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A Barbaric Survival
Published in the Agnostic Journal London, England 16 January 1904 (pages 45-46)
Sir,—Why should the British Army be compelled to pray by vote? Surely this is bit a barbaric survival of intolerant times which we might do well to dispense with.
In the King's Regulations for the Army, the following religions are laid down as sufficiently comprehensive for the intellectual powers of British officers and men—vide section 694: A soldier is to be classified under one of the following denominations:—
Church of England; Presbyterian; Wesleyan; Other Protestant (not included in the foregoing); Roman Catholic; Jew.
On the face of it absurdity smiles satirically enough. Half-s-dozen puny squabbling sects of the crucified Galilean, half-a-dozen sects of the gaberlunzies and throat-slitters of Constantine and Henry, out of an almost infinite number of philosophies, systems and religions. What a farce! and savoured too with a soupçon of "Shunyism." Poor old Yahveh, you once walked and talked with us in the pristine garden of Eden, when man was without knowledge and fig-leaves; and now your name scarcely echoes in our thoughts. Are we too knowing, or are we too occupied with our broadcloth and pipeclay sartorial voluntaries of that Adamic figment? Too knowing perhaps, but not brave enough to own it, and cast off these glittering trammels of infant thought and a barbaric age. A Sanger's circus, a Tussaud's chow, as we hideously howl with the former, so do we look stupidly mute with the latter, and like the old gentleman in the "Topper," wag our heads vacantly from side to side in rhythmic cadence to the inane.
Voluntary church attendance in civil life is and has been for a long time now a recognized thing; why in the army should we not be equally tolerant and have voluntary church parades? If it be necessary that the men of a regiment should turn out especially smart once a week, it matters little whether this parade is held on a Sunday or a week day, but it matters a great deal if they are forcibly driven to church a sheep to a pen, and for a rotten system of lies too.
From the point of view of a tolerant Freethinker, the question resolves itself thus: If the men truly believe, they will go to church, parade or no parade, if they can; if they do not, what good does it do them to be driven there?
From the narrow parsonic view compulsory church attendance means a full church, and a respectable palliation for the existence of the parson. A voluntary attendance would mean an empty church, and a slump in parsons, who would than have to seek some more honest employment to make ends meet. Christ and his father have really very little to do with the matter nowadays. They, however, form an excellent stalking-horse whereby one's bread may be buttered. I, for one, do not altogether blame the beetles when looking at them critically, for bread is indispensable, though Christ is not. I do not blame them any more than I blame the prostitute or the thief for indulging in a nefarious and injurious means of making a livelihood. I pity them for falling so low, poor victims of an effete and corrupt age; but I strongly object having to associate with them, and so too do I strongly object to have forcibly to associate with and support the State-paid "effigies" of Christ, and be deafened by their howling rant and humbug.
For centuries were we cramped by the platitudes and sophistries of dogmatic ignorance and the theological intolerance; for centuries with our wings clipped and maimed we crawled through the foul and dismal swamps of the "Dark Ages," but those balmy days of ignorance and torture are past and gone, and with them should pass this petty annoyance, this "barbaric survival" of compulsory church attendance in the British Army.—
Yours truly,
Punjab, India,
December 24th, 1903
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