ETTA SEMPLE:
A Role Model For Today
A woman of extraordinary curiosity, sensitivity and conviction, Etta Semple (1855-1914) was a member of the Freethought Movement of the 19th century. She was a vocal advocate for the separation of church and state, lambasted religious dogma as the basis of women's inequality in society, and defended the rights of laborers at the height of the Gilded Age. Unfortunately, Etta's efforts to change American culture is still unresolved as the debate over religion in politics, the autonomy of American women and the dignity of workers to make a living wage, continue to be issues disputed today. Etta expressed her progressive and unconventional views by publishing a Freethought newspaper in Ottawa, Kansas, a rare accomplishment for a women of her day. After discontinuing her newspaper, Etta devoted her life to the healing arts and operated the Natural Cure Sanitarium. Until her death in 1914, she eased the suffering of others while continuing to support Freethought Principals.
We think that anything or anybody, let alone an all-powerful being that demands his owns special creation to stay in servile, abject humiliating servitude all their lives in order to pay him homage, in order to gratify and idiotic love for praise and adoration, is not a being worth praising or worshiping.