Freement by William James Johnson Chapter 15
By early spring, I had established myself as an "A" student in university, and a significant student leader in my discussions which took place regularly at the Cosmo. By now I was personally convinced that religion was the source of many of man's problems, and my declarations of this belief weeded out the curious and
strengthened those free thinkers in my group who were prepared to make changes in their lives.
It was at this time that I began to formalize my philosophy. Stu Laughton asked me to attend a lecture sponsored by the "YCS" , Young Christian Students to be held at the university after classes on a Friday afternoon. Little did I know he had also urged my Cosmo regulars to be there as well, expecting I would challenge the speaker.
I was surprised the hall was packed. Usually on a Friday afternoon, you could shoot a cannon up the campus roads and never hit a soul. Today many had opted to remain after classes to listen to Henry Thompson, president of YCS at Eastern University, address the gathering on the Question, "Are the Ten Commandments
Relevant for Today's Youth?"
Seated throughout the hall were several of Earnshaw's guys eager to maintain order during the presentation, sporting their yellow and white cardigans. The audience responded warmly when Thompson was introduced. Wearing a charcoal grey suit, he looked more like an MBA candidate than an evangelist.
"I would like to compliment those who organized this gathering. I'm very pleased to see so many of you here on a Friday afternoon. Obviously there are still people who have a place in their lives for God.
"As your Chairman said, in his opening remarks. I believe the theme of my talk is very important for today's young people. In this age of scientific advancement, we are making huge strides towards a broader understanding of our wonderful, God given universe. The more we investigate, the more we run the risk of believing that everything is possible to man, and we allow ourselves the luxury of denying the need for a supreme being. The result of such thinking,is the worst kind of sin of which man is capable. He begins to attribute to himself, those supreme powers which can only reside in a divine creator.
"If I achieve only one thing today, I hope it will be to convince you about the danger of substituting belief in God with belief in science. Reject God. and you reject his commandments. Reject his commandments, and moral society will collapse. Let me remind you of the words given to us by God's only son Jesus.
‘What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul?'
"I challenge our lawmakers to devise a Bill of Rights that could succeed without the moral influence of the Ten Commandments to ensure its adherence. Without this Divine Decalogue, property rights are meaningless. Man's conduct must be controlled by ‘Divine Law'. We have seen how difficult it is to draw up
international agreements when we deal with godless nations. The essence of a successful society is based upon man's basic obedience to the word of God. Our Creator gave us this code of conduct when he gave us the Ten Commandments through his servant Moses.
"Let us now examine the significance of this Divine Decalogue, and its relevance in modern times. The first commandment tells us there is only one God. We should be eager to accept this monotheistic principle which simplifies our lives in an age of bureaucracy, where each of us must satisfy several chiefs. We can go directly to this one God with our problems. No wasting time with middle men or minor gods. If we truly believe this first commandment, there will never be any danger of the state, material acquisition, or personal prestige becoming our God. It is this multiplicity of worldly gods which makes a base for understanding in our age almost impossible. Return to the one, supreme God, and we shall have peace.
"But this omnipotent God demands respect, and rightly so. Our very existence is dependent upon his will. Have we forgotten he made us to know, love, and serve him? Man has forgotten this or we wouldn't tolerate the blasphemous utterances we hear everyday of our lives. And what has been the result. Lies. Perjury. Meaningless oaths, not worth the words spent on them.
"What has happened to the fear of God which enabled man to develop a moral society? As fear in the Almighty diminishes, so also does morality. The vice which is smothering our world will destroy us unless we reinstate his divine commands based upon a healthy fear of his supreme power over all creation.
"Let's leave considerations of God for a moment and look at the application of his commandments in our relationship with our fellow men. What has happened to God's order to 'Honour thy father and thy mother'? There is no honour in our homes today. How can we expect children to honour authority, when authority refuses to
honour the Almighty? Juveniles do what ever they wish because they no longer respect their parents. They're not afraid of punishment, because there's no one there to punish them. Teenagers who are neglected in the home, get recognition from their peers outside their home by anti-social behaviour. A healthy fear of God is needed to restore a true respect for authority.
"And as far as our sexual lives are concerned, it seems anything is permitted as long as there is consent, and in many instances, the innocent are violated by the self-indulgent against their will. No wonder we are inundated with diseases which ravage the permissive society. When God said 'Thou shall not commit adultery'. he was referring to all the perversities man's sinful imagination is able to create.
"The break up of families and the generations of young who will be lost by this selfish approach to life must be acknowledged by you students, the future leaders of our society. It is up to you to return to the law Of God's covenant with man. Without it, there will be no future.
The speaker continued developing his arguments, and their application to modern life. His continual reference to fear antagonized me. The stillness in the audience convinced me he was getting through. He urged everyone to re-examine the commandments and pledge to bring all men back to God. He was given a standing
ovation at the end of his presentation.
"I'm sure you will all agree with me, Mr. Thompson has given us many important thoughts to consider and I would like to thank him for coming to us today with this most timely topic. I now declare the floor open for discussion."
"Here's your chance Marty. Take him on like you do at the Cosmo."
As I stood up, Rick tugged at my sleeve. "Better keep out of it Marty. You'll be sorry."
"Mr. Thompson, with your permission, I would like to point out an error in your discourse."
"Error?"
"Yes sir. An error of omission. Your presentation assumes we all believe in God, and you have omitted proving this assumption. A reasonable oversight when you consider the group sponsoring this discussion calls itself, 'Young Christian Students'. But you must admit, it is in this false assumption, that all your subsequent statements acquire significance."
The chairman struck his gavel and interrupted me. "This is not a forum to be abused by the atheistic rantings of a freshman. Make your point and be done with it."
"Obviously you're not prepared to extend to me the same courtesies you have shown our guest speaker. Then I'll get right to the point. The Decalogue uses the same technique as our speaker. The first three commandments presuppose belief in God, and therefore deal with the relationship between man and God. It is in this way these first three commandments give significance to the remainder of the seven rules of discipline, which deal with man's behaviour towards other men."
"Precisely," said Thompson. "These tablets are the inspired word of God."
"But you cannot proclaim the commandments are the inspired word of God without first dealing with the question of divine existence."
"I don't have to prove it. I have faith. Obviously something you are lacking."
"A faith based on fear."
"The world needs more fear of God if we are to survive."
"Mr. Thompson, God didn't create these commandments. You are wasting your fear. There is no God." My atheistic proclamation electrified the audience.
"Then who do you say gave us these commandments?" .
"Moses of course." "
"Well at last you've said something we can agree upon."
"Don't be so hasty sir. Moses devised the commandments by himself. I didn't say God gave him the tablets to give to us."
"Preposterous. If Moses alone as you say, created the commandments, they wouldn't have stood the test of time."
"Maybe so. Unless of course, Moses was more of a genius than you seem willing to admit."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Thompson.
"Let's go back to Exodus and study what was going on. Moses had been successful in getting the release of his people and they followed him into the desert. Now understand what it is I'm saying. Here is a man with thousands of refugees and he is going to lead them to a promised land. As with any large group of homeless people, he began having problems keeping them in good order. Moses knew he needed a code of discipline if they were not to deteriorate into a rebellious horde. He left them and went into the mountain to think. The brilliance of this leader resulted in his creation of the tablets with the ten commandments."
"Given to him by God."
"No Mr. Thompson... Made up by Moses who used the fear of God which had been ingrained in his people after years of conditioning, to give power to his code of discipline. It is in his manipulation of their fear that Moses showed his true genius. Those refugees would not have followed his rule if he had said, 'Look everyone. We're not going to make it unless you follow my rules.' No. Moses was really smart. He began his set of rules by saying what God was supposed to have said to him regarding man's behaviour towards this unseen power. What a brilliant invention, and like your presentation today Mr. Thompson. it was based on a lie."
The chairman struck his gavel again. "I cannot permit this abusive treatment of our guest. I must ask you to be quiet or leave this meeting."
"Isn't it time man grew up and realized what a terrible mess the world is in because of his unwarranted belief in an unseen power? Frightened men create Gods. Moses was a clever manipulator of people's fear. No more. No less. Listen to me everyone. If you let guys like Thompson and his ilk get inside your heads, they'll
make slaves of you. Free yourselves of all this superstition and become your true selves. Free... Thinking men."
"I demand you leave this hall at once."
"Grow up for Chrissake. Give man the mental freedom he needs to expand his knowledge. Bring God into the picture and all reason is distorted."
"Mr. Earnshaw, will you have some of your men take this student out of here. Now."
I saw them moving towards me. I still wasn't finished. "Destroy God. Man made him. Man must destroy him."
They bent my arms back until I was forced onto my toes being dragged out of the row and up the aisle. I continued shouting. "Stay and let these bastards ruin you, or join me and fight the Hound of Heaven."
When they got me outside, it was now fatso's turn to get even. While his men held me in their punishing grip, he lashed at my face with his meaty fist. I could feel the warm blood flowing out of my mouth and my breath disappeared as he drove his knee into my groin.
"Drop the sonofabitch and I'll finish him."
After several painful blows, everything went black. When I came too I was in the back seat of my car. The hazy face of Clara hovered over me. Her voice was in the distance coming closer as my head finally cleared.
"Can you hear me darling?"
"Ow...my gut hurts."
"It was terrible. You're lucky they didn't kill you."
"We gotta get em Marty," said Stu.
"Yeah. Get em. Where were you when I needed you?"
"I told you, you'd be sorry," said Rick.
"Thanks a lot Rick. That's all I need to hear."
"Well you didn't take those lumps for nothing," said Stu. "A bunch of the kids want to get together with you to find out more about what you were saying in there. I think it's time we started a movement."
"Jeesuz! You're always wanting to start something, but when the shit hits the fan you're nowhere to be found."
"I'm changing Marty. Honest. I really think that we can get something good started."
"What did you have in mind?"
"It's gotta be something' that'll help us get back at these religious bastards."
"We've got to have an objective Stu. What's your objective?"
"Destroying God."
"Getting rid of fear is more like it," said Clara.
"I think our aim should be to get rid of conscience. If we can get rid of this Hound of Heaven we carry inside our heads we can really be free. We've got to free men's minds. Destroy the artificial fear produced by the traditional religious conscience. Mental freedom will be our aim. Mental Freedom... Freedom of the
Mind. Freement...Freement. How's it sound?"
"I like it," said Rick.
"We'll call ourselves Freementers," I said.
"Great. And you'll be Freement, the founder of the Freement movement. Now we're cooking."
"How do we start? I asked.
"Tonight. At the Cosmo. I'll make sure they're all there."
"We've got to keep the Freement idea secret until we're really ready to move."
"What do you mean move? What're you planning to do?"
"Free people's minds so they never have to fear the unknown anymore. Get rid of their guilt. Eliminate conscience. All these things."
"But how Marty?"
"I don't know yet. but I'll find out how. You can count on that."
I returned to Ma Rooney's to clean up. Tonight I would begin my Freement movement. I liked it. Maybe now I could even the score with Mac Burney and all those religious hypocrites who had been screwing up my life. Now they were going to have to deal with Freement.
View summaries of other novels by William James Johnson by clicking here.
strengthened those free thinkers in my group who were prepared to make changes in their lives.
It was at this time that I began to formalize my philosophy. Stu Laughton asked me to attend a lecture sponsored by the "YCS" , Young Christian Students to be held at the university after classes on a Friday afternoon. Little did I know he had also urged my Cosmo regulars to be there as well, expecting I would challenge the speaker.
I was surprised the hall was packed. Usually on a Friday afternoon, you could shoot a cannon up the campus roads and never hit a soul. Today many had opted to remain after classes to listen to Henry Thompson, president of YCS at Eastern University, address the gathering on the Question, "Are the Ten Commandments
Relevant for Today's Youth?"
Seated throughout the hall were several of Earnshaw's guys eager to maintain order during the presentation, sporting their yellow and white cardigans. The audience responded warmly when Thompson was introduced. Wearing a charcoal grey suit, he looked more like an MBA candidate than an evangelist.
"I would like to compliment those who organized this gathering. I'm very pleased to see so many of you here on a Friday afternoon. Obviously there are still people who have a place in their lives for God.
"As your Chairman said, in his opening remarks. I believe the theme of my talk is very important for today's young people. In this age of scientific advancement, we are making huge strides towards a broader understanding of our wonderful, God given universe. The more we investigate, the more we run the risk of believing that everything is possible to man, and we allow ourselves the luxury of denying the need for a supreme being. The result of such thinking,is the worst kind of sin of which man is capable. He begins to attribute to himself, those supreme powers which can only reside in a divine creator.
"If I achieve only one thing today, I hope it will be to convince you about the danger of substituting belief in God with belief in science. Reject God. and you reject his commandments. Reject his commandments, and moral society will collapse. Let me remind you of the words given to us by God's only son Jesus.
‘What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul?'
"I challenge our lawmakers to devise a Bill of Rights that could succeed without the moral influence of the Ten Commandments to ensure its adherence. Without this Divine Decalogue, property rights are meaningless. Man's conduct must be controlled by ‘Divine Law'. We have seen how difficult it is to draw up
international agreements when we deal with godless nations. The essence of a successful society is based upon man's basic obedience to the word of God. Our Creator gave us this code of conduct when he gave us the Ten Commandments through his servant Moses.
"Let us now examine the significance of this Divine Decalogue, and its relevance in modern times. The first commandment tells us there is only one God. We should be eager to accept this monotheistic principle which simplifies our lives in an age of bureaucracy, where each of us must satisfy several chiefs. We can go directly to this one God with our problems. No wasting time with middle men or minor gods. If we truly believe this first commandment, there will never be any danger of the state, material acquisition, or personal prestige becoming our God. It is this multiplicity of worldly gods which makes a base for understanding in our age almost impossible. Return to the one, supreme God, and we shall have peace.
"But this omnipotent God demands respect, and rightly so. Our very existence is dependent upon his will. Have we forgotten he made us to know, love, and serve him? Man has forgotten this or we wouldn't tolerate the blasphemous utterances we hear everyday of our lives. And what has been the result. Lies. Perjury. Meaningless oaths, not worth the words spent on them.
"What has happened to the fear of God which enabled man to develop a moral society? As fear in the Almighty diminishes, so also does morality. The vice which is smothering our world will destroy us unless we reinstate his divine commands based upon a healthy fear of his supreme power over all creation.
"Let's leave considerations of God for a moment and look at the application of his commandments in our relationship with our fellow men. What has happened to God's order to 'Honour thy father and thy mother'? There is no honour in our homes today. How can we expect children to honour authority, when authority refuses to
honour the Almighty? Juveniles do what ever they wish because they no longer respect their parents. They're not afraid of punishment, because there's no one there to punish them. Teenagers who are neglected in the home, get recognition from their peers outside their home by anti-social behaviour. A healthy fear of God is needed to restore a true respect for authority.
"And as far as our sexual lives are concerned, it seems anything is permitted as long as there is consent, and in many instances, the innocent are violated by the self-indulgent against their will. No wonder we are inundated with diseases which ravage the permissive society. When God said 'Thou shall not commit adultery'. he was referring to all the perversities man's sinful imagination is able to create.
"The break up of families and the generations of young who will be lost by this selfish approach to life must be acknowledged by you students, the future leaders of our society. It is up to you to return to the law Of God's covenant with man. Without it, there will be no future.
The speaker continued developing his arguments, and their application to modern life. His continual reference to fear antagonized me. The stillness in the audience convinced me he was getting through. He urged everyone to re-examine the commandments and pledge to bring all men back to God. He was given a standing
ovation at the end of his presentation.
"I'm sure you will all agree with me, Mr. Thompson has given us many important thoughts to consider and I would like to thank him for coming to us today with this most timely topic. I now declare the floor open for discussion."
"Here's your chance Marty. Take him on like you do at the Cosmo."
As I stood up, Rick tugged at my sleeve. "Better keep out of it Marty. You'll be sorry."
"Mr. Thompson, with your permission, I would like to point out an error in your discourse."
"Error?"
"Yes sir. An error of omission. Your presentation assumes we all believe in God, and you have omitted proving this assumption. A reasonable oversight when you consider the group sponsoring this discussion calls itself, 'Young Christian Students'. But you must admit, it is in this false assumption, that all your subsequent statements acquire significance."
The chairman struck his gavel and interrupted me. "This is not a forum to be abused by the atheistic rantings of a freshman. Make your point and be done with it."
"Obviously you're not prepared to extend to me the same courtesies you have shown our guest speaker. Then I'll get right to the point. The Decalogue uses the same technique as our speaker. The first three commandments presuppose belief in God, and therefore deal with the relationship between man and God. It is in this way these first three commandments give significance to the remainder of the seven rules of discipline, which deal with man's behaviour towards other men."
"Precisely," said Thompson. "These tablets are the inspired word of God."
"But you cannot proclaim the commandments are the inspired word of God without first dealing with the question of divine existence."
"I don't have to prove it. I have faith. Obviously something you are lacking."
"A faith based on fear."
"The world needs more fear of God if we are to survive."
"Mr. Thompson, God didn't create these commandments. You are wasting your fear. There is no God." My atheistic proclamation electrified the audience.
"Then who do you say gave us these commandments?" .
"Moses of course." "
"Well at last you've said something we can agree upon."
"Don't be so hasty sir. Moses devised the commandments by himself. I didn't say God gave him the tablets to give to us."
"Preposterous. If Moses alone as you say, created the commandments, they wouldn't have stood the test of time."
"Maybe so. Unless of course, Moses was more of a genius than you seem willing to admit."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Thompson.
"Let's go back to Exodus and study what was going on. Moses had been successful in getting the release of his people and they followed him into the desert. Now understand what it is I'm saying. Here is a man with thousands of refugees and he is going to lead them to a promised land. As with any large group of homeless people, he began having problems keeping them in good order. Moses knew he needed a code of discipline if they were not to deteriorate into a rebellious horde. He left them and went into the mountain to think. The brilliance of this leader resulted in his creation of the tablets with the ten commandments."
"Given to him by God."
"No Mr. Thompson... Made up by Moses who used the fear of God which had been ingrained in his people after years of conditioning, to give power to his code of discipline. It is in his manipulation of their fear that Moses showed his true genius. Those refugees would not have followed his rule if he had said, 'Look everyone. We're not going to make it unless you follow my rules.' No. Moses was really smart. He began his set of rules by saying what God was supposed to have said to him regarding man's behaviour towards this unseen power. What a brilliant invention, and like your presentation today Mr. Thompson. it was based on a lie."
The chairman struck his gavel again. "I cannot permit this abusive treatment of our guest. I must ask you to be quiet or leave this meeting."
"Isn't it time man grew up and realized what a terrible mess the world is in because of his unwarranted belief in an unseen power? Frightened men create Gods. Moses was a clever manipulator of people's fear. No more. No less. Listen to me everyone. If you let guys like Thompson and his ilk get inside your heads, they'll
make slaves of you. Free yourselves of all this superstition and become your true selves. Free... Thinking men."
"I demand you leave this hall at once."
"Grow up for Chrissake. Give man the mental freedom he needs to expand his knowledge. Bring God into the picture and all reason is distorted."
"Mr. Earnshaw, will you have some of your men take this student out of here. Now."
I saw them moving towards me. I still wasn't finished. "Destroy God. Man made him. Man must destroy him."
They bent my arms back until I was forced onto my toes being dragged out of the row and up the aisle. I continued shouting. "Stay and let these bastards ruin you, or join me and fight the Hound of Heaven."
When they got me outside, it was now fatso's turn to get even. While his men held me in their punishing grip, he lashed at my face with his meaty fist. I could feel the warm blood flowing out of my mouth and my breath disappeared as he drove his knee into my groin.
"Drop the sonofabitch and I'll finish him."
After several painful blows, everything went black. When I came too I was in the back seat of my car. The hazy face of Clara hovered over me. Her voice was in the distance coming closer as my head finally cleared.
"Can you hear me darling?"
"Ow...my gut hurts."
"It was terrible. You're lucky they didn't kill you."
"We gotta get em Marty," said Stu.
"Yeah. Get em. Where were you when I needed you?"
"I told you, you'd be sorry," said Rick.
"Thanks a lot Rick. That's all I need to hear."
"Well you didn't take those lumps for nothing," said Stu. "A bunch of the kids want to get together with you to find out more about what you were saying in there. I think it's time we started a movement."
"Jeesuz! You're always wanting to start something, but when the shit hits the fan you're nowhere to be found."
"I'm changing Marty. Honest. I really think that we can get something good started."
"What did you have in mind?"
"It's gotta be something' that'll help us get back at these religious bastards."
"We've got to have an objective Stu. What's your objective?"
"Destroying God."
"Getting rid of fear is more like it," said Clara.
"I think our aim should be to get rid of conscience. If we can get rid of this Hound of Heaven we carry inside our heads we can really be free. We've got to free men's minds. Destroy the artificial fear produced by the traditional religious conscience. Mental freedom will be our aim. Mental Freedom... Freedom of the
Mind. Freement...Freement. How's it sound?"
"I like it," said Rick.
"We'll call ourselves Freementers," I said.
"Great. And you'll be Freement, the founder of the Freement movement. Now we're cooking."
"How do we start? I asked.
"Tonight. At the Cosmo. I'll make sure they're all there."
"We've got to keep the Freement idea secret until we're really ready to move."
"What do you mean move? What're you planning to do?"
"Free people's minds so they never have to fear the unknown anymore. Get rid of their guilt. Eliminate conscience. All these things."
"But how Marty?"
"I don't know yet. but I'll find out how. You can count on that."
I returned to Ma Rooney's to clean up. Tonight I would begin my Freement movement. I liked it. Maybe now I could even the score with Mac Burney and all those religious hypocrites who had been screwing up my life. Now they were going to have to deal with Freement.
View summaries of other novels by William James Johnson by clicking here.
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