8. SERMON - Robert Ingersoll and Good, Free Days

I am Wendell Bauer, and thisis Middle America.

Jared Grabb “Christmas Bars (‘Prison Bars’ 2nd Verse Xmas Version)”

8A

Yes, we are past Thanksgiving now… but still smack dab in the middle of a pandemic. My family has been sheltering in place for 8 months now, and like twelve-and-a-half million other Americans, I’m on unemployment. But, hey! It’s Christmas time.

I became an atheist at eighteen, but it still feels good to get together and share some good times with those you love. Then again, like oh so many, my family won’t be gathering for the holiday. We … are in the … middle … of … a … pandemic.

Anyway, we could all use a little something extra this season. I have never done Christmas songs or the like, but while researching a fellow Peorian by the name of Robert Ingersoll, I came across a few passages that seemed fitting for my views and also for the season.

Ingersoll was one of the most famous American orators of the middle 19th Century. Nicknamed “The Great Agnostic,” he became one of the staunchest supporters of the separation of Church and State. As a philosopher, he produced speeches and writings that are still fascinating and inspiring. As an officer for the Union in the Civil War, he was less successful. Ingersoll had raised a unit to fight, but they were quickly defeated and captured by the Confederacy. Lucky for Colonel Ingersoll, he was paroled and allowed to return home, as long as he vowed to no longer take up arms. This practice of catch and release was discontinued later in the war.[1]

A few years back, a co-worker of mine strongly suggested that I give Ingersoll’s writings a look. I did and found many profound ideas, even if they were sprinkled with a dash of blind arrogance. Still, some of it reads as earnest and thoughtful poetry that is difficult to deny.

One short piece that I came to enjoy is called “A Christmas Sermon,” and I would like to read it for you now.

A Christmas Sermon by Robert Ingersoll

The good part of Christmas is not always Christian – it is generally Pagan; that is to say human, natural. Long before Christ was born, the Sun-God triumphed over the powers of Darkness. About the time that we call Christmas the days begin perceptibly to lengthen. Our barbarian ancestors were worshipers of the sun, and they celebrated his victory over the hosts of night. Such a festival was natural and beautiful. The most natural of all religions is the worship of the sun. Christianity adopted this festival. It borrowed from the Pagans the best it has. I believe in Christmas and in every day that has been set apart for joy. We in America have too much work and not enough play. We are too much like the English. I think it was Heinrich Heine (like Hi-Nuh) who said that he thought a blaspheming Frenchman was a more pleasing object to God than a praying Englishman. We take our joys too sadly. I am in favor of all the good free days – the more the better. Christmas is a good day to forgive and forget – a good day to throw away prejudices and hatreds – a good day to fill your heart and your house, and the hearts and houses of others, with sunshine.

Jared Grabb “The Straying Atheist (Middle America Version)”

8B

I’ll deal with my leaving Christianity behind another time, as today I would rather discuss faith. In my twenties, I was a mess. But, I was an honest mess searching for a sense of self and what I would come to find as the right way for me to live.

At the end of my twenty-second year, I rented an apartment with my younger brother, Thomas, and a friend of his, who were both studying at Illinois Wesleyan University. I spent most of my 3 short months of successfully paying rent drinking heavily and gigging. Strangely enough, the life changing element of this time was found in the shared bathroom, where I would read my roommates dog-eared paperback of ‘Breakfast of Champions.’ There, in the humorous writings of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., I found humanism.

What humanism means to me is simple. I want to be kind and loving and good to other people and the rest of the universe. I have faith that others, given the chance, will likely act the same. I believe in the capacity for good in mankind. As a humanist, I think it is perfectly possible to follow religion and be a humanist. Although, it might go against the idea of original sin…. What I love about humanism is what I loved about the Christian Church as a youngster.

I grew up in a pacifist congregation that believed in unconditional love toward the world outside of one’s self. We believed in acting out with that love. Matthew 7:1: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Luke 6:27: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Proverbs 7:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Humanism held all of this without the need for belief in a higher, eternal, omniscient being that I never really felt in my life’s experience. If God is the universe, then science and reason were like the scriptures explaining its truths, even if those scriptures were ever-evolving.

In my atheism and my humanism, I found what I loved about the Church’s teachings along with some of the inner peace that the Church never afforded me.

On Science and Reason by Robert Ingersoll

To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits – to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful; in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned – this is the religion of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the brain and heart.

Jared Grabb “You Are Home”

8C

Christmas can be tough sometimes.

As I’ve said and as you know, Christmas is a day for joy. It’s also a day for ritual. As a child, my parents would get the three of us boys into pajamas before taking us out to the midnight Christmas eve candlelight service at our small church.

We would often fall asleep through the sermon, but we loved the end of the service where the congregation surrounded the sanctuary and lit each other’s candles one-by-one. The whole room would throb and flicker as we sang. These services are still a beautiful and treasured memory….

My mother, Judy, still occasionally invites my family and me out to these services. And, it hurts. It hurts to disappoint her. It hurts to miss out on the beauty of the ritual just because I don’t believe in what is being worshipped.

While Father’s struggle with faith has always been apparent, my Mother’s faith has always seemed so solid. And, I can see that she worries for my… eternal soul. Ouch.

I can’t blame her, but…

I won’t be what I am not. I won’t worship what seems to be a mere fairy tale. I will live by the morality that was handed down by her religion, but my faith is placed elsewhere.

On Disagreement by Robert Ingersoll

Do not imagine for a moment that I think people who disagree with me are bad people. I admit, and I cheerfully admit, that a very large proportion of mankind, and a very large majority, as vast number are reasonably honest. I believe that most Christians believe what they teach; that most ministers are endeavoring to make this world better. I do not pretend to be better than they are. It is an intellectual question. It is a question, first, of intellectual liberty, and after that, a question to be settled at the bar of human reason. I do not pretend to be better than they are. Probably I am a good deal worse than many of them, but that is not the question. The question is: Bad as I am, have I the right to think? And I think I have for two reasons: First, I cannot help it. And secondly, I like it. And let me say here, once for all, that for the man Christ I have infinite respect. Let me say, once for all, that the place where man has died for man is holy ground. And let me say, once for all, that to that great and serene man I gladly pay, I gladly pay, the tribute of my admiration and my tears. He was a reformer in his day. He was an infidel in his time.

Sadface Killer “’03 Hoopin”

8D

So, merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Kwanzaa. Happy holidays. Merry solstice. Whatever you want to say.

Please take this time to reflect. Take this time to find some small way to brighten the days of another during this darkest time in a dark, dark year. Be a reformer. Defend the needy. “Do good to those who hate you.” And, remember that what we are celebrating is a birth. Birth of man, birth of God, birth of sun. Our days get brighter from here on out. Why not help them along the way?

Jared Grabb “Christmas Bars (‘Prison Bars’ Xmas Version Instrumental)

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll