ATHEISM ANYONE?

Located in the southwestern part of the state, Liberal, Missouri—as of the 2000 census—contains 328 households and 779 people. Named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri (to which the town’s organizer belonged), the town was started as an atheist, “freethinker” utopia in 1880 by George Walser, an anti-religionist, agnostic lawyer.

His idea was to found a town where Christians were not allowed—that should have “neither God, Hell, Church, nor Saloon.” Early advertisements inviting atheists to move there boasted that Liberal “is the only town of its size in the United States without a priest, preacher, church, saloon, God, Jesus, hell or devil.” A freethinking “university” was established, and a lecture hall opened that invited speakers from a variety of backgrounds.

Christians who tried to move there were met at the train station by Mr. Walser and, upon inquiry, were told to leave. Eventually, however, they did establish a small town a short distance away. To keep them out of Liberal, Walser then erected a barbed wire fence between the two towns.

Unfortunately, Liberal failed to live up to its founder’s hopes. Within a short time, drunkenness was a serious problem notwithstanding the absence of saloons. One observer—albeit a Christian—noted five years after its founding that, despite the town’s advertisements (see above), it had “little else than the devil and hell there.” Among other criticisms, he stated that Liberal’s hotels were brothels and virtue was unknown. He was sued for slander (twice), but the plaintiffs lost both suits and ended up paying court costs.

Abortion was rampant. Not surprisingly in a day of “less-modern” medicine, doctors spent an inordinate amount of time trying to heal the natural aftereffects of this practice. Disobedience of children to parents was common practice. Swearing (cursing) was the language of the day, including among the young. Slander was prevalent and the charges vile.

As a “freethinking” community, Liberal was a failure. Even lifelong unbelievers who had moved there for its advantages moved away in disgust.

When Walser died in May 1910, the funeral was held at his home. Excerpts were read from a book titled The Life and Teachings of Jesus, published in 1909, and the author was Walser! While he didn’t try to push his new beliefs on others, the book is a remarkable document from someone who once said that Christianity and the Bible were the crude reasoning of primitive man. He had searched for hope during his life through materialism, atheism, agnosticism and spiritualism but had found none.

In an age when prayer has been banned from schools and from our county commissioner’s meetings (at least to pray “in Jesus name”), one has to wonder at the future of a nation that increasingly bans God from public discourse. If we can’t pray publicly, perhaps we need to do a powerful lot of praying privately. And, as a church, we need to determine to become the finest example of Christianity possible to the people of our community.
—In Christian love, Lloyd Cain