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diff --git a/38273.txt b/38273.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a80f73 --- /dev/null +++ b/38273.txt @@ -0,0 +1,916 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is the Bible Indictable? + Being an Enquiry whether the Bible Comes within the Ruling + of the Lord Chief Justice as to Obscene Literature + +Author: Annie Besant + +Release Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #38273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Notes: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully + as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation. + Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. They + are listed at the end of the text. + + Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + ] + + + + + IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + + BY + ANNIE BESANT. + + BEING AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES + WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF + JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + + LONDON: + FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, + 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C. + + PRICE TWOPENCE. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH, + 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C. + + + + +IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + +AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF +JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + +The ruling of Sir Alexander Cockburn in the late trial, the Queen +_against_ Bradlaugh and Besant, seems to involve wider issues than the +Lord Chief Justice intended, or than the legal ally of Nature and +Providence can desire. The question of motive is entirely set on one +side; the purest motives are valueless if the information conveyed is +such as is capable of being turned to bad purposes by the evil-minded +and the corrupt. This view of the law would not be enforced against +expensive medical works; provided that the price set on a book be such +as shall keep it out of reach of the "common people," its teaching may +be thoroughly immoral but it is not obscene. Dr. Fleetwood Churchill, +for instance, is not committing an indictable offence by giving +directions as to the simplest and easiest way of procuring abortion; he +is not committing a misdemeanour, although he points out means which any +woman could obtain and use for herself; he does not place himself within +reach of the law, although he recommends the practice of abortion in all +cases where previous experience proves that the birth of a living child +is impossible. A check to population which destroys life is thus passed +over as legal, perhaps because the destruction of life is the check so +largely employed by Nature and Providence, and would thus ensure the +approval of the Solicitor-General. But the real reason why Dr. Churchill +is left unmolested and Dr. Knowlton is assailed, lies in the difference +of the price at which the two are severally published. If Dr. Knowlton +was sold at 10s. 6d. and Dr. Churchill at 6d., then the vials of legal +wrath would have descended on the advocate of abortion and not on the +teacher of prevention. The obscenity lies, to a great extent, in the +price of the book sold. A vulgar little sixpence is obscene, a dainty +half-sovereign is respectable. Poor people must be content to remain +ignorant, or to buy the injurious quack treatises circulated in secret; +wealthier people, who want knowledge less, are to be protected by the +law in their purchases of medical works, but if poor people, in sore +need, finding "an undoubted physician" ready to aid them, venture to ask +for his work, written especially for them, the law strikes down those +who sell them health and happiness. They must not complain; Nature and +Providence have placed them in a state of poverty, and have mercifully +provided for them effectual, if painful, checks to population. The same +element of price rules the decency or the indecency of pictures. A +picture painted in oils, life size, of the naked human figure, such as +Venus disrobed for the bath, or Phryne before her judges, or Perseus and +Andromeda, exhibited to the upper classes, in a gallery, with a shilling +admission charge, is a perfectly decent and respectable work of art. +Photographs of those pictures, uncoloured, and reduced in size, are +obscene publications, and are seized as such by the police. Cheapness +is, therefore, an essential part of obscenity. + +If a book be cheap, what constitutes it an obscene book? Lord Campbell, +advocating in Parliament the Act against obscene literature which bears +his name, laid down very clearly his view of what should, legally, be an +obscene work. It must be a work "written for the single purpose of +corrupting the morals of youth, and of a nature calculated to shock the +feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind" (Hansard, vol. 146, +No. 2, p. 329). The law, according to him, was never to be levelled even +against works which might be considered immoral and indecent, such as +some of those of Dryden, Congreve, or Rochester. "The keeping, or the +reading, or the delighting in such things must be left to taste, and was +not a subject for legal interference;" the law was only to interpose +where the motive of the seller was bad; "when there were people who +designedly and industriously manufactured books and prints with the +intention of corrupting the public morals, and when they succeeded in +their infamous purpose, he thought it was necessary for the legislature +to interpose" (Hansard, vol. 146, No. 4, p. 865). + +The ruling of the present Lord Chief Justice in the late trial is in +direct opposition to the view taken by Lord Campbell. The chief says: +"Knowlton goes into physiological details connected with the functions +of the generation and procreation of children. The principles of this +pamphlet, with its details, are to be found in greater abundance and +distinctness in numerous works to which your attention has been +directed, and, having these details before you, you must judge for +yourselves whether there is anything in them which is calculated to +excite the passions of man and debase the public morals. If so, every +medical work is open to the same imputation" (Trial, p. 261). The Lord +Chief Justice then refers to the very species of book against which Lord +Campbell said that he directed his Act. "There are books," the chief +says, "which have for their purpose the exciting of libidinous thoughts, +and are intended to give to persons who take pleasure in that sort of +thing the impure gratification which the contemplation of such thoughts +is calculated to give." If the book were of that character it "would be +condemnable," and so far all are agreed as to the law. But Sir Alexander +Cockburn goes further, and here is the danger of his interpretation of +the law: "Though the intention is not unduly to convey this knowledge, +and gratify prurient and libidinous thoughts, still, if its effect is to +excite and create thoughts of so demoralising a character to the mind of +the reader, the work is open to the condemnation asked for at your +hands" (Trial, p. 261). Its effect on what reader? Suppose a person of +prurient mind buys Dr. Carpenter's "Human Physiology," and reads the +long chapter, containing over 100 pages, wholly devoted to a minute +description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite +and create thoughts of" the "demoralising character" spoken of. +According to the Lord Chief Justice's ruling, Dr. Carpenter's would then +become an obscene book. The evil motive is transferred from the buyer to +the seller, and then the seller is punished for the buyer's bad intent; +vicarious punishment seems to have passed from the church into the law +court. There can be no doubt that every medical book now comes under the +head of "obscene literature," for they may all be read by impure people, +and will infallibly have the effect of arousing prurient thoughts; that +they are written for a good purpose, that they are written to cure +disease, is no excuse; the motive of the writer must not be considered; +the law has decided that books whose intention is to convey +physiological knowledge, and that not unduly, are obscene, if the +reader's passions chance to be aroused by them; "we must not listen to +arguments upon moral obligations arising out of any motive, or out of +any desire to benefit humanity, or to do good to your species" (Trial, +p. 237). The only protection of these, otherwise obscene, books lies in +their price; they are generally highly-priced, and they do thus lack one +essential element of obscenity. For the useful book that bad people make +harmful must be cheap in order to be practically obscene; it must be +within reach of the poor, and be "capable of being sold at the corners +of the streets, and at bookstalls, to every one who has sixpence to +spare" (Trial, p. 261). + +The new ruling touches all the dramatists and writers that Lord Campbell +had no idea of attacking; no one can doubt that many of Congreve's +dramas are calculated to arouse sexual passion; these are sold at a very +low price, and they have not even the defence of conveying any useful +information; they come most distinctly within the ruling of the Lord +Chief Justice; why are they to be permitted free circulation? Sterne, +Fielding, Smollett, Swift, must all be flung into the dusthole after +Congreve, Wycherley, Jonson; Dryden, of course, follows these without +delay, and Spencer, with his "Faerie Queene," is the next victim. +Shakespeare can have no quarter shown him; not only are most gross +passages scattered through his works, but the motive of some of them is +directly calculated to arouse the passions; for how many youthful love +fevers is not "Romeo and Juliet" answerable; what of "Cymbeline," +"Pericles," or "Titus Andronicus"? Can "Venus and Adonis" tend to +anything except to the rousing of passion? is "Lucrece" not obscene? Yet +Macmillan's Globe Edition of Shakespeare is regarded as one of the most +admirable publishing efforts made by that eminent firm to put English +masterpieces in the hands of the poor. Coming to our time, what is to be +done with Byron? "Don Juan" is surely calculated to corrupt, not to +speak of other poems, such as "Parisina." What of Shelley, with his +"Cenci?" Swinburne, must of course, be burned at once. Every one of +these great names is now branded as obscene, and, under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice every one of them must be condemned. Suppose some +one should follow Hetherington's example? Suppose that we should become +the prosecutors instead of the prosecuted? Suppose that we should drag +others to share our prison, and should bring the most honoured names of +authors into the same condemnation that has struck us? Why should we +show to others a consideration that has not been shown to us? If it is +said that we should not strike, we answer; "Then leave _us_ alone, and +calculate the consequences before you touch us again." The law has been +declared by the Lord Chief Justice of England; why is not that law as +binding on Macmillan as on us? The law has been narrowed in order to +enmesh Freethought: its net will catch other fishes as well, or else +break under the strain and let all go free. The Christians desire to +make two laws, and show their hands too plainly: one law is to be +strict, and is to apply wholly to Freethinkers; cheating Christians, who +sell even Knowlton, are to be winked at by the authorities, and are to +be let off scot free; but this is not all. Ritualists circulate a book +beside which Knowlton is said to be purity itself, and the law does not +touch them; no warrants are issued for their apprehension; no +prosecution is paid for by a hidden enemy; no law-officer of the Crown +is briefed against them. Why is this? because to attack Christians is to +draw attention to the foundation of Christianity; because to attack the +"Priest in Absolution" is to attack Moses. The Christian walls are made +out of Bible-glass, and they fear to throw stones lest they should break +their own house. Listen to Mr. Ridsdale, a brother of the Holy Cross: "I +wonder," he says, "why some one does not stand up in the House of Lords +and bring a charge against the Bible (especially Leviticus) as an +immoral book." The _Church Times_, the organ of the Ritualists, has a +letter which runs thus: "Suppose a patrician and a pontifex in old Rome +had with care and deliberation extracted sentences from Holy Writ, +separated them from their context, suppressed the general nature and +character of the book, and then accused the bishop and his clergy of +deliberately preparing an obscene book to contaminate the young (how +readily he might have made such extracts!), what should we have said of +such ruffians?" This, then, is the shield of the clergy; the Bible is +itself so obscene that Christians fear to prosecute priests who +circulate obscenity. + +Does the Bible come within the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice as to +obscene literature? Most decidedly it does, and if prosecuted as an +obscene book, it must necessarily be condemned, if the law is justly +administered. Every Christian ought therefore to range himself on our +side, and demand a reversal of the present rule, for under it his own +sacred book is branded as obscene, and may be prosecuted as such by any +unbeliever. + +First, the book is widely circulated at a low price. If the Bible were +restricted in its circulation by being sold at 10s. 6d. or a guinea, it +might escape being placed in the category of obscene literature under +the present ruling. But no such defence can be pleaded for it. It is +sold at 8d. a copy, printed on cheap paper, and strongly bound, for use +in schools; it is given away by thousands among the "common people," +whose morals are now so carefully looked after in the matter of books; +it is presented to little children of both sexes, and they are told to +read it carefully. To such an extent is this carried, that some +thousands of children assembled together were actually told by Lord +Sandon, the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, to +read the Bible right through from beginning to end, and were bidden not +to pick and choose. The element of price is clearly against the Bible if +it be proved to have in it anything which is of a nature calculated to +suggest impure thoughts. + +As to the motives of the writers, we need not trouble about them. The +law now says that intention is nothing, and no desire to do good is any +excuse for obscenity (Trial, p. 257). + +There remains the vital question: is the effect of some of its passages +to excite and create demoralising thoughts? (Trial, p. 261). + +The difficulty of dealing with this question is that many of the +quotations necessary to prove that the Bible comes under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice are of such an extremely coarse and disgusting +character, that it is really impossible to reproduce them without +intensifying the evil which they are calculated to do. While I see no +indecency in a plain statement of physiological facts, written for +people's instruction, I do see indecency in coarse and indelicate +stories, the reading of which can do no good to any human being, and can +have no effect save that of corrupting the mind and suggesting unclean +ideas. I therefore refuse to soil my pages with quotations, and content +myself with giving the references, so that anyone who desires to use the +ruling of the Lord Chief Justice to suppress the Bible may see what +certainty of success awaits him if justice be done. I shall not trouble +about simple coarseness, such as Gen. iv. 1, 17, 25; Gen. vi. 4; or +Matt. i. 18-20, 25. If mere coarseness of expression were to be noted, +my task would be endless. But let the intending prosecutor read the +following passages. A little boy of 8 or 10 would scarcely be improved +by reading Gen. ix. 20-25; the drunkenness, indecency, and swearing in +these six verses is surely calculated to corrupt the boy's mind. The +teaching of Gen. xvi. 1-5 is scarcely elevating for the "common people," +seeing the example set by the "friend of God." Gen. xvii. 10-14 and +23-27 is very coarse. Would Gen. xix. 4-9 improve a young maiden, or +would it not suggest the most impure thoughts, verse 5 dealing with an +idea that should surely never be put into a girl's mind? The same +chapter, 30-38, is revolting; and Deut. ii. 9 and 19 implies God's +approval of the unnatural crime. The ignorance of physiology which is +thought best for girls would receive a shock, when in reading the Bible +straight through, the day's portion comprised Gen. xxv., 21-26. Gen. +xxvi., 8 is not nice, nor is Gen. xxix., 21-35, and Gen. xxx. The story +of Dinah, Gen. xxxiv.; of Reuben, Gen. xxxv., 22; of Onan, Gen. +xxxviii., 8-10; of Judah and Tamar, xxxviii., 13-26; of the birth of +Tamar's children, xxxviii., 27-30, are all revolting in their foulness +of phraseology. Why the Bible should be allowed to tell the story of +Onan seems very strange, and the "righteousness" of Tamar (v. 26) wins +approval. Is this thought purifying teaching for the "common people"? +The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Gen. xxxix., 7-18, I have heard +read in church to the manifest discomfort of some of the congregation, +and the amusement of others, while Joseph flying from temptation and +leaving his garment with Potiphar's wife is a picture often seen in +Sunday schools. Thus twelve out of the fifty chapters of Genesis are +undeniably obscene, and if there is any justice in England, Genesis +ought to be suppressed. We pass to Exodus. Ex. i., 15-19 is surely +indecent. I am not dealing with immoral teaching, or God's blessing on +the falsehood of the midwives (20, 21) would need comment. Ex. iv., +24-26, is very coarse; so also Ex. xxii., 16, 17, 19. Leviticus is +coarse throughout, but is especially so in chaps. v., 3; xii.; xv.; +xviii., 6-23; xx., 10-21; xxii., 3-5. The trial of jealousy is most +revolting in Numb. v., 12-29. Numb. xxv., 6-8 is hardly a nice story for +a child, nor is that of Numb. xxxi., 17, 18. Deut. xxi., 10-14 is not +pure teaching for soldiers. Deut. xxii., 13-21 is extremely coarse; the +remainder of the chapter comes also within the Chief's ruling, as do +also chaps. xxiii., 1, 10, 11; xxv., 11, 12; xxvii., 20, 22, 23; +xxviii., 57. The fault of the book of Joshua lies chiefly in its +exceeding brutality and bloodthirstiness, but it, also, does not quite +escape the charge of obscenity, as may be seen by referring to the +following passage: chap. v., 2-8. Judges is occasionally very foul, and +is utterly unfit for general reading, according to the late definition; +Ehud and Eglon, Judges, iii., 15-25, would not bear reading aloud, and +the story might have been told equally well in decent language. Or take +the horribly disgusting tale of the Levite and his concubine (Judges +xix.), and then judge whether a book containing such stories is fit for +use in schools. Dr. Carpenter's book may do good there, because, with +all its plain speaking, it conveys useful information; but what +good--mental, physical, or moral--can be done to a young girl by reading +Judges xix.? And the harm done is intensified by the fact that the +ignorance in which girls are kept surrounds such a story with +unwholesome interest, as giving a glimpse into what is, to them, the +great mystery of sex. The story of Ruth iii. 3-14 is one which we should +not like to see repeated by our daughters; for the virtue of a woman who +should wait until a man was drunk, and then go alone at night and lie +down at his feet, would, in our days, be regarded as problematical. 1 +Sam. ii. 22, and v. 9 are both obscene; so are 1 Sam. xviii. 25-27 and +xxi. 4, 5. 1 Sam. xxv. 22, 34 are disgustingly coarse, and there are +many similar coarse passages to be found in "holy" writ. 2 Sam. vi. 14, +16, 20, is a little over-suggestive, as is also 2 Sam. x. 4. The story +of David dancing is told in 1 Chron. xv. 27-29 without anything +offensive in its tone. The story of David and Bathsheba is only too well +known, and as told in 2 Sam. xi. 2-13 is far more calculated to arouse +the passions than is anything in Knowlton. The prophecy in 2 Sam. xii. +11, 12, fulfilled in xvi. 21, 22, is repulsive in the extreme, more +especially when we are told that the shameful counsel was given by +Ahithophel, whose counsel, "which he counselled in those days, was as if +a man had inquired at the oracle of God." If God's oracles give such +counsel, the less they are resorted to the better for the welfare of the +state. We are next given the odious story of Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. +xiii. 1-22), instructive for Lord Sandon's boys and girls to read +together, as they go through the Bible from beginning to end. 1 Kings i. +1-4 conveys an idea more worthy of George IV. than of the man after +God's own heart. In 1 Kings xiv. 10, the coarseness is inexcusable, and +verse 24 is only too intelligible after Judges xix. 2 Kings ix. 8, +xviii. 27, are thoroughly Biblical in their delicacy. 1 Chron. xix. 4 +repeats the unpleasant story of 2 Sam. x. 4; but both 1 and 2 Chronicles +are, for the Bible, remarkably free from coarseness, and are a great +improvement on the books of Kings and Samuel. The same praise is +deserved by Ezra and Nehemiah. The tone of the story of Esther is +somewhat sensual throughout: the drunken king commanding Vashti to come +in and show her beauty, Esther i. 11; the search for the young virgins, +Esther ii. 2-4; the trial and choice, Esther ii. 12-17, these are +scarcely elevating reading; Esther vii. 8 is also coarse. To a girl +whose safety is in her ignorance, Job iii. 11 is very plain. Psalm +xxxviii. 5-7 gives a description of a certain class of disease in exact +terms. Proverbs v. 17-20 is good advice, but would be condemned by the +Lord Chief Justice; Proverbs vi. 24-32 is of the same character, as is +also Proverbs vii. 5-23. The allusion in Ecclesiastes xi. 5 would be +objected to as improper by the Solicitor-General. + +The Song of Solomon is a marriage-song of the sensual and luxuriant +character: put Knowlton side by side with it, and then judge which is +most calculated to arouse the passions. It is almost impossible to +select, where all is of so extreme a character, but take i. 2, 13; ii. +4-6, 17; iii. 1, 4; iv. 5, 6, 11; v. 2-4, 8, 14-16; vii. 2, 3, 6-10, 12; +viii. 1-3, 8-10. Could any language be more alluring, more seductive, +more passion-rousing, than the languid, uxorious, "linked sweetness long +drawn out" of this Eastern marriage-ode? It is not vulgarly coarse and +offensive as is so much of the Bible, but it is, according to the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice, a very obscene poem. One may add that, in +addition to the allusions and descriptions that lie on the surface, +there is a multitude of suggestions not so apparent, but which are +thoroughly open to all who know anything of Eastern imagery. + +After the Song of Solomon, it is a shock to come to the prophets; it is +like plunging into cold water after being in a hothouse. Unfortunately, +with the more bracing atmosphere, we find the old brutality coming again +to repel us, and coarse denunciation shocks us, as in Isaiah iii. 17. +How would the Lord Chief Justice have dealt with Isaiah if he had lived +in his day, and acted as is recorded in Isaiah xx., 2-4? He clearly +would have put him in a lunatic asylum (Trial, p. 168). If it were not +that there are so many worse passages, one might complain of the taste +shown in the comparison of Isaiah xxvi. 17, 18; the same may be said of +Isaiah xxxii. 11, 12. In Isaiah xxxvi. 12 we have a repetition of 2 +Kings xviii. 27, which we could well have spared. In Isaiah lvii. 8, 9, +we meet a favourite simile of the Jewish prophets, wherein God is +compared to a husband, and the people to an unfaithful wife, and the +relations between them are described with a minuteness which can only be +fitly designated by the Solicitor-General's favourite word. Isaiah lxvi. +7-12 would be regarded as somewhat coarse in an ordinary book. The +prophets get worse as they go on. Jeremiah i. 5 is the first verse we +meet in Jeremiah which the Solicitor-General would take exception to. We +next meet the simile of marriage, in Jeremiah ii., 20, iii. 1-3, 6-9, +verse 9 being especially offensive. Jer. v. 7, 8, is coarse, as are also +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. +17, 18? But, perhaps, as Ezekiel is coming, it is hypercritical to +object to Jeremiah. Lamentations i. 8, 9, is revolting, and verse 17 of +the same chapter uses an extremely coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet +who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity +that he did not eat a large part of his own, and so prevent it from +poisoning other people. What can be more disgusting than Ez. iv. 12-15? +the whole chapter is absurd, but these verses are abominable. The +prophet seems, like the drawers of the indictment against us, to take +pleasure in piling up uncomfortable terms, as in Ez. vi. 9. We now come +to a chapter that is obscene from beginning to end, and may, I think, +almost claim the palm of foulness. Let any one read through Ez. xvi., +marking especially verses 4-9, 15-17, 25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, and then +think of the absurdity of prosecuting Knowlton for corrupting the morals +of the young, who have this book of Ezekiel put into their hand. After +this, Ez. xviii. 6, 11, and 15 seem quite chaste and delicate; and no +one could object to Ez. xxii. 9-11. Ez. xxiii. is almost as bad as +chapter xvi., especially verses 6-9, 14-21, 29, 41-44. Surely if any +book be indictable for obscenity, the Bible should be the first to be +prosecuted. I know of no other book in which is to be found such utterly +unredeemed coarseness. The rest of Ezekiel is only bloodthirsty and +brutal, so may, fortunately, be passed over without further comment. +Daniel may be left unnoticed; and we now come to Hosea, a prophet whose +morals were, to speak gently, peculiar. The "beginning of the word of +the Lord by Hosea," was the Lord's command as to his marriage, related +in Hosea i. 2; we then hear of his children by the said wife in the +remainder of the chapter, and in the next chapter we are told, Hosea ii. +2, that the woman is not his wife, and from verse 2-13 we have an +extremely indecent speech of Hosea on the misdeeds of the unfortunate +creature he married, wherein, verse 4, he complains of the very fact +that God commanded in chap. i. 2. Hosea iii. 1-3 relates another +indecent proceeding on Hosea's part, and his purchase of another +mistress; whether girls' morals are improved by the contemplation of +such divine commands, is a question that might fairly be urged on Lord +Sandon before he next distributes Bibles to little children of both +sexes. The said girls must surely, as they study Hosea iv. 10-18, wonder +that God expresses his intention not to punish impurity in verse 14. It +is impossible, in reading Hosea, to escape from the prevailing tone of +obscenity; chaps. v. 3, 4, 7; vi. 9, 10; vii. 4; viii. 9; ix. 1, 10, 11, +14, 16; xii. 3; xiii. 13, every one of these has a thought in it that +all must regard as coarse, and which comes distinctly within the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice as to obscenity; there is scarcely one chapter +in Hosea that does not, with offensive reiteration, dwell on the +coarsest form of wrongdoing of which women are capable. Joel iii. 3 is +objectionable in a comparatively slight degree. Amos, although +occasionally coarse, keeps clear of the gross obscenity of Hosea, as do +also Obadiah and Jonah. Micah i. 7, 8, 11, would scarcely be passed by +Sir Hardinge Giffard, nor would he approve Micah iv. 9, 10. Nahum iii. +4-6 is almost Hoseatic, and Habakkuk ii. 5, 16 runs it close. The +remaining four prophets are sometimes coarse, but have nothing in them +approaching the abominations of the others, and we close the Old +Testament with a sigh of relief. + +The New Testament has in it nothing at all approaching the obscenity of +the Old, save two passages in Revelation. The story of Mary and Joseph +is somewhat coarse, especially as told in Matt. i. 18-25. Rom. i. 24-27 +is distinctly obscene, and 1 Cor. v. 1, vi. 9, 15, 16, 18, would all be +judged indelicate by Her Majesty's Solicitor-General, who objected to +the warnings given by Knowlton against sexual sin. The whole of 1 Cor. +vii. might be thought calculated to arouse the passions, but the rest of +Paul's Epistles may pass, in spite of many coarse passages, such as 1 +Thess. iv. 3-7. Heb. xiii. 4 and 2 Peter ii. 10-18 both come into the +same category, but it is useless to delay on simple coarseness. +Revelation slips into the old prophetic indecency; Rev. ii. 20-22 and +xvii. 1-4 are almost worthy of Ezekiel. + +Can anyone go through all these passages and have any doubt that the +Bible--supposing it to be unprotected by statute--is indictable as an +obscene book under the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice? It is idle to +plead that the writers do not approve the evil deeds they chronicle, and +that it is only in two or three cases that God appears to endorse the +sin; no purity of motives on the writers' parts can be admitted in +excuse (Trial, p. 257). These sensuous stories and obscene parables come +directly under the censure of the Lord Chief Justice, and I invite our +police authorities to show their sense of justice by prosecuting the +people who circulate this indictable book, thereby doing all that in +them lies to vitiate and corrupt the morals of the young. If they will +not do this, in common decency they ought to drop the prosecution +against us for selling the "Fruits of Philosophy." + +The right way would be to prosecute none of these books. All that I have +intended to do in drawing attention to the "obscene" passages in the +Bible, is to show that to deal with the sexual relations with a good +object--as is presumably that of the Bible--should not be an indictable +misdemeanour. I do not urge that the Bible should be prosecuted: I do +urge that it is indictable under the present ruling; and I plead, +further, that this very fact shows how the present ruling is against the +public weal. Nothing could be more unfortunate than to have a large crop +of prosecutions against the standard writers of old times and of the +present day, and yet this is what is likely to happen, unless some stop +is put to the stupid and malicious prosecution against ourselves. With +one voice, the press of the country--omitting the _Englishman_--has +condemned the "foolish" verdict and the "vindictive" sentence. When that +sentence is carried out, the real battle will begin, and the blame of +the loss and the trouble that will ensue must rest on those who started +this prosecution, and on those who shield the hidden prosecutor. The +Christians, at least, ought to join with us in reversing the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice, since their own sacred book is one of those most +easily assailable. The purity that depends on ignorance is a fragile +purity; the chastity that depends on ignorance is a fragile chastity; to +buttress up ignorance with prison and fine is a fatal policy; and I call +on those who love freedom and desire knowledge, to join with us in +over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + description of generation; the affect of the reading will be "to excite + description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite + + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girl's schools to read Jer. xx. + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. + + who eat a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + ] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + +***** This file should be named 38273.txt or 38273.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/7/38273/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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