The Good Old Days? They Were Not That Good!

April 25, 1999
Tarpon Springs

May 9, 1999
Sarasota

[Editor’s Note: This is a sermon, based on a March 1, 1994 musing]

In order to solve the problems of crime, corruption and education, we are frequently exhorted to return to a time when Christian religion prevailed because that faith was the foundation of our nation. A typical paragraph from a letter to the Editor is representative of the attitude of many fundamentalist Christians:

“Our nation was founded by godly people seeking to further their Christian faith, and God wondrously blessed and sustained their efforts, and those of succeeding generations. We must realize that we compromise and reject our founding values at great peril to our nation.”

Somehow, many people seem to believe our problems can be solved by returning to a world that never was. The ancient Greeks believed in a Golden Age. Hesiod wrote, “They lived like Gods, free from worry and fatigue; old age did not afflict them; they rejoiced in continual festivity.” They were not immortal but they died as “though overcome by sweet slumber. All the blessings of the world were theirs, the fruitful earth gave forth its treasures unbidden. At their death they became guardians and teachers of the living.”

That Golden Age never existed. There never was a pre-”sin” Paradise in a Garden of Eden either. Such beliefs were never founded in historical fact, but on dissatisfaction with given circumstances, frustration with social problems that seemed unsolvable, perhaps as methods of social control, or attempts to explain mysteries about the human condition.

We do face massive and complex problems with crime, poverty, education, taxes, downsizing/unemployment, dealing with how to pay for doctors, hospitals, prescriptions, insurance premiums (whether you call it a crisis or not.) It is a PROBLEM when you face it; it is a CRISIS when I face it. However to believe that today’s vexing, frustrating issues would be solved by a return to the beliefs and actions of the “Founding Fathers” is to lend validity to a nostalgic glow which is artificially lighted.

For example, in the book BOSTON OBSERVED, written by an old friend and fellow Universalist minister, Carl Seaburg, he quotes a letter written by a visitor from England, Edward Ward, in the year, 1699:

“....(Boston) is the metropolis of all New-England. The Houses in some parts joyn as in London. The buildings, like their women, being neat and handsome. And the streets, like the hearts of the male inhabitants, are paved with pebble.

“The inhabitants seem very Religious, showing many outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace. But tho’ they wear in their Faces the innocence of Doves, you will find them in their dealings, as Subtile as Serpents. Interest is their Faith, Money their God, and Large Possessions the only Heaven they covet.

“Election, Commencement and Training-days, are their only Holy-days; they keep no Saints Days, nor will they allow the Apostles to be Saints, yet they assume that Sacred Dignity to themselves; and say, in the Title Page of their Psalm-Book, ‘Printed for the edification of the Saints in Old and New England.’

“They have been very severe against adultery, which they have punish’d with Death; yet, notwithstanding the harshness of their Law, the Women are of such noble souls, and undaunted Resolutions that they will run the hazard of being Hang’d, rather than not be reveng’d on Matrimony, or forbear to discover the Corruption of their own natures.”

Edward Ward observed the Bostonians’ widespread religious hypocrisy and greed for money and possessions (“Money was their God”). His paragraph on adultery was a gentle but candid observation of sexual promiscuity. Typical, however, is his implicit condemnation of women, but not their necessary male partners. Would we really solve our problems by such materialism, morals, and manners?

In the same 17th century, a Quaker, Mary Dyer, was executed, hanged on Boston Common for religious heresy and protest. Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams were expelled from the Colony because they were religious dissenters. The late 17th century also witnessed the hysterical, infamous Salem witch trials, when 20 women and one man were executed.

In Great Britain, the cruelties in mine and mill in the expanding mercantile era are almost beyond belief. The work-day ran from 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 days a week. Most sickening and disgusting of all, children as young as five or six were full-time workers in mill and mine.

In mines where the passages might have been only 18” high, little boys and girls, crawling on all fours, hitched to small coal carts struggled through. Infant mortality? Half of ALL children born in the cities of GB died before reaching the age of six. In many cities, 1/3 to ½ of all infants were illegitimate. Women were forced into prostitution in order to eat, left their newborn infants in corners, or smothered them, or left them at the door of an orphanage. They utterly despaired of feeding them and housing them. Mother’s Day? Every day for them was grief and shame and suffering.

This was a period when the owners and entrepreneurs thoroughly believed in the economic law of supply and demand. If costs went up, demand would decline. Therefore, cheapest labor. Not to speak of the conclusion of some, that terrible, deadly living conditions were an acceptable form of population control. And these were Christians in a Christian nation. This was a time when a person could be indicted, jailed, fined, ostracized for publicly denying the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity of Christ or the miraculous physical Resurrection. But there was no law or prevailing opinion to halt the cruel and deathly exploitation of children and women for profit.

Similar conditions prevailed here in mine and mill. Do you recall Sarah Cleghorn’s bitter lines written before child labor laws were enacted in our country?

“The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.”

Good Old Days? I don't know about you, but I would NOT want a return of such cruelty, malice, exploitation, intolerance and ignorance. In spite of all the numerous letters to editors, NONE of our problems would be solved.

Furthermore, I believe that the last thing the Christian right-wing would want is a return to the religious beliefs of “Founding Fathers.” Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Adams, Tom Paine were Deists. Briefly and perhaps over-simplified, Deists believed in a God of Nature, who in the beginning set up a Universe governed by natural laws – clockwork was a favorite analogy. But this God of Nature did not interfere in the affairs of humankind to damn or save anyone. Deism represented a substantially different and heretical theology from the Christian gospel of the Atonement, Trinity and Resurrection. You can look it up, as they say.

What do you think of this description of our world: “This is the present: everything is tottering, immeasurably confused, tumultuous, unmanageable. Everything is debased, exhausted, past hope.” Is that a quote from Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson? No, that was written by J. G. Drysen, a German historian in the 1840s.

One more quotation, who do you think said this, “How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.” Was that Ross Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, Ken Starr? None of these, it was Henry David Thoreau in 1848.

We learn from history if we are aware of it and are not beguiled by nostalgic falsehoods or non-historical myths. Our social problems are formidable. We need all the help we can muster. Helena, in ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, says,

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to Heaven; the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.”

We are no longer sparsely populated colonies with unlimited natural resources but a nation of nearly three hundred million people. There is no “going West” for pioneers any more. There are no longer deep-soiled prairies waiting for a first plowing. In the larger cities there is an inner core of overcrowding, pollution, hopelessness. Easy answers are unrealistic. To mention just one, there is an illogical conclusion to the continuous building of more prison cells. Are to become a nation comprised of the jailed and the jailers?

Then, too, consider the continuous discussion about health care programs – and the failed effort in Congress a few years ago. We know opposition is heavily financed – not only health, but big dollar opposition to issues of ecology, pollution, and so on. I suggest a simple question when looking at fierce opposition to what seems to be progressive legislation – WHO BENEFITS? Who will make the Big Bucks?

Joseph Califano, who was a political force in the Lyndon Johnson era, speaking about fierce Congressional quarrels about health programs, said, “When you toss trillions of dollars up in the air, the pushing, shoving, fighting for it is going to be brutal with no holds barred. Do you think the ignoring by Congress of something like the Canadian plan has anything to do with the probability that the Big Bucks, the trillions would not be there for the special interests?”

On that and other issues, when you read or do the TV news, why not ask yourself, “Who benefits?”

I do not have unqualified answers. Today, I am not proposing or arguing for particular positions. But in spite of gloomy appraisals, there are positive indications. Violent crime is decreasing; women and minorities are getting increasing recognition, although the task is far from complete. The “Welcoming Church” principle, if we persist, can be contagious enough to sow the seeds of a Welcoming Nation.

But, with all our prized individuality we need a stronger sense of community. Many are disgusted with politics, special interests, ridiculous excess in campaign money-raising and spending.

If you are one of those, like I am, who remember the 30s and 40s, who were there, you know that the sense of community worked in the Depression and WW2; we knew we were all in those tough times together. Think about this: The Lone Ranger never rode alone.

Turned off, too many people do not vote. In the recent election in Sarasota County, the voter turn-out was between 10 and 15%. But the remedy is not to turn away from politics but become more involved. I know so many of you here today are socially responsible, that I’m aware I’m preaching to the Choir. But do not let him or her who says to you, “I’m too disgusted to vote” go unchallenged. The answer to bad politics is better politics. I believe that if there were a 75 to 80% turnout of eligible voters in municipal, county, state, national elections, our legislative representatives at all levels would be compelled to new perspectives of responsibilities in their duties. They would think twice or thrice before becoming the acquiescent agents of special interests. Is a rising tide of civic involvement too much to hope and work for?

One of my fondest hopes is that around the year 2075, my great-great grandchildren and yours and their peers all over the Planet will look back on us and say, “The good old days, they were not that good.” Why will they say that? Because there will have been substantial progress in alleviating pollution, overpopulation, health problems, ethnic hates and wars.

But that can happen only if in OUR time the ounces of OUR weight are in the arena of humane concerns with an ever-rising consciousness that we are all in this together; that we will be adding some building stones for a better present and future.

If any wish to do further reading, or check my references, the following is suggested:

IN THE BEGINNING, THE ADVENT OF THE MODERN AGE, Jerome Blum, Scribner’s, New York, 1994

BLASPHEMY, Leonard Levy, Knopf, 1993

SAGA OF ENGLAND: 1840-1940, Sir Arthur Bryant

REASON TO BELIEVE, Mario Cuomo, Simon and Schuster, 1995. Also his speech to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, earlier in 1999.