Profits of Religion

by Upton Sinclair

This excoriating critique of religion, especially as represented by powerful clerical institutions, is a lesser-known work by the author who had earlier become famous with his publication of The Jungle, an exposT of the poor labor conditions and unsanitary practices in Chicago's meat-packing industry. More than just a tirade against religion, this is the work of an impassioned, idealistic socialist writing at the beginning of the First World War, when the notion of an international socialist revolution still seemed like a very real possibility to many of the left-leaning thinkers of the day. Sinclair's chief concern is social justice and his aim is to enlighten common people by training his critical intelligence like a sharpshooter on the many hypocrisies of established religion, which stand in the way of achieving a just society for all. More than anything he is particularly incensed by the collusion of religion with the power structure of capitalism in exploiting the poor to increase its own wealth while ignoring the obvious material needs of the less fortunate. In the end Sinclair places his faith in a "new religion" based on the known facts of human nature and on the largely untapped potential of human beings to solve their own problems through reason and science.This work, written before Sinclair and others on the American left became disillusioned with Stalin's Soviet-style socialism, offers an interesting glimpse into the intellectual currents prevalent on the left at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Genres: Religion, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Classics, Economics, Essays

315 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent discussion of the $$ behind religion and how it controls individuals in order to push them down a particular path. Though written before 1920 (and self-published by the author because there was no other way to get it into print), this book is spot-on currently and is a MUST-READ for anyone who has been a member of organized religion(s).

[Laura Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sinclair is a passionate and articulate advocate, and I enjoy his rhetoric on behalf of working people and against social inequality. The main thrust of his argument, however, is that religion, as it now exists, (or more accurately as it then existed) is nothing more than a tool used to keep the oppressed from rising up against a wealthy class that the religious leaders represent.

It is an argument that I might have found compelling in my youth. In fact, when I was in high school I wrote a cheeky essay on how the church as a big business that was interested in protecting its profits. It was full of quotations and clever arguments, and I got an A on it in my English class. So in arguing against Sinclair, I am also arguing against my junior year self.

Sinclair makes the mistake of assuming that there is a single entity in the world called "religion" that can be replaced with a new religion of justice and equality that mirrors his socialist idealism. He imagines that all religion is in the business of making money and consolidating power, while the religion of social equality does not exist now, only in a utopian future. Of course the reality is much more muddy. Churches modeled on the ideal of social justice exist along side churches that encourage support of the status quo.

[Erneilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Socialist and agnostic, Mr. Sinclair has little good to say about religion, ancient or modern. He puts forth his social agenda in strong words and appeals to reason as the ultimate authority. He points out the worst in the churches and accuses all religion and religionists as the principle supporter(s) of keeping the poor and the wage-slave in their place. He pokes fun at every belief from Spiritualism to Mormonism (there he didn't get his facts entirely straight but I give him a B- for effort). His prophetic pronouncements on the future of Socialism didn't come to pass - he wasn't that great of a a prophet himself. But I think his heart was in the right place, wanting to lift people out of the grind of poverty and fear.

[Thomas Ray]

"This book is the study of the Cult of the Supernatural, from a new point of view--as a source of income and a shield for privilege." --Plutarco Elías Calles (1877-1945), president of Mexico. Quoted in /Mexico: Biography of Power/, Enrique Krauze, 1997, p. 413.

[Craig Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Let us not fail, young comrades; let us not write on the scroll of history that mankind had to go through yet new generations of wars and tumults and enslavements, because the youth of the international revolution could not lift themselves above those ancient personal vices which wrecked the fair hopes of their fathers—bigotry and intolerance, vindictiveness and vanity, envy, hatred and malice and all uncharitableness!"

I swear I didn't start reading this book to perfectly coincide with the latest battle between Church and State i.e. the Kim Davis controversy. It just so happened that it was the final book in my stack of "religion is dumb lol" books I had horded from when I worked at a bookstore. It just so happens that conflicts between religious belief and public policy is as old as... well, history as we know it. Frankly, I was surprised this even existed - the idea of such a harsh indictment of religion, especially Christianity (but specifically Catholicism), being published in 1918 seems unfathomable to me. However, here it stands and it's quite a ballsy critique/expose, which shouldn't be entirely surprising from the man who wrote The Jungle.

The book doesn't solely focus on religion, as Sinclair also takes time to make it clear that big business is the main source of corruption in religion. I definitely think there is something to be said for that too, especially when you take stock of the "mega churches" that pockmark the American landscape, which seem more like temples devoted to Capitalist demagoguery than anything Jesus would have considered appropriate to his core teachings.

This book is a nice read though, and certainly belongs in the pantheon of must-read religious critiques, along with Bertrand Russell's "Why I am Not a Christian" and Sam Harris's "The End of Faith"

[Mark Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book proves to be quite the comprehensive takedown of organized religion. Sinclair chronicles the influence that leaders of organized religion, chiefly the Christian religion, hold over business and government leaders of his time. They strike down unions and those "dangerous" individuals with socialist or anarchist ideas through the use the brute force of police and the legislative power of the government, profit off of the poor and ignorant through quack medicines and non-scientific or biblical remedies, steal from the coffers of those whom they preach to, and ensure their continued survival through various devious means. Perhaps Sinclair's most cryptic line, and it is quite prophetic, is this:

"The measure of the civilization in which any nation has attained is the extent to which it has curtailed the power of institutionalized religion." He provides strong evidence throughout that proves this thesis true.

Were he alive today, Sinclair would no doubt shake in his boots were he to see the stranglehold on government and business interests that leaders of religion continue to possess.

While "The Profits of Religion" failed to have the lasting influence on American society that "The Jungle" did, it is my hope that readers continue to stumble across it as I did. It may not change minds, but it provides a strong example of the power of the written word.

[Zenarrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would rate higher if the fundamentalists would not pan it based just on their beliefs. Interesting read as you have to remind yourself that it was written in 1918 and before Hitler came into power. Also, Rockefeller, JP Morgan and Carnegie name drops. I had no idea, but it makes sense that they used everything at their disposal to dig the trench of capitol into their own pockets. Again, I recommend this and hope others will see past the bias, or blind allegiance to their church.

[José Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I shrieked when Sinclair mentioned early 1900s 'hollow earthers'. Great book, anyway. One star for each Marx quote minus one star for the slight eugenics at the end.

[Corbin Routier · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In its true sense Religion is the most fundamental of the soul's impulses, the impassioned love of life, the feeling of its preciousness, the desire to foster and further it. In that sense every thinking man must be religious; in that sense Religion is a perpetually self renewing force, the very nature of our being. In that sense I have no thought of assailing it, I would make it clear that I hold it beyond assailment. But we are denied the pleasure of using the word in that honest sense, because of another which has been given to it... It is the thesis of this book that 'Religion' in this sense is a source of income to parasites, and the natural ally of every form of oppression and exploitation."
-Upton Sinclair

"I make haste, therefore, to restate the main thesis of this book. It is not the New Inquisition which is our enemy today; it is hereditary Privilege. It is not Superstition, but Big Business which makes use of Superstition as a wolf makes use of sheep's clothing."
-Upton Sinclair

[Jim Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any Upton Sinclair book has some great things to say even if some have an enormous amout of intellectual meat and some not as much but what is there always surprises me. He shows how religion has been used to control people, steal their money, control politics yet who is not antheist. It's the churches and people who use if for Capitalistic abuse. Sinclair was openly a Socialist. One thing I found really funny is when he wrote about people going on and on about the signs are here and the world will definitely end before the millennium. What was funny was he's talking about before the 20th century. The word was supposed to not make it through 1897. So when people try to scare you with that nonsense remember it's been going on practically forever.

Read it - old book with still pertinent things that remain the same today.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very interesting to read Upton Sinclair's opinions on religion, but I had a hard time accepting some of his ideas about it. His views on raising children don't make much sense when one takes into consideration how he raised his own son. Also, I think it needed a bit more fact to be entirely convincing, but it was entertaining nonetheless (especially near the end when he "tricks" the reader).

[John Wiswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stream of consciousness arguments are annoying enough even when they aren't about the meaning of life. Worse are the parts where he copied and pasted someone else's block of text and then agreed with it for a few sentences as his entire argument. I'm sympathetic to many of Sinclair's politics and still found this just about unbearable to finish. Rhetorical flourishes don't make a meal even for a mind that isn't hungry.

[Joshua Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Known mostly for his "muckraking" novel "The Jungle," Sinclair was a versatile and prolific writer and political activist. "The Profits of Religion"

[Bita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skimmed through towards the end. It started off ok , but got weird and boring later and repetitious
The good thing is you can download it for free online

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a bit of casual anti-Semitism that bothers me quite a bit, but this is a no-holds-barred attack on religion as a fraud that enriches the privileged, and perpetuates human ignorance.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, and was not hard to read or understand.

[Luís Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnífico!
(lido em Chengdu, China)

[Ghislain · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'est un ouvrage à charge qui pourrait finalement être plus bref : il y a une certaine forme de répétition d'autant que l'écriture pamphlétaire invite à des attaques en règle brèves.

[Jeff M Millett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first six “books” are an insightful and engaging critical review of role of Christianity in Capitalism up to 1919. The final part, Book seven, starts out interesting but lost me when it went on to predict a successful social revolution and the eventual triumph of a new socialist Christianity. Apparently, in 1919 at the dawn of the 20th century it was more possible to believe in progress than I find today. The troubling religious issues Upton Sinclair identified but predicted we’d move beyond (by the 1950’s) now seems stronger than ever.

[Marti Martinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As deflating and infuriating as his "The Jungle", it would have been as effective if it was only half its size. The justified anger at religious charlatans is well deserved, but it wore thin.

One statement did not set well with me:

Nature has given us a virgin continent, a clean slate upon which to write what we will.

Ever hear of genocide of the native American?

[Blane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though some of the examples cited and some the language used dated, Sinclair's basic message still holds true a century later: Organized religion is a scam designed to keep the unenlightened masses in check.

[Alexandrea Hoelderle · Rating 4 out of 5]

How religion profits off the working man and upper classes

If you picked this book up you probably were already aware of the situation. But it provides excellent historical background.

[XRay RMA · Rating 4 out of 5]

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I'm at a time when you are so much for a long way in hell of an old lady at my job to

[Hortensia]

One of my favorite books of all time.