The UU Spirit of Thomas Paine by Rev. Michael McGee, July 4, 2010

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The UU Spirit of Thomas Paine

        Good day my friends! And happy Independence Day! I'm so pleased to see that this great nation I helped to found is still alive and well more than three centuries after my death.

        I am Thomas Paine, I come to you from the grave, thanks to your hospitable minister, Rev. McGee, who invited me to be with you this day so that I can share my story of being an American revolutionary. And I must say, that you are so fortunate to have such an excellent minister, one whose oratorical skills and courage we could have used in our rebellion against King George III.

        And he has the power of resurrection, which I don't even believe in! I understand he brought my good friend Margaret Fuller back to life last Sunday. Though she was born a year after my death, I find we have much in common.

        I am frankly disappointed that the spirit of revolution so many of us fought for has withered in this day. But I am pleased that you are carrying on a religious revolution I helped to foster. Though I never called myself a Unitarian, I was a kindred spirit to many of the Unitarians of my time and yours.

        I believed that, “Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.” And I proclaimed that, “Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.”

        I was born in England in 1737, long before any of you were alive, though a few of you do look familiar. My parents were good working class Quakers, but I was not very successful as a young man: I failed out of school, failed as an apprentice to my father, and fired as a tax officer, twice. I was almost thrown into the Poor House for lack of income.

        But I got involved in British politics promoting the cause of working people, when one day I met a gentleman from the American colonies. His name was Benjamin Franklin. Have you heard of him? A man of good character he was and a good friend he became. He was negotiating with the crown in London, and he took a liking to me and invited me to come to America to start a new life.

        And I did, though the six week sea voyage almost killed me as typhoid swept through the ship killing a number of passengers. Mr. Franklin helped me to recover my health and to establish me in Philadelphia, where I became, like him, a journalist and a revolutionary.

        I'll tell you more about myself a little later, but let me end this part of my presentation by saying that the most revolutionary act we can make on this Independence Day and every day is to see ourselves not as Americans, as much as I love this country, but as citizens of the world. So let us sing a hymn on this auspicious day to celebrate our citizenship with everyone on our planet and with the Earth itself. The children may leave for their activities as we sing the last verse.

        Thanks to my good friend, Benjamin Franklin, I did begin a new life in this country. I was the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine in which I consistently declared my abhorrence for slavery of any kind and my objection to monarchy and tyranny. Then, in January, 1776, just as our revolution was beginning, Dr. Franklin encouraged me to write a pamphlet, which I did, called “Common Sense.” How many of you have heard of it?

         I'm gratified. At that time, many colonists were unsure about fighting a war against the greatest power in the history of mankind, with many being loyal to the crown in spite of their many usurpations. My friends needed a clear justification for this radical act of rebellion, so I stated the necessity of making a complete break with history and tradition in the plain language of working class people. For me it was only common sense for us to free ourselves from the tyrannical powers of the British monarchy.

        I urged my fellow colonists to declare our independence immediately, no matter the cost, and to establish our own republic. I had faith that we could not be conquered by any nation, and that we were destined to establish a democratic government that would change the future of our world.

         I'm proud to say that 100,000 copies of Common Sense were sold in only three months, with a population of only two million free inhabitants and not all of them literate, it was an instant “best seller” as you would call it today. My words were read aloud in taverns and other establishments, encouraging an enthusiastic debate, and eventually motivating many of my countrymen to enlist for this War of Independence.

        Those who feared a democracy attacked me ruthlessly, even some of my own comrades. John Adams called “Common Sense” a “crapulous mass,” believing that my call for a radical democracy would end in ruin.

        In the early months of our revolution, when our army was defeated in one battle after another, I wrote another pamphlet called, “The Crisis,” which began with these words:

        “These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”

         General Washington had my pamphlet read to every soldier in his army to give them the courage to carry on the battle.

        During the Revolutionary War, I served as an aide to the extraordinary general, Nathanael Greene. Following the war, I returned to England but soon ran into trouble with my original countrymen, largely due to an infamous Unitarian minister by the name of Richard Price. Rev. Price was a supporter of American independence, having hosted revolutionaries, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and myself.

        I was inspired by his sermons and pamphlets supporting the French Revolution, which many of us saw as an extension of the American Revolution and one that would help spread the democratic spirit across Europe. In response, I wrote a small book called, “Rights of Man,” attacking all monarchies, including the British, and expressing my faith in the French Revolution.

         For my views I was attacked mercilessly, hounded by mobs, and threatened with prosecution by the government for sedition and libel. My answer to their charges was this: "If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy . . . to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these things be libellous . . . let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb".

        I left my homeland to avoid prison and traveled to my newly adopted home of France, where I was granted honorary French citizenship, along with Dr. Franklin and George Washington. And I was elected to the French National Council, giving me the opportunity to vote in favor of the new French Republic.

        But I refused to support the execution of King Louis XVI, because he had come to the aid of the colonies when we were in rebellion, and I conscientiously opposed capital punishment. For that defiance, I was deprived of my place in the Convention and I was arrested and imprisoned. I was scheduled to lose my head to the guillotine like so many others, but on the morning of my execution, while I was sick in bed, my cell mates succeeded in hiding the mark on the prison door that indicated my fate, and the jailers passed me by. By the time the mistake was noticed my life was spared by the fall of Robespierre.

        While in prison, I wrote my most controversial book, and one that made more trouble for me than any other I had penned. I called it “The Age of Reason,” and in it I stated the need for a religious revolution to go along with the political. I expressed my faith that, “The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.” I attacked the inconsistencies and superstition of the Bible and advocated for free, rational inquiry into all subjects, especially religion, writing these words: “Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.” And I embraced the premise of Unitarianism, that there is but one God: “The notion of a Trinity of Gods has enfeebled the belief of one God,” I wrote. “A multiplication of beliefs acts as a division of belief; and in proportion as anything is divided it is weakened.”

        I advocated Deism, the belief in a natural and impersonal God, and a conviction embraced by several of the founding fathers, including Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. But no one proclaimed it as vehemently as me. I wrote, “It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.” That got me into some big trouble. For me, “Every religion is good that teaches man to be good,” but I had seen few examples of that being the case.

        President Jefferson eventually invited me to return to America, which I did, but my final days in this nation I helped to bring into the world, were not happy ones for me. My great contribution to our revolution was quickly forgotten and instead I was mercilessly persecuted for my support of the French Revolution and my attacks on Christianity. I died in New York City in 1809, impoverished and an alcoholic. Only six people came to my funeral. A poem written at the time read:

“Poor Tom Paine! There he lies:
Nobody laughs and nobody cries.
Where he has gone and how he fares
Nobody knows and nobody cares.”

        My name was seldom mentioned for many years and when it was I was disparaged. President Teddy Roosevelt even referred to me as, “A filthy little atheist.”

        But over the many years since, I understand that my reputation as one of the most important revolutionaries in our nation's history has been largely restored, and yet sanitized. Few seem to know of my UU spirit, as Rev. McGee calls it. And few understand my radical politics. Did you know that not only did I emphatically oppose slavery, but I was against the requirement that one must own property in order to vote?

        I had the spirit of a true revolutionary, helping to democratize three governments during my lifetime, America, France, and Great Britain. I had a passionate vision that all people should be able to choose their own leaders. And I believed we should join together in making justice for all people who are victims of oppression.

        Reverend McGee tells me that there is a man of some fame today who pretends to speak for me, bending my words and beliefs to fit his dubious cause. His name I believe is Glenn Beck, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is a Tory through and through, and would have condemned our revolution for being too liberal, clinging to the security of a crown that protects those with power and privilege. I must say that your good minister uses surprisingly un-ministerial language to describe Mr. Beck, something akin to his being a “crapulous mass.”

        Mr. Beck emphasizes my distrust of government, but I distrust government that earns my distrust due to its neglect of the needs of the people and their cry for freedom and equality. I also distrust the moneyed class who use their wealth to stifle the humanity of the poor and working class, as he so obviously does, and of those who use institutional religion as a shield to protect them from ethical outrage. Does he forget that I condemned the factionalism and fraud of institutional Christianity as a chain around the necks of the common people?

        And does he forget that what frightened those of privilege was my “common sense” conviction that our revolution should never die, that we should always be rebelling against those who deny any person their rights and freedom. Am I right? Those who speak for me are those who have carried on the revolutionary spirit through the ages, those who rebelled against segregation, those who struggle for women's rights and against homophobia, those who champion the cause of the poor and those with little voice or power, those who work for peace and reconciliation.

        If you are of that spirit, then you speak for me, not Mr. Beck.

        My good friend, Benjamin Rush, said, in 1787, “The American War is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed.”

        I ask you in my name and the name of all those who fought for the independence of this great nation to always be making peaceful revolution, refusing to be patient when told that change takes time, refusing to accept excuses for irresponsible and intolerable acts of injustice, never giving up the struggle for equality and freedom. I ask you to keep the revolution alive this day and every day.

Photos of the Service

Resources and Inspirations

• "Common Sense," books.google.com
• Biography of Thomas Paine, www.thomaspaine.org
• "The UU Soul of Thomas Paine," sermon by Jerry Bone
• www.ushistory.org
• www.wikipedia.org