STACK 
 
 STACK ANN! 
 
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 sioiil 
 
 BY RABBI MARTIN ZIELONKA 
 
 Based on 
 
 digious Liberty The Great American 
 Illusion" by A. C. Diffenbach. 
 
 TEMPLE Mr. SINAI 
 EL PASO, TEXAS
 
 Stack 
 Annex
 
 Stack 
 
 Is ^Religious Liberty the^ 
 at oAmeri 
 Illusion? 
 
 Great ^American 
 
 J 
 
 Based on "Religious Liberty The 
 Great American Illusion" by A. C. 
 
 Dif fenbach. 
 
 By Rabbi Martin Zielonkka 
 
 "The doctrine that ought to be 
 preached in every pulpit, Protestant, 
 Catholic, Jewish and on every corn- 
 er, is that the spiritual belief of the 
 individual must have unrestricted 
 freedom for its natural development 
 and its own form of expression, be- 
 cause for one thing, sincere religious 
 conviction is the vital element in 
 political progress. The denial of 
 both the principle and the practice 
 of religious liberty and not any the- 
 ories about religion is the greater 
 ci'ime in this day, for without such, 
 America as we know it, could not ex- 
 ist and cannot survive." And yet 
 
 "In the one hundred and fifty 
 years of this Republic there has been 
 a steady degenracy of religious inde- 
 pendence. The proof is to be seen 
 in the intolerant and organized de- 
 mands made for the first time in Am- 
 erican history upon one legislature 
 after another by church leaders not 
 ii; one section only, but in every part 
 of the land. There is hardly a state 
 \\hich has not been attacked. The 
 Fundamentalist is not, as some be- 
 lieve, a Southern religious phenom- 
 enon. He is typical, innumerable, 
 as large a part of Massachusetts and 
 Minnesota as he is of Tennessee and 
 Texas. A cross section of any State 
 will show that America has a Funda- 
 mentalist mind." 
 
 These two quotations present the 
 ideal and the reality of American 
 life. We love to boast of American 
 freedom, especially American Relig- 
 ious Freedom and we claim that it 
 is the backbone of American civil- 

 
 ization. And yet, is that a fact? Does 
 a study of American life show an 
 ever increasing love for liberty and a 
 broadening tolerance towards minor- 
 ities that permits them to develop 
 naturally and add their part to the 
 culture of the next generations? 
 What does the past tell us and what 
 does the present disclose? 
 
 Dr. Diefenbach excuses the writing 
 of his book by the statement that 
 "Everybody is from twenty years to 
 a generation behind except in the 
 things he has studied. It is true of 
 the layman in religion. That is why 
 this book is yritten." 
 
 Everybody believes himself an au- 
 thority on religion. And the less 
 he thinks of it the more sure is he 
 of his own convictions. And if those 
 convictions are shared by a group 
 and that group is the majority group 
 in the city, county or state, he feels, 
 in the words of Wuliam Jennings 
 Bryan "You can do what you please 
 if you have the votes." 
 
 Now that may be true in many 
 matters but it cannot be true of re- 
 ligion and it does not heln in promot- 
 ing Religious Liberty. For after all 
 "A man may rely upon the author- 
 itv of another for an opinion in law, 
 in medicine or in business, to serve 
 his civic rights, his health or his 
 property but in these things his 
 spiritual condition is involved. For 
 his character he must rely upon him- 
 self because only what he himself 
 knows and experiences can be of anv 
 service to him. He must prove all 
 things. He must have perfect liber- 
 ty. To the man who said he believ- 
 ed in being moderately liberal Can- 
 non Liddon suggested that it meant 
 as little to him as that a woman 
 should be moderately virtuous." 
 
 While many may agree with this 
 theory, their actions prove a contrary 
 conception. They say, as a well 
 known French journalist wrote 
 "Gentlemen, when you are in power, 
 we claim liberty in the name of 
 your principles: when we are in pow- 
 er we refuse it to you in the name of 
 our own." 
 
 What "many eminent and brave
 
 churchmen of every Protestant faith 
 are agreed is that freedom from ex- 
 ternal authority, the release from the 
 binding creedal dogmas are absolute- 
 ly imperative, not only for a true 
 Christian Church but for the relig- 
 ious salvation of the people," but 
 when the practical problem is pre- 
 sented they act differently. The con- 
 flict has been on since the founding 
 of this people. It was not written 
 into the constitution but was placed 
 as one of the first amendments. 
 Thomas Jefferson was the outstand- 
 ing leader in favor of complete sep- 
 aration. He asked that his tombstone 
 bear but two facts that he was the 
 founder of the University of Virgin- 
 ia and the author of the Bill of Relig- 
 ious Rights. 
 
 And the history of our people is 
 the repetition of this story of con- 
 flict. The Baptists love to "refer 
 to John Bunyan who remained for 
 years in Bedford prison rather than 
 allow a civil magistrate to dictate 
 where he should go to Church or 
 what he should preach. But it is the 
 Baptists, led by men like John Roach 
 Stratton, who today help to make a 
 law in Tennessee which dictates what 
 shall be taught to the whole people." 
 
 "The Presbyterians refer to the 
 fight of the Scotch Covenanters 
 against Bishops and prayer books, 
 yet drive Harry Emerson Fosdick 
 from one of their great pulpits. 
 
 "The Methodists tell how cheer- 
 fully John Wesley went about in 
 England defying mobs and overcom- 
 ing them, and yet they harassed and 
 broke the heart of one of their most 
 lovable teachers for his Bible Crit- 
 icism. 
 
 "The Episcopalians refer with 
 pride to those burnt at stake op- 
 posite Balliol College, and now they 
 threaten and silence their clergy es- 
 pecially Bishop Lawrence who dared 
 question the literal truth of the Apos- 
 tles Creed." 
 
 Thus does Dr. Dieffenbach indict 
 the great religious forces of Ameri- 
 ca and thus does he draw the con- 
 clusion "In no creedal church was 
 there a single defeat of any Funda-
 
 mentalist dogma. That holds to this 
 day. In five years they have won 
 control of the churches with a total 
 memoership running into more than 
 30 million souls. The Fundament- 
 alists possess the land." 
 
 And yet "No genuine American 
 would silence the Fundamentalists. 
 To do so would be to commit the 
 same spiritual and democratic blun- 
 der that now curses the country." 
 For "you can guarantee a man's 
 property rights by the force of law 
 but you can preserve his freedom of 
 soul only by the spirit of free and 
 tolerant religion." 
 
 Have conditions improved since 
 De Toqueville wrote in 1830 that 
 "there was no country where there 
 was less independence of thought 
 and less real liberty of discussion 
 than in America?" Have conditions 
 changed sine Dieffenbach wrote this 
 book, so that we can say that Relig- 
 ious Liberty is a reality and not an 
 illusion? Or do the facts of the most 
 recent present tell us "that religion 
 now seems an enemy of both educa- 
 tion and liberty the churces have 
 been brought to a status hardly high- 
 er in spiritual value than that of a 
 Chamber of Commerce." 
 
 Let us look at the most recent 
 facts that have come to public not- 
 ice. 
 
 Durant, in his recent book "Tran- 
 sition", describes how he with other 
 liberals went to Tarrytown to speak 
 against the treatment given the Col- 
 orado Coal Strikers and how he and 
 his fellows were hit by over ripe 
 fruit in various stages of decay. Not 
 only was the foundation of American 
 life freedom of speech, denied, but 
 the fundamental of all religions, the 
 brotherhood of man, and therefore, 
 mutual responsibility, was denied 
 also. 
 
 Miss Maude Royden, famous Eng- 
 lish preacher and head of Guild 
 House, London, comes to the United 
 States for a lecture tour. She is a 
 woman of exceptional talent; she is 
 a woman who has performed heroic 
 tasks in religious endeavor; she is a 
 woman of spotless reputation and one
 
 to whom the young womanhood of 
 England looks for guidance. A re- 
 markable character and a keen mind 
 combine to give her place and posi- 
 tion in the religious life of the Eng- 
 lish speaking people. 
 
 But all her talents are wasted, her 
 life work useless and her power for 
 good blasted when the Woman's 
 Home Missionary Society of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of Oak 
 Park, 111., learns that she indulges 
 in an occasional cigarette. They can- 
 cel her contract for a lecture and 
 they set forth to the world the rea- 
 son she smokes. Just what possible 
 influence this could have on her abil- 
 ity as a lecturer or detract from her 
 power as an influence for good, no 
 one can discern. She naturally an- 
 swers "You might just as well say 
 that chewing gum is of religious mo- 
 ment." And just why men who lec- 
 ture before this organization are per- 
 mitted to smoke or their contracts 
 are not canceled because they smoke 
 and the same privilege is not granted 
 to woman one cannot understand. 
 Perhaps, as one newspaper comments 
 "Miss Royden will discover that 
 our most grievous sin is the sin of in- 
 tolerance." 
 
 And if this is the feeling within 
 the group, how can we expect a more 
 liberal attitude toward the outside, 
 especially when the "roup has the 
 power of numbers to enforce its de- 
 mands. This is one of the signs of 
 the times which proves the place of 
 religious liberty in the American en- 
 vironment and it does not prove that 
 it is something real and not an illus- 
 ion. 
 
 In the Senate of the United States 
 rises the Senator from Alabama and 
 attacks and castigates the Catholic 
 Church, the faith that guides the lives 
 of millions of our citizens. And when 
 urged to cease, he continues his 
 ramblings until the Senator from 
 Arkansas and the party leader on 
 the floor is forced to rebuke him 
 and to openlv state that he speaks 
 for his party while the other man is 
 simply speaking as an individual 
 and without authority to s*nak for his
 
 group. In answer thereto he is told 
 that if he came to Alabama and 
 delivered such addresses he would be 
 taken out and "tarred and feather- 
 ed." Senator Heflin may have said 
 later that he was onh r joking and 
 that in the heat of debate words arc 
 uttered that ought not to be taken 
 literally, but the fact remains that 
 words spoken under such conditions 
 usually reflect the secret thoughts 
 of the individual, they are the real 
 thoughts that come forth when the 
 thinking faculty is not under the con- 
 trol of caution or prudence. It 
 speaks not well for Religious Liberty 
 as the back-bone of democracy if, 
 within the Legislative halls even one 
 man should rise and utter such words. 
 For we expect those who represent 
 us at such places to be well grounded 
 in the American traditions and fun- 
 damentals. The thesis of Dr. Dief- 
 fenbach that Religious 'Liberty is 
 only a great American Illusion seems 
 to be carried out when we note such 
 occurances. 
 
 These are the most recent cases 
 that have come to public notice. In 
 each community there may be 
 brought forth incidents recent or 
 farther removed that will give color 
 to similar indictments. 
 
 Is there no cure for this condi- 
 tion? Will the battle go on for un- 
 told generations with liberalism los- 
 ing its ground more and more? Will 
 we continue to pass laws as were 
 enacted by Tennessee or achieve sim- 
 ilar results by edict of a Text Book 
 Commission as was done in Texas? 
 "When they make such a law they 
 stultify religious liberty and ravish 
 the soul of America which was dedi- 
 cated to freedom. They violate the 
 principle of separation of Church 
 and State." 
 
 There is a solution and it can be 
 of value. There must be a change in 
 the church and in the individual. It 
 is not an easy process, but it is an 
 effective one, if we will only give it 
 a trial. Ministers must recognize 
 that the chief business of the church 
 is religion, and not politics and not 
 bickerings in doubtful ethical values,
 
 but upon religious fundamentals. 
 The individual citizen must appreci- 
 ate that "only in so far as citizens 
 are willing to sacrifice themselves can 
 States exist." These two axioms for 
 progress in any republic must be rec- 
 ognized if we want to make Religious 
 Liberty a glorifying factor instead 
 of the great American Illusion. The 
 state must guarantee freedom of 
 speech and of faith, and "Religion 
 must not be chiefly a federation 
 against social ills, but a mighty power 
 for spiritual emancipation." Therein 
 lies our hope and our salvation. The 
 religious forces of America have used 
 their power against social ills and 
 neglected their opportunities for 
 spiritual emancipation. If they will 
 use their power for the latter and 
 withdraw from the former then will a 
 new era rise for us and for future 
 citizens of America. If they refuse to 
 do that, then they will make the 
 boast of our founding a greater il- 
 lusion as the days pass on and our 
 experiment will end in failure. We 
 still have hopes that the religious 
 forces of America will unite on a pos- 
 itive program, instead of a negative 
 one, that they will foster the fine 
 spirit with which our Republic came 
 into existence and renou.-ce the polit- 
 ical power for which they have been 
 striving and that they will accept the 
 advice found in their own testament, 
 "to render unto Caesar the things that 
 are Caesar's and unto God the things 
 that are God's," (Mark 12:17; Ma- 
 thew 22:21.) 
 
 Thus as positive, instead of nega- 
 tive forces they will make Religious 
 Liberty a Reality and not an Illus- 
 ion. Amen.
 
 Of CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS AI
 
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