One of the most excellent things about the study of history, or even just prowling around in dusty old boxes of yellowing paper, is the reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ve been pulling folders and reading sermons and correspondence from our mid-Twentieth Century ministers: Westwood, Cole, Gaines, Taylor, and Harris. 

During the time these men were preaching to us, from 1948 through 1983, we fought against some of the cruelest expressions of Ugly Americanism – racial segregation, unrestrained capitalism, homophobia, militarism, and the repression of rights for all but pale, male citizens. Our ministers all had important things to say about those topics and others. Sometimes, I’m taken aback by the language they use and their apparent blindness to its impact on women and people of color. More often though, I am impressed with their courage and vision.

This is the second in a series of articles about sermons called “The Heretic’s Life of Controversy”  from Rev. John A. Taylor, who served us as lead minister from 1964-1968. He delivered these lectures not only to us on Sunday mornings but to the wider Champaign-Urbana community through radio programs on WILL. He tied these five pulpit addresses to the ages of man, which he defined as Birth, Growing Up, Marriage, Growing Old, and Death.

Last week, I wrote about Rev. Taylor’s views on birth control, which he considered the solution to, “the most pressing social problem of our time.” For Growing Up, Rev. Taylor focused on religion in school; specifically, prayer and bible readings in public school. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of our congregant, Vashti McCollum, in 1948, striking down religious education in public schools. When Rev. Taylor delivered these lectures in 1965, 147 amendments to the Constitution had been proposed by “energetic Congressmen seeking to be God’s protector.” He called those who tried to beat back McCollum vs. Board of Education, “super-patriots and superstitious people … who are sentimental about their religion and who misunderstand their religious heritage.”

Then, Rev. Taylor really let it rip. As you read what he wrote over 60 years ago, think about what you can read any day in our legacy and social media.

“We are often told that the United States is a ‘Christian nation’. Few things could be further from the truth – historically or ethically. We have never been a Christian nation except during the time of the colonial state church and few, if any of us, would wish to return to that grotesque and intolerant period. The ‘Christian nation’ illusion continues, however, and the populace is continually lighting a candle to the patriotic god. The American people think they are being creatively pious when they print ‘In God We Trust’ on their money. This is not an exhibition of sincere devotion, but an act of simple sentimentality. Only the most impotent religion would need the precocious prayers of children and the saccharine mottos of government to give it the assurance that it is worthwhile. 

“American piety, which is so well expressed by school prayers and school bible readings, is an excursion into vulgar and childish Pharisaism. A man’s religion belongs in the sanctuary of his own family and its validity is tested by the fires of his private life. Whatever freedoms may have been preserved and rights supported by the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, none profited more than the men, women, and children who intelligently believe in the beauty, dignity, and validity of their faith. And it will be these same beautiful, dignified, and valid faiths that will suffer most if the sentimental and simple keep insisting that religion dabble in public education.”