Posted on 10/23/2012 11:46:42 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
In the summer of 1880, George H. Walser founded the town of Liberal in southwest Missouri. Named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri (to which the town’s organizer belonged), Walser’s objective was “to found a town without a church, [w]here unbelievers could bring up their children without religious training,” and where Christians were not allowed (Thompson, 1895; Becker, 1895)...
Some of the early inhabitants of Liberal even encouraged other infidels to move to their town by publishing an advertisement which boasted that Liberal “is the only town of its size in the United States without a priest, preacher, church, saloon, God, Jesus, hell or devil” (Keller, 1885, p. 5). Walser and his “freethinking” associates were openly optimistic about their new town. Excitement was in the air, and atheism was at its core. They believed that their godless town of “sober, trustworthy and industrious” individuals would thrive for years on end.
(Excerpt) Read more at apologeticspress.org ...
The article goes on to say:
Truly, as has been observed in the past, “An infidel surrounded by Christians may spout his infidelity and be able to endure it, but a whole town of atheists is too horrible to contemplate.” It is one thing to espouse a desire to live in a place where there is no God, but it is an entirely different thing for such a place actually to exist.
“Liberal” hasn’t changed much except the sober, industrious, hard working part. lol
Interesting that the term meant the same yesterday as today.
Nice catch. Preach it!
what about Liberal, Kansas?
Blue Balls, PA is pretty close to Intercourse, PA. Of course, you can always go to Kuntztown, PA for a change of pace.
All these towns have churches too.
The ancient city of Sodom was founded on the same principles.
Excellent article - thanks for posting!
Never heard of this before — quite an interesting read, thanks!
The sad thing is that many of those who live in such “godless” places like early Liberty weren’t actually devoid of God. He was there, (of course he was ignored by the citizenry) but He was there even as close as a whisper if one had called on Him through Jesus.
The sad thing is that there is a real place devoid of God, and it is Hell-many will chose to spend their eternity there even if God will do everthing He can to reach them if only they would cry out!
-J.S.
“Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law.”
Liberalism, atheism, humanism, and Satanism
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