making evidence of collapse. Such an appearance corresponding would be likely to follow a lung infection. 0 sounds for what- Although this fact was known by 11:TE• ever number of fin- O Cerullo's organization in June, advertise- gers Cerullo held ments claiming her healing continued to up. It seemed pat- appear in August.? ently obvious that 18. Hay fever. Dr. James Muir was this child could a prominent member of Cerullo's med- neither hear nor ical panel. He claimed to be healed of hay fever, albeit towards the end of the hay fever season, in the last week of June 1992. However, healing for him did not mean cure, and he subsequently admit- - Q w ted that he had had further symptoms D in 1993.8 times a day. He had a signed consent Dr. Muir was one of about six doctors form for me to approach his doctor. speak. Neither would there be any who were invited to attend Cerullo's However, his general practitioner re- difficulty in having such a child properly "Healing Symposium" held in Bir- plied, "Malcolm has stated that he is no assessed. mingham in July 1993. Other doctors longer interested. I am therefore unable It was therefore surprising to find that were excluded. This did not prevent to help you." this boy's healing was used prominently Cerullo's office issuing a press release This would have been fair enough but in advertisements in 1993. His photo- afterwards saying that "over 450 doctors for the fact that his story was used graph appeared in newspapers, and full- and church leaders" had attended.9 extensively on advertisements for Cer- page advertisements mentioned him first Among the untold stories, two in ullo's 1993 Mission to London. A in a list of examples of miraculous particular demand attention. journalist phoned him at home, but he healing. 19. Asthma. Nineteen-year-old Mal- promptly put the phone down. Asthma When a journalist contacted Lewis's colm Searle was one of the original "best is a condition that can remit, and it can home, he was told that the family had cases" presented in July 1992. He claimed have a psychosomatic element. It would been instructed not to speak to the press to be healed of life-long asthma, requir- be nonetheless interesting to know how and that all inquiries should go to Greg ing him to use an inhaler three or more much inhaler use he has required over Mauro, Cerullo's European director.

Winter 1993/94 9 Strangely, this cute little boy has not ITN's "News at Ten." The optician found inquiries at the woman's home.5 appeared on the platform this year. This her visual problem to be unchanged.5 claim has now become the focus of a 22. Rashida Smith. This lady caused Discussion formal complaint to the Advertising an uproar when she reported from the Standards Authority. platform that she had been healed of he popularity of television healers A "Heart of the Matter" television rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Thas made them very wealthy, and documentary with pre- and blindness. She presented her blind Cerullo's organization alone claims to be sented the outline of several of these cane and dark glasses to Morris Cerullo. worth over $40 million. Its fund-raising stories. At the end of the program, as However, she was walking so unsteadily is facilitated by the mystique of alleged if to balance such negative findings, a that he was unconvinced. He announced supernatural powers and an audience is doctor from Leeds presented the case of that she was not healed, but had been in no position to evaluate what it sees. Lloyd Twibill. This male infant had a "touched." Earlier she was to be seen Those healers who have fallen from rare congenital fibrosarcoma which the wearing a large red hat, slowly getting grace have done so because of sexual doctor believed had been miraculously out of her wheelchair. She took some or financial scandals, which seem easier healed. forty minutes to make it up to the plat- to expose than documenting the false- Subsequently the child's surgeon and form, needing several assistants to get hood of their claims to perform miracles. oncologist complained vigorously at the her up on stage. In our increasingly global village, way that case had been presented on The following night however, to great healers' wealth enables them to operate television. Congenital fibrosarcomas acclamation from the crowd, it was everywhere. They are not the only people have no more than a 10 percent incidence announced by Mr. Cerullo that her to claim such healing powers. Many of metastases, and as a group, neonatal healing had progressed all day, and now alternative therapists in different cul- soft tissue tumors are highly likely to she was healed of heart disease, diabetes, tures, from psychic surgeons to witch regress. Colleagues from other centers and paralysis. Doctors, she said, had told doctors, are making similar claims and had advised them of other cases that had her she would never walk again. She then are presumably seeing similar results. spontaneously regressed. They therefore ran across the in front of an The cases described here highlight the withheld mutilating surgery for good ecstatic audience. levels of confusion that abound. The first scientific reasons and their optimism was Later, she gave ITN written permis- confusion concerns terminology. What rewarded. Neither was there any ques- sion for her doctor to provide a report, is a miracle? Is a healing always a cure? tion of instantaneous recovery—the and I spoke to her doctor on their behalf. In 1735, Cardinal Lambertini devised tumor remitted gradually over the next She told me reluctantly that, even with a set of criteria for "miracles" derived six months.'° written permission, she could not reveal from the New Testament, ostensibly used I was informed by Cerullo's office, what was written in her case notes at Lourdes to this day." The illness must "If in this clear case you were not willing without first fully explaining to her be incurable and not one that could to acknowledge a miraculous explana- patient the nature of the records. If the remit. There must be no treatment given tion, there really would be no point in woman still agreed after that—and I was and the cure must be both instantaneous MCWE [Morris Cerullo World Evan- left with the impression that she thought and complete. gelism] putting forward further cases for that would be unlikely—she would then These criteria were put before Cer- your review." I provided detailed ex- be pleased to cooperate. The patient ullo's medical panel but rejected as being planations as to why I did not accept however was not prepared to see the too rigorous. However, it had no other this story to be miraculous and have had doctor personally. criteria to use in their place, and used no further cooperation since. It was quite clear to me, reading the terms healing, improvement, and between the lines of this conversation, cure almost interchangeably.3,12 Mission to London 1993 that her astonishing story was funda- Reminders of remission of cancer mentally untrue. To suffer from heart always sounds like special pleading from his year similar claims have been disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, a skeptic, but cancers do sometimes made, and despite the lack of and multiple sclerosis resulting in regress. Neuroblastoma, for instance, is cooperation and repeated obstruction blindness and paralysis that confined her one of the commonest types of tumor from MCWE, two cases have been to a wheelchair would be a remarkable to undergo spontaneous remission. Had pursued. phenomenon. Rarely is so much disease such a wonderful thing happened to 21. Poor sight. The mother of Em- to be found in one body. It is difficult Natalia Barned it would indeed have manuelle Shean claimed on the MTL to imagine what would hinder the doctor seemed like a miracle and would no platform that her daughter had had poor from announcing the plain facts, if the doubt have been proclaimed as such. vision and was now healed. Afterward woman had suffered as she claimed. It One of the most recent claims to she phoned Independent Television was the doctor's concern to protect her miraculous healing from Lourdes (1963) News and volunteered to have her child patient that indicated that this fantastic was of an unusual tumor of the pelvis re-examined by her optician in front of story was not to be taken seriously. This which gradually regressed over many the cameras. Her story was reported in impression was confirmed by ITN's months.13 Such things however never

10 FREE INQUIRY occur instantaneously. Lloyd Twibill's plenty of people enjoy the luxury of such doctors on his own medical panel tumor had been called "malignant," but transport and the attention that goes reported, they have uncovered nothing few of these rare tumors have ever with it. There may be real gains to be that lies outside the realm of normal metastasized. It resolved over six had by adopting an invalid role. Occa- clinical experience.14 Undeterred, he months. sionally a visiting doctor, as he continues to announce at his meetings, The cyst on Maureen Dawes's skull approaches the house, will see his patient "Every kind of disease is being healed seemed like a tumor, but it wasn't walking indoors, only to be met at the right now." malignant, and it resolved spontane- door moments later by the patient now ously, and very gradually, possibly seated in the wheelchair. Acknowledgments draining through her frontal sinus. The emotional uplift that healing I am grateful to all the doctors who The anxiety of Ann Terry, fearing she meetings can can cause some cooperated with my inquiries. had a recurrence of her malignant symptoms to disappear for weeks after- melanoma, is something with which we ward. Maureen Dawes's backache would Notes can all sympathize. Perhaps the locum seem to be an example, while Janet doctor who saw her did not fully Nwatu seemed to manage for weeks 1. James Randi, The Faith Healers, (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1987). appreciate how she felt and did not without her spectacles. 2. Morris Cerullo World Evangelism "Mis- reassure her adequately. Small inflamed The dangers of believing that you are sion to London" Survey 1992. spots can capture our attention out of healed when you are not are exemplified 3. Martin Soole, "Report on the Medical Review Group of MCWE" June 1993. all proportion to their size and impor- by the sad story of Audrey Reynolds, 4. Vivek Chaudhary, , August tance. who died after stopping her medication. 14, 1993, p. 5. Patients often do not appreciate the Mr. Cerullo insists that he does not tell 5. ITN News at Ten "Focus on Britain" report, July 20, 1993. reason that tests are done, and expla- people to discontinue their treatments 6. MCWE Press Release, August 20, 1992. nations are always time-consuming. but tells them to report back to their 7. Church of England Newspaper, August 6, doctors. 1993, p. 5. Georgina McHale presumably did not 8. "Sunday," BBC Radio 4, August 15, 1993. understand that her ultrasound was done In practice, what he often says, as he 9. MCWE Press Release, July 20, 1993. to see if a fibroid was present, not to said this summer to an asthmatic child 10. Br. J. Cancer (1992), 66, Suppl XVIII, pages S72-75, S80-83. confirm a diagnosis that had already as he held her inhalers, "If you go back II. St. John Dowling, "Lourdes Cures and been made. to your doctor, he will tell you you do their medical assessment," Journal of the Royal Cancer of the esophagus is a serious not need these." That might be seen as Society of Medicine 1984, pp. 634-638. 12. Martin Soole, personal communication, condition, but Alfred Coombes would a good reason not to go back to the July 1993. not have been given radiotherapy if there doctor. 13. Prof. M. Salmon, "The Extraordinary was no chance of his tumor responding Janet Nwatu, a health professional, Cure of Vittorio Micheli," 1972. 14. Martin Soole, Letter to Greg Mauro, June to it. He was quite open about his saw fit to throw away her glasses. 30, 1993. therapy, and grateful for it. However, Maureen Dawes took herself off the such testimonals are sometimes over- surgeon's waiting list, despite his warn- looked entirely by a patient who has also ings. Temitope's parents saw no need to Peter May is a general practitioner at attended a faith healer. have her sight retested. the Grove Medical Practice, Southamp- Diabetes is a serious condition. Many Night by night, disabled people were ton, U.K. He is a member of the might think it always requires insulin. encouraged to abandon their wheel- Christian Medical Fellowship (UK.). He However, the most common sort of chairs, take off their braces, or throw is also a member of the General Synod diabetes that older people get is often away their crutches. Children were Church of England and serves on its mild and controllable by diet alone. It deprived of their spectacles Board of Mission. might then be argued that such a patient and hearing aids. None of is only a diabetic when he or she puts this was done with medical on weight or eat sweet things. approval. The anatomy of the knee is such that it is often unclear what the cause of a Conclusion given knee pain might be. Investigations are only warranted if the pain does not orris Cerullo has been settle. As with so many conditions, time Masked to submit his and rest are great healers. Accident best cases for public scrutiny. departments often loan out crutches for After extensive inquiries that these reasons. included sending out a ques- Similarly, the wheelchair seems to be tionnaire to the many people the ultimate hallmark of the "genuine on his lucrative mailing list, case." However, if the patient won't walk he has been unable to find he or she will need to be pushed, and a miracle. As one of the

Winter 1993/94 11 The Biblical Roots Paul Kurtz

healing is as old as religion The real question is not about After he had come down from the Faithitself. Historically, the medicine psychosomatic illnesses, but whether hill he was followed by a great man, shaman, or sorcerer was capable or not and to what extent people may crowd. And now a leper ap- proached him, bowed low, and of appealing to the spirit world, be cured of entirely organic and said, "Sir, if only you will, you can whether beneficent or evil, to set aside physiological disorders by "miracu- cleanse me." Jesus stretched out his the order of nature, tap mysterious lous" means. Can a person's limbs hand, touched him, and said, "In- cleansing forces, and achieve won- mend more rapidly? Can he or she deed I will; be clean again." And drous things. Faith healing was widely be cured of cancer, diabetes, or his leprosy was cured immediately. Then Jesus said to him, "Be sure used in primitive cultures before the psychosis by divine intervention? you tell nobody; but go and show development of modern medicine. No yourself to the priest, and make the doubt it had important psychological Biblical Miracles offering laid down by for and sociological functions. Obviously your cleansing; that will certify the cure."2 there were quacks and charlatans who o doubt the persistence of belief deceived innocent people desperate Nin faith healing has its roots in Unfortunately there is no way at for some help. On the other hand, religious convictions. There are hun- this date to corroborate (a) that the many people were no doubt com- dreds of accounts of faith healing in man had leprosy, or what other forted by the healers, who offered the Old and New Testaments. Jesus condition he may have suffered from, balm to ease their pain and suffering. Christ first established his reputation or (b) that he was cured immediately Faith healers provided an outlet for on the basis of the claim that he was and permanently. those unable to cope with adversity a wonder worker who could heal According to Matthew, when and illness and do not know where people of otherwise inexplicable or Jesus had entered Capernaum, a else to turn. People are always intolerable afflictions. Our knowledge centurion came up to ask for help. troubled by disease, and if they can of Jesus' ministry is dependent " `Sir,' he said, 'a boy of mine lies find no medical help, even today they entirely on a questionable source, i.e., at home paralyzed and racked with may turn to faith healers. the New Testament. The letters of pain.' "3 Jesus replied that he would Undoubtedly, the strong belief that Paul were written many years after accompany him to cure the boy, but one can be healed by a charismatic the death of Jesus. Paul did not know the centurion responded that it was healer or magnetic personality may him directly. Likewise, the four not necessary to visit him directly, but for some people have a powerful Gospels were most likely written some only say the word. effect. In many cases, sick persons will 35 to 70 years after Jesus'death. Much "Then Jesus said to the centurion, after a period of time recover without of the New Testament was transmit- 'Go home now; because of your faith, medical treatment—though shamans ted by an oral tradition whose so let it be.' At that moment the boy will often take credit for their new- accuracy is unreliable. Since none of recovered."4 Again, no notion of what found health. Moreover, some of the the Gospel writers knew Jesus condition the child was suffering from ancient herbs and medicines devel- directly, their accounts of his faith and no account of the cure. oped over long periods of time may healing are based on secondhand and We read on: "Jesus then went to have curative powers, as Native thirdhand testimony. Any earlier ac- Peter's house and found Peter's American tribes have learned. But counts of Jesus' ministry or his sayings mother-in-law in bed with fever. So perhaps more important, and more have been lost. he took her by the hand; the fever directly, is the power of the placebo The Gospel according to Matthew left her, and she got up and waited effect. Some illnesses are due to stress tells us that Jesus' fame spread widely on him."5 Was she suffering from the and anxiety, and some anxious and that "... sufferers from every flu, or was it an intermittent fever or persons may be restored to health by kind of illness, racked with pain, a more serious illness? Nary a word belief in an individual or process, a possessed by devils, epileptic, or from the Gospel author. cleansing ritual or ceremony. The paralyzed, were all brought to him, In the next passage, we read, person's psychological state thus can and he cured them."" "When evening fell, they brought to have a positive effect in curing some We read the following account of him many who were possessed by illnesses. his healing: devils; and he drove the spirits out

12 FREE INQUIRY of Faith Healing

with the word and healed all who were of Matthew, we have similar tales of A careful reading of the accounts sick.... "6 faith healing. of faith healing in the New Testament The New Testament writers attrib- "On another occasion when he can only lead to skepticism. We are uted illnesses to possession by de- went to synagogue, there was a man dealing with a fairly primitive mons. Jesus was said to have driven in the congregation who had a nomadic and agricultural civilization the devil out of two men and sent withered arm."10 Jesus was able to that knew very little about the causes them into "a herd of pigs," who rushed "restore" the arm. What was the of diseases or psychotic behavior and over a high ledge and perished in ailment that he was suffering from? only possessed rudimentary means of the lake below. Here we are told Was it a birth defect or a curable therapy. None of the miraculous cures that the two men were violent "mad- malady? are adequately documented. Where men" who were relieved of their Luke tells us that Jesus healed a there is a placebo effect, a strong illness. Hardly an accurate diagnosis man suffering from dropsy or edema, psychological factor might intervene of their psychotic disorders. Is this to an abnormal accumulation of fluid in to provide some remedy, but there is be taken seriously by a modern-day the body." Similarly, there is no no reliable basis for judging whether reader? diagnosis or follow-up descriptions of the diagnoses are accurate and the We read further that "some men the therapy. remedies permanent, or whether they brought him a paralyzed man lying One account of Jesus' faith healing were due to natural psychological on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said is particularly pathetic, for the patient factors or were indeed supernatural. to him that his sins were forgiven. And seems to manifest epilepsy. In Mark, In any case, the biblical record is he turned to the man and said, we read that a father describes to inadequate. Is the only response to " `Stand up, take your bed and go Jesus the symptoms of his son's the question dependent on a sheer act home.' Thereupon the man got up, illness. "He is possessed by a spirit of faith? Can it be claimed that, if and went off home." " Was the man which makes him speechless. When- one believed in God and that Jesus was divine, all things followed, only partially paralyzed and able to ever it attacks him, it dashes him to including miraculous cures? But how walk or hobble, or completely par- the ground and he foams at the can we accept these premises in the alyzed? And if the latter, was the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes context of medical science, especially paralysis due to hysteria, a psycho- rigid."12 Apparently the disciples of since empirical claims were made, and somatic condition? Jesus were unable to help this boy not substantiated? 15 In other accounts Jesus allegedly by exorcism. They brought him to cures a woman who had "suffered Jesus, "... and as soon as the spirit Notes from hemorrhages for 12 years." We saw him it threw the boy into con- 1. Matt. 4:24-25, The New English Bible may ask, which part of her body was vulsions, and he fell on the ground (Cambridge University Press, 1972). bleeding? And we are told that Jesus and rolled about foaming at the 2. Matt. 8:1-4. cured her "instantly" when she mouth."13 The father tells Jesus that 3. Ibid., 8:5ff. 4. Ibid., 8:13. touched the edge of his cloak.8 the boy has been like that since 5. Ibid., 8:14-15. Similarly for two blind men whose childhood. Jesus rebukes the unclean 6. Ibid., 8:16. 7. Ibid., 9:6-8. sight he restored, and a dumb person spirit: " `... I command you, come 8. Ibid., 9:20-22. who recovered his speech when the out of him and never go back!' After 9. Ibid., 12:24ff. "devil was cast out." Indeed, the New crying aloud and racking him fiercely, 10. Mark 3:lff. 11. Luke 14:1-4. Testament tells us that Jesus is it came out; and the boy looked like 12. Mark, 9:17-18. constantly exorcising people's de- a corpse.... But Jesus took his hand 13. Mark, 9:20. mons and their illnesses, and that "it and raised him to his feet, and he 14. Mark, 9:25-29. 15. For a fuller analysis of my treatment is only by Beelzebub, prince of devils, stood up."14 Jesus later tells his of Jesus, see The Transcendental Temptation, that this man drives the devils out."9 disciples pointedly that "there is no Chapter 7, "The Jesus Myth" (Buffalo: Thus we may ask, what were the means of casting this sort out by Prometheus, 1989). conditions that the patients suffered, prayer." Was the boy permanently and how reliable are the accounts of cured of epilepsy, or had the fit simply This article is adapted from The New their cures? passed? If this was epilepsy, surely a Skepticism: Inquiry and Reliable In the Gospel according to Mark, cure was not feasible, since the illness Knowledge, by Paul Kurtz (Buffalo, which probably preceded the writings is not psychosomatic. N.Y.: Prometheus, 1992).

Winter 1993/94 13 Faith Healing in the Black Community

Norm R. Allen, Jr.

hen James Randi helped to prove whites. Forty percent of patients await- exploit blacks and seek to oppress them. Wthat alleged faith healer Peter ing organ transplants are black. And the The black media will not hesitate to Popoff used secret radio transmissions list goes on. As syndicated columnist defend blacks against exploitation in to discover what ailed various members Tony Brown once remarked: "We lead most other areas. Is there a black societal of his audience, many blacks were in categories no one wants to lead in." taboo against questioning the alleged attending these religious gatherings. At There are many reasons why blacks powers of religious faith healers? Or is one event, an elderly black woman threw do not live as long as whites—discrim- it that the black media depend very away her walker as Popoff proclaimed ination, poverty, inadequate medical heavily upon the black church and do that she had been healed in the name care, lack of health insurance, poor not want to ruffle feathers? Ironically, of Jesus. Popoff was eventually revealed eating habits, etc. Surely our time and even the most outspoken black radicals as a flim-flam artist. money can be better spent trying to solve seem reluctant to question faith healing In London, large numbers of blacks these problems, as opposed to increasing claims, because they themselves are attend sessions held by the alleged faith- the wealth of religious charlatans dedi- religious leaders who have made such healer Morris Cerullo. cated to exploiting the black community. claims, or because they depend upon In August, former soccer star Pelé In the Spring 1986 issue of FREE religious rhetoric to advance their cause. claimed he has the power to heal sick INQUIRY, Paul Kurtz discussed two Many blacks believe that spirituality children through God. Pelé said that important scientific studies of faith has always been and always will be miracles such as children recovering healing in his article "Does Faith Healing absolutely essential to black progress. from cancer have occurred often in Work?" According to Kurtz, the studies But is deep spirituality necessarily a and other countries. concluded that: "Although some forms virtue, especially when it drives so many Many blacks say that their sick, of faith healing may relieve psychoso- desperate people deeper into poverty, elderly grandmothers give large amounts matic symptoms, there is no clear and in some cases, closer to death? of money to alleged faith healers hoping evidence that faith healing can cure All sensible people realize that to be cured of their various ailments. organic illness." But those who be- improved health care beats a faith Even when they discover they have been lieve blindly will not be deterred by the healing any day of the week. And we duped, many believers continue to give facts. must not be afraid to acknowledge this substantial financial support to these Why have the black media and black fact and to work for a better life for religious leaders. But while some want investigative journalists been reluctant to all in the here and now. • to be deceived, others do not. report religious fraud in the black The average life span for blacks is 70.0 community? Some blacks have opposed Norm R. Allen, Jr., is executive director years compared to 76.4 years for whites. many white religionists primarily on the of African Americans for Humanism. And the black life span is still falling. grounds that the latter are racists who According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta in 1988, the death rate for the nation's Support leading cause of death—heart disease— was 3.4 times higher for blacks than African Americans for Humanism whites. The study also revealed that the For just $15.00, subscribers to African-Americans for Humanism's infant mortality rate for blacks was Examiner newsletter receive: a 10 percent discount on registration fees almost twice that of whites. Of the fifteen for conferences and seminars, audiotapes and videotapes, and a select leading causes of death in the United list of Prometheus books. States, blacks led whites in thirteen categories. Tuberculosis, a disease that Write to: was almost eradicated twenty years ago, African Americans for Humanism, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Or call toll-free to charge your subscription: is making a comeback among poor Americans. In 1990, TB killed blacks at 800-458-1366. a rate 3.4 times greater than that of 12/93

14 FREE INQUIRY `Psychic Healing' and Alternative Medicine Veteran "hoaxbuster" James Randi here details his expose of a `psychic healer" working in Britain and Spain.—EDS.

James Randi

ationalists may rant and rave— 6. He confidently says that he justifiably—about the outrages can use infected or rusty instru- R "Does someone have to die before performed by evangelist faith healers, ments to invade his customers' Christian Science practitioners, herbal- anyone gets angry enough to bodies and no infection will occur. ists, and practitioners of various other put a stop to this?" "alternative" modalities, but within the An Appalling Demonstration recognized medical system itself scandal- unwilling for some other reason to show ous methodologies are equally tolerated us their wares. n our program, we showed our and even tacitly approved. "Orthodox" The "healer" we examined on the studio audience a shocking video- doctors may send their patients to program was a man named Stephen tape. Turoff, speaking in what he acupuncturists, qi gong artists, and even Turoff. He was a carpenter who also ran apparently believed to be a German to chiropractors who claim they can treat a healing business in Danbury, Essex, accent, mimed the act of giving an bacterial and viral infections by manip- England. Turoff told us that when he "injection" to a customer with an ulating "subluxations" of the vertebrae. begins his "healing" process, he goes into imaginary syringe, then actually shoved I personally knew a man who was a trance and his body is taken over by a long pair of surgical forceps all the tolerated by the British medical estab- the spirit of a long-dead German doctor way up the customer's nose, certainly to lishment and is now a resident of Spain named Kahn. The curious conditions the limit of the nasal passage, about five as a full-time "practitioner." under which he performs his work are inches or more. The discomfort experi- Early in 1990 I was approached by as follows: enced by the customer was quite evident. Open Media, a United Kingdom com- Next he performed what is known as pany who had produced several inter- 1. He admits that he has no "wet cupping" on a woman's back. This view and investigatory programs that evidence whatsoever that any is a medieval procedure, once thought had attracted my interest. We formulated person or doctor named Kahn has to be of value to promote bloodletting the idea for a television series that would ever lived, in Germany or any- when that process—now known to be look into various paranormal, occult, where else. not only useless but very dangerous— and supernatural claims. The result was 2. The mythical "Doctor was popular. It consisted of first making a series, "James Randi: Psychic Inves- Kahn" will not tell anyone when a small incision with a knife, which tigator," produced and broadcast in 1991 or where he was born, so that we Turoff did on the woman's back, without by Granada TV. might determine whether he was sterilization, anesthetic, or antiseptic. He merely invented by Turoff to add then put a bit of cotton soaked in alcohol The Search for Talent flavor to his act. on a coin, placed this near the cut, and 3. Turoff says that he has no ignited the alcohol. A small glass was e advertised for participants. idea what benefit or detriment his then quickly inverted over the site. At WCancer cures, flying lessons (I treatment might bring to his this point Turoff covered the area with mean without an airplane!), mind- customers, nor is he concerned a small cloth, as if performing a reading, discovering buried treasure, about it. conjuring trick, thus concealing the predicting the stock market, and diag- 4. He admits that he has no process that then took place. nosing and curing ailments were only a medical training, knowledge, or As the oxygen was consumed by the few of the wonders we were offered. But ability whatsoever. He has "never flame, a partial vacuum was naturally we found that in most of the more studied the subject." created, drawing the flesh up into the interesting cases we pursued, unfortu- 5. He admits that he never uses glass. This of course caused the wound nately, the claimants were either too shy, any antiseptic procedures nor does to bleed, and when the partial vacuum unable to produce actual demonstra- he sterilize any cutting or probing was thus equalized, the cloth was re- tions, subject to negative vibrations, or instruments. moved so that one could see that about

Winter 1993/94 15 one-fifth of the volume of the glass was now filled with blood. This process could, to an uninformed person, appear pcES woRK! 1 u v as if some magical force had brought BO' !T the blood from the wound. The blood To NAVE FAITH ,.. AND was congealed, and Turoff announced HE CURED ME of IT! authoritatively in his pseudo-German accent that it was a clot of "bad" blood. The woman on whom this act had gatFcv j been performed was trembling violently during the cupping procedure, and it was FAITH all we could do not to abort the process. In the Granada studio, I had to HEALER apologize to my audience for any discomfort the videotape might have caused them, but we felt that they should actually see what was going on in the United Kingdom—and around the world—in the name of "alternative healing." One gentleman in our audience, disturbed by the sight, fainted and was taken out.

A Professional Opinion

e had with us Dr. Natalie Mac- WDonald, secretary of the Medical Ethics Community of the British Med- ical Association, who was distressed by what she had seen, but told us that there that he might come under the threat of be allowed to work as a doctor in the are no laws in the United Kingdom to some legal action. United States or in most other countries, require anyone to have any medical but he can do so in the U.K. Does knowledge or training at all in order to A Legal Remedy? someone have to die before anyone gets practice medicine! I found this incred- angry enough to put a stop to this? And ible. Weirdly enough, no one may r is that true? It was suggested that does anyone care to answer this practice veterinary medicine in the Oa customer might be able to bring question? United Kingdom without being licensed! assault charges against Turoff. Professor As for the "possession" act that Turoff Dr. MacDonald said that, since Margot Brazier, of the Faculty of Law adopts, he seemed uncertain, both Stephen Turoff is not a registered at Manchester University, agrees that is during the taping procedure at his place medical practitioner, the BMA has no a distinct possibility. But I rather doubt of business and in the studio, whether official interest or authority in the that any of Turoff's customers, who have he was supposed to be Kahn or himself. matter; it is a doctors' advocacy organ- displayed their naïveté by putting Certainly, Kahn was well aware of the ization. It is interesting to discover that themselves in his hands, would be travel arrangements Turoff's wife was the BMA is looking into sanitary inclined to pursue such a remedy against supposed to be making for Turoff when standards of the professional tattoo him. The fact is that he could cause facial she asked him. But I suppose that's artists in the U.K., and they have paralysis by performing his forceps-up- understandable: Turoff has to go along, expressed their concern in that respect. the-nose farce; trained, orthodox special- too. Is it too much to ask that they might ists have caused this by accident when The media seldom, if ever, make any turn their attention to amateur knife- carrying out routine sinus operations. attempts to check up on the claims they wielders with medical pretensions? More important, since he makes no publish. Stephen Turoff has received During questioning before our cam- effort to sterilize his instruments, Turoff copious, very favorable press coverage. eras, Turoff adopted a secure, confident, may be a potential vector for the transfer To editors, it seems, the story is the and pompous air. That was not at all and dissemination of such deadly infec- thing—true or not. By this means, the surprising, since he, a former manual tions as AIDS, hepatitis B, and the many healers are publicized uncritically, and laborer, now finds himself in a thriving venereal diseases carried by blood or continue to flourish despite the fact that business that requires no training, no other body fluids. their abilities are not put to the test. skill, no insurance coverage, and no fear This man most certainly would not Testimonials from selected people who

16 FREE INQUIRY "feel better" after such treatment are not lost vision in her left eye. Suddenly, do so." sufficient to excuse the media from the she said, she could see. We were told, According to Madrigal, ethical burden of proof and investigation at the end of the broadcast, that she had been evaluated by a medical that, so far, most of them have effectively team (no more explanations on who Isabel had gone into surgery eight avoided. and how) and that she now has 40% years previously with a "queratitis vision. numular." Six years ago she went to the clinic. Since then her condition The Bottom Line has been controlled, and within two Señor Armentia provided me with a years the surgery healed. Since 1990 n audio engineer and the studio translation of an article from Tiempo she has been able to see as she does Aphotographer were standing near magazine, one of the major publica- now. TELE-5 should have felt cheated Turoff following his appearance on our tions in Spain, which dedicated its cover by the healer and by the lady, and the producer of the program should cameras. Turoff stood with arms folded, story on August 9, 1993, to the Turoff have seen the complete medical quite satisfied with himself. Half- show: information. A man heals with a seriously, the audio man commented cotton swab as if we were idiots and that he had a bad back, and asked him This past July 22nd, an Englishman as if during six years we had done if he might obtain Turoffs services. The named Stephen Turoff, on the TELE- nothing! reply was a bit of a shock. Looking quite 5,1 TV show "Another Dimension," healed Ms. Isabel Gonzalez Duran. It serious, either Turoff or Kahn asked the The Official Medical College of was spectacular; the Englishman, a Madrid has requested the video of the engineer, "How much money have you carpenter, worked through the spirit got?" of a Doctor Kahn, and with the aid show for study and to take steps. Dr. of his fingers and some sharp objects, Adolfo Gomez Ebuena, general secre- Turoff Moves to Warmer Climes operated on twenty patients. In a tary, says: "Medicine is never an exhi- trance, he cut them, put his hand into bition, nor it can be used to promote their flesh or just touched them. He a show. There was no scientific confir- avier E. Armentia, a scientist with the put a wet cotton swab on Isabel's ill Alternativa Racional a las Pseudo- eye, and suddenly the woman jumped mation here nor even any medical effect. ciencias (Rational Alternative to Pseu- with joy: "A miracle!" It is regrettable that anyone could dosciences, ARP) in Pamplona, Spain, To some people, it was a shameful manipulate the desperation and the sight, the act of profiting from contacted me and the executive director goodwill of people." another's pain. To the associations of Dr. Armentia reports: of the Committe for the Scientific TV spectators and Medical Colleges Investigation of Claims of the Paranor- it was unbearable, the last word in mal (CSICOP) when Stephen Turoff trash-TV. A "reality-show" festival of The TV producers did not react to this showed up there and was uncritically blood and guts... . challenge from the medical establish- José Antonio Ovies, public rela- ment, but simply aired the show again promoted by the media. Dr. Armentia tions officer of TELE-5 said: "A "because of public demand." The host reported: program which airs at midnight of the show commented on the doesn't attract so much interest .. shameful "misconduct" of "some Turoff seems to have moved to Spain, we don't care if people believe in Dr. journalists," and said that for TELE- and he's planning to open a "hospital" Kahn or not. We showed the certif- 5 it "wasn't important whether Turoff in Coin, Andalucia, in the south of icate of vision from the "Clinica could be a hoax," that they only Spain. Here, to practice medicine, Barraquer" [The most famous eye wanted "to show people alternative anyone has to have an MD, so he's clinic in Spain]." ways of healing, without judging having troubles with the Official Isabel Gonzalez Duran explained them." Medical Colleges. That's why, I her clinical history: she had a "glau- It appears that the Medical Asso- presume, he decided to appear live in coma" in the left eye. She has been ciations are going to sue Turoff for a TV broadcast. The host of the operated on at the Hospital Gregorio illegal medical practices. This can be program (he's also editor of the most- Marason in Madrid, and after she was a way to stop him for a while, but read pseudoscientific magazine in a patient at the Clinica Barraquer. She I'm afraid it won't work; as has Spain) gave him one hour in which was only relieved of the pain; she still happened with other kinds of "alter- to perform some of his "psychic" couldn't see. She heard of Dr. Kahn, native" practitioners, the only thing tricks. And afterwards, he was per- and she was cured... . the Medical Associations do is to mitted to ask for money to build the prevent people without MDs from hospital! Professional Comments working, but they don't care about real The performance was as expected: MDs who do the same things. As an sleight-of-hand with knives, much example, in Andalucia, there's a cotton, etc. No blood this time. The lberto Madrigal, public relations branch of the Official Medical College TV host commented: "I saw Dr. Kahn Adirector at the Clinica Barraquer, on Homeopathy, so there are MDs some years ago, and I can tell you looked at the medical certificate dis- who use homeopathy. Anyone not an that now there's little blood. Before played by Isabel: He said, "I was MD who practices homeopathy is there were liters of blood! Perhaps he's unpleasantly surprised. Our clinic prosecuted, but they—officially— improving his techniques." accept this pseudomedicine. Turoff To all appearances, patients did get never issues public statements, but after has no titles, so probably he won't be well, especially a middle-aged woman seeing the explanations given on TV by able to work, but there could appear affected by glaucoma and who had that woman we now have a right to some other operator—a "real" MD—

Winter 1993/ 94 17

doing the same things, and the Asso- surgeons" from the , the Notes ciation wouldn't care at all! homeopaths in prominent social circles, I. TELE-5 is a television station owned by the acupuncture and moxibustion clinics ONCE (the Spanish National Organization of Dr. Armentia expresses here the and other quackeries that infest our own Blind People) and the Italian Silvio Berlusconi. profound frustration of those who can shores. It is very similar to the same-named station in see through the flummery, complain Italy. And, lest we also try to console 2. By recent reports, perhaps now not quite loudly, and will still be ignored. But ourselves with the notion that all the so rich. Maybe the facts are catching up with before American readers begin clucking quackery is imported, let's recall that the Mary Baker Eddy? at the way the authorities in the U.K. most highly organized, richest and most and in Spain tolerate such claptrap, it powerful of the proponents of healing James Randi is the author of The Faith would be well for them to look about that does not work, the Christian Science Healers and Flim-Flam! (both by them here and notice the "psychic church. is an American invention.2 Prometheus Books) and other books.

INSTITUTE FOR INQUIRY presents "Jesus and the Gospels: Joe Barnhsrt A Secular Humanist Approach" Randel Helms With Joe Barnhart, Professor of Philosophy, North Texas State University, and Randel Helms, Professor of English, Arizona State University and author of Gospel Fictions Friday, January 21, to Sunday, January 23, 1994 at the Doubletree Hotel at Houston International Airport, Houston, Texas Join us for an intensive and informative secular exploration of the New Testament. Topics to be discussed include: "How Can Humanists Fruitfully Read the Gospels?", "Fact and Fiction in the Gospels," "St. Paul's Influence on the Early Church," and "Did Jesus Exist?" Sessions will be from 9:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. on Friday and Saturday with a Luncheon on both days. Sunday's session will be from 9:00 A.M. til Noon.

~~YES, I(we) plan to attend the Institute for Inquiry Seminar "Jesus and the Gospels: A Secular Humanist Approach" ❑ Registration for person(s) $125.00 each $ ❑ Friday Luncheon for person(s) $12.00 each $ ❑ Saturday Luncheon for person(s) $12.00 each $ Total $ For accommodations at the Doubletree Hotel, call 1-800-222-TREE. Mention "FREE INQUIRY" to receive a special room rate of $55.00 single/double occupancy. For more information about the seminar, call or write Tim Madigan at FREE INQUIRY, 1-800-458-1366, P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Check enclosed _ MasterCard Visa # Exp

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18 FREE INQUIRY "The Price of Reason"

"If there is anything on which social critics and philosophers of all camps are firmly agreed, it is that modern society is in an intolerable state of disarray. "General conditions involv- ing political corruption, sexual excess, criminality, funding of military terror, financial greed, and overriding selfishness are nothing new...." —Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality

In today's heated debates about moral values, we humanists, both secular and otherwise, have a contribution to make. This small but growing minority of rationalists and freethinkers has much to say that is not being heard or heeded. The humanist movement must have a home. That's why I was happy to accept the co-chairmanship of the Price of Reason campaign now being conducted by FREE INQUIRY's corporate father, CODESH, Inc. This new home will feature facilities that have been badly needed for a long time: It will have the world's largest freethought library, starting with some 12,000 volumes. It will have seminar and meeting rooms, where the exchange of advanced and rational thought will be facilitated in one convenient location. And it will have its own radio and TV production facilities, so as to spread the enlighted word about humanism to all parts of the globe. And finally, it will be located in Amherst, New York, conveniently situated one-tenth of a mile from the largest campus of the largest state university system in the United States (the State University of New York). It is only 15 miles from Canada, where another rapidly growing humanist movement is setting an example for the entire world to witness. I have committed myself to be helpful in the Price of Reason campaign. I would like you to do the same. Please use the postage-free business reply card located near this ad, and indicate your interest so that we can all benefit from a stronger humanist movement.

Sincerely,

Steve Allen 12/93 world is in a state of change and adaptation. It is not surprising that the Vatican was the first institution to Editorials denounce the recent cloning of human embryos as "perverted." Yet in future generations, such a process may be generally accepted as perfectly natural. The moral debate on the issue is certainly John Paul II: Humanist? not settled by relying upon the concept of natural law. Second, even if there is some plaus- Timothy J. Madigan ibility to natural law, why assume that the Vatican hierarchy is uniquely able wo recent articles have advanced the and necessary moral truths. to interpret this? If what is moral consists interesting proposition that Pope The pope's encyclical makes two basic in doing what comes naturally, why do John Paul II is the primary contempo- points. There exists an ethical natural we need clerics to tell us this? The irony rary humanist. "The Prophetic Human- law—moral truths that are self-evident, of Catholic natural law is that it is not ism of John Paul II," by Avery Dulles, objective, nonsituational, and can be natural at all—it relies upon supernat- S.J., appeared in the October 23, 1993, known through ordinary human reason. ural preconditions, such as the notion issue of America, and "The Truth About Second, the and its of a soul, immortal life, and an essential Freedom," by Father Richard John authorities are uniquely qualified to human nature created by a deity existing Neuhaus, appeared in the October 8, examine and interpret such laws. outside of the natural sphere. 1993, issue of the Wall Street Journal. The notion of "natural law" is quite The main arguments against the The former piece is an overview of the shaky. Humanist philosophers such as pope's form of "humanism" are as pope's entire theological career, while the David Hume long ago pointed out the follows: it is backward-looking, unscien- latter focuses on his latest encyclical fallacy of assuming that "is implies tific, dependent on supernatural con- "Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of ought"—in other words, just because structs, and authoritarian. Particularly Truth)." Dulles writes that "... John something is "natural" does not prove troubling is his attempt to stifle dissent- Paul II has made himself, in my esti- it is moral. Aristotle, for example, ing points of view. The humanist mation, the leading prophet of authentic defended slavery by arguing that some tradition of the Western world places its humanism in the world today"; Neuhaus humans are born to be slaves. The emphasis on freedom of inquiry and the writes that the Catholic church "has Catholic church's condemnation of birth need for constant re-evaluation of turned out to be the premier institutional control and abortion has changed over outmoded thinking. John Paul Il and champion of humanism and reason in the years as its understanding of the the institution he heads give short shift the contemporary world" and points to developmental stages of the fetus to both evolutionary naturalism and the the pope's latest encyclical (which increased. The concept of "natural" is central humanist notion that moral basically reaffirms the church's author- itself rather fluid. The pope has not yet truths are arrived at through dialogue, itarian stance and upholds its strictures come to grips with the theory of discussion, and argumentation, not against "unnatural" sexual practices) as evolution, which holds that the natural through fiats, encyclicals, and faith. • an exemplar of this. Not surprisingly, the term humanism has a slightly different connotation for these theologians than it does for most of our readers. In Dulles's view, the only Progress in Ireland authentic humanism is one that links anthropocentrism with theocentrism and Dick Spicer provides a transcendental foundation for human dignity. Human rights are only n "A Church-State Case Study: The full program of the "moral majority." valid if grounded in such a source. Irish Republic" (FI, Winter 1990/91) We secularists were buckling down to Likewise, Neuhaus applauds the pontiffs written by me as secretary of the a lengthy struggle to roll back Irish strong defense of the idea of natural law, Campaign to Separate Church and history as we saw it and engage the and the view that human reason—which State, it was pointed out that Ireland— Catholic church on a variety of fronts is a gift from God—can grasp universal alone in the world—had implemented the in an effort to cultivate a democratic culture that upheld church-state Timothy J. Madigan is executive editor Dick Spicer is president of the Associ- separation. of FREE INQUIRY. ation of Irish Humanists. The pace of change in the last couple of years has been amazing. First, con-

20 FREE INQUIRY doms are now widely available legally the first time in Irish history. given the seeming widespread popular in Ireland for the first time, being sold In short, once the education bill is support for secular development. Our in a variety of outlets, including vending published and the divorce matter cause is helped, of course, by the collapse machines in pubs. The pill is now also solved—all expected within the next of credibility of the Catholic hierarchy, available to women on low incomes. year—church/ state issues in the Irish which alienated its supporters by its Vasectomies and tubal ligations are not republic will approximate European consistently reactionary attitude to social generally available free of charge but can norms of a civilized society. The speed issues and the shock of the Casey be obtained through family planning of the change, which was signalled by affair. clinics at a cost of some two hundred the election of Mary Robinson, a liberal The "moral majority" program is in dollars. Sex education is being taught lawyer, as president (a figurehead posi- tatters within the space of two years, in the schools against the objections of tion), must reflect long pent-up resent- while church/ state separation has the religious right. ment on the part of the Irish people at advanced in leaps and bounds. The The turning point in legislation in the patronizing patriarchal attitudes of Campaign to Separate Church and State such areas was the infamous "X" case the Irish church that were so blithely may be in a position to declare its aims here where a fourteen-year-old girl was imposed by politicians and the con- achieved in substance in the near future. abused and raped by a middle-aged stitution. Our centrist governing party The secularizing of the republic may family friend, and was hauled back from has embraced the liberal agenda of its eventually take some of the sting out of London by the Irish authorities to stop small coalition partner and those of us the northern conflict, we hope, as her from having an abortion. The who have spent a lifetime feeling like Northern Protestants cease to feel resultant storm of protest here and in outsiders in our own society are now threatened by a Catholic theocratic state. Europe forced discussion of moral issues having to come to terms with a strange But it is often harder to stop such and nothing has been the same since. sense of being on the winning side for conflicts than start them—only time will In order to be accepted as signatories once. tell on that issue. It is with the changed of the European Union Treaty, the Irish It is possible there will be one or two circumstances outlined here in mind that government was obliged to put the issue hiccups on the way, but it would appear we have started a humanist association of abortion availability to the people in that the forces making for change now in Ireland that hopefully can contribute a constitutional referendum. Legislation are virtually triumphant. It is difficult to a culture of secular progress and reflecting the results of that vote is now to imagine how the tide could be reversed affirmation. • being framed. It is expected to permit dissemination of information on abor- tion, travel to obtain the procedure out- side Ireland, and, indeed, limited abortion in Ireland in the circumstances The Rocky Road to Victory where a woman's life might be in danger (even from a suicide threat). We now have more liberal official Skipp Porteous attitudes toward homosexual rights than in the United Kingdom. Homosexual at Robertson's political organiza- In almost every presentation at the relationships are now permitted between tion, the Christian Coalition, is conference, the biases and partisan flavor consenting adults eighteen and over and finding out that the road to victory can of the group slipped out. Not only that, even explicitly sexual videos are widely be rocky. Having come under fire for "the wider net" is attracting criticism available although censorship in the area its partisan appeal, military rhetoric, and from the Christian Coalition's natural of magazines still remains. The issue of alleged use of "stealth" tactics, the allies. The Christian Coalition is in divorce is to be put to the electorate next rapidly expanding organization is trying transition. And, its executive director, year. Opinion polls show at least two to clean up its image and "cast a wider Ralph Reed, "the boy wonder," may be to one support for its introduction, net." leading the Coalition into a welcome provided problems of property and Having attended the Christian Coa- slide over the precipice. spousal support can be resolved. The lition's third annual "Road to Victory" In one obvious effort to appear non- Irish government has told the United conference in Washington, D.C., in partisan, the Christian Coalition invited Nations human rights committee that it September, I'm convinced that the David Wilhelm, chairman of the Demo- will look at modifying the requirement about-face is not only a ruse, but will cratic National Committee, to appear as of a religious oath for judges (it does also alienate its most avid supporters. the event's first speaker. Wilhelm not apply to legislators or the president) experienced the group's wrath when he and has also set itself to tackling the Skipp Porteous comments regularly on said that it is possible to be both pro- injustices of the religious-run education the political activities of the religious choice and a good Christian. Besides the system. Legislation is being framed to right for FREE INQUIRY. loud outcry of boos and hisses, several give the state control of education for in the crowd of more than two thousand

Winter 1993/94 21 shouted, "It's murder!" One man walked and Jack Kemp, for instance, spoke on middle as identified in the most recent out, saying loudly, "Why are they economic issues. Both received a cool scientific polls? One would hope for allowing this guy to spout all this response. On the other hand, when Pat something better from a group that calls garbage?" Wilhelm's description of the Buchanan spoke about honoring the itself the `Christian Coalition.' " Democratic Party as "pro-family" was Confederate flag, he received enthusias- "The Christian Coalition is right," met with similar rejection. tic applause. To be fair, he did admit according to Titus, "in its effort to extend A delegate from South Carolina, in that slavery was wrong. Former Secre- its political agenda beyond abortion and a seminar on the use of computers in tary of Education Bill Bennett, like homosexual rights to taxes, education, politics, lamented, "In a lot of our Buchanan, received ovations by focusing welfare, crime, and the like." "But," he counties the Democrats are still in on an anti-abortion and anti-gay rights continues, "it must develop positions on control." The presenter, Dr. Max Karrer, message. those issues upon enduring principles, didn't counter her partisan concerns, but Although the conference included as not upon the evolving opinions of men offered the woman tips for turning the a speaker African-American activist Roy no matter how scientifically measured." tide in her county. Innis, of the Congress on Racial Equal- The Reverend Keith Gardner, an A Christian Coalition video called ity, only a few African Americans could independent Baptist pastor, told me of "America at a Crossroads" states as a be found in the audience. In fact, every his decision to back away from the goal the takeover of at least one of the time any speaker made a positive com- Christian Coalition, because "their major American political parties. With ment about blacks, a Christian Broad- umbrella is getting too big." With the the religious right in control of the cast Network cameraman ran around moral issues of abortion, homosexuality, Republican party in as many as twelve zooming in on the few blacks present. pornography, and school prayer his states, one can easily guess upon which The Saturday evening gala banquet did, main concern, he said he could support party the Christian Coalition has de- however, feature African Americans— the Christian Coalition only if it presents signs. In Pennsylvania, the Christian as entertainment, and as waiters. a biblical basis for its positions. Coalition's flagship state, the Coalition's If Pat Robertson's promise to make Can Ralph Reed's vision for the handbook says, "Become directly the Christian Coalition "the most Christian Coalition better achieve suc- involved in the local Republican Com- powerful political organization in the cess as a Bible-based organization, or as mittee yourself so that you are an U.S. by the end of the decade" is to come a secular organization with a Christian insider." And, "You should never men- to pass, he must indeed cast a wider net. flavor? Herb Titus sees the new strategy tion the name Christian Coalition in If the wider net has already been cast, as a losing one. "If Christians follow the Republican circles." though, it's been cast from the same little Coalition in its new endeavor," he wrote, At the September 1993 "Road to boat of intolerance and bigotry. "they will lose, as did the Pharisees and Victory" conference, Ralph Reed Herb Titus, the former dean of Pat the Sadducees before them, any place emerged articulating a whole new Robertson's law school at Regent of leadership in the nation." vocabulary. Instead of talking about University, once provided a consistent What once promised to overshadow body bags, wearing camouflage, and voice to the Robertson machine. and fulfill all the aims and aspirations engaging in stealth tactics (as he formerly Recently fired as dean, Titus launched of the defunct Moral Majority, the did), he employed football and boxing his own attack on the Christian Coalition Christian Coalition, is destined for jargon. Pat Robertson, Reed's boss, in his newsletter, the Forecast. "Even failure. As an immature political novice, however, included in his speech the Christians have succumbed to the siren the Christian Coalition's would-be correctness of mixing faith with military song of the pollster," he said. The savior, Ralph Reed, is sending so many might. Christian Coalition is moving beyond mixed messages that one wonders where he stands on anything. His failure is our And while Reed once promoted an the hot issues of abortion and gay rights, anti-abortion stance as "a winning issue," he said, "solely on the basis of polls for victory. • he now points out that abortion was a the purpose of winning elections." While [email protected] key issue to only 12 percent of the voters he supports the efforts to seek a broader in the last election. Martin Mawyer, base, he said that the Coalition "has president of the Christian Action Net- failed to articulate any meaningful work, in an op-ed piece in the Washing- principles to guide its positions on taxes, QWER! ton Post, attacked Reed's reliance on the government spending, health care, crime, polls, instead of on principles. He even education, and welfare." Titus accuses North America's called Reed's strategy of Christianizing Reed of summing up all these problem Lesbian & Gay Secular the Republican Party as "short-sighted areas with the single phrase, "Restore Humanist Newsletter and, in appearance, unprincipled." the family." Perhaps the most telling indication "Could it be that Pat Robertson," Sample copy: that the wider net contained gaping holes Titus continued, "is taking a lesson from Box 69 came from rank-and-file response to the Bill Clinton, and moderating his prin- Buffalo, NY 14213 various speakers. Senators Bob Dole, cipled views to find a place in the political

22 FREE INQUIRY Update on Noah's Ark

Gerald Larue

eorge Jammal, who reported that ple, on September 21, 1993, Alan C. but an exposé. Ghe had been to and Pedersen, president of Sun International What has now been added to the had returned with a piece of the ark, Pictures, Inc., sent the following letter pseudoscientific efforts to prove that the has admitted publicly that his story was to George Jammal: ark was found is deception and dis- a fabrication. He has never been to honesty. Apparently, Balsinger, having Turkey. He has never seen the ark. The It has come to our attention that you been informed that Jammal's story was piece he displayed on the CBS television may have admitted to lying in regard a fabrication, chose to ignore the program (produced by Sun Interna- to the information you provided in the warning and to air it. CBS and Sun video tape interview used in the tional, Inc., of Utah) was local wood, television project "The Incredible International need to come clean: they soaked in juices and baked in his oven Discovery of Noah's Ark." We are also owe the public an explanation and an at home (Jammal even made a home informed that the deception may have apology. video of the cooking!). His mountain- been well planned and orchestrated to Dr. John D. Morris of the Institute climbing companion Vladimir Sobitsky the purpose of derogating and harm- for Creation Research in San Diego, ing our company. (the first three letters s-o-b are the clue!) Please be advised that if you have California in the September 1993 issue never existed. lied, and we are damaged by your of Acts & Facts, has claimed that because The people in charge of the film were continuing exploitation of the misre- I am a humanist and a member of aware of the fabrication. presentations made to us and the humanist organizations that I could David Fasold, who has engaged in public, that we consider this contin- hardly be an "objective critic." He makes uing exploitation to be a blatant and a critical evaluation of ark stories for direct violation of the binding agree- it clear that the film was religious years, states in the May/June, 1993 (no. ment between us, and we will take all propaganda as he claims that after the 13) issue of The Noahide Society's Ark- necessary legal action to recover our airing of the Noah's ark program Update that in August 1992 he person- financial losses and enforce our "humanists and evolutionists went into ally told David W. Balsinger, chief contractual and other lawful rights. a national frenzy using anti-Biblical and Please be guided accordingly. researcher for Sun International Pic- anti-Christian rhetoric. Anything is tures, Inc., that, having reviewed the legitimate these days on TV except that As noted above, Balsinger had been tapes of an interview with George which portrays Christianity in a favor- informed of the deception and had Jammal, "Jammal is lying through his able light. Many demanded a retraction ignored it. teeth." His evidence for what he said from CBS." I, too, have been threatened—but made it clear that Jammal was not only At the time of his writing, Jammal indirectly. In a photocopy of a statement contradicting himself but was unfamiliar had not admitted that his story was a made by David W. Balsinger to Alan with the locale. fabrication and, like Balsinger, Morris Albert Snow, Balsinger wrote: Balsinger knew that Jammal's story chose to defend the story. He told his was fiction, but for the sake of produc- readers not to "hold your breath for a ing a convincing pseudo-documentary, Dr. LaRue [sic] admits to hoaxing CBS in Time, AP, and the L. A. Time magazine or Associated Press he chose to air the story. His action Times. Hoaxing a network is a retraction. If it happens it will be buried simply adds to the deception per- violation of federal law since the days on an obscure page." He continued, petrated by Sun International that of the "64,000 Dollar Question" show. "Don't look for Larne's fellow humanists began with the claim in the program title We're going to see to it that Dr. LaRue to insist on a higher standard of dignity. "The Incredible Discovery of Noah's is prosecuted to the fullest extent that the law allows! It's a shame Dr. LaRue The damage has already been done; the Ark"—implying that the ark had been cannot express his opinions within the goal has already been accomplished. found. bounds of the law. Christianity and creation have been To cover the deception, Sun Inter- given another black eye in public with national engaged in threats. For exam- Of course, in the light of the fact that no recourse." Balsinger knew that the Jammal story One would hope that Dr. Morris will Gerald Larue is a senior editor of FREE was fiction, there was no hoax except adhere to "a higher standard" and print INQUIRY. that perpetrated by Sun International. a retraction—and not on "some obscure What Jammal and I did was not a hoax, page." •

Winter 1993/94 23 On the Barricades

The President Responds CBS to Withdraw Projects estant church attendance is approx- to Secular Critics with Sun International imately 20 percent and weekly Catholic church attendance is close to 25 per- Bill Clinton has given a glowing endorse- Readers of FREE INQUIRY will recall our cent of those declaring religious affilia- ment to the book The Culture of articles about Sun International's tele- tion. Disbelief by Stephen Carter (see Robert vision production "The Incredible Alley's dissenting review on page 51)— Discovery of Noah's Ark." Thanks in even publicly announcing his view that part to the persistent criticisms by FI New Humanist Laureates America is becoming too secular. Several senior editor Gerald Larue, CBS has Elected humanists responded, including long- decided to cancel two projects that were time freethought activist Jane Kathryn in development with Sun Interna- The Academy of Humanism was Conrad, who wrote to Clinton: tional—"Revelations" and "The UFO founded in 1983 to recognize distin- Phenomenon." As detailed in our guished humanists throughout the No atheist is trying to coerce and force religionists to accept their beliefs Summer and Fall 1993 issues, the three world. To mark its tenth anniversary through power of law but zealots, programs already shown, "Mysteries of Prometheus Books is publishing a vol- largely Roman Catholic and Funda- the Bible I and II" and the Noah's Ark ume of essays by Academy members, mentalist Protestant, are doing just show, were rife with errors and deliberate entitled Challenges to the Enlighten- that to those of us who believe deceptions. One of the participants on ment, which strongly defends the secular, differently.... Freethinkers believe the Constitution is one of the best in the latter show, George Jammal, claimed scientific outlook. In addition, the the world. We want it to be unchanged to have seen the Ark and cut off a piece following individuals have been elected to protect our children and grand- of wood from it. In reality, the wood to the Academy: Yelena Bonner, the children. We will treat others with was from a tree in Jammal's backyard. widow of the late Academy member reasonable respect but insist that they CBS will still air an already produced and a noted defender obey the law.... We will expect you, Mr. President, to protect the most program by Sun entitled "Mysteries of of human rights in Russia and the former important conception of separation of the Ancient World." Soviet Union; , Fellow church and state to ensure all people of the New College, Oxford University, have freedom of conscience. and author of several books on evolu- Inflated Pews tion, including The Blind Watchmaker; Clinton sent out the following re- Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy at sponse: A new report, entitled "What The Polls the Sorbonne and the University of I want to thank you for your letter. Don't Show: A Closer Look at Church Caen; Sergei Kapitza, physicist at the A President must make many deci- Institute for Physical Problems, Mos- sions about what is right and what Attendance," gives startling evidence is wrong. I was reared in the Christian that the rate of church attendance in the cow, and Chair of Physics at the Moscow faith, and throughout my life the Bible United States is only about one-half that Institute of Physics and Technology; has given me much guidance. The claimed for years by social scientists, George Klein, author, humanitarian, Baptist tradition in which I grew up historians, and journalists. Suspecting and cancer researcher at the Department also taught me the importance of tolerance and respect for diversity. the accuracy of Gallup Poll reports of Tumor Biology, Karolinska Institute These values are deeply rooted in our claiming that 45 percent of Protestants in Stockholm, Sweden; Thelma Lavine, Constitution. I firmly believe in the and 51 percent of Catholics attend Clarence J. Robinson professor of phi- Constitution and in the rights and church in any given week, sociologists losophy, George Mason University, and protections it grants us as American Kirk Hadaway and Mark Chaves and president of the Society for the Advance- citizens. The key to these rights, however, is that we must use them professor of religion Penny Long Marier ment of American Philosophy; Adam responsibly and understand our duties called into question Gallup's use of self- Michnik, historian, political writer, and to others. As I face these tough issues, reporting in telephone calls. The three co-founder of KOR (Workers' Defense I will continue to turn to these beliefs researchers instead relied upon actual Committee), the organization of dissi- for direction and clarity. Though we head counts of churchgoers in selected dent intellectuals that helped to end may differ about some issues, I hope that our common concern for the areas, including Ashtabula County in communist rule in Poland; and Peter future of America will unite us. I rural northeastern Ohio. Their findings Ustinov, noted actor, director, writer, appreciate your sincerity and candor. consistently showed that weekly Prot- and humanitarian.

24 FREE INQUIRY Are We Approaching the End of the Age of Books? Prometheus at Twenty-Five

Paul Kurtz

ineteen ninety-four will mark the Prometheus instantly found a sympa- Simon and Schuster, Fawcett, Prentice- 1 twenty-fifth anniversary of Prome- thetic reading public, and it has grown Hall, and Appleton and has made an theus Books, perhaps the leading inde- steadily. Our readers are highly educated offer for Macmillan. Today a limited pendent freethought and skeptical professional, scientific, and ordinary number of large publishing conglomer- publishing company in the world. It persons who are skeptical about much ates dominate an estimated 75 percent currently publishes more than seventy that goes unchallenged in the broader of the U.S. book market in sales volume. books a year, and will soon have society, and they have welcomed our Fortunately, there still exist thousands published one thousand editions. books. of small and mid-sized publishers who Permit me to be autobiographical. I Prometheus Books is virtually the have managed to survive and to provide decided to found Prometheus Books in only consistent publisher of books on books of enduring value for their grateful 1969 because, as a university professor freethought and skepticism. We inform reading publics. of philosophy, I was disturbed that there new staff members that we have an These publishers are now threatened were few if any books from the major obligation to publish fine books, for we by another disturbing development-- publishing houses that were committed believe ourselves to be one of the repos- the challenge to independent bookstores to the cultivation of reason and the itories of human civilisation. It is not by bookstore chains and superstores. scientific outlook. Virtually no publish- always easy to decide what to publish. Every major city in the United States ers were interested in publishing books Only one in three books has made has had independent bookstores, usually on freethought, atheism, or humanism. money, yet we think it essential that they run by owners who are as interested in There were tons of inspirational religious be published. We are a publisher with books as in profits. These owners kept tracts pouring forth yearly. Similarly, a mission. alive a thoughtful profession: bringing there were massive numbers of books Since founding Prometheus Books, to a reading public a wide range of on paranormal themes—from astrology several unsettling trends have emerged books. Surely books on cats and cookery and UFOlogy to psychic phenomena. that threaten the viability of independent were sold, but also fine literature and Most of my colleagues in the universities book publishing. Publishing as a schol- books on the sciences, the arts, and were highly skeptical about paranormal arly craft, in which books are created philosophy. and New Age claims; yet very few books, by authors in cooperation with editors Today, there is nothing less than a if any, were presented expressing this and with love and dedication, is now full-scale war over the future of book negative dissenting scientific viewpoint. being challenged by the mass-market selling. What is at stake may be the very There were also a great number of self- hucksters as never before. survival of independent publishers help books offering instant solutions to Two ago the publishing themselves, for book- personal problems, lurid books on world was overtaken by the absorption store was the best customer of the violence and sex—with nary a counter- by the conglomerates of many small and independent publisher. Today the inde- ing viewpoint on the shelves. mid-sized publishers. Wall Street had pendent bookstore often buys its books Hence, Prometheus was founded to discovered that publishing could be not from the publisher, but instead from provide the reading public with an profitable. For example, Alfred A. the wholesaler. There are two that domi- alternative. We were midway between an Knopf was an independent publishing nate the entire industry—Ingram and academic university press and a trade house of fine quality, but it was taken Baker & Taylor. For now these whole- publishing house, being interested in a over by Random House, which also salers are placing orders for the kinds wider readership. Publishing, I thought, absorbed Crown, Ballantine, Pantheon, of books Prometheus publishes. should be a loving craft in which the Vintage, and Schocken. And the German When Prometheus Books began in publisher should attempt to present conglomerate Bertelsmann took over 1969, the chain stores did not play a books of quality that were only secon- Bantam, Doubleday, and Dell. Para- significant part in book selling. Today darily judged by their profit potential. mount Communications absorbed Waldenbooks and B. Dalton have over

Winter 1993 / 94 25 one thousand stores each—until now Chicago, are having a rough time. Many primary tool of education. largely in shopping malls. Our sales predict their eventual demise. If this Signs were thus transformed into representatives have found it difficult to should occur, I think that this could have symbols, and by means of the written stock our books in these chains. One ominous consequences for the book word the records of civilization were buyer recently complained that the publishing industry; for it will narrow preserved. Cognitive concepts could be books published by Prometheus were the diversity of what is published, and, readily abstracted from the words and "too thoughtful," and that her customers ultimately, the range of books available sentences that expressed them; and the did not want them. These mall stores, to the public. logic of language for the philosophers she said, appeal primarily to casual and scientists who interpreted it was shoppers, homemakers, and teenagers. here is another development that mistakenly considered to be the "struc- A typical store can only stock three to Tmay unsettle the thoughtful reader ture of reality." Neither Jesus nor five thousand titles at any one time, and even more. We have rapidly entered the Muhammad wrote anything, but their these are largely bestsellers and popular age of electronic information transmis- sayings were allegedly recorded. The books. Books with "limited markets" sion, and the very notion of the book Bible and the Koran were viewed as simply have no place in the stores. Thus as the primary medium for the dissem- sacred, and the word of God was said the chains are reluctant to take the kind ination of knowledge is being further to be enshrined in these books. of books that Prometheus publishes, challenged. There have been other points A dramatic transformation occurred with some rare exceptions. in history in which the mode of com- with the invention of movable type by Still, until recently there was a modus munication of knowledge has been Guttenberg in 1456. The printing press vivendi between the mall stores and the radically altered. We seem to be at such was able to publish vast quantities of independent stores, and the latter played a critical juncture today. The full books and make them available for the a vital role in stocking books of signif- scenario of what may unravel is still ordinary person. This so widened the icance. Alas, the development over the uncertain. reading public that by the beginning of past few years of superstores now the nineteenth century the book had threatens to drive the independents "We must exert an all-out effort become the essential mode of commun- entirely out of business. These super- ication. This was supplemented, of stores are not located in the malls, but to keep alive what has been the course, by articles in journals, maga- often in the same neighborhoods as the mainstay of civilization; namely, zines, and newspapers, which all con- independents. Moreover, they are able we need to find a place for books veyed the printed word. Libraries stored to out-sell the independents by cut-rate in the culture of our time." the best literature available. discounts. The chains buy from the This form of communication con- publishers in quantity, receiving heavy If we go back in human culture we tinues, but it has been augmented and discounts, and employ low-paid clerks. can discern the existence of a rich oral challenged in the twentieth century by Barnes & Noble has opened 170 super- tradition, before the age of writing and the invention of the telegraph, telephone, stores and has announced plans to open the emergence of books. It was by means films, radio, and television. The compu- still another 265 over the next three of the spoken word and deed, gesture, ter, telecommunications, the video- years. K-Mart (which owns Walden- and sign that traditions were preserved, cassette recorder, photocopying, and the books) recently bought Borders, which committed to memory, and handed fax have further modified the modes of had been a small quality chain, and plans down from generation to generation. We communication. Indeed, we may now to open a great number of superstores can clearly see the challenge to the oral question, given these new technologies, by next year. Similarly Crown, which tradition in the ancient world with the whether or not the book will survive as had a series of mall stores, has invention of the written form. For the dominant form of disseminating announced the opening of over seventy example, the Greeks had developed ideas and information, or whether it will superstores. During the same period several techniques of disputation and be replaced by the electronic media. independent college and university teaching, which were based on intellec- Many herald the new age of "virtual bookstores, many of which stocked tual precision and the mastery of linguis- reality" and "interactive television" and quality books in addition to textbooks, tic skills. Socrates never wrote anything maintain that books (and magazines and have been taken over by national chains down, but he was a great dialectician. newspapers) will be redundant as a (such as Folletts and Barnes & Noble). It was Plato, surely not the first, who means of storage. They are being Perhaps this development should be converted the spoken word of his teacher replaced by computer chips, CD-ROM welcomed. After all, the superstores can into the written word and perfected the disks, and tapes. Even libraries will be stock 50,000 to 100,000 titles, far more art of written discourse. Such works, outdated, some pessimists forecast. Huge than the mall stores (and indeed, many disseminated by scribes writing in capital expenditures are now being made of them stock several Prometheus titles). longhand on scrolls of papyrus, could by media giants to capture the vast Unfortunately, as a result of these not be easily reproduced, and availability potential market. For example, the full superstores, local and regional chains, was generally confined to a literate elite text of the Random House Encyclopedia such as Kroch's and Brentano's in class, for whom they served as the has been issued on disk and has sold

26 FREE INQUIRY 300,000 copies thus far. The opportun- There has also been significant growth malls, are being driven out of business ities for the expansion of knowledge are in "audiobooks." One doesn't have to in city after city. The same process is unparalleled. Instant access to a vast read at all, but can listen to the book occurring in the banking and airline storehouse of knowledge is now possible being read. The main publishing houses industries. for everyone. The discovery of desk-top favor high-profile, commercially success- What have emerged are multi- publishing and facsimile communication ful books for this form. national corporations—many of them offer still more significant opportunities. The key part of this equation is the more financially powerful than most Anyone can become a publisher and emergence of vast new markets: multi- national governments—such as Exxon, target a specialized market niche. media companies are in the information Shell, Lever Brothers, McDonald's, But there are serious negative aspects transmission business. There are seven General Motors, and Honda. As global to this equation. Given the economies or eight major media conglomerates, economic powers, they export jobs and of scale, the entire knowledge industry from Time-Warner and Paramount in import products. Competition between is increasingly dominated by multina- the United States to Bertelsmann in them is fierce. New corporations— tional megagiants. One extremely wor- Germany and Sony in Japan, and they industrial, financial, or service- risome aspect of the information age is are being challenged by new giants that oriented—are founded constantly. Many that we seem to be entering a period in are emerging. These conglomerates own observers welcome this as part of an ever- which there is a marked decline in newspaper chains, magazine syndicates, growing and expanding capitalist global literacy and reading skills, as young movie studios, television networks, cable economy, unleashing vast entrepreneur- children and adults spend more and companies, sports teams, and book ial energies and benefitting customers more time responding to visual and publishers. Virtually all of the daily worldwide with lower prices and better auditory forms of communication. It is newspapers have been gobbled up by the products. the instant glimpse, the fleeting sound, chains. Thus, Paramount not only owns Yet I submit that the trend toward color, or image, rather than the concept, Simon and Schuster, but a Hollywood multi-national conglomerates in the that stimulates and entices responses. studio, the New York Knicks and publishing and media industries is The immediacy of impressions and Rangers, and cable companies. And dangerous. Increasingly, these conglo- display replace cognitive discourse. The Advance Publications, owned by the merates are packaging and selling ideas mass media have increasingly become a Newhouse family, controls Random as products. It could be soap or bricks vast wasteland of banality and vulgarity, House plus twenty-six newspapers, for all they care; the main thing is the in which standards of taste and appre- fifteen Condé Nast publications and bottom line, content or quality be ciation seem to be declining, and in magazines, and the eighth largest cable damned. Shock and schlock dominate which the frenzied pursuit of ratings, not company, and it too is trying to enter the market, pandering to the lowest quality, seems to dominate program- the new multimedia electronic industry. denominator of consumer taste. Barnes ming. Very few cities have independent or & Noble, for example, reports that five The influence of the display screen competing points of view. Similarly, top publishers and wholesalers account is already changing the character of print conglomerates are having a profound for 41 percent of the books it purchases. materials themselves. Mass circulation effect on the book publishing world. The danger is that, increasingly, small magazines, such as Time and Newsweek publishers offering alternative points of have become four-color, with visual hy are these rapid changes any less view will be lost in the shuffle, and having imagery increasingly replacing the space Wdangerous, ask defenders, than driven out the independent bookstores, devoted to print. Most newspapers, what is happening in other industries? the superstores will be tempted to sell following the lead of USA Today, now Everywhere, huge corporate chains are only best-selling books, tapes, and disks. run shorter articles and have less reading driving smaller, mid-sized, or regional content. They have even aped the companies and chains out of business. 'Thishis brings us around to the promises National Enquirer of a decade ago by Indeed this phenomenon is pervasive not pitfalls of the new technologies. offering shocking gossip and other forms only in the United States but worldwide. The super conglomerates, interested in of irrational nonsense; and this seems Some blame this on the current reces- mass selling of the profitable—whether to set the tone throughout the broader sion. But I think that these trends are the supernatural or the supersensa- newspaper world (with the notable occurring quite independently of that. tional—tend to squeeze out the thought- exception of newspapers such as the New After all, the supermarkets have all but ful dissenter. In most chain stores today, York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le driven out the corner mom-and-pop including the superstores, books devoted Monde, and the Guardian). Of special grocery store; because there remained a to the occult and the New Age, for concern is the fact that book publishers need for small stores, chains such as 7- example, far outnumber those devoted increasingly seem to follow the same Eleven were created. There are today few to science. There is not even a category style. They use four-color covers and independent gas stations; the local for "Freethought," "Religious Dissent," there is an increase in illustrations and pharmacist is disappearing; and even or "Skepticism." In this Information more shocking and sensationalist strong local downtown department Age, the second wealthiest man in content. stores, forced to expand to the suburban America is Bill Gates of Microsoft,

Winter 1993/94 27 whose DOS and Windows operating of books be considered part of the publishers and even small dissenting and systems are used in three-quarters of the "counter-culture," representing older radical magazines and journals. Some personal computers sold. As IBM, forms of civilization, as media moguls regulations ought to be placed on their AT&T, the Baby Bells, Time-Warner, rush us headlong into the new age of operation by Congress, the administra- and other huge companies vie for new communication? tion, and the courts. markets, tying information transmission Third, we need to invigorate the with content, the question that is raised see three possible solutions to this National Association of Independent today with added urgency is whether the I problem. First, independent book Book Sellers, and/ or perhaps even days of independent book publishing are publishers need to convince those in establish a chain, perhaps called nearing an end, and whether the book charge of buying for the chains and National Education Bookstores, much form will largely disappear. We are told superstores that they have a responsi- the same as the National Public Radio by people writing daring scenarios of the bility to the public to keep alive the odd or the Public Broadcasting System. future that everything that the consumer book and dissenting viewpoint, even We must exert an all-out effort to keep wants will be available in the home— though it may not have a mass sale. alive what has been the mainstay of musical disks, television games, and Editors in the conglomerates who pro- civilization; namely, we need to find a shopping guides, movies, even vast duce books should insist upon quality, place for books in the culture of our storehouses of books, magazines, and and not allow market considerations to time. encyclopedias, all stored and available destroy the possibility of significant Those who maintain that the book, to the consumer in an instant. Who can books being published by their houses. like the horse and buggy of old, must ask for anything more? Nor should they be allowed to replace give way to new forms of information Now I do not wish to exaggerate the the book with other forms of commun- transmission are sacrificing an essential dangers, for books will still be published ication. One can only hope that, in the part of human culture to the banalities and will survive; but they may command process, university presses and indepen- and capriciousness of the mass market. a smaller and smaller share in the dent publishers will survive the compe- Surely we cannot prevent the new tech- marketplace of ideas. The question that tition, though many are currently suf- nologies from emerging, nor should we. everyone in the book industry is asking fering financial losses. However, we should not permit them to today is whether mass-selling hucksters If these efforts fail, then I submit that undermine the standards of excellence will squeeze out independent bookstores, U.S. anti-trust laws ought to be applied. in the arts, reading, and culture. For and in the process take with them most The chains and conglomerates, function- what may be at stake is not only a independent publishers, and whether ing as oligopolies, restrain trade and lowering of quality and diversity, but the audio disks and CD-ROM will largely dominate the information industry, very viability of democratic society replace the traditional book form. The driving out independent bookstores and itself. • open society, I submit, is being endan- gered, not by totalitarian dictators who would suppress dissent, but by financial YES, I wish to become an analysts who demand a higher return for their investments and will publish Associate Member of CODESH anything, no matter what its quality or Become a CODESH Associate Member today. Associate Members will its claims, so long as it sells. In this receive (exclusively) the redesigned, expanded Secular Humanist Bulletin transforming process a limited number (which incorporates the CODESH Chronicle), and a 10 percent discount of buyers for the superstores and chains on registration fees for conferences and seminars, audiotapes and are now replacing the thousands of videotapes, and a select list of books. buyers in the independent stores, who allowed for the emergence of diversity. Enclosed are my dues for: ❑ Annual single membership, $15 It is an interesting commentary that ❑ Annual family membership, $25 David Hume's first Treatise on Human ❑ Check or money order enclosed Nature fell stillborn from the press, and that Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Charge my ❑ VISA ❑ MasterCard # Exp date Reason in its first edition sold only six Signature hundred copies. If the mass marketers are allowed to dominate the knowledge Name industry, it would be increasingly diffi- Address Daytime phone cult for creative geniuses and new ideas to find an outlet. Will visual and auditory City State Zip images replace cognitive symbols and Return to: CODESH Memberships, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. marginalize book readers? Will the Or call toll-free 800-458-1366. FAX charges to: 716-636-1733. 12/93 writers, editors, publishers, and readers

28 FREE INQUIRY State and Church in Modern Germany The Legacy of a Symbiotic Relationship

Hans Sebald

nce upon a time, emperor and pope nursed a close Vatican in the face of Nazi atrocities; and (2) encouraging alliance, at least most of the time, for it was the Vatican to have its clergy refrain from meddling in German 0 advantageous to both. Most people think that this politics. sanctimonious partnership was a temporary peculiarity in Not surprisingly, the arrangement, so convenient and European history, an antiquated epiphany that faded away lucrative for the church, contributed to the minimal opposition during the Enlightenment. Wrong—at least when it comes shown by German Catholicism against the Nazi state—after to modern Germany. This nation is an anomaly among modern all, who wants to have a falling out with an agent who so nation states insofar as the government functions as the reliably fills one's treasury? Of course, there were additional church's tax collector. reasons Catholicism so modestly resisted Nazism: anti- Each church member is taxed a certain percentage of his Semitism among Catholic clergy, plus sentiments of or her wages, salaries, or general income, and collection is nationalism and the vision of Germany as a bulwark against carried out by the government's internal revenue service. godless communism. It must be said that this characterization Depending on the specific German Bundesland (confederate may apply to the German Protestant churches to the same state), the percentage withheld is between 8 and 10 percent or even greater extent. But the focus of the discussion is the of an individual's federal income tax. The higher the rate status of the Catholic church. of taxation, the higher the take of the church. (Perhaps this The Catholic church in Germany today is a financial giant, is one of the reasons why the church has never shown great because post- has continued to adhere to the interest in bringing about a reduction of taxes levied on Concordat. It is not only the automatic church tax that fills workers.) When people assume employment they must declare the church's coffers, but also the huge income derived from church affiliation in order for deductions to be automatically clever investments and from a variety of church-owned carried out. The Finanzamt (Internal Revenue Service) will properties and institutions, ranging from hospitals, kinder- then commence to transfer the monies to the coffers of the gartens, homes for the aged, schools, and publishing houses 2 However, the church on a regular basis.' to the ubiquitous Sunday collection plate. The agreement of the government to handle the collec- church tax levied against wages and salaries accounts for the bulk and stability of the church's wealth. For example, the tion of annual billions of church-tax monies was part of the national internal revenue service collected for the Catholic 1933 Concordat, the treaty between the Third Reich and the and Lutheran churches a total of over 15 billion Deutsche Vatican, personally signed by the pope and Hitler (the latter Mark (roughly $10 billion) in taxes in 1991.3 himself a Catholic who was never excommunicated) and in I am especially familiar with the financial standing of the fact the first significant international treaty Hitler signed upon central German archdiocese of , which is made up coming into power. (Spain and Italy, under Franco and of mostly rural and low-income population. A publication Mussolini, respectively, had similar concordats with the of the diocese's treasury office discloses the financial status Vatican, but their subsequent governments rescinded them.) for 19924 and shows that 88 percent of the diocese's total The German concordat served the interest of both parties. income was amassed from taxing wages and incomes of church It favored major aims of the Vatican: (1) protection of the members. The sum amounted to 219 million DM (approx- German clergy; (2) forestallment of the establishment of imately $140 million), broken down into 164.5 million DM as the state religion, which had been the goal from taxed wages and 54.5 million DM from taxed income of the Nazi-inspired "German Christian" movement; and (3) (other than labor wages). Additional income derived from engagement of the German state as church tax collector. revenues of leases of land and other income-yielding properties, Likewise it met some of Hitler's interests: (1) muting the 8.3 million DM; and general government subsidies (again symptomatic of church/ state liaison) to the tune of 15.7 million Hans Sebald is professor emeritus of sociology at Arizona DM. State University in Tempe. Many church-tax payers never attend church; they are members solely on paper and harbor serious questions about

Winter 1993/94 29 the meaning of their religious affiliation. Hence the logical unemployed received unemployment compensation figured as question arises as to why they would not cancel membership a percentage of their previous net income. The formula that and save themselves money. Alas, these lax Catholics fear was applied ignored the fact that workers without religious the consequences such severance would entail. First they would affiliation had increased net income, since no church tax had have to make a formal declaration of severing ties with Mother been deducted. Yet, an undifferentiating across-the-board Church in order for the Finanzamt to cease charging them. deduction of approximately 9 percent (of the state tax) was (Note: Prior to such declaration, which must be made to church part of the rigid formula and applied to all applying for officials, payment of church tax is theoretically enforceable unemployment compensation. The state over the years got through exactly the same legal procedures as the enforcement away with harvesting huge sums of unrightfully withheld of government income tax, which, in its most extreme compensation monies from citizens who did not hold religious manifestation, could consist of the sheriff coming to the house affiliation. While this has remained unchallenged in the western to safeguard the auctioning off of personal property.) Second, provinces of Germany, where only about 8 percent of the they would be barred from the sacraments of the church, population declared themselves without church membership, a sanction the believer fears is a straight path to eternal the population of the new eastern provinces, where about damnation. A majority of lax Catholics retain a modicum 67 percent are without church membership, resent the state's of belief in basic theological doctrines and don't dare write procedure. As a consequence, German labor unions are off the possibility that the doctrines might be based on real phenomena. As a consequence, emotions of fear persuade them to pay a sort of insurance premium just in case—rather "[Modern Germany] is an anomaly among than take a chance of eternal nonbliss. It is these powerful modern nation states insofar as the govern- emotions of fear and uncertainty that turn into blessings for ment functions as the church's tax collector." the ' treasury. In addition to these theological threats, there often is social pressure by spouses and other family members to stay in the church. As a consequence, millions currently engaging the courts to achieve a differentiating of German Catholics prefer to pay church tax rather than formula according to which the unemployed with a history catch a heavy dose of theological angst plus cause family of religious nonaffiliation would receive higher compensation disharmony. payments.6 Church membership has its infantile version, literally. Backed by the power of the Deutsche Mark, the Catholic Baptism instantly confers membership and obliges payment church has gradually sharpened her political aspirations. For of church tax, at least theoretically, even for infants. While example, her "pro-life" stance has become more than they may not yet have income derived from gainful outspoken, it has become militant and commands followers employment, they may possibly have inherited fortunes, which to fight for it as a sacred duty; appropriate sign-up sheets are subject to tax collectible by the German internal revenue, are left at church doors. From the pulpit and through the who ipso facto will also collect the churches' percentage and various media the church owns or can influence, the believers turn it over to the church authorities. Ignored in the process are told for whom to vote, which political party to support, is the violation of the Grundrecht, the constitutional rights which "anti-life" candidates to defeat. of the individual, which proclaims children's Religionsfreiheit Also, control has been tightened over priests tinged by (Art. 4, Abs. 1 GG), their freedom from religious coercion.5 liberation theology or doctrinal dissent. The 1992 limelight The matter of state subsidies to the churches deserves case of this type has been that of Father Eugen Drewermann, additional comment. The rationale for a good part of current whose criticism of the church was initially merely a theological subsidies is anchored in an anachronism dating to an imperial sparring, and the authorities of the church limited their decree that promised to pay compensation for property taken reactions to fraternal disagreement. But the debate escalated from the churches and secularized during the Napoleonic era. as Drewermann called the Catholic credo a formulation "sticky In this way it has happened that an 1803 agreement, the with blood and gold" and one that served the battle cry in Reichsdeputationshaupt-schluß, still today obliges the more than one genocidal war. What piqued the authorities governments of most states in the German republic to pay most was his denial of the pope's infallibility. Gradually his compensation to their two main churches, Lutheran and influence grew and evolved into a structural fissure with a Catholic. heretical flock beginning to follow him rather than the local Additional subsidies, albeit indirect and hidden, consist of bishop. That proved to wear out the rest of the church's the government paying the salaries of priests and other church tolerance, and she prohibited his teaching and preaching in personnel teaching or working in schools, prisons, police all Catholic churches, schools, and other institutions. departments, and the military. It seems that bishop and pope react most sharply when It would be wrong to assume that the state is purely they perceive their authority questioned and sense endanger- magnanimous in its relation to the church. The secular ment of the structural status quo. Their greatest fear is aroused authorities derive profits from the relationship, albeit in a when they encounter a serious challenge that might undermine more hidden and roundabout fashion that just recently has the power of the hierarchy. Purely theological ruminations, come under criticism. In the past, workers who became even if they deviate from traditional views, far less excite church

30 FREE INQUIRY leadership—as long as they do not threaten the status quo in 1976 when two priests, charged with the task by the of the hierarchy and the stability of its structure. archbishop of Würzburg, performed a long, drawn-out Drewermann and other rebellious priests are indeed aiming exorcism that identified not only the five demons tormenting for structural changes. For example, they demand the right twenty-two-year-old student Anneliese Michel, but also killed to get married and at the same time retain their priestly status, the girl because they made her fast her too long. (By some which raises delicate questions of property rights, family ecclesiastical wisdom it is thought that Satan does not relish inheritance, and social security for dependents. In other words, residing in a person committed to holy fasting.) The Catholic among other complications, the church senses the danger of hierarchy found itself in trouble. The district attorney new financial obligations. One of the priests who recently investigated the case, which came to embarrassing court has irritated the hierarchy with this sort of threat is Father sessions; and the two exorcists ended up being sentenced for Wolfgang Eifler, who openly admitted to a family life negligent homicide.? Alas, the broad mass of German Catholics (including two children). His unblessed marital bliss was reacted far more charitably: Satan was lurking behind all of punished by the church by suspending him from priestly this, never mind the humiliating outcome for the church.8 functions. However, this ecclesiastical measure raises an German public life is far more censorial of unpopular additional question of great displeasure to the bishops' utterances—especially if they criticize the church—than many treasurer, namely, whether suspended priests are entitled to Americans would find acceptable. Example: A few years ago, a church pension just as regular priests are upon cessation a young woman, with a headband identifying her as a modern of active service. Purely legally speaking, the church is not Pagan witch, denounced Christian churches as being among obligated to compensate any priest suspended for "unethical" "the worst mass-murdering organizations in the world." She reasons. And since the church is not obligated to pay into was cited for "offending the Christian belief system" and a an equivalent of a social security fund, priests who risk court penalized her with a hefty fine. I am not familiar with suspension can find themselves financially stranded. any incident in Western societies where a person condemning The point is that the church holds almost total financial those responsible for Soviet communism's gulag, or Nazism's power over her priests and other employees, the sort of power genocide was punished for speaking up. In a nation pretending that can be mightily persuasive, because the church enjoys to allow free speech, any statement condemning genocide or an extralegal status as employer, which exempts her from mass murder should be allowed. It is a telling commentary the laws and regulations that otherwise govern employer- of the power of the church when the act of condemning the employee relationships (Arbeitsrecht) in the rest of the popu- history of her mass murder becomes a punishable offense. lation. I have personally experienced how the church's powerful arm reaches out and tries to control the cogs of academia. he traditional control of the church over divorce and My scholarly pursuit is particularly unpalatable to the church, Tremarriage of her members has continued undiminished. for it focuses on the social-psychological dimensions of the Innumerable Catholics queue up to obtain an annulment of European witch persecutions, a mania that ran its fiery course a marriage long since ended by divorce in civil court, paying for nearly 300 years, roughly from 1450 to 1750. The sine hefty fees to the church with the hope that they will be told qua non of accomplishing research into this subject is access that they may now remarry within Mother Church. to archives and to original documents from the time of the A new war cry has arisen in the Catholic hierarchy, one witch trials. My request for access to the archives in possession that echoes the protest against artificial means of reproduction. of the archbishop of Bamberg was denied with the remark It concerns the experimentation and advances in gene that "we have nothing on witches," in spite of the fact that technology and the scientific headway made in prenatal my studies in archives run by secular authorities—fortunately medicine and therapy. It has become a controversial and accessible to researchers—contained certain cross-references divisive issue in the church, and with few exceptions (curiously, indicating that pertinent material was indeed part of the the otherwise very conservative Bishop Lehmann is one) archbishop's archive. biogenetic engineering is regarded as interference with divine A related example deals with the Arbeitskreis Interdiszi- will and tacitly conjures up the old doctrine of predestination. plinärer Hexenforschung (interdisciplinary witch-research Most Catholic clergy see advances in this area of scientific group) of German scholars, mostly historians, whose common endeavor as a serious violation of divine volition and openly interest is the study of the witch persecution during the early thunder against them from pulpit and printed page. I have modern era. As an incredible irony, the physical facilities had personal encounters with priests who show relative serving as the meeting place where scholars periodically gather flexibility on issues of priests marrying, divorce/remarriage, to present their papers is the Catholic Educational Institute and various theological doctrines; but when it comes to gene of Rottenburg, owned and run by the bishopric of Rottenburg- technology, they recoil as if glimpsing the wicked snake of Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. The director is an the lost paradise. employee of the church and handles the logistics for these And then there is of course the controlling concept of Satan. conferences such as inviting scholars, organizing the agenda, He apparently is not only busy advancing gene technology, printing programs, arranging lodging, and so forth. Because but is still at work tormenting Teutonic souls. One of the my publications in the genre are well known in Germany,9 most spectacular manifestations of Satan's zeal took place inviting me to or at least notifying me of the meetings is

Winter 1993/94 31 an expected academic courtesy. Non-invitation could easily be branded as bias and cause the church embarrassment.1° "Secular humanism has a hard time to oppose But here is the problem: my writings have been openly critical of the role the church played in the witch persecution, whereas a church structure that has extended its much of the writings and lectures of many of my European tenacles into every nook and niche of society. colleagues play a muted harp and take refuge in historical The situation compares to frying to rid an relativism, i.e., exculpating the church of wrong-doing by allowing that "she did the best she could under the organism of cancerous growth; strings of conditions."!! So the leaders of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart unhealthy and of healthy tissues are tightly Institute were in a quandary when it came to the question interwoven." of inviting me. On the one hand they knew they should, on the other they did not want to provide me with a forum. They solved the quandary cleverly. They did invite me formally quitting church membership—Catholic as well as regularly, but always in such a manner that I would receive Protestant—a wave that has not yet subsided. announcement and invitation weeks after a meeting had taken Another inter-German fight raged over the issue of place. Three years ago, I pleaded with the director and asked abortion, which during the first four years after reunification him to send announcements and invitations via air mail, and was legal in the east but illegal in the west. A unified law I would send funds to cover the extra expense. No reply; was finally passed in the summer of 1993. It was a compromise the announcements still arrive post facto. according to which abortions became legal during the first It is important to understand two aspects of this scenario. twelve weeks of pregnancy, but the medical cost had to be First, the Catholic Institute offers to the research group its paid by the woman herself. Financial self-responsibility is a facilities at conveniently low cost, including rooms and meals rare sanction in a society where all other legal medical and sometimes even travel stipends. Financial dependency on procedures are paid for by the generous national medical the institute has developed. Second, the papers read at the insurance system. At the same time, a safe and inexpensive meetings (sometimes I have the late opportunity to read abortion technique, the so-called abortion pill, RU486, published papers) reflect played-down criticism of the role permissible in a number of other European countries, including of the church in the witch persecution, with the word France and England, is outlawed in Germany. It has been Inquisition avoided as much as possible.12 Ideological control suspected that this prohibition is the personal victory of has been accomplished. We are witnessing the irony of German Minister for Public Health, Horst Seehofer, who academic sheep congregating in the wolves' lair to sing hymns represents the biases of his political party, the Christian Social palatable to the wolves. Union, and appears determined to exercise a policy as Back to the larger picture. The power of the church has restrictive on abortion as the political scene can bear.14 not gone unchallenged. Challenges have come from the Challenges to the power of the church, financial and political opposition, the Social Democratic Party, with former otherwise, have come from additional sources. A number of chairman Hans-Jochen demanding an end to the church's brave writers have thrown down the gauntlet at the church. privilege to proceed according to her own labor laws. It is Foremost among them is Karlheinz Deschner who so far has time, he feels, that the church should be subject to the labor published three volumes of a projected ten-volume work, laws governing the rest of the nation's employers. In general, Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (A Criminal History of so his party contends, the church should restrict her behavior Christianity vol. 1, 1986, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbeck bei and align it with her true identity: "A club with the Pope Hamburg). It is an exposé of enormous dimensions, a meticu- as chairman."13 lously researched account of the inhumanity and criminality Further challenges have arisen in the wake of the committed in the name of Christianity from its beginning to reunification of the two Germanies. When, in the 1950s, the the modern age. Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formed, Another brilliant source of challenge to Catholicism is a the new nation state continued to adhere to the Concordat. collection of essays edited by Beate Kuckertz Kreuzfeuer: Die But the new nation state of the German Democratic Republic Kritik an der Kirche (Cross Fire: The Critique of the Church)15 (East Germany) did not. The former GDR discontinued, in (Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1991). Contributions to this volume fact outlawed, the state-church liaison and inconvenienced the include inactive priest Peter de Rosa's "Der stille Holocaust" churches by having them rely on voluntary donations by ("The Quiet Holocaust"); journalist and press correspondent members. With reunification a few years ago, West Germany's Nino Lo Bello's, "Der Vatikan and die Juden" ("The Vatican adherence to the Concordat was imposed on the eastern half and the Jews"); author Karlheinz Deschner's "Ecrasez l'infame as well, although a large percentage of the population of these oder Über die Notwendigkeit, aus der Kirche auszutreten" Neue Bundesländer (confederate states of former East ("Stop the Infamy! The Moral Imperative to Quit the Germany) decidedly disliked the idea of the government Church"); professor of religious studies and noted pacifist Ute playing tax collector for the church. It looked as if the church Ranke-Heinemann's "Zur Moraltheologie des 20. Jahrhun- had won a financial as well as a political victory. But the derts" ("Moral Theology of the 20th Century"); professor of eastern population reacted with an unprecedented wave of church history Georg Denzler's "Abnormitäten" ("Abnormal-

32 FREE INQUIRY ities"); author, lecturer, inactive priest Hans Küng's "Kardinal humanity. Ratzinger, Papst Wojtyla and die Angst vor der Freiheit" 9. Examples: Hexen damals—und heute?, Frankfurt/ Main, Umschau Verlag, 1987 (add'l edition Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1990); Hexenjunge. (Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Wojytla, and the Fear of Free- Fallstudie eines Inquisitionsprozesses, Marburg, Verlag, 1992; various essays dom"); author and ethnologist Alfonso M. di Nola's "Der and research reports in Spirita, Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaften, in unserer Zeit" ("Satan in Our Time"); journalist Marburg. Teufel 10. The church shows great eagerness to be recognized as modern and Kenneth L. Woodward's "Heiligkeit and Sexualität" ("- progressive. This is primarily motivated by the desire to attract and keep liness and Sexuality"); author and sanctioned priest Eugen young people. Therefore the thing she tries to avoid at nearly all cost Psychogramm eines Ideals" ("The is to be shown backward, obsolete, and afflicted with an inhumane history. Drewermann's "Kleriker For this reason she eschews confrontations with academics. The last thing Clergyman—Psychogram of Ideal"); ex-member of Opus Dei she wants is to be raked over by incensed scholars, for they are the ones Klaus Steigleder's "Opus Dei—eine Innenansicht" ("Opus who possess the only weapon the church really fears: knowledge. 11. This was the literal response by resident faculty to my lecture at Dei—View from the Inside"); author and professor of the University of Würzburg in the summer of 1992. Apparently many sociology Horst Herrmann's `Wie die Kirche mit unserem Geld German academics are apologists of church history, espouse a value-free überlebt" ("How the Church Survives with our Money"). view of that history, pay little heed to universal principles of human dignity, and appear unmoved by humanist pronouncements, such as John Dewey's: It is regrettable that there are at present no plans to translate "The existence of almost every conceivable type of social institution at Kuckertz's compendium into English, for the concerns these some time and place in the history of the world is evidence of the plasticity authors and editors are voicing aren't limited to the German of human nature. This fact does not prove that all these different social systems are of equal value materially, morally, and culturally."(From "Does scene; they apply to all situations where religious powers try Human Nature Change?" in Problems of Men, Philosophy Library, 1946, to breach the boundary between state and church, encroaching p. 191.) on the freedom of thought and on basic democratic principles. 12. When you consider that this study deals with a phenomenon that meant heinous death to hundreds of thousands (some historians' Finally, it should be noted that the German scene is not estimates run into the millions) of innocent persons, their uncritical attitude deprived of active organizations representing the humanist is astounding. (See references to estimates in Rossell H. Robbins, The philosophy, aspiring to a clearer separation of state and church Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York: Crown Publishers, 1959, pp. 1-18; Brian P. Levak, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, and trying to reverse the infringements of churches on the New York: Longman, 1987, pp. 19-21.) private lives of citizens. A major organization of this type 13. "Um Gottes willen," Der Spiegel, op. cit. is Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands, which hosted the 14. "Fristenregelung," Spiegel, June 7, 1993, pp. 93-97. 15. Titles translated by this author. • European Humanist Congress in Berlin in July 1993. Yet, secular humanism has a hard time to oppose a church structure that has extended its tenacles into every nook and niche of society. The situation compares to trying to rid an organism of cancerous growth; strings of unhealthy and of healthy tissues are tightly interwoven. The question as to how to go about a therapy calls for a separate discussion; this Foster Humanist Growth 12/93 article limits itself to a step in the direction of diagnosis. for Years to Come. Provide for Notes FREE INQUIRY 1. The German government passes the collection plate not only for the Catholic church, but also for the Protestant churches. Also, nonbelievers in your will. may support humanist or freethinker organizations. 2. The churches often brag about their investment in such charitable Please remember FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, Inc.) institutions as hospitals and kindergartens. What is left unsaid, however, when planning your estate. Your bequest will help is that the church's investment usually amounts to merely 20 percent and to maintain the vitality of humanism in a society that the rest comes from the government and from the clientele, so that the investment is more business than charity. See: "Um Gottes willen," often hostile toward it. Der Spiegel, vol. 47, no. I I, March 15, 1993, p. 21. We would be happy to work with you and your 3. "Um Gottes willen," Der Spiegel, op. cit. attorney in the development of a will or estate 4. Pressestelle des Erzbishchöflichen 0rdinariates Bamberg, Wofür Kirchensteuer? Der Haushalt des Erzbistums Bamber 1992, Mai 1992. plan that meets your wishes. A variety of 5. Deschner, Karlheinz and Horst Herrmann, Der Anti-Katechismus. arrangements are possible, including gifts of a 200 Gründe gegen die Kirchen and für die Welt, Hamburg, Goldman Verlag, fixed amount or a percentage of your estate; 1991, pp. 25-26. 6. "Arbeitslose. Mehr Stütze für Ungläubige," Spiegel, July 26, 1993, living trusts or gift annuities, which provide you p. 77. with lifetime income; or a contingent bequest that 7. See details in Hans Sebald, Witchcraft—The Heritage of a Heresy provides for FREE INQUIRY only if your primary (New York: Elsevier, 1978), p. 233. 8. Among the sources that promoted a demonic interpretation of the beneficiaries do not survive you. episode was a particularly powerful one, a book that reached thousands For more information, contact Paul Kurtz, Editor of German homes: Felicitas Goodman, Anneliese Michel und ihre Dämonen, All inquiries will be held in the Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, Christiana Verlag, 1980. (A year later an of FREE INQUIRY. American edition was published: The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, Garden strictest confidence. City, N.Y.: Doubleday.) From behind the veneer of an American anthropologist—whose renown until that time had lingered in certain New P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, New York 14226-0664. Age circles only—Goodman asserted that her "scientific" investigation has Or call 716-636-7571. shown no natural explanation for Michel's possession and that in fact new demons (real spiritual entities!) are tormenting twentieth-century

Winter 1993/94 33 Jesus Through the Looking Glass: An Update on the Who-Was-Jesus Movement

R. Joseph Hoffmann

I sit down to write this piece I have just come from really begins with a 1959 book by James Robinson, The New a lecture given by John Hick, a philosophical Quest for the Historical Jesus, which made the point that As theologian known mainly for his championing of the old quest (Schweitzer, Wrede, et al.) had raised the wrong religious pluralism. The topic of his lecture was "Jews, sorts of questions. Theology had accepted the "indistinguish- Christians, and : Do We All Worship the Same God?" ability" of Jesus from his time and culture to such an extent His answer: a theologically provocative but philosophically that only two solidly historical possibilities existed: either he unhelpful yes and no. Like many men and women who make never existed (a notion rejected out of hand by most New their living from teaching Christian doctrine, Hick has long Testament scholars) or if he did was one of a pack of messianic since stopped "believing" in God in any sense that would do enthusiasts who preached God's soon-to-come judgment of justice to the word. He is a panreligionist who uses whole the world. In a curious sort of logic, it was reckoned that trees to write defenses of religion against the multitudes of since the Jesus of history could not be reconstructed and would particular religions that threaten to demean the Great Idea. not be of much good to the church if he were, it was best So, during his talk, he praised Christianity for its Christian- to leave him buried. The risen Christ—that was something ization of "uncivilized" Europe and condemned Christian else again. Even if the Resurrection was not (historically Europe for spreading the gospel to "uncivilized" cultures in speaking) historical (geschichtlich-), it was still a great story Africa and the Americas. He praised Judaism for its moral (Historie) and really what Christianity was all about anyway. sense and condemned Israeli politics; praised Islam for its The natural reaction to this sort of radical skepticism was learning and traditional values through Buddhist, Bahai, and radical skepticism, a kind of Newtonian countermotion to Sikh teachings along the way, stopping only long enough to the endless attempts to find parallels, analogies, echoes, and say that all religions fall far short of their subject (God, nirvana, shadows of Jesus and his teaching in the thought of his the Great Unknown, the Ground of Being, etc.) who (which?) contemporaries, but no physical traces of the pale Galilean remains fundamentally above the fray of doctrinal squabbling prophet. Thus, Robinson noted that the original "positivistic" and I.R.A. bombings. Sadly, he did not tip his hat to secular quest for the Jesus of history had been brought to a standstill humanism or to atheism. After all, they reject the idea that with the general recognition that the gospels are "proclama- there can be a "wholly other" source of value beyond humanity tion" (Greek: kerygma-read "propaganda') and had no interest and its this-worldly achievements. in providing details of his day-to-day existence. Robinson Toward the end of the question period following the lecture omitted to say that the same vested interests would have a naive evangelical student asked nervously how all religions prevented any attempt to record the "actual" words of Jesus, could be "valid" ways to salvation since Christianity (not to though he did recognize that the gospel writers were not really mention Islam, Judaism, and the Cult Davidian) claims to concerned to record factual detail. possess the whole truth and nothing but the truth. "What Swirling about him at the time were a number of attempts about Jesus saying `I am the way and the truth and the life?'," to utilize new sources "outside" the gospels to build a picture the student queried. The answer came like a shot: "Jesus didn't of Jesus: Palestinian archaeological, papyrological, and say that—and I am surprised you didn't know he didn't say rabbinical sources were put forward as hopeful possibilities, „ it. either as corroborating or contradicting the gospel tradition. The fundamentalist was stricken by the news, but took Robinson pronounced the attempt a house of cards: "They the answer with surprising good grace. Unfortunately, no are not so much new sources for the life of Jesus," he wrote matter how happy I always am to see the wind taken out "as new arguments, except that the arguments are not new of evangelical sails, I was unhappy with Hick's answer. To [either]" (p. 62). explain, let me take a few moments to outline the current But in advocating a "new quest" (chiefly along lines state of the "What Jesus Really Said" movement The storv advocated by his German teacher, Rudolf Bultmann), Robinson hinted that recently discovered sources from Upper R. Joseph Hoffmann is at Westminster College, Oxford. Egypt, soon to be called the "gnostic gospels," contained a considerable number of sayings of Jesus "which are not purely

34 FREE INQUIRY of gnostic invention." He went on to say that the sorts of "original" saying of Jesus might have looked like. Indeed, sayings found in Nag Hammadi may lead us to anticipate traditional methods of New Testament criticism had already "an increase in the quantity of authentic sayings of Jesus." rendered virtually everything assigned to Jesus in the gospels The new quest was to be existentialist—the buzz word of to be of dubious vintage. the sixties. It was to be disrespectful of old-fashioned historical Students who studied at Harvard or Claremont were well conclusions and dismissive of data. It was to see Jesus' life, advised to accept the new orthodoxy. Lost in the confusion death, and resurrection as a paradigm (another buzzword) of learning Coptic and studying maps of Egypt to find out of authentic existence. just where Nag Hammadi was, they had little time to challenge But the new quest was as uneventful as the books written the exotica that made their scholarly pursuits seem worthwhile. about it were unreadable, dripping with the theological In the rush, Robinson's caution about the gnostic sources doublespeak of the era. Hardly had the new quest begun when not altering "the kind of history or biography of Jesus which the new new quest began asking questions suspiciously like is possible" (p. 63) got lost in the rush to find nuggets of those of the old: What can we know about Jesus? What did authentic Jesus-sayings beneath the Egyptian desert—even if he really say? Attention turned to the gnostic gospels. the dig involved only deciphering a confusing arrangement In the 1960s, graduate students at Harvard, Utrecht, and of squiggles reproduced in mimeograph-blue. Rudimentary Claremont in California busied themselves learning Coptic, facts were conveniently ignored. For example, among the the language of the Nag Hammadi papyri. By the time I codices from Nag Hammadi was a translation into Coptic reached Harvard in 1975, the Coptic Gnostic Library, as it of Plato's Republic (588b-589b) which its translator, James was called, was already in the hands of Dutch and American Brashler, called "something of a surprise." Yet it was known publishers and the first English edition appeared on book- that the gnostics were platonic theosophists at heart—and stands in 1977. In contrast to the undetectable progress in probable that the Gospel of Thomas was an attempt to make Dead Sea Scrolls translation and publication, the Nag Jesus socratic in his style of teaching. It was therefore a platonic Hammadi project was a model of efficiency and cooperation. dialogue or "hermetic wisdom tract" that Thomas had been Progress reports had been filed; international conferences had contrived to simulate. But to admit as much would have been met at Yale, Oxford, and elsewhere to discuss results and to deny its affinity with "Q," which would have been to admit implications; and bibliographical records of research on the it contained nothing approaching the antiquity or `originality" documents were kept up to date as the inquiry continued. of canonical sources. The digging and correlating thus Despite predictable complaints about the style of the continued apace. translation and the pressures under which translators were obliged to work, the project was a stunning success. he new new quest began to look just like the old quest. What was all the fuss about? It centered primarily on a The search for evidence supplanted the search for single gospel, the Gospel of Thomas, which had been known authentic existence as the whole fabric of existentialism began by name from the earliest days of the church's history. This to unravel at the end of the 1970s. All the talk was of Thomas; "gospel" is different from other Nag Hammadi tracts and the of Ur-Thomas (a possible Greek source existing before the four canonical gospels, being a lengthy dialogue between Jesus Coptic version); of Semitisms (Hebrew or Aramaic fragments) and his followers, most of it derived or modified from the in the gospels (a view once soundly laid to rest by Edgar New Testament sources. Goodspeed); of Jesus the Jew, and last but not least of the Thomas was important, however, in offering a kind of "Q" source. If the new new quest differed, it was in its circumstantial "proof' that collections of Jesus' sayings preoccupation with linguistic analysis: phrases, particles, and circulated freely before they were finally incorporated into verb patterns were examined in minute detail for genetic traces the fully developed gospel story—the sort of gospel represented of their creator. under the name of Matthew or Luke. If this "proof' was The scholars involved had inherited from a previous flimsy (the whole thrust of Thomas is to present Jesus as generation their own trials by fire: everything attributed to a Socratic teacher-revealer and the disciplines as his pupils; Jesus would be looked at with suspicion. If a saying looked the genre is Greek dialogue, not gospel) nobody was saying. like something the church believed about Jesus (rather than Thomas soon became evidence in search of a hypothesis. And something Jesus might have believed about himself), it would it found its hypothesis in the Q-theory. This maintained that be tossed aside. If it looked as if a preacher's hand or an parallel sayings of Jesus in Matthew and Luke (not occurring editor's pen had finessed it, it would be thrown out. These in Mark's gospel) were best explained by the existence of exclusionary criteria had the effect of eliminating almost a common source of sayings, available to and used inde- everything in the Gospel of John (including "I am the way, pendently by the two gospel writers. "Q" itself had of course the truth, and the Life') without fuss or bother. And while disappeared; its existence was a matter of subtraction and the more crazily gnostic sayings would fail (by the same criteria) guesswork. While no one who cared about his reputation to pass muster, sayings need not be "rejected" just because argued that Thomas was "Q," Thomas was alleged to preserve they were incoherent. Some extremists argued, in fact, that sayings of Jesus "older" (or as old as) those in the New Jesus had spoken paradoxically or incoherently. In Thomas, Testament. Never mind that no scholar who argued this for example, Jesus says, "There are five trees for you in paradise remarkable thesis had the fuzziest idea what an "old" or which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose

Winter 1993/94 35 leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them threatened to bring the roof down on the high priest's head. will not experience death." The damning argument against But this Jesus is not an historical figure. He is what his makers the genuineness of most "gnostic" sayings was the fact that made him, and even they could not agree on the picture. they did not look like "Q" sayings even though (a) "Q" had Nor is this the sort of Jesus to whom pluralists (those whose not survived and (b) no one believed that the "Q" sayings god is an equal opportunities deity) should feel comfortable were genuine either. appealing. The Jesus of the Westar project and the new new The new new quest was doomed from the start. It generated quest is a talking doll with a questionable repertoire of thirty- silly books about the laughing savior; the brothers of Jesus; one sayings: pull a string and he blesses the poor. gay initiation rites (After all, what were a bunch of nice Jewish When John Hick pulls the string, the doll says, "Love thy boys doing wandering the countryside when they should have enemy" (or at least try to understand where he's coming from). been sowing seed for and caring for their mothers- When David Koresh pulls the string, the doll says, "He who in-law?); the politics of Jesus; the "aims" of Jesus (as if any does not hate his father, mother, sister, and brothers cannot had been answered). Reputable scholars were pressed into be my follower." In his critique of a number of recent "real the service of hacks like A. N. Wilson, whose book Jesus Jesus" books, N. T. Wright lampoons the current trends in caused something of a transatlantic stir (and made its author deciphering the New Testament. He blasts Barbara Thiering's an undeserved bundle to boot) with its unclear and historically Jesus-in-Code theory, an amazing work that draws freely on shoddy picture of the "real" figure. the late John Allegro's Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Stuttering self-contradiction and implausibility gave way Myth while barely acknowledging its existence. He complains to self-congratulation at the final meeting last year of the about Wilson's Jesus in equally harsh tones, and ends with Westar Project, a.k.a. the "Jesus Seminar." At its peak, about a harrumph at Bishop John Shelby Spong's suggestions (Born two hundred scholars from (mainly) the United States and of a Woman, 1992) that Jesus was conceived illegitimately Canada met twice-yearly under the chairmanship of Robert (probably rape) and was married (at Cana) to Mary Magda- Funk to examine the sayings of Jesus. The famous "marbles" lene. Admittedly, there is much in these books to complain method of casting votes (white for authentic, black for fake, about—to laugh at even. But Wright is no better. In the spirit pink for maybe) will long be remembered as a high point of the new new questers, he ends his polemic with this: in the serious examination of biblical sources (one wonders, for example, if the Ten Commandments were chosen in What is so difficult about the suggestion that this Jesus should roughly the same way: "I like the one about not coveting give his followers on the night he was betrayed a symbol wives and cattle, etc., but this no-killing bit just doesn't sound which would sum up in a simple action his whole drawing on to himself of Israel's national destiny? Why should he like our Yahweh"). not bequeath to them a Passover meal with a difference, in On a quiet Sunday afternoon in Sonoma, while evangelicals which they would strangely know his presence and be sustained prayed for the scholars to be washed away, the Jesus Seminar by him as they went about the task of implementing his decisive members tallied up. Almost nothing in the Gospel of John achievement? [Who Was Jesus, SPCK, 1992, 103.] could be attributed to Jesus. ("So," Bultmann could be heard saying from his grave "what else is new?") Almost nothing The answer to this series of questions is, Nothing difficult Jesus is said to have done is true (e.g., he did not walk on at all. Pull the string and Wright's Jesus invents the eucharist water, cure the blind, or rise from the dead). He might have (if not, exactly, transubstantiation), leaps over scholarly spoken a few parables (the mustard seed story and the Good chasms, and founds a church. There may, however, be Samaritan story were whiteballed, even though both could something very difficult about believing improbabilities into plausibly have come from the scrollpouch of a wandering facts. In fact, the improbabilities combine to make the theory , especially one who was aiming for converts in that Jesus never existed a welcome relief from the traffic of Samaria). Altogether thirty-one sayings were decreed tradition bashing. "genuine" by the group ("Love your enemies" and "Blessed And what, in the end, about our evangelical Christian's are the poor" among them). Everything else could forthwith question to the good professor—that Jesus claimed to be the be ripped from pages of your red-letter edition of the way, the truth, the life, and limited salvation to those who authorized version. believed in him? Lacking the sophistication of the Westar Which brings me back to John Hick and his evangelical Project whose Jesus speaks only genuine sayings, our questioner. At the end of this long, repetitive, and fruitless evangelical friend's Jesus says precisely what the author of path of inquiry the new new quest ceases. Its value for Hick the gospel of John wanted him to say and what evangelicals is that if Jesus did not say most of the things attributed to like to hear said. But with deference to the Jesus Seminar— him, he might have said anything one would wish to attribute the evangelical Jesus (not the doll) is the Jesus of the gospels— to him. If our picture of Jesus is marred by so much wear all four, with their Q + X and manifold discrepancies, con- and tear, so much varnish and so much new paint that the tradictions, and duplications. You cannot make this Jesus a original image is unrecoverable, then he might have looked friend of Islam or a better Jew (or even a better Christian) like anybody. He might have looked like Bruce Springsteen by snipping his string or scissoring away any sayings beyond and spoken with a feminist fervor to rival Andrea Dworkin, the "genuine" thirty-one. I am surprised Professor Hick doesn't or he might have spoken in platitudes called "parables" and know this. •

36 FREE INQUIRY An Interview with Tai Solarin

Tai Solarin is one of 's leading educators and social SOLARIN: In 1956, seventy. In the 1991/ 92 school year critics. He is the chairman of the People's Bank of Nigeria there were 1,800 boys and a writer for such leading Nigerian newspapers as The and girls. In 1992/93 Guardian. He has spent much of his life as a human rights there should be just activist, and is held in high esteem by many. He is affectionately over 1,900 boys and known as "Uncle Tai" by large numbers of his admirers. girls; about 1,100 boys When I visited Tai's Mayflower school a couple of years against just over 800 ago, I was immediately impressed by the seriousness and girls. dedication of the students. Secular messages stressing the FI: What makes the importance of education and self-reliance were posted all over Mayflower School so the walls of the school. Everyone seemed inquisitive and eager special? And what to learn. advantages do your Following is an interview with Dr. Tai Solarin in which students have over Nig- he discusses humanism and education in Nigeria. erian students who are taught in religious —Norm Allen, Director schools? African Americans for Humanism SOLARIN: It is spe- ' cial because of its secu- larity. We go all out Tai Solarin REE INQUIRY: What is the Mayflower School, and how to tackle the problems of life instead of spending several hours did you come up with that name? of the week explaining the significance of the deity. We have F Tai Solarin: I returned from the United Kingdom been able to debunk the conservative idea that morality is in 1952 with bachelors' degrees in history and geography. It only realized from the menu of religion. We have been visited was easy for me to be hired as the headmaster of a community by no end of employers who openly declare they would opt school run by local people. But as all schools were run the for our finished products any time as compared with the same way I was soon queried as to why I was not starting products of religious schools. They are convinced our the school day with hymn singing and prayers, and why I graduates work harder. And we know that, too. Our products was not marching the students—all boys—to the nearby are more sure of themselves: they are more ready to take church every Sunday. I questioned the legitimacy of running risks. Education in self-reliance has positive results. a community school in a sectarian fashion, and I never asked FI: What are some of the accomplishments of former my students to do what I didn't myself do. Since I was not students? going to accept the administration's directive I quit the school. SOLARIN: We gave Nigeria its first woman engineer. When It suddenly occurred to me that my only alternative was to Mrs. Kasim—nee Owotomo—got to her United States build my own school. The name, Mayflower, evokes the 1620 university to do chemical engineering, and was asked the voyage of the ship whose story I read about when I was reason for a young country like Nigeria producing women a schoolboy. It was to be a school for all children, engineers, she said she could give no more candid reason discriminating against none. The name, Mayflower, was our than that her high school headmaster encouraged as many easy choice. girls as possible to go for engineering. Many of our students FI: Some would argue that the name is too Eurocentric. in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States eke How would you respond? out their lean incomes by working on building sites in the SOLARIN: It is, indeed, Eurocentric. Nigerian society—I summer as plumbers, electricians, and tractor drivers. am inclined to say all African societies—is so steeped in FI: Where does the school rank as compared to other religious effervescence that most people cannot do anything schools? And is it a junior high school, middle school, or without dropping a nice word for the gods. In other words, senior high school? it would seem secularity is a rarity in Nigeria. SOLARIN: It is a full high school, incorporating the junior FI: When was the Mayflower School founded? and senior, right from its inception in 1956. There are, SOLARIN: January 27, 1956. according to official information, 6,000 state schools in FI: How many students attend the school? Nigeria. Here in , where the school is located,

Winter 1993/94 37 Mayflower has been officially proclaimed the best school for feet. The worst bane of African nondevelopment is chronic the past fifteen years. There are around 500 schools in the dependence on the deity to solve all earthly problems. Give state. Some consider Mayflower School to be one of the ten everybody education for self-reliance and we will vie with best high schools in the nation. I think I can improve on the best nations everywhere. For thirty-nine years I have had that by saying Mayflower School is one of the four best schools all the young people that passed through my hands—four in the country. If the federal government would give Mayflower years in our pre-Mayflower School days, and thirty-five years School a subsidy of NI million a year instead of the N2.5 at Mayflower School—to learn this poem by William Ernest million that goes to each of what is called "unity schools" Henley: (which I have persistently called "disunity schools') Mayflower would stand a shoulder higher than any other high school 1. Out of the night that covers me in the land. Black as the pit from pole to pole, FI: How is the school run? I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. SOLARIN: Like any other state school—Mayflower is state 2. In the fell clutch of circumstance owned—the state government pays for staff and equipment, I have not winced nor cried aloud, but charges slightly for tuition. The Mayflower parents' Under the bludgeoning of chance, organization is probably the strongest in the country. When My head is bloody, but unbowed. 3. Beyond this place of wrath and tears, last year the state government posted twenty-five fewer teachers Looms but the horror of the shade, into the school, the parents' organization hired the And yet the menace of the years, complement, built four new classrooms, and supplied desks Finds and shall find me, unafraid. and chairs for the students. My wife and I help to maintain 4. It matters not how strait the gate the school well and the stand-by generator when the main How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, power supply folds up, which is often. I am the captain of my soul. FI: Do the teachers receive any special training? SOLARIN: No. Because of the acute shortage of professional Material assistance in the nature of equipping laboratories teachers, most of our teachers are without professional and stocking libraries would be needed, but the first and most training. As long as they are good in their disciplines, they essential need is the leader with a sense of mission. I am are hired as teachers to go on transmitting the knowledge not thinking of a bell-ringing pastor to loudly shout what the best way they can. we stand for as one who means to do plenty but says very FI: What would it take for humanists in other African little. I envision a Quaker sort of leader who does not shout countries to build schools on the Mayflower model? What Quakerism, but does Quakerism. qualifications, skills, and resources would be required? As I write this I remember that we once worked very hard SOLARIN: I think Mayflower School has been lucky not harvesting a field of corn and plowing the field, spreading to have been stillborn. Formidable Christian churches, the compost and replanting the field with corn the same day in Roman Catholic in particular, could have smothered it. It a desperate effort not to miss the rain that seemed imminent. is alive today because its founders were convinced of what Had we "rested" that day, our corn would not have grown we were doing, and they were unrelenting and unsparing in to the height it is now. Because of that effort Mayflower their efforts. When I was in detention in Jos in 1984, a fellow School is going to harvest—as we did last year—three seasons detainee, a highly placed man in Jos, said that he would make of corn as compared with the traditional two-season harvests sure the government paid the bill if I was ready after our that are typical in this part of Nigeria. release to build a Mayflower School for them. With the success FI: How is the Mayflower School governed? Is there a of Mayflower School, I believe, today, it would take root board, a leadership committee, or a designated successor who in any other part of Nigeria, excepting strongly Muslim areas could run the school in the event of your retirement? like Kano, Sokoto, and Borno states. In those places it would SOLARIN: I'll answer the end of the question first. I retired be tantamount to heresy to proclaim that man is the master sixteen years ago from the leadership of the school, of his fate, the captain of his soul. surrendering it to the state. But the government realized it What I have written above would hold for most black was a special school, so it lets me continue to assist in its African countries. Tanzania and , for example, should further development. Individuals die but governments only be able to establish Mayflowers. succeed one another. I want us to run, as you do in America, FI: Would you assist in such projects? state schools. I have quoted for the past twenty years, at least, SOLARIN: I certainly would. an Irish Catholic priest who wrote: "Those who own the school, FI: Would it be useful to have more Mayflowers in other own its country, own its people, own its future." And I do Nigerian cities? If so, what would be required to make this not want Roman Catholicism to own the future of Nigeria, possible? just as I do not want it to be owned by Islam or Anglicanism. SOLARIN: The only answer to resolving most African Nor would the religious want the school to be owned by problems is in multiplying the Mayflower School type. To secularism. But time will tell, for Nigeria is a secular republic, get the young Africans weaned from their almost congenital and so the future is in our favor. reliance on fate, they must be educated to stand on their My wife and I are still putting in all we can for the succor

38 FREE INQUIRY of the school, and our efforts are being appreciated. But we FI: Some believe that only religion can bring about do own, as a private, fee-paying school, the arm that goes wholesome family values. But your family seems to be happy under the name Mayflower Junior School. Today's junior and stable. What accounts for your success in this regard? high school is younger than our Mayflower school and so SOLARIN: I do not know of any family that is more the state could not ask us to jettison the name. The Mayflower wholesome, or happier in Nigeria, and I publicly so declare. Junior School has 1,300 in residence and about 300 day I got married without the invitation of God's intervention: students. All the children's parents fight to get their children My wife was not to obey me: we are a team. Most of the in. The state minister of education honored us with a courtesy marriage contracts effected around me during the past thirty visit five weeks ago and told us that of every five parents years either disintegrated or are on the verge of so doing. that visit his ministry on behalf of their children, four plead Mine has lasted forty-one years and is still going strong. I for the Mayflower School. think I owe my happy marriage to openness and dedication, no fake belief, masquerading, or cheating. Our children—the girl got married to a Roman Catholic—are both secularists. f Goodness for its Own Sake But I never have asked them questions on faith. Let them make their choices, I say. ... Dr. Tai Solarin in very many words and on many FI: When did you become a humanist? different occasions has denied the existence of God and SOLARIN: When? At least forty years ago. Why? Because heaven. He should be our own example of the good it was only during my groping for a foothold that I was Samaritan. Not believing in our concept of God and happiest. I maintain great comfort and infinite happiness living heaven and thus the need for salvation, he has spent as a humanist. Charles Bradlaugh, H. G. Wells, Robert his life doing good for the selfless reason that it is good Ingersoll, , G. B. Shaw, and H. A. L. Fisher to do so. Solarin has fed the poor with food and the fused to become the rock bottom of my life today. "I shall ignorant with knowledge. He has clothed the naked. die, as I have lived," said H. G. Wells, "the responsible centre He has suffered personal deprivations for the freedom of my world." of others... . FI: What can humanism offer people that religion cannot? And what kinds of weaknesses can be found in religion that —Adebayo Akerele in The Guardian, cannot be found in humanism? September 5, 1992. SOLARIN: Complete faith in one's self. You are never a leaner. You are forever self-reliant. The religious man is Janus- headed. He is two in one. He professes what he doesn't believe. The school headmaster is the immediate school leader. Nigeria is dying today of religion—outrageous religious beliefs. Behind him is the Parent/ Teacher's Association—a militant FI: How many famous humanists in Nigerian history do hard-working group. The Board of Governors, a grandiose you know of, and do you know of any who are alive today? body famous as an impotent body, lingers on. As in the case SOLARIN: I know of none. Even some Nigerians of my of the Parent/ Teacher's Association, its members are age-group whom I have known for sixty years say in my volunteers, but because the children are not necessarily in presence that I am not a humanist/atheist: that I am only the school they govern it is a lifeless institution. The goverment being branded, being given a bad name to accelerate my knows I am never in sympathy with decorative establishments hanging! Every Nigerian is born saddled with a god to worship. and does not ask questions dealing with posting of teachers, It took me almost thirty years to get the sledgehammer to grading them, and fixing their salaries. break the shackle around my mind. It took Bertrand Russell FI: In America, many people say, "When God was taken only sixteen years and two weeks to liberate himself. out of the schools, the schools went to hell." These FI: How many Nigerian atheists do not wish to make their fundamentalists charge secularism and a removal of organized atheism known to the public? prayer from the schools with the destruction of the U.S. public SOLARIN: Almost 100 percent. Even where humanists feebly school system. Have similar charges ever been leveled against say so, but are not vociferous about it, families and friends your school? would like to see them buried as religionists, just in case! SOLARIN: Nigerians say, "Education without religion is like My friend professor Ayodele Awojobi was a humanist, a cup of tea without sugar." I hit back by saying it is a wrong but he was not, like myself, a loud proclaimer of his humanism. analogy. The Chinese who gave tea to the world do not drink He was buried at forty-seven, as a Christian. I am going to it with sugar. I tell them that morality has nothing to do be the first Nigerian to be buried without prayers, church with religion. All knowledgeable Nigerians know I am not intervention, or pious priests around. I would prefer cremation religious, but they believe I am honest. Morals Without but even a Mayflower graduate would not give me one! The Religion by Margaret Knight is one of my favorite books. part of my will on my disposition will be published by all All employers who have ex-Mayflower students as employees Nigerian papers to leave no doubts anywhere. are generally surprised at the degree of honesty they see in FI: How is humanism treated in Nigerian media, if it is these young Nigerians who are nurtured by the truth of covered at all? humanism. SOLARIN: Humanism does not have a place in our media.

Winter 1993/94 39 No one mentions atheism or humanism unless he or she is is shorn of the equipment that is strongest in the armor of talking or writing about Tai Solarin. the humanist—courage. Strip the African of all objects of FI: Throughout your life you have been heavily and his fears and he will be as courageous as any other man across courageously involved in activism. Which causes have you the world. Inject education into his or her life and you have taken up, and what kind of resistance did you receive from led him or her halfway up the ladder of humanism. The most government authorities? significant aspect of humanism that would, I think, appeal SOLARIN: I have stood, almost exclusively, for free, to the African most is the knowledge that his or her prosperity universal, and compulsory education for all children, to the or wealth is none of the business of anybody outside himself end of high school. More able ones would ascend with or or herself; that we can become whatever we choose to be. without the springboard of parents, philanthropists, and My friends tell me it is God who makes me successful governments. I have also stood for social justice. in my work. When I tell them I share in the responsibility Military governments everywhere in Africa react badly to of feeding, in his old age, a clergyman who preached sermons criticism. The longest detention I ever had was for seventeen all his life, would they tell me why it was not he feeding months (1984-1985) when I suggested that the military me? They have no answer, but hold on, all the same, to their government then in power should not last more than three time-honored beliefs. to six months. FI: Is it likely that humanism will ever become a popular FI: Have your atheistic views ever landed you in trouble stance in Nigeria? with the government authorities? SOLARIN: Yes. Humanism is not a digestible menu for the SOLARIN: No, although I'm sure they have not gone illiterate; only the educated could be humanists. Literacy in unnoticed. Mayflower School is the only school in Nigeria Nigeria touches only 25 percent of the people. If there is 5 where the student is not taught religion, Christian or Muslim, percent illiteracy in America, not a single one in that percentage and does not sing or pray to the deities at the beginning is a humanist. Let Nigeria climb to 60 percent literacy, and or end of any day. humanism will be seen marching jauntily on in colossal FI: What are some of your thoughts on the nineteenth- numbers. century freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll, and what influence But forces against broadening of the base of literacy in did he have on your thinking? Nigeria are formidable. Governments in the Third World do SOLARIN: He gave me the courage to stand on my feet not like the masses of the people being educated. and declare my 'stand on issues where for years I was too FI: Many blacks maintain that religion is absolutely afraid to air my doubts. He tore off the dingy curtains across necessary for the survival of the black community. They note my mind's eye, and let me stand, unafraid, to wend my way that in America, for example, religious leaders like Nat Turner through life. and Martin Luther King, Jr., used religion to unify and inspire FI: How can humanism improve the quality of life on black people to positive action. They also note that black the African continent? religion has produced many black colleges and other important SOLARIN: It will do for every individual what it has done institutions, and that a firm belief in God actually helped for me. The first great thing humanism does, I think, to many blacks through difficult times. What are your responses humanity is to make individuals appreciate being master and to these contentions? captain of their fate. SOLARIN: The blacks hold onto their God just as the FI: Do you think there should be a concerted effort to drunken man holds on to the street lamp post—for physical attract blacks to humanism, as is being done with African support only. Habit is difficult, but not impossible to break. Americans for Humanism, or do you believe that humanism "The Jews hold to the hard core of national separatism, in attracts all people for the same reasons? spite of the steady evaporation of every traditional, religious SOLARIN: The former is the only way out. The Africa- justification," is the way H. G. Wells looked at the Jews. based African is born in fear and shackled in fear. He has Remove the Israel/ Palestine wars in the Middle East and to be wakened from his apparent state of stupor or there will be no religious rallying force among the Jews. somnambulism by tossing him into the night he fears, holding Religion is man's childish prop. aloft the light of humanism for him to see with. When I was five or so, I made a journey of forty miles FI: Why do you believe that so few Africans are humanists, with my mother. To make the journey, mother gave me a and what needs to be done to make humanism better known "bicycle." The "bicycle" for any child of my childhood is the in Nigeria? What aspects of humanism would appeal to wheel of a bicycle which the child ran along the road. For Africans in particular? the first fifteen miles of the journey I was way ahead of my SOLARIN: So few Africans are humanists because mother. In the last stage of that journey, mother carried my nonhumanists are laden with a burden that humanists have "bicycle" along with our luggage, on her head. Without that shed: fear. Most Africans are taught from birth to fear— "bicycle," I could never have made the journey. Today, I am to fear daylight, life, death. Witches, angels, the Devil or Satan, able to look back to discover that I had actually carried myself thunder, lightning, nocturnal birds are all objects that generate and the "bicycle" as well. fear. The African child is brought up not to ask questions. FI: Many Afrocentric thinkers believe that humanism and Precocious children are silenced. Any human being so shackled atheism are "un-African" or possibly detrimental to the African

40 FREE INQUIRY

psyche and to African unity and progress. What are your this kind of videotaping ever happen in Nigeria, and if not, views on this? why not? SOLARIN: Humanism and atheism develop in the mind of SOLARIN: It cannot happen in Nigeria unless it were man, not for a special breed of homo sapiens, but for humanity, distantly done by an operator with a powerful camera. If just as the wheel has been invented, not for whatever race they noticed, the police would descend on the cameraman, invented it, but for humans everywhere. Whatever are branded destroy his camera, and, perhaps, kill him. "un-African," "for the Aryan races" are epithets for cheating. FI: You expressed interest in starting a humanist library. FI: What do you believe accounts for the deep spirituality What kinds of publications would you like to include? of many Africans? SOLARIN: Robert Ingersoll is so easy to read. I would want SOLARIN: It is their long exposure to spirituality. Take light reading materials by humanist and atheist writers. Also a black African child at birth to live with the Eskimos. He Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian; Margaret would grow up completely donning the attitude of his cultural Knight's Worlds Without Religion; Thomas Paine's Age of background. Nurture is mightier than nature. Reason; George Orwell's Animal Farm, and biographical FI: Many writers maintain that escalating violence between books. Muslims and Christians could possibly lead to another civil FI: Please feel free to express any final thoughts you might war in Nigeria. Is this possible? have on humanism, religion, and the Mayflower School. SOLARIN: Yes. Every succeeding day aggravates the SOLARIN: Even though I never during my twenty years situation. And relations abroad between these two religions, as headmaster of Mayflower School sat the students down or between Catholic and other denominations succinctly to soak them in humanism, they all knew my stand. If an points, at least for Nigeria, to the inevitability of confron- expected rain fell on a Saturday, the students knew that the tation. following Sunday morning would find us planting maize on FI: How influential is traditional religion—especially juju— the field instead of attending the community gathering, secular in Nigeria? though this assembly is. I have heard chuckles from students SOLARIN: Very influential. The more religious a person is, when, occasionally, a visitor gave a word of prayer for the the more, generally, is his predisposition toward belief in juju. good work we were doing. "Lloyd George Loved my Father," FI: In the United States recently there have been legal later became "Awo Loved my Father" lustily sung to the tune cases involving videotaped actions (for example, the beating of "Onward Christian Soldiers" by our students, to the shock of motorist Rodney King by four Los Angeles cops). Could of, generally, new students or visitors. • Introduce someone to FREE INQUIRY Don't forget a subscription to FREE INQUIRY, for friends, relatives, or your local library. A gift card will be sent in your name.

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Winter 1993/94 41 `Ivan' Revisited: Was John Demjanjuk `Innocent'?

Joe Nickell was commissioned by the family of John Demjanjuk to prove his innocence, but his investigation led him to the conclusion that he was guilty. Nickell's first article on the subject appeared in the Summer 1989 FREE INQUIRY.—EDS.

Joe Nickell

van "John" Demjanjuk—accused of being the notorious Any brutal guard named Ivan would be called Ivan the Nazi death-camp guard "Ivan the Terrible"—has been Terrible.; acquitted by the Israeli Supreme Court and allowed to return to the United States. But has justice been served? Is Indeed, as Treblinka survivor Yehiel Reichman testified at Demjanjuk an "innocent" man, as right-wing columnist Demjanjuk's trial, Demjanjuk's defense attorneys argued that Patrick Buchanan insists,' or an unrepentant Nazi, having there were no fewer than six Ivans at Treblinka, where the a final laugh at those on whom he had helped inflict the Ivan, dubbed "Ivan Grozny" (i.e., "Ivan the Terrible'), was Final Solution? stationed. Some said Ivan Grozny was a ranking officer, others The search for an answer begins in Poland, east of Warsaw, that he was a train driver or watchtower guard. The greatest where the Nazis operated a group of extermination camps— number, though, said he was the sadistic guard who operated Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor—together with an S.S. facility, the gas-chamber motor and who took delight in hacking off Trawniki, where death-camp guards were trained. Most of an ear or breast, or splitting skulls with an iron pipe that the guards were Ukrainian prisoners of war who volunteered he brandished.4 for the grisly work. One such member of the Trawniki unit Not only were there many Ivans, but Demjanjuk's defense was a brawny twenty-two-year-old motor mechanic and driver attorney attempted to make a case that a Nazi criminal named named Ivan Demjanjuk.2 Alfred Bilitz had been at Treblinka from June 1942 to There were, however, various men named Ivan in the unit September 1943, had committed acts like those eyewitnesses and they were shifted from camp to camp. As Harvard law attributed to Ivan the Terrible, and was even called "Ivan." professor Alan Dershowitz explains: To the Jews forced to work at Treblinka the true names of the various Ivans would not have been known, and in their Back in 1987, after attending several sessions of the Demjanjuk similar uniforms many of the Ukrainians may have looked trial in Jerusalem, I publicly stated that I would not be alike. A further difficulty stems from the fact that the so- surprised if there were several Ivan the Terribles at Treblinka. called work-Jews at Treblinka Most of the guards at Treblinka were Ukrainians, and Ivan— were not permitted to look Ukranian for John—is the most common Ukranian name. into Ivan's eyes; to do so was to have one's skull smashed by his iron pipe.5 Joe Nickell, Ph. D., is on the faculty of the University of In the case of Demjanjuk, what is known is that he lied Kentucky. A former investigator for an internationally known about his Nazi past upon immigrating to the United States detective agency, Nickell is perhaps best known for his first and repeatedly gave what the Associated Press termed book, Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1983), which exposed "contradictions in his testimony about his whereabouts during the shroud as a medieval forgery and correctly predicted the the war."6 Said an American judge who, on June 30, 1993, upheld Demjanjuk's 1986 deportation from the United States: cloth's radiocarbon date. He is author of several additional books, including an acclaimed reference work on historical Mr. Demjanjuk's alibi was so incredible as to legitimately document study (Pen, Ink & Evidence, 1990); a treatise on raise the suspicions of his prosecutors that he lied about historical mysteries (Ambrose Bierce Is Missing, 1992); and everything—including his denial that he was Ivan the Terrible. an investigators' handbook (Missing Pieces, co-authored with The principal effect of this lie ... was merely to confirm psychologist Robert A. Baker, 1992). Nickell's investigative the prosecutors' suspicions that they were on the right track.? work has also been published in The Journal of Police Science and Administration and numerous other periodicals, In addition, captured Nazi files in the Soviet Union's archives anthologies, and encyclopedias. yielded an incriminating identity card—a service pass issued by the Trawniki camp. Made out to Ivan Demjanjuk, serial

42 FREE INQUIRY no. 1393, it bore a photograph conclusively established by forensic experts as that of Demjanjuk. (This evidence was discussed at length in the article I co-authored with forensic analyst John F. Fischer in the Summer 1989 FREE INQUIRY. We had been asked by Demjanjuk's family to prove the identity card a forgery; instead, we found further evidence of its authenticity and positively identified its photo as that of John Demjanjuk)8. German National Archives also yielded separate documents (discovered after Demjanjuk's 1987-88 trial in Israel) further identifying Demjanjuk as a concentration camp guard—posted to the Flossenberg camp in Germany—and giving his serial number as 1393. From Flossenburg, Demjanjuk was posted to the Regensburg camp.9 A fellow guard named Ignat Danylchenko positively identified Demjanjuk as one who served with him for a time at the Sobibor death camp where he was known as "Ivan the Bloody."10 According to Danylchenko (who has since died), Demjanjuk "participated in the mass killing of Jews" Courtesy of AP/Wide World Photos at Sobibor and was also dispatched from there on various assignments." Demjanjuk's presence at Sobibor is verified by interrogated by the Soviet KGB then tried and convicted of his Trawniki service pass, as well as a transfer list from war crimes—all claimed that Ivan the Terrible was a Ukrainian Trawniki.12 The service pass also shows Demjanjuk having named Ivan Marchenko (or Marshenko). been earlier assigned to a Nazi work farm, L. G. Okzow, But even this evidence proved to be less certain than it and in 1944 he served in the so-called Russian Army of first appeared. A snapshot in one of the Soviet case files Liberation, another Nazi unit.13 depicted two of the Treblinka Ivans, one of whom was said Finally, further evidence of Demjanjuk's S.S. service to be Ivan Marchenko, but he did not match contemporary emerged during cross-examination at his trial. He was asked descriptions of Ivan the Terrible as Demjanjuk did. (For about a tattoo he had received that identified him as an S.S. example whereas Ivan the Terrible was described as age twenty- soldier. He could not explain why he had received such a two or twenty-three, with light-colored eyes, "dark blond" tattoo, but he admitted that he had removed it when he learned hair that was balding early—a description that tallies with it signified the S.S.14 John Demjanjuk—the man identified as Ivan Marchenko was But was Demjanjuk at Treblinka? Five Treblinka survivors reportedly almost ten years older, had dark "full-brown eyes" ultimately testified to that certainty. Although eyewitnesses and a full head of black hair.)17 may well be mistaken, in this case the initial identifications To further complicate matters, there is the identification were credibly made from an extensive "photospread," an by a Polish villager, Kazimierz Dudek. As Tom Teicholz album containing numerous photographs. Some of the reports in his The Trial of Ivan the Terrible (1990): "Dudek witnesses also correctly identified another Treblinka guard, explained that he lived in the nearby village of Wolga Okralnik Fedor Fedorenko, who admitted having served at Treblinka. where he ran a tavern Ivan visited regularly. He, too, said In addition to the survivors, a man named Otto Horn, who the gas-chamber operator's name was known to be Ivan supervised the incineration of bodies at Treblinka, also Marshenko. But there was an interesting addendum. The police identified Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible.ls then placed eight pictures of Ukrainian guards before him. On the other hand, the Trawniki service pass did not list He pointed to Demjanjuk's Trawniki photo and positively Treblinka among Demjanjuk's postings. Although this identified it as Ivan Marshenko, the one who was known negative evidence was touted by Demjanjuk's defenders (many as Ivan the Terrible."18 of whom were "Holocaust revisionists" and other Nazi Moreover, Demjanjuk once gave the name of Marchenko apologists), the fact is that at Demjanjuk's trial the prosecution as the maiden name of his mother on a 1948 visa application produced various other Trawniki identification cards and form. According to Israeli prosecutor Michael Shaked, "When paybooks of persons whose known Treblinka postings were we questioned him [Demjanjuk] on this later, we got the not listed. Indeed, some service passes had incomplete postings impression that he instinctively felt that a connection with or lacked postings entirely. The prosecution theorized that this name could be dangerous for him."19 Demjanjuk had been assigned to Treblinka, then sent Nevertheless, on July 29, 1993, five Israeli Supreme Court intermittently (as the postings indicated) to Okzow and justices who had weighed the old and new evidence ordered Sobibor.16 Demjanjuk set free. They explained that his identification as After Demjanjuk's trial, at which he was sentenced to death, Ivan the Terrible could no longer be proved beyond a new evidence came to light. It consisted of twenty-one reasonable doubt, but they also emphasized they were statements by former Treblinka guards. These men— convinced Demjanjuk had belonged to the Trawniki unit

Winter 1993/94 43 whose mission was to exterminate Jews.20 After rejecting Terrible (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990). appeals for Demjanjuk to be retried for other war crimes— 3. Alan Dershowitz, "Candidate Buchanan Picks an 0dd `Hero' to a decision that provoked outrage from Holocaust survivors Champion," Rocky Mt. News, 0ct. 22, 1991; Teicholz, 158. 4. Teicholz, 29, 120, 277, 278; Nickell, "Hidden Identity," 40. and a threat by the ultra-nationalist Kach movement to kill 5. Teicholz, 11, 121, 207; Alan Ryan, Jr., Quiet Neighbors: Prosecuting him—Demjanjuk was returned to the United States. Nazi War Criminals in America (New York: Harcourt, 1984), 101. Permission for him to return was granted by an appellate 6. "Defense Witnesses `Self-Destruct,' Weakening 'Ivan the Terrible' Case," Louisville Courier-Journal, Aug. 24, 1987. court so that he could help with an appeal of his extradition.2 i 7. "Deportation Upheld for Man Convicted of Nazi War Crimes," However, Attorney General Janet Reno has promised to fight Lexington, Ky., Lexington Herald-Leader, July 1, 1993. "to uphold court orders denaturalizing and deporting Mr. 8. Teicholz, 172-177; Nickell, 43-48. 9. "Files Called Shattering to Demjanjuk's Case," Lexington Herald- Demjanjuk. "22 Leader, Dec. 27, 1991; "New Records Dispute Demjanjuk's Alibi," ibid., Jan. 16, 1992. 10. Dershowitz (see n. 3). t is clear that Ivan Demjanjuk was one of Trawniki's roving 1 I. Teicholz, 278-281. IIvan the Terribles. At the very least—even if one does not 12. Buchanan, "Demjanjuk: Unfinished Case." accept the evidence that he was among the Ivans at Treblinka— 13. Teicholz, 169. The commander of Demjanjuk's R0A unit testified at his trial; see "J'accuse," London Sunday Telegraph, Dec. 13, 1987. he was certainly Ivan the Bloody of Sobibor. With him showing 14. Teicholz, 221-222. not a hint of contrition, or even admission of guilt, the best 15. Ryan, 105; Teicholz, 21-22, 26-31, 57, 192-195. that could be said in his defense is that he is innocent of 16. Teicholz, 169, 272. killing Jews at one death camp because he was killing Jews 17. Ibid., 11-12, 127, 142, 193; cf. "Possible `Ivan' Last Seen in a Fiume Brothel in 1945," Louisville, Ky., The Courier-Journal, July 30, 1993; at another. Jackson Diehl, "Soviet Documents Put Conviction of John Demjanjuk in Question," ibid., Nov. 17, 1991. 0f course, there were discrepancies between the various descriptions. Notes 18. Teicholz, 306. 19. Ibid. "Appeals Court Reopens Convicted Nazi's Extradition Case," 1. Patrick J. Buchanan, "Demjanjuk: Unfinished Case," New York Post, Lexington Herald-Leader, June 6, 1962. Aug. 4, 1993. 20. "U.S. Doesn't want `Ivan' Suspect," Lexington Herald-Leader, July 2. Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer, "Mechanic of Death: The Case 30, 1993. of Ivan the Terrible," FREE INQUIRY, Summer 1989, reprinted as "Hidden 21. "Demjanjuk Can Leave Israel, Judge Says," Lexington Herald- Identity: Unmasking a Nazi Monster," Chap. 4 of Joe Nickell, Ambrose Leader, September 20, 1993; "Demjanjuk's Bid to Return to U.S. Won't Bierce Is Missing and Other Historical Mysteries (Lexington, Ky.: Univ. Face Justice Department Fight," September 2, 1993. Press of Kentucky, 1992), 35-52. Tom Teicholz, The Trial of Ivan the 22. "Demjanjuk's Bid...." •

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Fall 1993, Vol. 13, no. 4 - More on the 'Incredible Discovery of Noah's tary Euthanasia, D. C. Saunders; Hemlock Founder Humphry on Hospice, Ark,' G. Larue; Should Secular Humanists Celebrate the Rites of Passage? D. Humphry; The World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, J. Davies; P. Kurtz, M. Matsumura, G. Rowell, R. J. Goss, V. Muhrer, O. Bourlin, Crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention, J. Barnhart; How We Got the G. Stein, W. A. Smith, T J. Madigan, T. Flynn, N. R. Allen, Jr., S. F. Bible Belt, J. Hill; Unbuckling the Southern Baptist Bible-Belt, W. A. Gottlieb, S. Nilsen; The Causes of Homosexuality, V. & B. Bullough; Jane Brinkley; Fl Interview: Church and State in Poland and Hungary; Reopening Addams, M. Bush; The Unkindest Cut of All, R. G. Davis. the American Mind: Alternatives to Relativism and Positivism, M. Chiariello. Summer 1993, Vol. 13, no. 3 - Is Religion a Form of Insanity? V. L. Fall 1991, Vol. 11, no. 4 - Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death Bullough, J. A. 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Bernard; The Creationist Theory of Abrupt Appearances: A Critique, Before? M. Rothman; The Face of Chaos, V. J. Stenger; Pseudo-Creation A. N. Strahler; The Case for a New American Pragmatism, T. Z. Lavine; of the Big Bang; A. Grünbaum. Remembering John Dewey: America's Freedom of Thought and Religion in Bangladesh, A. B. M. Patwari. Leading Humanist Philosopher, P. Kurtz; The Dewey Center and The Spring 1991, Vol. 11, no. 2 - The Unitarian Universalist Association, Collected Works of John Dewey, J. A. Boydston; John Dewey and A P. Kurtz and V. Bullough; Upholding the Wall of Separation, A. Dershowitr Common Faith, T J. Madigan; For All Its Children, N. Noddings; Dewey's Scientific Humanism and Religion, E. O. Wilson; Christianity: The Cultural Commitment to Science and Democracy, P. D. Hutcheon; Dewey's Chameleon, W. Walters; From Sin to Science: Tolerance of Homosexuality, Contribution to the Theory of Valuation; B. Dziemidok; Dewey and the J. 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La Ferla; Religion and Secularization Under Perestroika in the USSR, Values': Is the Family in Crisis? V. and B. Bullough; The Family in Transition, L. W. Mitrokhin; Levi Fragell on Humanism in Norway (interview); Why A. Picchioni; Shocking New Testament Views of the Family, J. Barnhart; I Am Not a Fundamentalist, S. Porteous; The Natural History of Altruism, The Black Family, C. W. Faulkner; Coping with the Methuselah Syndrome, M. Hunt. M. A. Barnhart; In Defense of Secular Humanism, A. Grünbaum; The Fall 1990, Vol. 10, no. 4 - Fulfilling Feminist Ideals: A New Agenda. Candidate Without a Prayer, A. Silverman; Why I Am Not a Muslim, Feminism and Humanism, J. K. Taylor; New Hope for Women, E. Johnson; 1. Warraq; 'Star Trek': Humanism of the Future, K Marsalek. Fanny Wright: "Free Enquirer," L. Porter; Feminist Spirituality as a Path Summer 1992, Vol. 12, no. 3 - Will Secularism Survive? A. Ellis, C. W. to Humanism, L. Frankel;; Spiritual Values and "The Goddess," V. 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MacCready; Moral Education: Homo Sapiens or Homo Religiosus? MacCready; Testament of a Humanist, A. Ellis; Psychology of the Bible- W. Waiters; How to Raise an Entrepreneur, R. Hiser; Eupraxophy: The Believer, E. Cohen; Biblical Arguments for Slavery, M. Smith; The Case Need to Build Secular Humanist Centers, P. Kurtz; Neglected Reasons for Against Reincarnation (Part 3), P. Edwards. Eschewing Public-School Prayers, R. J. Hoffmann; Religion in the Public Winter 1986/87, Vol. 7, no. 1 - The New Inquisition in the Schools, Schools? D. McKown. P. Kunz; Naturalistic Humanism, C. Lamont; God and Morality, S. Hook; Fall 1989, Vol. 9, no. 4 - New Gods for Old: In Defense of Libertarianism, Anti-Abortion and Religion, B. McCollister; A Positive Humanist Statement R. W. Bradford; The End of the Secular Century, M. N. Rothbard;• Building on Sexual Morality, R. Francoeur; Unbelief in The , R. Tielman; Bridges to the Right: Libertarians, Conservatives, and Humanists, E. Hud- Dutch Humanism, G. C. Soeters; Belief and Unbelief in , M. Mendez- gins; Making a Case for Socialism, K. Nielsen; Liberty and Acosta; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 2), P. Edwards. Democracy, or Socialism? A. Flew; Humanism and Socialism, R. Schmitt; Fall 1986, Vol. 6, no. 4 - New Secular Humanist Centers, P. Kunz; The Socialism is Incompatible with Humanism, R. Sheaffer; Militant Atheism Need for Friendship Centers, V. Bullough; Toward New Humanist Versus Freedom of Conscience, P. Kurtz; The Pseudo-Problem of Creation 0rganizations, B. Wisne; Are Past-Life Regressions Evidence for Rein- in Physical Cosmology, A. Grünbaum. carnation? M. Harris; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 1), P. Edwards; Summer 1989, Vol. 9, no. 3 - Interview with Sidney Hook on the Future Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France, J. Bous- of Marxism, T. Machan; The Case of "Ivan the Terrible," J. Nickell and sinesq; More on Faith-Healing, G. Larue, J. Randi, D. Alexander; Richard J. F. Fischer; Don't Call Me Brother, A. Miles with E. D. Cohen; Humanism Roberts's Healing Crusade, H. Gordon. in the Black Community, N. Allen; The Marriage of Church and State Summer 1986, Vol. 6, no. 3 - Special Issue: The Shocking Truth About in Ireland, W. M. Grossman; Separation of Church and State in Western Faith-Healing. Deceit in the Name of God, P. Kunz; Peter Popoff's Ministry, Europe, O. Andrysek; Abortion or Adoption? The Moral Case Examined, J. Randi, S. Schafersman, R. Steiner; W. V. Grant's Faith-Healing Act P. Kurtz. Revisited, P. Kurtz; Further Reflections on Ernest Angley, W McMahon, Spring 1989, Vol. 9, no. 2 - Can We Achieve Immortality? C. Kahn; A J. Griffis; Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson's 0rganiza- Humanist Looks at Cryonics, S. B. Harris; Eating the Forbidden Fruit, tion, G. Straub; Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Religious Skepticism in P. Kunz; Scientific Knowledge, Moral Knowledge: Is There Any Need for Latin America, J. Gracia; Science, Technology, and Ideology in the Hispanic Faith? B. Davis; The Inseparability of Logic and Ethics, J. Corcoran; A World, M. Bunge. Theory of Cooperation, L Felkins; Humanism and Morality, T Flynn, Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2 - Special Issue: Faith-Healing-Miracle or Fraud? T. Franczyk, T Madigan; Glossolalia, M. Gardner; Abortion in Historical The Need for Investigation, P. Kurtz; "Be Healed in the Name of God!" Perspective, V. and B. Bullough. J. Randi; A Medical Anthropologist's View of American Shamans, P. Singer; Winter 1988/89, Vol. 9, no. 1-The Time Is Now, G. Larue; Active Voluntary 0n the Relative Sincerity of Faith-Healers, J. E. Barnhart; Does Faith- Euthanasia, D. Humphry; The California Humane and Dignified Death Healing Work? P. Kurtz; God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, T. Flynn; Act, R. L. Risky; Euthanasia and the Doctor, H. Kuhse; Euthanasia in The Effect of Intelligence on U.S. Religious Faith, B. Beckwith. The Netherlands, P. Admiraal; The Struggle for Abortion Rights in Canada, Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. 1 - Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a H. Morgentaler; AIDS and the Twenty-First Century, M. Krim; Tim Religion? The Religion of Secular Humanism, P. Beattie; Residual Reli- Madigan Interviews Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows. gion, J. Fletcher; Pluralistic Humanism, S. Hook; 0n the Misuse of Fall 1988, Vol. 8 no. 4 - A Declaration of Interdependence: A New Global Language, P. Kurtz; The Habit of Reason, B. Blanshard; An Interview Ethics; Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Faith Without Frontiers, J. M. with Adolf Grünbaum; Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Human- Allegro; Perestroika and Humanism in China, P. Kunz; Japanese Secu- ism, P. Kunz; Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas? T Flynn. larism: A Reexamination, K. K. Inada; Unity and Dissension in Islam, Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4 - Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, A. Ellis; A. H. Raoof,• Christian Soldiers March on Latin America, M. Collett; Grünbaum on Freud, F. Sulloway; Philosophy of Science and Psycho- Misconceptions About Secular Humanism, T. Madigan; analysis, M. Ruse; The Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Interviews the Reverend Billy Graham. Looking Backward, L. Nisbet; New Testament Scholarship and Christian Summer 1988, Vol. 8, no. 3 - Symposium: Entering 0ur New World- Belief, V. Harvey; The Winter Solstice and the 0rigins of Christmas, Humanism in the Twenty-First Century, G. Allen, B. Bullough, L. Carter. V. Bullough, M. Bunge, J. Delgado, A. Ellis, R. Fairfield, A. Flew, Summer 1985, Vol. 5, no. 3 - Finding Common Ground Between Believers L. Fragell, Y. Galifret, H. Hauptman, L. Kirkendall, M. Kohl, P. Kunz, and Unbelievers, P. Kunz; Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are Jesus', L. Kuhmerker, R. Lindsay, D. McKown, L. Mondale, J. Money, H. Morgen- R. Alley; Jesus in Time and Space, G. Larue; Interview with Sidney Hook taler, J. C. Pecker, H. Radest, R. Rimmer, S. Stojanovic, H. Scopes-Roe, on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom; Evangelical Agnosticism, R. Taylor, E. O. Wilson. W. H. Young; To Refuse to Be a God, K. Arisian; The Legacy of Voltaire Spring 1988, Vol. 8, no. 2 - The First Easter, J. K. Naland;• Is Religiosity (Part 2), P. Edwards. Pathological? A. Ellis; Is Belief in the Supernatural Inevitable? W. S. Spring 1985, Vol. 5, no. 2 - Update on the Shroud of Turin, J. Nickell; Bainbridge; The Narcissistic Guru, R. O. Clarke; Israel's 0rthodox Jews: The Vatican's View of Sex, R. Francoeur; An Interview with E. 0. Wilson, The New Holy War, U. Hupperl; An Interview with Sherwin Wine; The J. Saver; - Parapsychology: The "Spiritual" Science, J. Alcock; Science, Threat of Israel's Religious Right, T. Flynn; A Tale of Two Secular Religion and the Paranormal, J. Beloff,• The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 1), Humanisms: The Alabama Textbook Case, R. D. Eliason; The Resurrection P. Edwards; The 0rigins of Christianity, R. J. Hoffmann. Debate, F. T Miosi. Winter 1984/85, Vol. 5, no. 1 - Are American Educational Reforms Winter 1987/88, Vol. 8, no. 1-Voices of Dissent within the Catholic Church, Doomed? D. McKown; The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, F. X. Winters; Humanism, Religion, and Authority, D. C. Maguire; The L. Randle; The Watchtower, L. Lage; Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in Vatican and the Catholic Couple, R. Francoeur; Catholicism and Change, the Management of Wild Herds, G. Hardin; Animal Rights Re-evaluated, R. Basil; Eupraxophy: Breaking with the 0ld Humanism, P. Kurtz; The J. Simpson; Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, E. Jervey; Humanism Is Humanist Identity, L. Fragell; God and the Holocaust, A. Grünbaum; a Religion, A. Bahm; Humanism Is a Philosophy, T. Vernon; Humanism: Psychic Astronomy, M. Gardner. An Affirmation of Life, A. Bacard. Fall 1987, Vol. 7, no. 4 - Special Issue: Fundamentalist Christian Schools- Fall 1984, Vol. 4, no. 4 - Point/Counterpoint, P. Schlafly and S. Gordon; A National Scandal. The Truth and Consequences of Fundamentalist Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, K. Saladin; Suppression and Cen- Christian Schooling, A. Peshkin; Reading, Writing, and Religion, M. B. sorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, D. Hackleman; Who Profits Gehrman; Children Are Not Chattel, K. Collins; Selections from from the Prophet? W. Rea; Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Fundamentalist School Textbooks; Is the Sexual Revolution 0ver? P. Kunz, J. Allegro; Health Superstition, R. P. Doyle; Humanism in Africa: Paradox R. Tielman, and S. Gordon; Peter Popoff's Broken Window, D. Alexander; and Illusion, P. Kunz; Humanism in , D. Sergeant. Human and World Care, B. Spock; Argument Without End, M. Ruse. Summer 1984, Vol. 4, no. 3 - Special Issue: School Prayer, P. Kurtz, Summer 1987, Vol. 7, no. 3 - Japan and Biblical Religion, R. Ruben- R. Lindsay, P. Buchanan, M. Twain; Science vs. Religion in Future stein; Was the Universe Created? V. Stenger; Science-Fantasy Religious Cults, Constitutional Conflicts, D. McKown; God and the Professors, S. Hook; M. Gardner; The Relativity of Biblical Ethics, J. E. Barnhart; The Case Armageddon and Biblical Apocalypic, P. Kurtz, J. E. Barnhart, V. Bullough, Against Reincarnation (Part 4), P. Edwards; Personal Paths to Humanism: R. Helms, G. Larue, J. Priest, J. Robinson, R. Alley; Is the U.S. Humanist (Continued on next page.) Movement in a State of Collapse? J. Dart. Infidel, J. Frieman; Humanism and Politics, J. Simpson, L. Briskman; Spring 1984, Vol. 4, no. 2 - Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Humanism and the Politics of Nostalgia, P. Kurtz; Abortion and Morality, Protection for Children, R. Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultrafunda- R. Taylor. mentalist Cults and Sects, L. Streiker; The Foundations of Religious Liberty Summer 1982 Vol. 2, no. 3 - Special Issue: A Symposium on Science, and Democracy, C. Henry, P. Kurtz, E. Fortin, L. Nisbet, J. Fletcher, the Bible, and Darwin. The Bible Re-examined, R. Alley, G. Larue, J. Priest, R. Taylor; Biblical Views of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? J. J. W. Baker; R. Helms; Darwin, Evolution, and , P. Appleman, W. Mayer, Moral Absolutes and Foreign Policy, N. Capaldi; The Vatican Ambassador, C. Cazeau, H. J. Birx, G. Hardin, S. Tax, A. Flew; Ethics and Religion, E. Doerr, A Naturalistic Basis for Morality, J. Kekes; Humanist Self- J. Fletcher, R. Taylor, K. Nielsen, P. Beanie; Science and Religion, M. Portraits, M. I. Spetter, F. Matson, R. Kostelanetz. Novak, J. Blau. Winter 1983/84, Vol. 4, no. 1 - Interview with B. F. Skinner; Was George Spring 1982, Vol. 2, no. 2 - A Call for the Critical Examination of the Orwell a Humanist? A. Flew; Population Control vs. Freedom in China, Bible and Religion; Interview with Asimov on Science and the Bible; V. and B. Bullough; Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist College, The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp; The Erosion of Evolu- L. Ridenhour; Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, G. Smith; tion, A. Flew; The Religion of Secular Humanism: A Judicial Myth, L. The History of Mormonism and Church Authorities: Interview with Sterling Pfeffer; Humanism as an American Heritage, N. Gier; The Nativity Legends, M. McMurrin; Anti-Science: The Irrationalist Vogue of the 1970s, R. Helms; Norman Podhoretz's Neo-Puritanism, L. Nisbet. L. Feuer; The End of the Galilean Cease-Fire? J. Hansen; Who Really Winter 1981/82, Vol. 2, no. 1 - The Importance of Critical Discussion, Killed Goliath? G. Larue; Humanism in Norway: Strategies for Growth, K. Popper; Freedom and Civilization, E. Nagel; Humanism: The Conscience L Fragell. of Humanity, K. Kolenda; Secularism in Islam, N. N. M. Ayubi; Humanism Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4 - The Future of Humanism, P. Kurtz; Humanist in the 1980s, P. Beanie; The Effect of Education on Religious Faith, Self-Portraits, B. Blanshard, B. Wootton, J. Fletcher, R. Firth, J. C. Pecker; B. Beckwith. Interview with Paul MacCready; A Personal Humanist Manifesto, V. Bul- Fall 1981, Vol. 1, no. 4 - The Thunder of Doom, E. Morgan; Secular lough; The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, M. Perry; The Age of Humanists-Threat or Menace? A. Buchwald; Financing of the Repres- Unreason, T. Vernon; Apocalypse Soon, D. Cohen; On the Sesquicentennial sive Right, E. Roeder; Communism and American Intellectuals, S. Hook; of Robert Ingersoll, F. Smith; The Historicity of Jesus, J. Priest, A Symposium on the Future of Religion, D. Bell, J. Fletcher, W. S. D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. Bainbridge, P. Kurtz; Resurrection Fictions, R. Helms. Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3 - Special Issue: Religion in American Politics Summer 1981, Vol. 1, no. 3 - Sex Education, P. Scales, T Szasz; Moral Symposium. Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? P. Kurtz; The First Education, H. Radest; Teenage Pregnancy, V. Bullough; The New Book- Amendment and Religious Liberty, L. Weicker, S. Ervin, L. Pfeffer; Secular Burners, W. Ryan; The Moral Majority, G. Larue; Liberalism, E. Ericson; Roots of the American Political System, H. S. Commager, D. Boorstin, Scientific Creationism, D. McKown; New Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, R. Rutland, R. Morris, M. Novak; The Bible in Politics, G. Larue, J. Nickell; Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham; Science and Religion, R. Alley, J. Robinson; Bibliography for Biblical Study. G. Tomashevich; Secular Humanism in Israel, I. Hasson. Spring 1983, Vol. 3, no. 2 - The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Spring 1981, Vol. 1, no. 2 - The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and R. Alley; Madison's Legacy Endangered, E. Doerr; James Madison's Dream: Con, J. Roche, S. Hook, P. Schley, G. Allen, R. Drummond, L. Nisbet, A Secular Republic, R. Rutland; The Murder of Hypatia of Alexandria, P. Buchanan, P. Kurtz; New England Puritans and the Moral Majority, R. Mohar; Hannah Arendt: The Modern Seer, R. Kostelanetz; Was Karl G. Marshall; The Pope on Sex, V. Bullough; On the Way to Mecca, Marx a Humanist? S. Hook, J. Narveson, P. Kurtz. T Szasz; The Blasphemy Laws, G. Stein; The Meaning of Life, M. Kohl; Winter 1982/83, Vol. 3, no. 1 - Academic Freedom Under Assault in Does God Exist? K. Nielsen; Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, California, B. Singer, N. Hardeman, V. Bullough; The Play Ethic, R. Rimmer; A. Flew; The Madrid Conference, S. Fenichell; Natural Aristocracy, L. Nisbet. Interview with Corliss Lamont; Was Jesus a Magician? M. Smith; Astronomy Winter 1980/81, Vol. 1, no. 1 - Secular Humanist Declaration; Demo- and the "Star of Bethlehem," G. Larue; Living with Deep Truths in a Divided cratic Humanism, S. Hook; Humanism: Secular or Religious? P. Beattie; World, S. Hook; The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, M. Gardner. Free Thought, G. Stein; The Fundamentalist Right, W. Ryan; The Moral Fall 1982, Vol. 2, no. 4 - An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Sidney Majority, S. Gordon; The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, H. J. Birx; Hook-A Personal Portrait, N. Capaldi; The Religion and Biblical Criticism Moral Education, R. Hall; Morality Without Religion, M. Kohl, Research Project, G. Larue; Biblical Criticism and Its Discontents, J. Fletcher; Freedom Is Frightening, R. Fairfield; The Road to Freedom, R. J. Hoffmann; Boswell Confronts Hume: An Encounter with the Great M. Mihajlov. FREE INQUIRY Six-Year Index (Volumes 1-6, 1980-1986) 39 pp. $10.00 (includes postage).

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City State Zip Return to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664 or call toll-free 800-458-1366. FAX charges to: 716-636-1733. domestic duties, Gage became very active in the woman's movement. She spoke in public for the first time in 1852 Matilda Joslyn Gage at the National Women's Rights Con- vention in Syracuse, New York, where Feminist and Secular Humanist she was the youngest speaker on the program. Her voice was soft and her manner not particularly imposing, so she became better known and more valuable to the suffrage movement for her writing Lois K. Porter and organizational skills than her oratory. Always dressed in a feminine Not alone to aid her own enfran- and stylish manner, she did not project chisement—valueless without reli- the usual "image" of a feminist of the gious liberty—but in order to help preserve the very life of the Republic, time. it is imperative that women should Joining the National Woman Suf- unite upon a platform of opposition frage Association (NWSA) at its incep- to the teaching and aim of that ever tion in 1869, Gage was active locally and most unscrupulous enemy of free- nationally in the organization. She con- dom—the Church." tributed to the Revolution newspaper, —Matilda Joslyn Gage and spoke out for Grant against Greeley in the 1872 presidential campaign. atilda Joslyn Gage thus chal- Although she failed in her attempt to Mlenged the woman suffrage move- cast a ballot, she supported Susan B. ment toward the close of the nineteenth Anthony in her court case arising from century to face what she felt was the real Anthony's success in voting in that cause of the oppression of women. In election. In the ensuing years, Gage so doing, she separated herself from served as president of NWSA and the scores of colleagues with whom she had New York Woman Suffrage Association. struggled to gain equality for more than In 1875 she appeared before the United thirty-five years. How did this intellec- States House of Representatives and tual, soft-spoken, delicate woman come Senate hearings on the question of the to take such a strong and lonely stand? vote for women. Gage co-authored with An only child, Matilda was born on Matilda Joslyn Gage Elizabeth Cady Stanton the "Declara- March 24, 1826, in Cicero, New York, tion of Rights" and edited with Stanton to Dr. Hezekiah Joslyn and his wife, For the first fifteen years of her life, and Anthony the first three volumes of Helen Leslie Joslyn. Mrs. Joslyn was the Matilda's only teacher was her father, the History of Woman Suffrage. The youngest daughter of Sir George Leslie, who trained her to think for herself and widely circulated protest of NWSA to and related to the Gregory family famous accept nothing unless accompanied by the men of the United States of July 4, for its mathematicians, astronomers, and proof. She studied Greek, mathematics, 1876, was written by Gage. physicians. Dr. Joslyn was the principal and physiology along with the more When women in New York State were physician in the area, a humanitarian usual subjects, and at the age of fifteen accorded the right to vote upon school and a liberal, advocating abolition, was sent to the Clinton Liberal Institute questions, Gage conducted a vigorous women's rights, and freethought. The for more formal study. campaign for women candidates. The Joslyn home was a gathering place for When she was eighteen, Matilda result of the election was the removal men and women eminent in religion, married a twenty-six-year-old dry goods of several incompetent male officials and science, and philosophy, and was merchant named Henry H. Gage. The the placing in office of a woman trustee, thought to be a stop on the underground couple settled in Fayetteville, New York, a woman clerk, and a woman librarian. railroad for fleeing slaves. Matilda was where she spent the next few years accustomed from an early age to hearing pursuing the usual duties of a wife and nlike many of her contemporaries, abstruse political and religious questions mother. She had four children who UGage was interested in the legal, discussed. survived her and one son who died in economic, educational, and religious infancy. Her health was always delicate aspects of what was known as the Lois Porter is president of the Washing- and at some points in her life she was "woman question," as well as the purely ton, D.C., Area Secular Humanists. actually an invalid. political. As the years passed, she became In spite of her physical frailty and more and more convinced that the

48 FREE INQUIRY teachings of the church were the greatest posed of both Catholics and Protest- common schools. Church aggression obstacle to women's rights and the ants—its aim a union of Church and is the foremost danger of the day. State—were never as great as at the . . . The Church as a church of freedom of human beings in general. whatever name is based on the one From 1878 on, she tried valiantly to present time." The report cited the central idea, supreme control over the convince the NWSA of this view, but National Reform Association, American thought, will and action of mankind. could not persuade the other leaders to Sabbath Union, Women's Christian The National Reform Association is move in this direction. It may be that Temperance Union, resolutions of state a body of Protestants . . . which and national ministerial bodies, bills declares that a written Constitution Stanton, Anthony, and others feared ought to contain explicit evidence of that the vote would never be theirs if before Congress for religious education the Christian character and purpose they dared to openly challenge both in schools, Sunday rest laws, and more. of the nation which frames it. church and state. The Washington Critic of February Finally, convinced that existing soci- 22, 1890, published a lengthy interview The National Reform Association eties for suffrage were not addressing the with Gage in which she stated, "I am sought to change the preamble of the root cause of women's inequality, in 1890 not a secessionist or a traitor to the Constitution to read: "We the people of Gage broke away from the NWSA to suffrage party, for the cause of enfran- the United States recognizing almighty form a more radical organization, which chisement is as dear to my heart as ever God as the source of all power and she called Woman's National Liberal ... I have made my study, and at last authority in Civil Government, and our Union (WNLU). This organization was have been convinced that the stumbling Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler of nations designed to "show the cause of the delay blocks to woman's political enfranchise- and the Bible as the standard to decide in the recognition of woman's demands" ment can only be rolled away by her all moral issues in political life, in order and to oppose the strong moves at the mental and spiritual liberation . . . I to form a Christian Government...." time toward unification of church and regard the Church as the basic principle Gage's language became stronger as of immorality in the world, and the most state. Despite her break with NWSA, she went on. prolific source of pauperism, of crime, Gage was always well thought of by and of injustice to women." Anthony, who wrote to her son, Thomas The light of advancing civilization has Gage's opening speech at the first not yet touched the majority of C. Gage, in 1900, "She has been one of session of the convention, entitled "The Christians; the `Christian Party in the most intensely earnest, true women Dangers of the Hour," was no less Politics' is the 15th century living in we have ever had in our movement. Had the 19th—its members are the heathen strong. In it she declared, she been possessed of a strong consti- of the world whom civilization has not tution ... she would have done more yet touched. Free institutions are jeopardized for the emancipation of women than all because the country is false to its She finished her speech declaring, the rest of us put together. With her principles in the case of one half of feeble health she accomplished its citizens. But back of this falsity wonders." away down to the depths of causes As the battle for political liberty began deep in the hidden darkness of men's here so will that for full religious In 1889 Gage sent out an appeal to minds, must we look for the source liberty end here. The conflict we were women around the country suggesting of this perennial wrong. To a person sure had gone by will again arise; the that a convention be held for the purpose of thought this is easily found in early decisive battle has yet to be fought. of uniting "liberal-suffrage and other religious training. . . . In order to It seems to me that when that hour has passed there will be no more liberal-thought women of the country in secure victory for women we must unfetter the minds of men from church forever, for science and the a national organization." The conven- religious bondage . . . we have spirit of free thought will have des- tion was held at Willard's Hotel in educated men politically, and yet the troyed its very foundations. Washington, D.C., on February 24 and victory is not ours because the teach- 25, 1890. Both men and women from ings of the church have stood in the Other talks during the two-day con- way.... In the old anti-slavery times twenty-seven states responded favorably vention were in a similar vein, but no men did not hesitate to call the to her call. American Church the bulwark of one spoke with the clarity and power The introductory pages of the report American slavery. In like manner of Gage. The two days produced thirteen of the convention indicated that the today we shall proclaim the Church— resolutions, some of which were that organization should "start its existence American, English, Greek, Protestant, church and state be forever kept separ- Catholic—to be the bulwark of wom- upon an entirely different basis, and from ate; that the efforts of the Christian Party an's slavery. its foundation have no hesitancy in to amend the Constitution be resisted; that it was wrong to impose religious pointing out the cause of woman's still- On the subject of the separation of continued political slavery." It stated, church and state, Gage was equally teaching of any kind in public schools; that the right of individual conscience "Existing woman suffrage societies .. . forceful. cater to their worst enemy, the church." and judgment also be claimed by women; Then it went on, "A crisis in the nation's It is the Protestant priesthood now that the first duty of every individual was life is at hand. The encroachments of inciting the bills before Congress to self-development, for women as well as the `Christian Party in Politics,' corn- make religious teaching obligatory in men; that every church was the enemy

Winter 1993/94 49 of liberty and progress, and the first step great increase in its authority to be Gage truly believed that women, by toward woman's emancipation should be brought about by gaining control of demanding political rights, were severing the marriage ceremony and making its freeing her from the church; that the last link between church and state. Christianity was false—its foundation a legitimacy depend upon the services of a priest. This was a material step She further felt that Christianity had myth. towards the subjugation of mankind; been of very little value in advancing one whose dire consequences have not civilization. "The Church and civiliza- That morality is not theology, but has yet received due consideration. When tion are antipodal," she wrote, "one a basis independent of "thou shalt" Rome became a Christian State, and means authority, the other freedom; one and "thou shalt not," that right is right the phallic cross triumphed over the and wrong is wrong, not because any gods ánd goddesses of old, the con- means conservatism, the other progress; being in the universe so declares, but dition of woman under law became one means the rights of God as inter- in the nature of things, the origin of more degraded. preted by the priesthood, the other the right being in truth and not in The reformation proved itself in rights of humanity as interpreted by authority. many ways as restrictive towards humans. Civilization advances by free- woman as Catholicism. The world has thought, free speech, free men." hat happened to the organization, produced no system so thoroughly calculated to extend its own power Gage's amazing book closes with the Whowever, is difficult to know. One and wealth as this vast celibate following statement: does not find it mentioned in connection organization which, under the guise with the suffrage movement, but then, of religion, appealed to man's super- As I look backward through history I see the church everywhere stepping stition, and ruled his will under the it is difficult to find mention of Gage, upon advancing civilization.... Look- assumption of divine authority, the herself, in most histories. ing forward, I see evidence of a conflict family being its chief objective point more severe than any yet fought by She remained president of WNLU of attack. until her death eight years after its reformation or science; a conflict that founding, but spent much of her energy will shake the foundations of religious Gage particularly resented the atti- belief, tear into fragments and scatter writing a book that was published in tude that women needed protection, to the winds the old dogmas upon 1893. This fascinating work, entitled saying, "The most formidable general which all forms of Christianity are Woman, Church and State, was widely based. It will not be the conflict of evil under which woman has suffered man with man upon rites and systems; read and strongly objected to in religious during the Christian ages has been that circles. One can understand why, begin- it will not be the conflict of science of protection; a non-recognition of her upon church theories regarding crea- ning with the introduction: ability to care for herself." She declared tion and eternity; it will not be the that, "The American Revolution in light of biology illuminating the hypothesis of the resurrection of the This book is Inscribed to the memory proclaiming the rights of humanity of my Mother, who was at once body; but it will be the rebellion of mother, sister, friend: struck a blow at the protective system. one half of the church against those Dedicated to all Christian women This system has ever based itself upon theological dogmas upon which the and men of whatever creed or name a declaration of the supreme rights of very existence of the church is based. who, bound by Church or State, have a God, and certain rights as pertaining In no other country has the conflict not dared to think for themselves: between natural and revealed rights Addressed to all persons, who, to certain classes of men by virtue of been as pronounced as in the United breaking away from custom and usage authority from that God." Moreover, she States; and in this country where the of ages, dare seek Truth for the sake felt that, "To think for one's self is not conflicts first began, we shall see its of Truth. To all such it will be even now [1893] the tendency of man- full and final development. During the welcome; to all others, aggressive and kind; the few who dare, do so at great ages, no rebellion has been of like educational. importance with that of Woman peril. It will require another hundred against the tyranny of Church and years of personal and political freedom State; none has had its far reaching In the book Gage traced the influence for men to appreciate what liberty really effects. We note its beginning; its of canon (church) law on English com- is—for them to possess confidence in progress will overthrow every existing mon law, and thus on the laws of the form of these institutions; its end will their own judgment upon religious United States. She was particularly be a regenerated world. questions." interested in how the law affected women It is tempting to wonder what Gage References through the ages, and blamed Christian would think of the United States in 1993. teaching with regard to Original Sin for Matilda Joslyn Gage, 1893. Woman, Church and First, would she be astounded that it State, republished by Arno Press in 1972. the subordinate position of women, and took thirty years from the founding of Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Ed. by the laws giving men power and control Edward and Janet James (Cambridge: Har- the WNLU before women throughout over every phase of women's lives. She vard Univ. Press, 1971). the United States were granted the vote? A Woman of the Century, 1893. wrote: Report of the Convention for 0rganization of What would she think of the slow pro- Woman's National Liberal Union, February gress made toward equality in the work- 24-25, 1890. . . . [L]ong before marriage was place? In particular, what would her National Convention of National Reform Asso- constituted one of the sacraments, ciation to Secure Religious Amendment of the celibacy or the confessional estab- reaction be to the present struggle to Constitution of the United States, February lished, the Church had perceived the assure all women reproductive freedom? 4-5, 1874. •

50 FREE INQUIRY through a preemptory biblicist strike that refuses to honor a diversity of religious opinions in the public arena. Their leaders scream sin and murder and Books demean democratic values as anti- religious, thus claiming the high ground for themselves alone. We cannot allow to go unchallenged a small minority of Disputing the Charge of a the electorate who define "religious ways of looking" as exclusively the property of a narrow biblicism, who denounce Cultural Conspiracy mainstream Christianity as corrupt, sinful, and heretical, who insist that God Robert Alley does not hear the prayers of Jews, and who exhibit righteous anger whenever The Culture of Disbelief: How A merican evidence that the prevailing "political opponents challenge their religious Law and Politics Trivialize Religious culture" is "afraid of religious ways of assumptions. Devotion, by Stephen L. Carter (New looking at the world." Are we to ignore charlatans merely York: Basic Books, 1993) 328 pp. $25.00 The author asserts that liberals who because they claim a higher authority? cloth. used the Bible in their own causes earlier Can the liberal, conservative, and in the century now deny the religious moderate citizens of this nation ignore rofessor Stephen L. Carter, a highly right the same privilege. That is emphat- specious historical analysis because of its Prespected law professor at Yale ically not the case. I know few liberals motivation? Who, after all, is preventing University, concludes in The Culture of who question the right of citizens to use dialogue in the public square? Who is, Disbelief that, over the past twenty the Bible any way they choose. More- as Madison might ask, experimenting years, political liberals have trivialized over, it is not correct to assert, as Carter with our liberties? religious devotion. He writes as a liberal does, that anti-abortion activists and possessing a vital faith active in the civil rights protesters use religion in IA ne of the most troubling statements Episcopal church. He contends that similar ways. The Bible led them in in Carter's book has to do with the religious dialogue is being driven from opposite directions ethically and mor- history of the First Amendment. Carter public forums as "opinion makers" and ally. The civil rights movement spoke of asserts, "the metaphorical separation of liberal leaders respond to political action a dream of national unity based on the church and state originated in efforts to by the religious right. While affirming ethic of love, while the religious right protect religion from the state, not the his support for separation of church and accuses adversaries of murder and drips state from religion." The author incor- state and for many Supreme Court with hatred. rectly claims Madison's Memorial and decisions on that subject, he writes Carter regularly contradicts himself. Remonstrance as supporting his posi- appreciatively of accommodations that On the one hand he contends that tion. He concludes "the entire disestab- might be appropriate. He concludes with "arguments against the religious right lishment movement in was a suggestions on how to rectify the prob- should be on political grounds, not movement to rescue religious freedom lems he identifies. religious." On the other hand he writes from state oppression." The book is thought-provoking but approvingly of active religious dialogue On the contrary, sensing that a Carter's "evidence" is almost non- in the public square and accuses "lib- Protestant majority in Virginia could existent. Who are these narrow-minded erals" of "inveighing" against trivializing easily relegate minority religious views liberals and leaders who hate religion religious devotion. Carter's liberal to a tolerated status, a clear corruption because it is irrational? Carter in thirty- targets are wrong whatever path they of democratic government, Madison nine pages of end notes only identifies take. opposed an assessment bill that would a couple of therapists, Tom Wicker, and Of course, much of the religious have supplied funding for all Protestant more generally, a few New York Times right's rhetoric makes any dialogue, groups to teach religion. He, like editorials. While his book is filled with religious or political, impossible. The Jefferson, knew that religious establish- quotes from those who support religion's moral issues surrounding abortion are ments were above all a threat to the state, place in the public square, whatever that not ignored by liberals; it is the atmos- if that state were founded upon natural may mean, the presumed opposition phere created by the likes of Pat rights, freedom, and justice. If demo- never materializes. Carter offers no Robertson that precludes reasoned, cracy were corrupted and it denied the principled debate on a complex ethical rights of a free conscience, then the state Robert S. Alley is professor of human- question. The religious right forecloses would become an oppressor. But the ities at the University of Richmond. the option of moral decision making by church and religion had first to corrupt doctors, pregnant women and families government before it in turn would

Winter 1993/94 51 oppress. The primary struggle by Mad- somehow coincident with the religious not the God-talk itself that should have ison and Jefferson was to "protect" the right. This is clearly not the case with been the object of criticism." Apart from state from religious influences that might Professor Carter or with a vast array the question of what then becomes of result in any establishment. of liberal "opinion makers" who respect Carter's religious dialogue, this state- While Carter continually insists that religion and encourage dialogue— ment ignores the fact that for the "American liberals have made a grievous Jimmy Carter, Robert Drinan, Bill religious right, God is the cause to be error in their flight from religious Moyers, Mario Cuomo, Father Hes- championed in its political agenda for dialogue," there is no evidence offered burgh, Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton, Al a Christian nation. for verification. After all, was it not the Gore, Tipper Gore, Norman Lear, Of course the religious right should Democrats who gave us liberal presi- Hillary Clinton, Shirley MacLaine, never be barred from the public square. dents Carter and Clinton, both of whom Senators Joseph Lieberman and Mark By the same token, the religious right speak openly of their religion, both Hatfield, Steve Allen, and Paul Kurtz. cannot, as Carter agrees, be insulated Southern Baptists? The author has the Finally, Carter insists that if "one from challenges to its basic assumptions unfortunate habit of viewing "religious dislikes the causes in which the name merely because they are religious in ways of looking at the world" as of God was invoked, it is those causes, nature. •

Read It and Weep Molleen Matsumura

The Trouble with Christmas, by Thomas last footnote on the very last page). aside his analytic scalpel and grabs a Flynn (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, Descriptions of a wide variety of broad axe, and when he starts grinding 1993) $13.95 paper. ' Christmas experiences are fascinating said axe, it's time for caution. Comment- and sometimes shocking, whether seen ing that "we possess mountains of om Flynn's The Trouble with from the inside or the outside. It was assertion, anthills of proof," he cheerfully T Christmas is just what you'd expect amusing to read about the difference makes assertions anyway, sometimes from a self-styled "anti-Claus"—a book between Protestant and Catholic ver- turning causation on its head. He implies that will fascinate and infuriate, and one sions of the carol "Away in a Manger," that the Santa myth causes family that needs to be read with caution. sad to read about the little boy whose dysfunction when it frequently expresses In an ambitious attempt to question parents really did leave him a lump of it; the problem isn't that a girl's wish "every conviction, each opinion, all the coal. Those of us who have always felt to have Santa make her into a boy won't traditions and outlooks" associated with alienated by institutionalized Christmas come true, but that she makes it in the Christmas and the holiday season, Flynn cheer will learn we're not alone, and first place. Maybe "some" people do thoroughly explores the history of the those of us who have always taken it relate belief in Santa to scientific holiday as we now know it, then for granted will learn why it is not a illiteracy, but one hopes they put more considers its effects within the family and "universal" holiday, but, frequently, an weight on educational budget cuts and on society at large. Nobody can read imposition on minority rights. creationist attacks on science education. Flynn's lively description of dozens of The discussion of the role that And if "American Jews who trimmed traditions from all over Europe and the Christmas has and should have, now and Christmas trees were only half as likely Middle East, without exclaiming sooner in the future, is more problematic. Some to light Sabbath candles as their co- or later, "I didn't know that!" The book of the fury it will arouse will mean that religionists... ," it's because Jews who is a treasure trove, revealing the ancient Flynn has touched a nerve. When he aren't lighting shabbes candles are not Egyptian origins of the Christmas tree, offers ten (somewhat repetitive) reasons very religious, and thus are more open and the real reason It's a Wonderful Life to "just say no to Santa," many parents to adopting other customs, not the other gets so much air-time (given in the very will be annoyed to be reminded that the way around. Santa myth is, after all, a lie; it may The occasional over-emphasis on Molleen Matsumura, an editorial asso- be tempting to dismiss Flynn's argu- anecdotal evidence is also unfortunate. ciate of FREE INQUIRY, warns readers ments, but they should be considered. Flynn is right: it would be helpful if we to take Flynn's description of her on pp. And when he says, "It is hardly my place had more evidence; meanwhile, why does 188-189 with a large dose of salt and to tell American Jews how to be Jewish. he downplay the Middletown study's skip it if they're on sodium-restricted But ... ," like many a nosy parent, he failure to find a single example of parents diets. may be right. who punish their children with coal on Sometimes, though, Flynn tosses Christmas morning, and use one anec-

52 FREE INQUIRY dote to paint a picture of countless and the New Outsiders," offers a What can be said to FREE INQUIRY children suffering obsessive fear in the thoughtful discussion, with real case readers about the closing, "Word to days before Christmas? histories, of why the Christmas holi- Infidels"? Read it yourself. See what you Interestingly, the best chapter also day should have less influence in our think. In fact, the same can be said for involves children. "Confrontation in the increasingly diverse society, and how we the whole book. • Classroom," together with "Christmas can make a transition.

a literal reading of the Bible, it was all Examining `Creation Science' but inevitable that they should develop a pseudoscience of human origins allegedly alternative to the real article Richard Huett presented by modern science." "Scientific Creationists," in their The Mythmaker's Magic: Behind the not mentioned God once in all this." To desperate attempts to rebut science with Illusion of "Creation Science" by Delos which Laplace replied, "I had no need matching sophistication, have distorted, B. McKown (Buffalo: Prometheus of him, sire." contorted, and falsified scientific data to Books, 1993) 180 pp. $23.95 cloth. But Professor McKown, head of the conform to a biblical Procrustean bed. Philosophy Department at Auburn Alas, because of America's general Has anyone really understood the University, does not concern himself scientific illiteracy—a charge leveled famous story that appears at the with theism, does not state categorically repeatedly by the author—creationism is beginning of the Bible—that is, God's that the universe is not an artifact and given a larger measure of credence than science (the quest for hellish fear of even a modicum of acquaintance with knowledge and inquiry into the thus has no creator, nor does he offer natural causes of things)? ... Man any solutions as to the nature of the scientific methods and data warrants. himself had become (God's) greatest universe and its coming into being. This sorry predicament is compounded mistake, he had created a rival for Rather, his targets are the self-styled by a widespread belief in our age that himself—science puts one on a level "Scientific Creationists, a species of the every issue must have at least two equally divine—it puts an end to gods with the respectable sides, each of which is to be and priests when man becomes scien- religious genus whose members I shall, tific!—The moral of all this: Science henceforth, call Fundagelicals, a short- granted equal time. is in itself the forbidden. Science is hand way of referring to Fundamental- McKown draws up a list of Axioms the first sin, the germ of all sin, the ists, Evangelicals, and assorted religious of "Scientific Creationism" and four primal sin.... How does one protect rightists" who, whatever their doctrinal Axiom Corollaries. To any but those must oneself against science? ... Man who are convinced that their celestial not think.... And yet the work of differences, share a profound respect for science begins to build up, storming the Bible."Scientific Creationists" form rewards depend upon a slavish allegiance heavenward, spelling doom (the twi- the sophisticated arm of this group. to the Bible's inerrancy, these axioms and light of the gods). Professor McKown studiously avoids corollaries comprise a reductio ad —Friedrich Nietzsche begging the fundamental theological absurdum of "Scientific Creationism." question by referring to the deity of all Moreover, he subjects the reasoning of t is reported that Helmholtz, the Fundagelicals as the "Bible-god." By the "Scientific Creationists" to logical Inineteenth-century German scientific identifying this deity with its source and analysis and finds it replete with fallacies: polymath and the author of a seminal by its lower case spelling "god" he lends undistributed middle terms, affirming work on optics, proclaimed that he could it no existential status, knowing of no consequents, false analogies. He pin- have designed a far better eye than God. objective referent to it; nor does he argue points what may well be the essential It is also reputed that Laplace, the against its existence since his theistic distinction between creationism, with its famous French mathematician and position is not relevant here. unswerving adherence to its initial astronomer, and a favorite of Napoleon, McKown then feels it incumbent position of literal acceptance of the Bible, had been asked by the latter to explain upon himself to define secular humanism and science, with its constant, self-critical his theory of the nebular hypothesis. at some length, but to do so for readers search for relevant truths. When he had finished, the Emperor was of FREE INQUIRY would be an unne- All in all, Delos McKown presents supposed to have said, "But you have cessary redundancy. However, he does a frontal attack upon those who would strike an original note in ascribing to bludgeon the American people into a Richard Huett is former editor-in-chief Western soteriology—that branch of Dark Ages mentality with Dark Ages of the Dell Publishing Company. His Christian theology dealing with salvation consequences: a Christian theocracy with reviews have appeared in the American or redemption the creation of the its rampant intolerance of all dissenters. Scholar and the New York Times, and pseudoscience for which "Scientific The prospect dismays him, especially in he has written for philosophical journals. Creationists" are guilty. In their belief light of the insidious influence of the "that their eternal life in bliss demands creationists upon American education. •

Winter 1993/94 53 Books in Brief

One very effective way to reach children and then goes on to explain the rules is through the medium of print, whether of scientific inquiry used to prove or an adult reads to a youngster or discusses disprove any strange assertion. Again, the ideas in a book after the child has the need for critical thinking is always read it independently. Several excellent paramount. titles, briefly reviewed below, may be helpful in introducing young people to Did the Sun Shine Before You Were secular humanist points of view about Born?: A Sex Education Primer, by Sol The Trouble with god, sex, ethical behavior, skepticism, and Judith Gordon, illustrated by Vivien and evolution. All are copiously illus- Cohen (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, Christmas trated and non-didactic in tone.— 1992) $8.95 paper. Effectively illustrated by Tom Flynn Edythe McGovern with pictures of all kinds of families, the In The Trouble with Christmas authors explain the concept of the Tom Flynn challenges America's What About Gods? by Chris Brockman, extended family, then segue gracefully most popular sacred cow. illustrated by Anna Cammisotto (Buf- into the ideas of conception and child- Alternately outrageous, satirical, falo: Prometheus Books, 1989) $8.95 birth, assuring the child that the sun and thoughtful, this rollicking paper. The author makes a flat statement shone even before Mommy and Daddy critique calls Christmas to that gods are mythical creatures, were born. account. The Trouble with invented by humans, and goes back Christmas is not only for curmud- briefly into history to prove his point. Girls Are Girls and Boys Are Boys: So geons, but for parents, teachers, At first, humans wanted explanations of What's the Difference? by Sol Gordon, and freethinkers of every stripe. Anyone curious about the origins natural phenomena, so they invented illustrated by Vivien Cohen (Buffalo: and future of one of the world's supernatural mythical creatures who Prometheus Books, 1991) $9.95 paper. most celebrated holidays will find caused the effects they observed. Then, Meant for six to ten-year-olds, this book The Trouble with Christmas a coming to modern times, this book encourages boys and girls to participate must read! explains different religious belief sys- in recreational activities without thought 244 pages •Paper $13.95 tems, including notions of original sin, of gender and makes it clear that adult To order, call 1-800-421-0351 forgiveness by self-proclaimed clerics, occupations should be selected without Telephone charge orders accepted, or write and monetary support for the huge sexual bias. It also explains quite PROMETHEUS BOOKS institutions that have evolved as sites for graphically discusses the physiological 59 JOHN GLENN DR.,BUFFALO, NY 14228 worship. He admits that it may be differences between the sexes, which Please send difficult for a child to assert non-belief, makes it seem more suitable for the — copy(s) of The Trouble With but he encourages the young readers to upper end of the suggested age range Christmas Add $3.50 P&H for the first book, $1.75 for each additional book. "Keep on thinking." Only by taking this or even young teenagers. NY State residents add sales tax route can one become a true secular Order Total :$ humanist. The Tree of Life—The Wonders of Payment enclosed (or) charge to Evolution by Ellen Jackson, illustrated VISA Mastercard Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for by Judeanne Winter (Buffalo: Prome- ACCT# Young Skeptics, by Dan Barker, illus- theus, 1993) $14.95 paper. Simplified so

trated by Brian Strassburg (Buffalo: that the concept can be understood by EXP_~J_—PHONE_ Prometheus Books, 1990) $12.95 paper. young children, this book attempts to NAME A companion book to Maybe Right, show the idea of "first life" arising ADDRESS Maybe Wrong (reviewed in the Fall 1993 without a creator, and goes on to stress CITY edition of FREE INQUIRY), Dan Barker the commonality of all living creatures STATE ZIP gives the young child a very specific because of evolution. Fí60100 situation: Andrea's friends "know" that a ghost made noise and moved some Edythe McGovern is the author of dishes in their house. Through logical They're Never Too Young for Books investigation Andrea disproves this story Prometheus Books, 1994).

54 FREE INQUIRY That seems to have been buried in the mass graves produced by the Stalinist regime. Certainly both movements were Point/ Counterpoint anthropocentric without any transcend- ent norm, unless we take racial purity or the materialist dialectic to be such. It would require a much broader and detailed historical and social-scientfic In Response to Grünbaum's Defense survey than Grünbaum has provided to establish that there is no essential Adolf Grtinbaum's "In Defense of Secular Humanism" appeared in the Fall connection between religion and ethics 1992 FREE INQUIRY. Below Seymour Cain offers a critique. Adolf Grünbaum's or secularism and ethics. Like a lawyer's reply follows. brief, Grünbaum's argument is much too selective and one-sided. Certainly there are ethical precepts essential to Bud- Seymour Cain dhism, originally a nontheistic religion, and to Judaism, a theistic religion. It may y problem with Adolf Grün- the Greek philosophers and to that of be that, for some reason, ethics is more Mbaum's "In Defense of Secular later theologians influenced by them central to the Judeo-Christian religions Humanism" (Fall 1992) is his highly than to that of the Hebrew Bible. Charles than to those of Southeast Asia. Recall selective presentation of the available Hartshorne, for one, spent a philosophi- that Rudolf Otto in his searching evidence, as, for example, the range of cal lifetime alerting us to this theological comparisons of Shankara (medieval Jewish theological responses to the solecism and to developing a nonclassical Hindu monist) and Meister Eckhardt Holocaust, and his statements about logic of theism. I should add that I have (medieval German mystic) found them Martin Buber's response that are in the long been concerned with the Holocaust, to be strikingly similar, except for the realm of fantasy. In such matters we have published many papers on the central importance Eckhardt placed on should heed the advice of the ancient subject, and have served as an editor of the ethical aspect. And my master, Stagirite: "The fact is the starting point." an anthology of theological responses to Joachim Wach, noted the anomalous I would put it less elegantly: "Is is, ain't the Holocaust. stress on the ethical by the ancient ain't." Moreover, professional ethics Let us turn now to Professor Israelites compared with contemporary requires us to state the negative data that Grünbaum's impassioned apologia. He peoples on the same primitive cultural might invalidate our generalizations. I deals with an important question in the level. So apparently some do and some hazard that the reason for Grünbaum's philosophy of religion, the relation, if don't. incomplete presentation is that he is not any, between ethics and religion. He cites Grünbaum is bothered by the fact that speaking here as a professional scholar, a number of apologists of the opposite revelations and life-rules are not all the but rather as the passionately indignant persuasion, theocentric rather than same. There is no reason why they should spokesman for a cause. anthropocentric, who assert that the be, unless you demand something Let me state where I am coming from. cause of all our moral and social ills lies analogous to the universal table of I am a secular non-observant Jew with in the abandonment of traditional elements. Let's put it this way: If there a personal allegiance to Judaism. I speak (Western) religion and triumph of were an ultimate reality with which as a veteran historian and phenomenol- secular humanism. human beings might have an encounter, ogist of world religions, with a concen- Grünbaum argues in response that then the results would vary according tration on religious experience. My neither traditional religion nor secular to the particular era, area, and culture, philosophical preference is the dialogical humanism generates an ethics that elicits as well as the individual personality. approach, with a stress on concrete actualization by its respective adherents. Revelation need not be conceived as experience. Hence, I find Grünbaum's He points out correctly some egregious itemized recipes or propositions dropped stipulated definition of religion simplis- horrors connected with traditional into people's passive minds like beans tically inadequate, even if confined to Western religions. He might also have in a bowl. There would always be a the Western tradition. This applies also cited the far greater horrors committed variety of modulations in this, the human to his notion of theism, which he confines by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, condition. We're dealing hypothetically to the so-called classical variety with all seats of the two great secular movements with concrete human experience, not the "omnis," far closer to the theism of in our lifetime. I grant that it would be with an accountant's spreadsheet. going too far to attribute the term It is very difficult to separate the Seymour Cain, author of Mar- humanism to Hitlerism and Stalinism; "religious" from the "secular" when it cel, is a Visiting Scholar in History at however, there was much talk in the comes to deciding the source of ethical the University of California, San Diego. 1930s of "Soviet humanism," the crea- norms and acts. Take the so-called tion of a new, unalienated human being. righteous Gentiles who helped Jews to

Winter 1993/94 55 escape the Nazi murder machine, risking put the practical welfare of their insti- that this Orthodox theologian was not deadly danger for themselves and their tutions above that of higher ethical mentioned either because Grünbaum families. Some of them may have been values. was ignorant of his work or because it acting from a self-sacrificing devotion to It is salutary to note that not everyone did not suit the needs of the adversarial values engendered by centuries of who is an attested member of a religious argument. Western secular humanism. Others, like community is such in ethical and Or why not mention Richard Ruben- the French Huguenots who saved a spiritual reality. Their actions speak stein, who proclaimed the death of the remarkable number of Jews, were moved louder than the words they intone in God who was traditionally believed to by religious motives and identification church or synagogue. These are persons be the protector of his chosen people? with the People of the Book. And there called "practical atheists" by some Rubenstein went acutely to the root of may have been French humanistic values religionists. I realize that the appelation the matter, not merely the general mixed in. I heard one of them say in can't be pleasing to Professor Grün- problem of theodicy, but the specific a moving, unforgettable moment, "No, baum. However, I assure him that I problem of a covenantal God who let we were not heroes. We could not do wholly agree that authentic theoretical his chosen people endure abysmal anything else!" This catches the essential atheists can be just as good citizens as humiliation, torture, and death—a now ethical note of unconditional command. theoretical theists. There are various absolutely unbelievable God. He even Of course, on a descriptive physical level, motivations involved in so-called good blamed the Chosen People claim for they could have collaborated with the citizenship, including prudential ones. leading ultimately to the Holocaust. German persecutors, just as Socrates Let's go on now to Grünbaum's dis- Here again Grünbaum makes no men- could have taken it on the lam and passed course on the response of Jewish tion of an eminent Holocaust theologian up the hemlock. But on a normative level theologians to the Holocaust, to which who does not blame Jewish backsliding that was impossible. he gives so much space. for the cataclysm, again a skewed Right in the seat of Nazi tyranny, in omission. The same could be said of the Germany/ Austria, there was again a hat we get from him here are neglect of Emil Fackenheim and Irving mixed bag, both secular and religious Wcitations limited to those who Greenberg. We are led to believe that resisters, people who had the amazing view the Holocaust as divine punishment Jakobovitz, Schneerson, and Teitel- courage to say no to cruel, total power. for the backsliding of modern Jews. This baum, who interpret the Holocaust as With Niemoeller and Bonhoeffer it was is like shooting fish in a barrel, lamen- divine punishment for the modern Jews' clearly religious, claiming a higher table easy targets. Again I wonder if he abandonment of Torah belief and authority than the secular state. With is being highly selective in order to add observance, are the representative voices others, such as Willy Brandt, it was weight to his adversarial argument. I of contemporary Jewish theology. clearly secular, based on a democratic recently read through over fifty brilliant Nothing could be further from the truth. socialist humanism, but again claiming theological papers contributed to a Many Jewish theologians have voiced a higher authority than one's own symposium on the Holocaust. There exactly the same rejection of the idea government. As a member of the were a wide variety of views, but only of the killer-God of Auschwitz in Norwegian resistance movement, he one of them viewed the Holocaust as practically the same words as Grünbaum became, formally speaking, a traitor to divine punishment for backsliding. It (p. 32), e.g., Eugene Borowitz. Any his country, thus challenging the idolatry seemed anomalous and obsolete. It mention of them would not serve the of the national state so pervasive in obviously was not representative of purpose of Grünbaum's adversarial modern times. There were many other present-day responses, any more than argument. Germans who resisted Nazi tyranny for Grünbaum's horrible examples. purely secular reasons, so far as anything I acknowledge that the citations he mally, I want to take account of is pure in human existence. Lay religious provides are a correct reflection of a 11 Professor Grünbaum's presentation resisters sometimes found themselves certain school of thought, but it is by of Martin Buber's reponse to the abandoned and disavowed by their no means the only one, even among echt- Holocaust. This constitutes the most church leaders, like the simple Austrian Orthodox theologians. One only has to flagrant case I've ever witnessed of carpenter who inveighed against the Nazi recall Eliezer Berkovits's Faith After the setting up a straw man and then invasion of other countries only to be Holocaust, which puts the onus for the knocking it down. Nothing Grünbaum told by his bishop that he had no business Holocaust not on backsliding Jews, but says has anything to do with the words opposing the governing authorities; on Western civilization and its religion, and thoughts of the real-life Buber. He hence, the church did nothing to prevent Christianity. It might be of interest to cites no texts: there are none to support his execution. A similar case was that Grünbaum and other devout secularists his statements. Grünbaum is completely of a young Mormon workingman who that Berkovits correctly insists that in confused on the meaning and application engaged in anti-Nazi activities in Ger- Judaism there is no antinomy between of the term eclipse of God. It appeared many, only to be excommunicated by the secular and the sacred, as in tradi- originally as the title and subject of a his church leaders and executed. Like tional Christianity, that Judaism is very book based primarily on Buber's Amer- secular leaders, religious leaders often much a this-worldly religion. I assume ican lectures in Fall 1951, along with

56 FREE INQUIRY much earlier writings. It contains no Jewish academic commentators on the trated in Nazi Germany and Stalinist "eclipse theodicy," for Buber had none. Holocaust, accusing Buber of no interest Russia in the 1930s and 1940s: the face What Buber is attempting to do in this at all in the Holocaust. This has been of man after Auschwitz. This should be book is to deal with the shift in modern taken as evidence that his dialogical of far more concern to secular humanists times from a believed experiential approach to human affairs is without than that of "the face of God after relation with transcendent reality to a merit, since it has to do with a timeless Auschwitz" (title of a book by Ignatz merely mental entertainment of repres- realm with no possible application to Meybaum), since for them the question entations, images, and ideas. What concrete actuality, including the practi- of theodicy cannot arise except as a Grünbaum fantasizes as a matter of God cal demands of power-relations for a historical curiosity. Obviously secular- himself going into eclipse is on the powerless people. Hence academics of ism and the advance of science have been contrary, for Buber, something that this school dismiss him as a naïve no unmixed blessing. The great horrors occurs between man and transcendent utopian thinker. This might have pro- of our time have been the work of secular reality due to a change in man's basic vided Grünbaum with some real meat anthropocentric societies. The eminent stance toward things. The light, meta- on which to feed an adversarial argu- secular thinkers who inspired us in our phorically speaking, is still there, but ment, had he been aware of it, but it youth never prepared us for what man can no longer experience it. In such would have had to be a quite different happened, not because they lacked the a time, to change the metaphor, there argument. gift of prophecy, but because their view can no longer be a dialogue, an I-Thou There is in Buber's later writings of human nature and the boon of relation, between man and God. (If on Judaism a statement that might seem technical reason was naïvely incomplete. Buber has an ontology, it is that of "the to support Grünbaum's reading of "the They lacked the compelling insight that between," the inter, the zwischen, eclipse of God" as referring to the human beings, the most educated and relationality). To sum up, Buber sees a Holocaust. In "The Dialogue Between scientifically advanced, are capable of centuries-long cultural development, Heaven and Earth" in On Judaism (New abysmal evil, a potential that was not the Holocaust, as leading to this York: Schocken, 1967) Buber speaks actualized in the assumedly paradisal age situation, in which a living reality of the apparent withdrawal or hidden- of scientific and social progress. Perhaps the laboratory experiment is not the and relation is reduced to abstract ideas, ness of God, a seeming absence and ethical paradigm that John Dewey an intra-psychic phenomenon. Whether silence that has occurred frequently thought it was. The Nazi researchers or not what Buber claims is believable in human history and is often la- engaged in some notorious laboratory or whether or not such an eclipse mented in the Hebrew Bible. Then he experiments, with methodical proce- occurred in modern times may be asks the specific relevant question: "How dures and carefully tabulated results. The questioned. But this is actually what he is life with God still possible after scientific method does not necessarily says. This is what we must deal with, Auschwitz?" that is, a living dia- make for virtuous human beings or a positively or negatively, when we try to logical relation, not mere belief. He good society. It may indeed contribute interpret the meaning of Buber's "eclipse sees this question as especially trau- to the opposite. And secular humanists of God." matic for the Jews, who were left should stop finding all the good in their Also it is incorrect to label Buber a completely at the mercy of their destroy- own camp and all the evil in that of their ers during the Holocaust. He offers no "Jewish theologian." He is rather a adversaries. Bigotry, fanaticism, and the easy answer, but calls on us to rely on religious philosopher who has contrib- refusal of dialogue are common human hope for a theophany and a renewal of uted in his own way to many areas of failings, affecting secularists as well as dialogue, as in the conclusion of the philosophy, as recognized by eminent religionists. Let's look for the mote in biblical story of . "Nothing is scholars in the volume in the Living our own eyes. Philosophers series devoted to Buber. To explained, nothing adjusted; wrong has lump Buber, Jakobovits, and Teitel- not become right, nor cruelty kindness" baum together amounts to a shameful (Ibid., 224f.) The evil remains un- References slander, explainable only by a complete changed, unexplained, unjustified. Thus, ignorance of Buber's place in the contrary to Grünbaum, there is no Berkovits, E. Faith After the Holocaust. New York: Ktav, 1973. spectrum of modern Jewish religious "eclipse theodicy" and no viewing of the Buber, M. Eclipse of God. New York: Harper thought. His stance is at the opposite Holocaust as punishment for the sins of and Brothers, 1952. pole from that of the other two men. the Jews. Cain, S. "The Question and the Answers After Auschwitz," in Faith and Reason: Essays in Can it be possible that Grünbaum does Judaism. Eds. R. Gordis and R. B. Waxman. not know that Buber has long been would counsel secular humanists to New York: Ktav, 1973. regarded as a heretic in Orthodox Jewish spend much less of their time accum- Rubenstein, R. "Buber and the Holocaust: Some I Reconsiderations on the 100th Anniversary circles? It's as if Grünbaum has pro- ulating proof texts on the failings and of His Birth," Michigan Quarterly Review, ceeded on the principle, "Any stick to horrors of religion and much more on vol. XVIII, no. 3 (Summer 1979). beat a dog with." what, humanly speaking, must be the Schraeder, G. The Hebrew Humanism of Martin Buber. Trans. by N. J. Jacobs. Detroit: Wayne The odd thing is that a cottage great concern for us late twentieth- State University Press, 1973. Esp. Eclipse of industry has been growing among some century survivors of the horrors perpe- God, 449-470. •

Winter 1993/ 94 57

Since atheism and theism are alike ethically barren, neither doctrine itself imposes any concrete moral prohibi- tions on human conduct... . Seymour Cain's Jeremiad: ... the notion of divine omnibenev- olence is shockingly permissive mor- A Rejoinder ally, to the point of sanctioning the justice of the Holocaust!

To illustrate the moral permissiveness of the concept of divine omnibenevo- Adolf Grünbaum lence, I mentioned Martin Buber's "eclipse of God" doctrine, along with the as, Cain offers a critique of my "The Case for Ethical Monotheism," vol. pronouncements of Rabbis Lord Imma- A espousal of secular humanism 7, no. 3, 1991). nuel Jakobovitz (Chief Orthodox Rabbi featuring hand-waving ipse dixits, red More recently, at the Republican of the United Kingdom); Teitel- herrings, ad hominem motivational National Convention in Houston in baum (Israel); Menachem Mendel imputations, and patronizing dismissals August 1992, Pat Buchanan and Pat Schneerson ("the Lubavitcher," U.S.A.); of my scholarship while touting his own. Robertson declared a religious war on and Yaakov Homnick (U.S.A.). Cain Overall, he is oblivious to the con- secularism in our society. And George does acknowledge the genuineness of temporary religio-political climate in the Bush, standing before a sign that read these rabbinical endorsements of the United States to which my paper was "GOD," tried demagogically to secure Holocaust as justifying divine punish- addressed (FREE INQUIRY, Fall 1992, electoral advantage by complaining that ment of the Jews for religious back- sliding. vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 30-39). As I docu- the word God was absent from the mented, our culture is rife with smug election platform of the Democratic Yet he is quite indignant with me, and politically coercive proclamations of Party! Even the philosophically trained because these apologias are not statis- tically representative of Jewish theolog- the moral superiority of theism over William Bennett, one-time Secretary of ical opinion on the Holocaust. And he secular humanism as follows: (1) Theism Education and anti-drug czar, pugna- reserves his highest dudgeon for my is normatively indispensable for the ciously intoned the purported religious purely exegetical claim that Martin acceptability of moral imperatives; (2) foundations of democracy. Buber's (1952) eclipse-of-God doctrine Religious belief in theism is motivation- Alarmed by these untutored, if not may also be construed as a theological ally necessary, as a matter of psycho- malicious, attacks on secular humanism, vindication of the Holocaust (theodicy). logical fact, to assure such adherence to I set out to examine the conceptual As for representativeness, I explicitly moral standards as there is in society at relations between the theological and said that there is "divergence" within the large; (3) "Secular humanism is brain moral components of the relevant ranks of Jewish theological opinion on dead" (Irving Kristol); (4) "The taking religious creeds, and to enlist my the Holocaust (p. 31). But I explained away of God dissolves all. Every text conclusions in the defense of secular (p. 31) that precisely this divergence is humanism. Contrary to widespread becomes pretext, every interpretation grist to my mill, because it illustrates misinterpretation, and every oath a claims of a moral asymmetry between anew "the moral hollowness of theism." deceit" (Richard John Neuhaus). In the theism and atheism, I argued that there Furthermore, it is simply lost on Cain same vein, Dostoyevsky had told us is ethical parity between them as follows: that none of my objections to the earlier that "If God does not exist all purported normative and motivational things are permissible." Just such theses ... neither theism nor atheism as such dependence of ethics on theism turn on permit the logical deduction of any are also espoused in the Jewish journal the merits of my exegesis of Buber. Ultimate Issues (e.g. in the Special Issue judgments of moral value or of any ethical rules of conduct. Moral codes Cain ignores that there are two turn out to be logically extraneous to different versions of Buber's eclipse-of- Adolf Grünbaum is the Andrew Mellon each of these competing philosophical God doctrine. One of them is relevant Professor of Philosophy at the Univer- theories. And if such a code is to be to the challenge posed to divine right- integrated with either of them in a eousness and benevolence by the exist- sity of Pittsburgh, and the Chairman of wider system, the ethical component its Center for Philosophy of Science. A must be imported from elsewhere. ence of evil. The other pertains to a laureate of the Academy of Humanism, decline in man's receptivity to the light he has devoted his writings to the from God. The former version was philosophy of physics, the theory of Just as a system of morals can be elaborated further by Buber's tacked onto theism, so also atheism Emil Fackenheim (1973) and has been scientific rationality, the philosophy of may be embedded in a secular human- psychiatry, and the critique of religious ism in which concrete principles of devastatingly criticized by Paul Edwards belief humane rights and wrongs are sup- (1969; 1973). Yet Cain peremptorily plied on other grounds... . denies its existence, and untutoredly

58 FREE INQUIRY accuses me of having manufactured it Hartshorne's "non-classical logic of a much broader and detailed historical out of whole cloth. theism" for having alerted us to the and social-scientific survey." Nary a In this way, he sidetracks the admis- "theological solecism" of all the omnis. word from Cain as to why. I flatly deny sion that the former version of Buber's Since Cain's Judaic God is not omnip- it, although such a survey would be eclipse-of-God doctrine is, in effect, a otent, I must ask: In his own alleged interesting for other purposes. shabby gambit, serving to immunize the dialogues with Him, did Cain learn from In his endeavor to show that my notion of divine benevolence and right- that less-than-all-powerful God just what Socratic argument "is much too selective eousness against outright refutation by He is unable to bring about, and what and one-sided," he erects a straw-man: the perennial existence of evil, including else He can achieve? For example, can "Certainly there are ethical precepts the Holocaust. And it does not lessen God cure otherwise fatally ill people, essential to Buddhism, originally a non- Buber's evasiveness that the deus abs- whose loved ones address petitionary theistic religion, and to Judaism, a conditus concept was not invented by prayers to Him for their recovery? theistic religion." Yet this is a claim that him but goes back to the Old Testament If not, have Cain and his fellow I myself was at pains to affirm rather (e.g. 45:15) and to Martin Luther, sophisticated dialogicians come out than to deny. As I had pointed out, among other Christians. publicly to tell the classical theists and religious creeds do indeed have both Nonetheless, Cain rightly called their faithful that petitionary prayers are theological and moral components, but attention, by his direct quotation from a snare and a delusion because of divine the moral ingredients are "tacked on" Buber, to one particular exegetical error impotence in medicine? Nay, since Cain to the theological ones on extra- of mine: I misread Buber as having gone could hardly pretend to have a catalogue theological grounds. beyond the stated immunization to offer of what is and what is not within God's Cain tendentiously ignores my argu- an eclipse-theodicy that would justify power, his condescending scorn for all ment that, as regards moral authority, and explain the Holocaust, in the the omnis serves as an asylum ignoran- "we are surely no better off if God is manner of the group of rabbis whom tiae in the service of immunizing the alive than if he is dead!" (p. 36). And I cited. But it will be made clear that common belief in the "Almighty" against my reason was that neither atheism nor this particular misdepiction of mine is criticism. theism "itself imposes any concrete not damaging at all to any of my The dialogicians see their account as moral prohibitions on human conduct" substantive theses. a major epistemological improvement (p. 31). Indeed, Cain stoops to saddling Let me now examine the specifics of over the claim that religious experience secularism as such with the barbarities Cain's animadversions. supports inferential knowledge of God. of the Nazis and of the Stalinists on the 1. The notion of theism I considered And Cain himself leaves me baffled as ground that their doctrines were "anthro- in my paper is the classical, received one to what is "secular" about his "personal pocentric without any transcendent defined in standard reference works. Yet allegiance to [dialogical] Judaism." norm." Yet, as I vividly recall from my Cain patronizingly misportrays it as a Besides, he is unaware that Paul boyhood, Hitler's speeches featured simplistic contrivance of mine, designed Edwards (1973, p. 398), the well-known mention of divine Providence ("die for easy demolition. And he offers an philosophical critic of religious belief, Vorsehung'), claiming that God sent him exasperatingly unclear statement of his has tellingly challenged the dialogical to save the German people. And when own notion, which he deems more notion of direct "meetings" with God, he invaded Austria, Cardinal Innitzer sophisticated: meetings that allegedly afford non- and the Austrian Roman Catholic inferential, unmediated experience of episcopate hailed him as God's instru- I am a secular non-observant Jew with Him. ment for Austria as well. a personal allegiance to Judaism. .. . My philosophical preference is 2. Which of my actual generaliza- In any case, there is clearly nothing the dialogical approach [involving an tions, I ask Cain, did I uphold, as he in scientific secularism as such to allegedly direct dialogue between God claims, to the neglect of negative countenance either Stalin's or Hitler's and human individuals], with a stress instances? Cain fails to appreciate that enormities. The less so, since the Nazi on concrete experience. Hence, I find some generalizations can be validly racial doctrines were pseudo-scientific, Grünbaum's stipulated definition of religion [as theism] simplistically deduced from sound premisses, rather as was Stalin's rejection of biological inadequate, even if confined to the than depending on inductive leaps from genetics in favor of Lysenkoism. Sim- Western tradition. This applies also to statistics. ilarly for the governmentally endorsed his [sic] notion of theism, which he My argument for the moral sterility distortion of scientific theorizing to confines to the so-called classical of theism on the basis of Socrates's key conform to the prevailing political variety with all the "omnis," i.e. omni- potence, omnibenevolence and omni- challenge in the Euthyphro is a case in ideology (e.g., "Nordic" science in Nazi science]. point. Far from coming to grips with Germany, and "proletarian" science in that argument, Cain ignores it by means the USSR). But Cain insists on speaking Martin Buber (1952, p. 105), whom of a hand-waving ipse dixit, irrelevantly demagogically of these two countries as Cain is at pains to defend against me, calling for statistics: As he would have "seats of the two great secular move- speaks of "God's unlimited power and it, my thesis of the ethical sterility of ments of our lifetime." knowledge." But Cain extols Charles both theism and atheism "would require Besides, these totalitarian ideologies,

Winter 1993/ 94 59 though anthropocentric, are patently humanism qua theoretical foundation True enough, there are other theists anathema to me and other secular for norms of conduct: Irrelevantly who would reject these fundamentalist humanists. Cain grants grudgingly that making derogatory use of metaphors like biblical theodicies. Yet, precisely that "it would be going too far to attribute "universal [chemical] table of elements" divergence will itself be evidence for the moral hollowness of theism. [apply] the term `humanism' to Hitlerism and "accountant's spreadsheet," he and Stalinism." Yet he chides me for not opines that "Revelation need not be In the second place, the mere fact that having pointed out that the horrors conceived as itemized recipes or propo- Judaism is sufficiently permissive mor- committed in the Third Reich and in the sitions dropped into people's passive ally to enable some world-renowned USSR were "far greater" than those minds like beans in a bowl." But, if not, rabbis to offer a Holocaust-theodicy "connected with the traditional Western how do the conflicting revelations at all is scandalous: It attests to the moral religions," to which I had called atten- provide better ethical guidance than does bankruptcy of the notion of a theological tion. the secular use of human reason and foundation of Jewish ethics. Cain (and But this comparison is misleading and feeling, which were invoked by philos- his fellow dialogicians) ought to be disingenuous. As Cain knows, the ophers like John Dewey and Sidney deeply embarrassed by this situation, technologies of Auschwitz and of the Hook? And how, pray tell, does Cain instead of offering the witless complaint Soviet gulag were simply not available consult his Judaic God dialogically on, that the Holocaust apologists made "easy to the Holy office and to Cardinal say, the justice of capital punishment or targets" for me, like "fish in a barrel." Torquemada, who had to rely on the the morality of abortion? Rabbi Jacobovitz and Rabbi Schneer- thumbscrew and the rack. Nor were they Nay, Cain admits, in effect, that even son, who both vindicated the Holocaust available to those who fought the Thirty motivationally, theism is not morally as divine justice, are Years' War in Europe for religious world figures in superior to secularism. He grants that orthodox Judaism! stakes, or who slaughtered the Hugue- the leaders of religious institutions, Recent terrorist attacks by Islamic nots, or who organized the loathsome rather than merely the run-of-the-mill fundamentalists prompted William Crusades, or who hanged Quaker faithful, are not more ethical in practice Safire's admonition (the women in Puritan Massachusetts, or to New York than are secular leaders. As he acknowl- Times, March 18, 1993, Op-Ed p. A15) the host of others who prompted edges, both sorts of leaders alike "often that Islam is "one of the world's great Founding Father John Adams to des- put the practical welfare of their insti- religions," and that non-Muslims should cribe the Judeo-Christian tradition as tutions above that of higher ethical refrain from "thoughtlessly lumping "the most bloody religion that ever values." One need only think of the together the orthodox, the secular and existed" (cf. Barbara Ehrenreich, Time, concordats signed by the Roman the extremist." And a lead editorial in September 7, 1992, p. 72). Catholic Pope with Mussolini, Franco, the New Republic (March 29, 1993, p. One of the effects of the inhuman and Hitler. Nor did Pius XII speak out 9) went much further, complaining very religious opposition to female sexual publicly against the Holocaust. implausibly that "the mass media, pleasure as such is that many Muslims Thus, it is further grist to my mill, showing its [sic] habitual contempt for and some Christians continue to perform when Cain points out that secularists like religion, conflated Islam with the most ritual clitoridectomies (removals of the Willy Brandt and religionists like bizarre of modern cults [in Waco, Texas] clitoris). It is estimated that there are Niemoeller and Bonhoeffer appealed and treated the two as almost inter- currently perhaps 80 million living alike to an authority higher than their changeable." victims of this barbarity in about twenty secular government in resisting the No doubt, there are great numbers African countries, in several Middle Nazis. Just this record shows that there of Muslims who abhor terrorism and Eastern nations, and in parts of Indone- can readily be moral parity between who interpret their religion in a humane sia, Malaysia, and the India-Pakistan secularists and theists, rather than the way. But Safire's caveat against lumping Subcontinent. (See A. M. Rosenthal, vaunted superiority proclaimed by the the orthodox together with the extremist "Female Genital Torture," New York theists I challenged in my original article. surely makes insufficient allowance for Times, December 29, 1992.) 4. But what of Cain's complaint that several stubborn facts: (1) Shiite clerics Indeed, all of us—theists and atheists my citations of rabbinical theodicies of have loudly claimed the sanction of alike—owe to secularism the pressure the Holocaust were statistically mislead- Islam for meting out death-sentences to that led to the development of religious ing as to Jewish theological responses apostates for affronts against Allah freedom, at least in countries with to that cataclysm? To this charge, my (God) or against the Prophet. Thus, established state religions. Who is it in reply is twofold. declaring someone an unbeliever, i.e., to Israel nowadays that keeps the country In the first place, he turned a blind engage in takfir al hakim, provides from being turned into a tyrannical eye to the initial disclaimer with which religious warrant for killing the infidel; theocracy on the model of the Islamic I prefaced my Section "The Problem of (2) Notoriously, the Immam Khomeini states (e.g. , Iran)? Evil and the Moral Permissiveness of in Iran issued a fatwa (religious ruling), 3. Cain unwittingly concedes the Theism," a disclaimer that is, however, making it the religious duty of any hollowness of the much-vaunted moral even support for my case. As I wrote Muslim to assassinate Salman Rushdie superiority of theism over secular (p. 31): for blasphemy. To boot, the Immam's

60 FREE INQUIRY

successor, Ayatullah Khamenai ("the And Buber (p. 105) speaks of this "God ever that is]" (p. 33). In short, the phe- leader"), rejected appeals to rescind of Israel" as "not fixing Himself to any nomenological version is that "God is Rushdie's death sentence, and actually form and withdrawing Himself from not deliberately hiding himself from doubled the $1 million bounty for every manifestation" (p. 106). Yet "The men—it is they who have become carrying it out. Besides, President eclipse of the light of God is no incapable of seeing Him" (Edwards, Rafsanjani of Iran reaffirmed the fatwa extinction; even tomorrow that which 1969, p. 34). as irrevocable. (3) Fatwas may also be has stepped in between may give way" But, as Edwards (1969, p. 34) goes issued to enjoin a jihad (holy war), or (1952, p. 129). And again speaking of on to explain, according to Buber's more to counteract any perceived threats to the "God of Israel" (p. 103), Buber radical version of the doctrine, "Men Islam. They have been and are now being characterizes "His righteousness" as "the cannot in our times find God, not or used in some Islamic countries to confirmation of what is just and the not just because they have become suppress secularism. overcoming of what is unjust" (p. 104). incapable of I-Thou relationships, but True enough, some Egyptian Sunni In his Lindley Lecture "Buber and rather because God has turned his back clerics have deemed the fatwa against Buberism: A Critical Evaluation," Paul on the world. This `divine silence,' in Rushdie as less than justified. But just Edwards (1969) was therefore justified [Buber's disciple] Fackenheim's words, this elasticity in the conception of in pointing out that there are two `persists no matter how devoutly we theologically sanctioned moral injunc- versions of Buber's Eclipse of God listen.'" Indeed, the more radical version tions demonstrates the ethical permis- doctrine. Ignoring Buber's attribution of of the eclipse theory, which focuses on siveness that I deplored in Jewish self-concealment to God, Cain believes God's self-concealment from the world Holocaust theology. Hence it was erroneously that by pointing to the first in our age is, "as Buber rightly observes, misleading on Safire's part to depict version, he can exclude the second. ... clearly implied in various passages Islam as currently being "under attack The phenomenological formulation in the Bible." from within." And Cain ought to be makes God's elusiveness into a human Thus, Buber's reiteration of the deeply embarrassed anew by the mur- artifact. As given on some pages of biblical theme of divine self-concealment derous fatwas, precisely because—in Buber's Eclipse of God (1952, pp. 127 is flatly at odds with Cain's two unten- Safire's words—"Islam [is] one of the and 129), it states, in Edwards's words able, though patronizing pronounce- world's great religions." (1969, p. 33): "Modern man, in Buber's ments: "What Grünbaum fantasizes as Ironically, Cain thinks that the terminology, is so absorbed in I-It a matter of God himself going into writings of the God-is-dead theologian dealings that he has lost the capacity for eclipse is on the contrary, for Buber, Richard Rubenstein and of Emil Fack- the I-Thou relationship; and this has something that occurs between man and enheim support his complaint. Yet made it impossible for him to find God." transcendent reality due to a change in Rubenstein not only rejected traditional As Edwards notes (p. 34), this man's basic stance towards things." And Jewish theology but has become an phenomenological version is hardly "Nothing Grünbaum says has anything apologist for none other than the original with Buber. Besides having been to do with the words and thoughts of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the high held by other theologians, it even the real-life Buber." The actual fantasy resembles "Heidegger's claim that mod- priest of the Unification church, whose is Cain's dialogical God, not my attri- ern man, because of his immersion in minions brainwash rootless Jewish bution of outrageous absenteeism to beings and his excessive concern with Buber's self-concealing God. college students. As for Fackenheim, I technology, has `forgotten Being' [what- As for Buber on Auschwitz, Edwards shall deal further on with the latter's (1973) article "On the Eclipse of God," which articulates and develops Buber's ZYASHLEIGH doctrine of that name. * 5. Citing Isaiah (45:15), Martin BRILLIANT!, Buber tells us that, according to the o,,..,.,...... Hebrew Bible, "the living God is not only IF en.:4111- SI4 a self-revealing but also a self-concealing God" (1952, p. 66; see also pp. 105-106). ALL POWER Indeed, he asks rhetorically (1952, p. 66): CORRUPTS,

.. whether it may not be literally true that God spoke to us and is now silent, and whether this is not to be understood as the Hebrew Bible understands it, namely, that the living WHAT DOES IS God is not only a self-revealing but SAY ABOUT also a self-concealing God [reference AN ALL- POWERFUL GOD omitted]. Let us realize what it means to live in the age of such a conceal- ment, such a divine silence... .

Winter 1993/94 61 (1969, p. 46) cites the same 1951 Buber estrangement has become too cruel, of God. . . . God was even more paper "The Dialogue Between Heaven the hiddenness too deep.... Dare inscrutable than had hitherto been and Earth" as does Cain, but concludes we recommend to the survivors of Auschwitz, the Job of the gas thought, and His revelations even more the opposite (Edwards, 1973, p. 395): chambers: "Give thanks unto the ambiguous and intermittent."(Quoted in Lord, for He is good; for His mercy Edwards, 1973, p. 395.) In short, the Phenomena like Auschwitz, according endureth forever"? (Quoted in refuting import of the problem of evil to Buber, do not show that there is Edwards and Pap, 1973, pp. 394-395.) is shabbily parried by the twin devices no God but rather that there are of (1) attributing morally irresponsible periods when God is in eclipse. It is And, as Cain points out helpfully by his not just that modern men, because of absenteeism to God, and (2) declaring quotations, Buber offers no vindication their absorption in technology and the reason for this irresponsibility to be material progress, have become incap- or theodicy of the Holocaust, unlike the unfathomable. able of hearing God's voice. God array of rabbis whom I cited. Thus, on Edwards (1973, p. 394) spoke of himself is silent in our age and this just this particular point, I was exeget- Buber as a "highly influential Jewish is the real reason why his voice has ically mistaken in regard to Buber. not been heard. philosopher," as do other scholars who All the same, if God's eclipse- are actually sympathetic to Buber's absenteeism means anything, it consti- 6. But what of the merits of Buber's views. Yet Cain, ever eager to find fault, tutes an immunizing device against the trots out trade-union parochialism to hypothesis that though God is always devastatingly refuting import of the very much alive, there are periods when quibble lamely against me that "it is Holocaust, which Edwards stated so incorrect to label he conceals Himself by withdrawing into Buber 'a Jewish cogently and eloquently. theologian.' " Buber silence and inaction? Edwards's devas- extolled the "God Indeed, as he shows furthermore of Israel" in his Eclipse of God. In any tating reply is right on the mark (1973, (Edwards, 1969, pp. 44-49 and 1973, pp. case, what hangs on the label? pp. 397-398): 395-398), the elaboration of Buber's At this point, Cain has clearly scraped ideas by Emil Fackenheim in his (1973) the bottom of the barrel. But through- The obvious retort to it is that God's "On the Eclipse of God" even elevates out, despite his fanfare, none of his self-concealment is inconsistent with the escapist and evasive role of the his perfect goodness or indeed with arguments has advanced the debate on any kind of goodness on his part. If eclipse-doctrine into an epistemological any of the key issues. a child is in terrible trouble and his virtue: As Fackenheim sees it, whereas father knows about it and could come the goodness in the world does verify References to the child's help but refuses to do the benevolence of God, the evils of the so, i.e., begins to "conceal" himself, Buber, M. Eclipse of God, New York: Harper world do not refute it, because the faith & Brothers, 1952. this would not, surely, be the mark of the true believer will not be psycho- Edwards, P., "Buber and Buberism: A Critical of a perfectly good father. On the Evaluation," The Lindley Lecture, University contrary, we would regard him as a logically shaken by the horrors of this of Kansas, November 3, 1969; copyright 1970 monster. It is difficult to see what world. But, as we know, characteristi- by the Department of Philosophy, University other response could be justified cally the delusions of paranoiacs and of of Kansas. Edwards, P., "Buber, Fackenheim and the Appeal toward a deity behaving in this fanatics are likewise not dislodged by fashion. If a Jew in Auschwitz des- to Biblical Faith," in: Edwards & Pap, (eds.) perately needs God's assistance, if God adverse evidence! A Modern Introduction to Philosophy, Third The upshot of Fackenheim's Buber- Edition, New York: The Free Press, 1973, pp. knows about the Jew's need (and he 394-398. must know since he is omniscient), if ian stratagem of rendering Judaic Fackenheim, E. "On the Eclipse of God" in: God furthermore is capable of coming theology irrefutable is this: In Facken- Edwards & Pap, A. (eds.), op. cit. Part V, to the Jew's assistance (since he is heim's view, all that follows from the §44, pp. 523-533. Fackenheim's paper omnipotent he can do this) and if he appeared earlier in Commentary, 1964 and nevertheless refuses to do so but rampancy of evil is that "God's ways are in his book In Quest for Past and Future, instead "conceals himself," then this unintelligible, not that there are no ways Indiana University Press, 1968. • is not simply a deity falling short of complete goodness but a monstrous deity in comparison with whom, as STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION

Bertrand Russell once put it, Nero Date of filing: October 29, 1993 Aver. no. Actual no. would have be regarded as a saint. Title: FREE INQUIRY copies copies Frequency of issue: Quarterly each issue single issue Complete mailing address of known office of during published publication: P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY preceding nearest Buber himself does bewail the horrors 14226-0664 12 months filing date of Auschwitz and acknowledges its Complete mailing address of headquarters of A. Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run) 21,111 19,913 publisher: P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY B. Paid Circulation moral challenge: 14226-0664 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, Publisher: CODESH, Inc., 3965 Rensch Road, street vendors and counter sales 2,642 2,281 Buffalo, NY 14228-0664 2. Mail Subscription 15,765 15,529 Owner: CODESH, Inc., 3965 Rensch Road, C. Total Paid circulation 18,407 17,810 One asks again and again: how is a Buffalo, NY 14228-0664 D. Free distribution 1,811 1,410 Editor: Paul Kurtz, 3965 Rensch Road, E. Total distribution (Sum of C 8 D) 20,218 19,220 Jewish life still possible after Ausch- Buffalo, NY 14228-0664 F. Copies not distributed witz? I would like to frame this Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski, 3965 Rensch 1. Office use, left-over, unaccounted, Road. Buffalo, NY 14228-0664 spoiled after printing 573 292 question more correctly: how is a life Known bondholders, mortgagees and other 2. Returns from news agents 320 401 with God still possible in a time in security holders: None. G. TOTAL (Sum of E, F 1 and 2) 21,111 19,913 which there is an Auschwitz? The

62 FREE INQUIRY celebrate family and friends, the basic generosity of humankind, the end of another year of achievement—to Readers' Forum reward ourselves for being such good Beings. The special section on "Should Humanists Celebrate the Rites of Passage?"(FI, Fall 1993) included Thomas Flynn's "The Trouble with Bradley K. Rudy Christmas," which struck a particular nerve among readers. Below, Oakdale, Pa. we print some of their reactions.—EDS.

Tom Flynn suggests that perhaps we humanists need to forgo the celebra- Welcome to the ranks of anarchy, because they had their origins in prim- tion of Christmas, and that of other defined in my dictionary as "an ideal itive humankind's battle with an incom- holidays as well. I disagree. We are, after society made up of individuals ... who prehensible universe, do we also all, mere mortals possessing varying enjoy complete freedom." We anarchists eliminate tools, crafts, and art since they degrees of courage and stamina. Most have absolutely no use for a Christian also had the same origins? Why does Mr. of us still experience the strife and stress Christmas, seasonal solstices, giving Flynn come across as a Scrooge using of earning a living, and suffer frustra- gifts, or any of the stuff that even infidels his humanism to justify his stinginess? tion, disappointment, and sorrow. Being cling to during December. I "saw the More to the point, why, as a humanist a humanist in this society also car- light" when I was eight years old: Santa myself, do I find this disturbing? ries a costly price tag as we surrender Claus left the price tag on my chemistry Mr. Flynn cannot "get excited just the security of a "higher power" and set. Over the years I refused to help because the days are getting longer." I sense an insularity from our theist friends decorate the ubiquitous evergreen and can. There is nothing that depresses me and family members. We need merri- when I finally left home at age eighteen, more than leaving work at 5:00 P.M. in ment, rituals, and celebrations to add I was no longer required by parental the dark. When the winter solstice rolls zest to life and to help us face its authority to send syrupy Hallmark around, I start crossing the days off my problems. holiday cards to religious relatives. calendar until spring. But this is not Christmas in particular appeals be- enough reason to celebrate Christmas. cause of its gaiety and sparkle, and it Valery Countryman Mr. Flynn suspects that the "whole matters not what we call it. Understand- St. Louis, Mo. idea of a holiday—that is, a special day ing the scientific explanation for the set aside from the humdrum grind of winter solstice doesn't make the drab life for the enjoyment of socially days any less dreary. People of today I am an atheist, and I love Christmas. approved excess—no longer serves real also want to rejoice when the darkest I think it is sad that some nontheist social or emotional needs." This is time is over and to brighten the season rational humanists deprive themselves of incorrect, unless of course, Mr. Flynn with light and color. The pleasure the delights of this two-thousand-year is enamored of humdrum grinds. I involved in exchanging gifts and feasting old folk holiday. They dare not relax suspect that any celebration to break together has little to do with material from self-conscious, absolutist rational- that can only be psychologically bene- or physical need. Most of us simply ism, a joyless, cold thing. They dare not ficial. welcome respite from routine and prize join the rest of human society in the Mr. Flynn is worried that theists will the opportunity to gather with friends magic of make-believe. Can't humans use our celebrating Christmas to justify and loved ones. The occasions for such dream a little? For at least a brief period their political agenda of "Christianizing" assemblage are all too rare in our busy, people think about giving and shared the country. I believe this is true. I also mobile society. merriment. believe theists use anything they can to Our innate yearning to be a vital, justify their agenda. When we alter our social part of a community dates back C. Lee Hubbell behavior because we're afraid of what to our most primitive days, and discov- Chicago, Ill. theists will do or think, we are letting ering the value of fellowship probably them control us. helped to foster human survival. Mr. Flynn is worrying about keeping Humanism must appeal to more than I celebrate Christmas for reasons I shall the bathwater when we "threw out the just the intellect if it is ever to be widely discuss later. Babe long ago." He should. He seems accepted. It has to meet our basic human Why is it not okay for humanists to to want to make all our lives as dull desires for fun and festivities, and be celebrate Christmas to avoid what theists as that bathwater. I'm just puzzled why there to comfort when we are saddened may think, but it is okay to not celebrate he didn't attack birthdays, weekends, and in despair. We desperately need Christmas to avoid what nontheists may and fraternity parties. humanist social centers where we can think? If we must eliminate holidays So, why celebrate Christmas? To join together for mutual support, feed-

Winter 1993/94 63 back, and inspiration, where we can Tom Flynn replies: gather to welcome the seasons and commemorate the rites of passage and My critics share two themes: (1) secular have argued that changes in the condi- other important events. humanists should renovate traditional tions of life and in the way humans religious holidays, not discard them, and understand their world have rendered Elizabeth F. Lafler (2) giving up Christmas means giving up most of our familiar holidays and rituals North Tonawanda, N.Y. merriment in all its forms. ineffective. Readers Hubbell, Lafler, and In my new Prometheus book The Rowell strongly defend their traditional Trouble With Christmas I argue that observances, from which they claim to I resent Thomas Flynn's attempt to humanists need to be more open in draw great satisfaction. But there is deprive me of my New Year's cham- resisting, rather than assimilating, reason to doubt that these ancient pagne. I will have it anyway. Also, I see cultural practices that express the observances do—or can—work as well a lurking secular humanist puritanism dominant role of religion in social life. for contemporary men and women as that worries me. Ever since Black Power rose from the we have been conditioned to expect. Can Since when does a winter solstice ashes of the civil rights movement, it has moderns who understand something of celebration (or Yuletide, which I prefer been clear that American minorities physics and psychology really undergo to call Christmas) trade in human most effectively earn respect and the same experience, much less derive helplessness? Certainly there are ancient broaden their opportunities by being the same emotional benefit, from tradi- superstitious elements in it, but essen- assertive about things that make them tional observances as did ancestors tially it is a human recognition that a different. By contrast, accommodation whose holidays and rituals were power- year has turned. That is not a super- (the old "melting pot" strategy) tends to ful for them precisely because no one stition, but a worldly fact. The ancient reinforce the status quo. To accommo- understood how they worked? I think Celts celebrated New Year's day at date is to serve notice that one is content not. Midsummer, so our particular choice is to go on being a doormat. Humanists Reader Rudy suggests that this goes a matter of convention, but the point who seek to "reclaim" Christmas and too far, that my approach would also is the same. other holidays are pursuing a strategy imply the elimination of "tools, crafts, Mr. Flynn is grievously wrong if he of accommodation. Our zeal to "fit in" and art." In fact, humans have always thinks modern times have liberated most undermines our position and erodes our eliminated tools, crafts, and art forms people from "the humdrum grind of life." credibility. If for humanists to disdain of ancient origin when historical change We live longer, healthier lives, of course, Christmas on these grounds constitutes made them irrelevant—or when we but tedium vitae is an existential fact of letting theists "control us," as reader discovered something better. Have you life, and jobs, of any sort, are more Rudy suggests, then the activist groups used a flint knife today? Artifacts come humdrum than ever. We certainly need that have revolutionized popular atti- and go, but categories remain while occasional bouts of "the enjoyment of tudes toward gays and lesbians in recent they are fruitful. In my opinion, Christ- socially approved excess." years must be similarly "controlled" by mas belongs to several categories— Flynn did not mention gift-giving. homophobes. Who can take us seriously harvest festival, mid-winter festival, This is an ancient tradition, long pre- when we claim to live without religion festival of mass consumption, and the dating Christmas, and observed in but cannot even live without one like—that are no longer fruitful for us. cultures all over the world at special religion's major holiday? They simply don't have much to say to times. It renews bonds and friendships That does not imply that secular moderns. and brings job into many lives. It also humanists ought to be lemon-sucking Anyone who doubts that there is an teaches the virtues of sharing. Should rationalists who disdain all expressions element of oppression by the com- we deprive children of this? It is certainly of human emotion. It's amazing how munity in Christmas is invited to go Yule something secular humanists should many critics fell into the trap of stereo- free for a year or two and see first- support. We need only make sure that typing me that way. In my book I trace hand! it is defined as an ancient human custom the roots of popular bigotry against To my fellow secular humanists, I say, and has nothing to do with Christianity. people who opt out of Christmas. Lighten up! Loosen that death grip on I think Mr. Flynn has got his priorities Secular humanists who are angered Christmas and Easter, on weddings and wrong. Yuletide, New Year's Eve, and when people ask them how they can funerals and graduation ceremonies. also Easter should be reclaimed by possibly be moral without religion ought Until we have let them go, there seems secular humanists, not abandoned. They to think twice before using "Scrooge" to be little hope that newer forms will represent factual calendar events, not as a slur. arise—ways to celebrate the good things dogmas. We should not become modern- On the contrary, humanists have so in our lives and take stock of the bad day puritans, afraid of life's pleasures. much to celebrate that it seems to foolish that both respect individual integrity, to limit ourselves to the received forms and speak to our emotional and social George Rowell of traditional holidays, Christmas needs under the conditions of modern New York, N.Y. included. It may even be impossible. I life. •

64 FREE INQUIRY (Letters, cont d. from p. 3) represent reality. If one person believes Christian displays other behavioral Jesus Christ was the son of a supernat- characteristics that, while not insane, are Religion and Insanity ural being and another person believes questionable, including hatred for non- Jesus Christ was not, it is impossible for Christians and self-righteousness. One of the corollaries of Murphy's Law both of them to be right. There is only is this: No matter how hard you try to one reality. Hugo Borresen write clearly, somebody is bound to It is becoming clear that the halluc- Alexandria, Va. misunderstand you. This is demon- inations arise from a failure of the strated in the letter by Lois Porter (FI, nervous system to correctly process Fall 1993) regarding my article on information. If a person claims to see Asking why an intelligent person isn't "Realistic Humanism" in the Summer the Virgin Mary in a tree and a camera an atheist is like asking why a tall person issue. Porter interprets my words to finds nothing objectively visible, then the isn't a basketball player: only one of the make it sound as though I said "one person making the claim is generating requirements has been met. Rationality, person's reality is often another's fan- images in his/her mind and is thinking objectivity, common sense, and critical tasy." However, reading through my that these images are coming in through thinking do not automatically go hand- article again, I cannot find that statement the optic nerve. in-hand with intelligence. As a case in anywhere. What I do think is that when From these examples we see that point, I am a former member of the two people observe one event, they may the question of religion as a form of Mensa Society. I say "former" because think that two different things happened insanity is a multi-dimensional prob- I left the organization after a disturbing (the Rashomon phenomenon). This is lem. Religion is programmed into discovery. The Mensa newsletter regu- because each observer makes his own each individual at an early age. The larly encouraged new members to join interpretation of reality, even though manifestations of religion may be sim- one of their SIGs (Special Interest there is only one physical reality. One ple illusions giving harmless comfort, Groups). What caused me to withdraw observer's interpretation may be a more or they may be violent delusions mot- my membership was the number of SIGs accurate representation of reality than ivating any number of terrible actions: that dealt with ESP, psychic ability, the other's. One interpretation may be wars, inquisitions, terrorism, etc. They channeling, witchcraft, crystal power, mainly fantasy. But it is never correct may arise from simple errors in infor- and numerous other paranormal activ- to label this fantasy the observer's mation or result from distortions of ities. And these people had tested in top "reality." To say that each person has perception due to flaws in the nervous 2 percent of our society, intellectually "his own reality" is a modern cliché— system. The degree of insanity is mea- speaking! a mislabeling derived from the philo- sured by the degree to which the belief Paul T. Grim sophical relativism popular in many deviates from the nature of the real Van Nuys, Calif. circles. This relativism may be valid world. in purely subjective matters; you may However, and paradoxically, beliefs think a certain piece of music is awful, that deviate a small amount from reality Presidential Prayer while I think it is wonderful. (The music may in fact be necessary for the indi- itself, as defined by its sound waves, vidual to function in the world. Or to In a prelude to his recent speech on doesn't care what we think about it.) put it metaphorically, a little insanity health care, delivered to Congress and But in the objective world of physical may be good for the soul. Most of the the nation via radio and television, objects there is only one reality. You fun in life comes from fantasy. President Bill Clinton asked Congress, cannot turn a cube into a sphere by and in effect the nation, for a minute any amount of fantasizing. You cannot Milton Rothman of silent prayer for the victims of the make yourself float unsupported by Philadelphia, Pa. Amtrak accident in Alabama. I believe levitation no matter how hard you his behavior has set a precedent and imagine it. thinking people ought to find this I belabor this point because it is The question "Is Religion a Form of alarming. When a president encourages important in dealing with the question Insanity" (FI, Summer 1993) ignores the nation to pray for something of his of insanity and its relation to religion. some obvious symptoms: visions (Virgin own choosing—a desired event, goal, Paranoid fantasies arise from ideas Mary, 900-foot Jesus); voices (God policy, anything—he implies the sanc- created within the mind that are in talking); belief in unseen (soul, witches, tion of God. This is wrong—manifestly opposition to reality. If a person believes hell, Satan, angels); belief in miracles contrary to the ethos of a nation that the Earth is 10,000 years old, this is (healing prayer, transubstantiation, at bottom believes that religion must be simply a fantasy, because objective weeping statues, transvection, faith contained and not be allowed to con- measurements show the Earth to be healing, resurrection); faith overriding taminate the political arena. several billion years old. If several people reason (Bible infallible, Second Com- have incompatible beliefs it is impossible ing); self-denial (celibacy, castration, Ronald Markman for more than one of these beliefs to asceticism, monasticism). The true Smith River, Calif.

Winter 1993/94 65 Believing inGod Priest FiredforNot priests becausehedidnotbelieveinGod. "the sumofhumanaspirations"rather refusing towithdrawhisnewbook been firedfromhispostasatutorto humanism whichmeantGodwasmerely in Us, in man'saffairs."(Reuters) than "asupernaturalbeingintervening Seized, Cremated London—An Anglicanclergymanhas Holy Man'sBody Reverend AnthonyFreeman,firedfor man afterseizinghisbodyfromfollowers officer, wereinjuredwhentheyraided the headquartersofacultcalledSantan waiting fortheirguru'sresurrection. who hadguardeditfor55dayswhile Calcutta—Police crematedaHinduholy cated thebody.WestBengalstatelaw Several policemen,includingatop body within24hoursofdeath.Five requires thecremationordisposalofa power andtelephonelines.Thesiege three-story SantanDalbuildingonthe thousand policemensurroundedthe ended aboutsixhourslater,whenpolice outskirts ofCalcuttaandcutoffits from achilledroom,whereitwaslying stormed thebuildingandseizedbody 66 under whitesheets.HundredsofSantan even tossedchilipowderintotheeyes charged atthepolicewithtridents— Dal, orChildren'sGroup,andconfis- three-pronged spears—threwbricks,and of officers.(AP) says aGallup poll.Just52percentof Clergy GetLow Dal membersfoughtback.Devotees Confidence inthehonestyand ethicsof U.S. clergyhasreachedanall-time low, said hebelievedinaChristian - Confidence Vote God In theNameofGod teachers, andengineers. are veryhighorhigh.From1977until firm translated attacker outsidehishouse.William and seriouslywoundedbyanunknown ers Aschehoug,wasrushedtoahospital 1985, opinionpeaked(67percent). Publisher of for anemergencyoperationafterbeing shot threetimesintheback.(Reuters) Beat theDevil Americans saystandardsamongclergy Oslo—A Norwegianpublisherwhose successfully exorcizedangryspiritsfrom license ofapsychologistwhosayshe a 10-year-oldboywithBible,holy Clergy rankbelowpharmacists,college exorcism for12years."Nooneseems board cantrecognizeprayerastreat- need arose."It'sasadstatewhenthe British authorSalmanRushdiewasshot Nygaard, directorofNorwegianpublish- would performanexorcismagainifthe water, acrucifix,andprayer.Kenneth to carethattheboyseemscured."(AP) ment," saidOlson,whohaspracticed from hisfailed1988presidential cam- Olson, aLutheranminister,saidhe Phoenix—A stateboardrevokedthe Robertson MustRepay broadcaster PatRobertsontopayback paign. Thecommissionvoted 5to1 almost $400,000indisputedspending order AmericansforRobertson, Inc.to Money from'88Race repay $290,794totheUnited States organizations. Thecommissionfound Commission hasorderedthereligious Treasury andtorefund$105,635 tonews Washington—The FederalElection Satanic Verses The SatanicVerses (The Oregonian) Shot by exceeded spendinglimitsinIowaand expenses forwhichitshouldnothave public moneytodefraycampaign been usedandthatthecampaignhad news organizationsforairtravel.The that Mr.Robertson'scampaignhadused pay taxesontime. several familiesthatbaptismsheper- amount toberepaidincludesalmost $22,000 incivilpenaltiesforfailingto formed weredeclaredinvalidbecausehe altered thewordingofHolyTrinity "I wastryingtouselanguagemore New Hampshire.ItalsosaidMr. to deletereferencesgender.Instead Called Invalid Genderless Baptisms of usingthetraditional"Father,Sonand issues. Iwasn'ttryingtomakeapolitical Robertson's campaignhadoverbilled statement, "Larkinsaid.(AP) sensitive towomenandtheirpastoral of GodourCreator,throughJesus Boston—A RomanCatholicpriesttold Holy Spirit,"theReverendWilliam Larkin baptizedchildren"inthename Christ inthepowerofHolySpirit." (New YorkTimes) FREE INQUIRY

BERRY'S WORLD reprinted by perm ission o f NEA, Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.) Paul Kurtz, Chairman The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to fostering the growth of the traditions of democracy and secular humanism, and the principles of free inquiry in contemporary society. In addition to publishing FREE INQUIRY magazine, CODESH sponsors many organizations and activities, and is also open to Associate Membership. Members receive the Secular Humanist Bulletin. African-Americans for Humanism James Madison Memorial Committee Norm Allen, Jr., Executive Director Robert Alley, Chairman Brings the ideals of humanism to the African-American com- Keeps alive James Madison's commitment to the First munity. Amendment and to liberty of thought and conscience. Inquiry Media Productions Society of Humanist Philosophers Thomas Flynn, Executive Director Timothy J. Madigan, Executive Director Produces radio and television programs presenting skeptical Promotes and defends the study of humanist philosophy. and secular humanist viewpoints on a variety of topics. Institute for Inquiry Secular Organization for Sobriety (SOS) James Christopher, Executive Director Vern Bullough, Dean A secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous with more Offers courses in humanism and skepticism; sponsors an than 1,000 local groups throughout North America. Pub- annual summer session and periodic workshops. lishes a newsletter available by subscription. Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial Committee Roger Greeley, Honorary Chairman Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Dedicated to running the Robert G. Ingersoll birthplace Effort (SHARE) museum in Dresden, N.Y., and to keeping his memory alive. Assists victims of natural disasters through secular efforts. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) Gerald A. 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The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the academy, listed below, (1) are devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) are committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) uphold humanist ethical values and principles. The academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights, freedom, and the dignity of the individual; tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise; commitment to social justice; a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers; and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society.

The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles

• We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. • We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. • We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. • We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. • We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. • We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. • We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. • We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. • We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. • We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. • We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. • We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. • We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. • We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. • We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. • We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. • We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. • We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. • We affirm human- ism as a realistic alterna- tive to theologies of de- spair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.

• We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. • We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.

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