The Profits of Religion | Page 3

no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small
Print!" statement.

[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon
University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software

THE PROFITS OF RELIGION
An Essay in Economic Interpretation
By UPTON SINCLAIR

The Profits of Religion

OFFERTORY
This book is a study of Supernaturalism from a new point of view--as a
Source of Income and a Shield to Privilege. I have searched the
libraries through, and no one has done it before. If you read it, you will
see that it needed to be done. It has meant twenty-five years of thought
and a year of investigation. It contains the facts.
I publish the book myself, so that it may be available at the lowest
possible price. I am giving my time and energy, in return for one thing

which you may give me--the joy of speaking a true word and getting it
heard.
The present volume is the first of a series, which will do for Education,
Journalism and Literature what has here been done for the Church: the
four volumes making a work of revolutionary criticism, an Economic
Interpretation of Culture under the general title of "The Dead Hand."

CONTENTS
Introductory Bootstrap-lifting Religion
Book One: The Church of the Conquerors The Priestly Lie The Great
Fear Salve Regina! Fresh Meat Priestly Empires Prayer-wheels The
Butcher-Gods The Holy Inquisition Hell-fire
Book Two: The Church of Good Society The Rain Makers The
Babylonian Fire-God The Medicine-men The Canonization of
Incompetence Gibson's Preservative The Elders Church History Land
and Livings Graft in Tail Bishops and Beer Anglicanism and Alcohol
Dead Cats "Suffer Little Children" The Court-circular Horn-blowing
Trinity Corporation Spiritual Interpretation
Book Three: The Church of the Servant Girls Charity God's Armor
Thanksgivings The Holy Roman Empire Temporal Power Knights of
Slavery Priests and Police The Church Militant The Church
Triumphant God in the Schools The Menace King Coal The Unholy
Alliance Secret Service Tax Exemption Holy History Das Centrum
Book Four: The Church of the Slavers The Face of Caesar Deutschland
ueber Alles Der Tag King Cotton Witches and Women Moth and Rust
To Lyman Abbott The Octopus The Industrial Shelley The Outlook for
Graft Clerical Camouflage The Jungle
Book Five: The Church of the Merchants The Head Merchant "Herr
Beeble" Holy Oil Rhetorical Black-hanging The Great American Fraud
Riches in Glory Captivating Ideals Spook Hunting Running the Rapids
Birth Control Sheep
Book Six: The Church of the Quacks Tabula Rasa The Book of
Mormon Holy Rolling Bible Prophecy Koreshanity Mazdaznan Black
Magic Mental Malpractice Science and Wealth New Nonsense "Dollars
Want Me!" Spiritual Financiering The Graft of Grace
Book Seven: The Church of the Social Revolution Christ and Caesar
Locusts and Wild Honey Mother Earth The Soap Box The Church

Machine The Church Redeemed The Desire of Nations The Knowable
"Nature's Insurgent Son The New Morality Envoi

INTRODUCTORY
Bootstrap-lifting
Bootstrap-lifting? says the reader.
It is a vision I have seen: upon a vast plain, men and women are
gathered in dense throngs, crouched in uncomfortable and distressing
positions, their fingers hooked in the straps of their boots. They are
engaged in lifting themselves; tugging and straining until they grow red
in the face, exhausted. The perspiration streams from their foreheads,
they show every symptom of distress; the eyes of all are fixed, not upon
each other, nor upon their boot-straps, but upon the sky above. There is
a look of rapture upon their faces, and now and then, amid grunts and
groans, they cry out with excitement and triumph.
I approach one and say to him, "Friend, what is this you are doing?"
He answers, without pausing to glance at me, "I am performing
spiritual exercises. See how I rise?"
"But," I say, "you are not rising at all!"
Whereat he becomes instantly angry. "You are one of the scoffers!"
"But, friend," I protest, "don't you feel the earth under your