An important history for the freethought movement

I really enjoyed John Emerson Roberts: Kansas City's ''Up-to-date'': Freethought Preacher . It follows the life of John Emerson Roberts, who was a Freethought preacher in Kansas who also spent time in Chicago. I am active in the freethought movement being a Humanist and having worked for a Humanist organization. I am well aware of the problems our movement has with respectability, infighting and more.

What was interesting about this book was to find out that these are the same problems the freethought movement had back in the late 1800s early 1900s. It's depressing to think we haven't progressed since that time. This movement is still largely a movement of intellectuals.

What I did find really cool was that there were several freethought preachers giving regular services in the major cities. At one point Chicago had 3 freethought preachers who you could get a lecture from on a weekly basis. We don't have that anymore, but I think it is definitely needed. The only group I can think of is the North Texas Church of Freethought.

I think the reason these freethought churches" died out is because they were largely totally dependent on the preacher. When they weren't available, there were no replacement for lectures. As we move forward, we need to ensure our communities have an ample supply of speakers and "preachers" so that our communities don't die when the leader does.

On a personal note, my family was involved in the freethought community of Chicago so when the story takes John Roberts to Chicago, I kept thinking about the fact that my relatives probably had gone to see him preach, or they had been involved with one of his competitors. That was neat.

All in all a very enjoyable read and I really think that anyone who is active in the secular community would benefit from reading this book because of just how important it is to understand our history as a movement. A lot of people are under the impression this is a new movement, but it isn't. We have a history and we should learn it so that we can build upon that history instead of reinventing the same history and making the same mistakes.