Joseph Lewis

From Philosopedia

Lewis, Joseph (11 June 1889 - 4 November 1968)

Lewis was born into a large Jewish family in Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a struggling merchant, and at age nine Joseph left school to find employment in order to help with the family's finances. Self-educated, he read Robert G. Ingersoll and Thomas Paine, his life-long "idol." Obsessed by Paine, he arranged for statues of Paine to be placed in Paris; in Morristown, New Jersey; and at Thetford, England, in front of Paine’s birthplace.

In 1920 he moved to New York City, where he sought out fellow atheists and became president of Freethinkers of America, which had first been organized in 1915. For the rest of his life, he remained its president.

In th early 1930s, he started the Eugenics Publishing Company, which published books on sexology that otherwise would not have been accessible. They were written by medical specialists, and Lewis assumed the rights to the sex manuals of William J. Robinson, M.D., a pioneer of contraceptive information. Other of his published authors were Maurice Chideckel, Frederick M. Rossiter, and Marie Stopes, whose Married Love was banned in the United States for years.

In 1937, Lewis began publishing a bulletin, Freethinkers of America, which was renamed Freethinker in the 1940s, and finally Age of Reason in the 1950s. Regular contributors included Franklin Steiner, Corliss Lamont, and William J. Fielding. Lewis persuaded the Leon Blum Socialist government of France to erect a sculpture of Paine by Gutzon Borglum in Paris. His activism included trying to have the phrase “under God” stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance; protesting government celebrations of Thanksgiving; objecting to the annual Christmas stamps sold by the Post Office; and arguing against public-school children’s “released time” for religious study.

His many books include The Tyranny of God (1921), Lincoln, the Freethinker (1925), Jefferson, the Freethinker (1925), The Bible Unmasked (1926), Franklin, the Freethinker (1926), Burbank, the Infidel (1929), Atheism, a collection of his public addresses (1930), Voltaire, the Incomparable Infidel (1929), The Bible and the Public Schools (1931), Should Children Receive Religious Instruction? (1933), The Ten Commandments (644 pages, 1946), Thomas Paine, Author of the Declaration of Independence (a 1947 book arguing that Paine deserved the credit for this document, followed by a play, The Tragic Patriot), and In the Name of Humanity (1949), which condemned circumcision.

The Bible Unmasked (1926) was considered one of the most shocking books of the day.

An Atheist Manifesto (1954) was his major treatise on freethought.

In the Name of Humanity (1956) argued against the practice of circumcision.

With the help of Joseph Wheless, a rationalist author and attorney, Lewis took on numerous court cases to protect the separation of church and state, seeking $5.000. punitive damages from New York's Trinity Church when it erected a plaque with a bogus prayer by George Washington (Lewis lost). He protested the addition of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, and the issuance of Christmas stamps in the 1960s. Lewis broadcast freethought material over the radio when he lived in Miami, Florida.

Lewis was one of the better known atheists of his era. Invited by John Haynes Holmes to speak at the Community (Unitarian) Church in New York City on 20 April 1930, Lewis included the following:

Atheism rises above creeds and puts Humanity upon one plane.

There can be no "chosen people" in the Atheist philosophy.

There are no bended knees in Atheism;

No supplications, no prayers;

No sacrificial redemptions;

No "divine" revelations;

No washing in the blood of the lamb;

No crusades, no massacres, no holy wars;

No heaven, no hell, no purgatory;

No silly rewards and no vindictive punishments;

No christs, and no saviors;

No devils, no ghosts and no gods.

When he admonished Jews not to observe Yom Kipur, six of his honorary vice-presidents of Freethinkers of America reigned in protest. In addition to being a dapper, well-dressed person, he is remembered as having called board meetings in New York restaurants, acting as chairman, and the sole voting member.

He lived in a New York suburb, Purdys, then in Miami, where he broadcast freethought lectures. He was married twice: to Fay Jacobs in 1914 and to Ruth Stoller Grubman in 1952. He had one daughter.

In 1968 after arriving at his New York City office, he had a heart attack, collapsed, and died at his desk. No funeral was held but memorial services were held in New York City and Philadelphia.

{EU, William F. Ryan; FFRF; FUS; TRI}