Mark Twain was a anti-Catholic Freemason

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lax16 said:
Yes, I have recently finished reading it.

He says that “she (Joan of Arc) is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced.”
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What an amazing book! We have it in our Church library and after reading it a few years back I thought for sure he was Catholic. I guess not.
 
MrStain said:
What an amazing book! We have it in our Church library and after reading it a few years back I thought for sure he was Catholic. I guess not.
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I believe that Twain was a man of his times, It is unfair to judge any man according our modern views. Twain was a Mason, I doubt that had any bearing on his writings any more than the society he grew up in.
 
Still doesn’t change the fact that he was one of the funniest human beings to ever live.
Tied with Oscar Wilde for first.
 
Brother_Steve said:
I believe that Twain was a man of his times, It is unfair to judge any man according our modern views. Twain was a Mason, I doubt that had any bearing on his writings any more than the society he grew up in.
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Yes, and not all lodges were anti-Catholic. According to one source, his relations with the Masons were short-lived.

He grew up with the Protestant (Presbyterian) and evangelical antagonism towards Catholicism which was prevalent in the America of that day. Also he was influenced by Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire, and he embodied the American spirit that loved progress and science. He worked with scientists and had some inventions of his own.

He was, IMO, honest, though, and this enabled him to move beyond the stereotypical anti-catholicism of the day to see what was good and noble in the Church and her saints.
 
He was not just anti-catholic, he was flat out anti-religion, as well as anti-government, as well as anti-war. However most of these stances came later in his life after many accumulated personal tragedies.

Among them, his younger brother was killed in a riverboat explosion, his son died in childhood, his youngest daughter died of menengitus, his wife lingered and died of heart failure, in the last decade of his life his eldest daughter decorated his house for christmas, went upstairs to take a bath, had a seizure, and drowned in the tub. The last two decades of his life his writing to took a very dark turn and he really succumbed to cynicism.

Of course he was always a very liberal man, for his time. He had a life long distaste for any persons or organizations he saw as controlling people’s lives, which is a very american way of thinking by the way.

He was a man of contradiction though. Twain hated the wealthy for their greed and opulence, but also desired more than anything to become rich and influential. He ranted against religion, but wrote a very good book on the life of St. Joan Of Arc (a book which he considered his favorite and best work).

Read some of his books, what you’ve heard about him is not as important as what those stories say about the human condition, about our spirit.

Sorry if this was a little ranty or incoherant its midnight here and I’m tired.
 
Mystrx said:
He was not just anti-catholic, he was flat out anti-religion
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Yes, good point.
In his autobiography he wrote, “I have never belonged to any church from that day to this. I have remained absolutely free in those matters. And in this independence I have found a spiritual comfort and a peace of mind quite above price.”

Wow. He certainly had a lot of personal tragedy in his life.
 
He was quite conflicted on spirituality. He and his wife held sayonces (I’m not looking up the spelling of that one), so he was definitely into something, a generic sort of religious experience.
 
GraceSofia said:
Yes, good point.
In his autobiography he wrote, “I have never belonged to any church from that day to this. I have remained absolutely free in those matters. And in this independence I have found a spiritual comfort and a peace of mind quite above price.”

Wow. He certainly had a lot of personal tragedy in his life.
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I just wanted to defend Twain because a simple bit of research will show what a real anti-catholic is like, keeping in mind that organizations such as the Ku Klux klan are anti-catholic.
Plus a few posters seemed to be celebrating never having read any of his books and that’s unfortunate.
Take Huck Finn for example, the books theme is essentially about the need for freedom in ones life. Its about the evils of slavery and the consequences of racism. Also its about the strength that friendship brings.
Even if Twain disliked the church his books are still must reads.
When he gets anti-religious it comes off more as misanthropic frustration than any kind of prejudicial anti-catholic sentiment.
 
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