We came across this old interview with Frank Sinatra recently, and needless to
say, we were stunned.
The interview originally appeared in Playboy
Magazine in 1963, and it demonstrates the timeless performer’s incredibly deep
and evolved thoughts on organized religion – thoughts that rival many of
today’s scholarly critics of faith
Check out this excerpt:
Playboy: Are you a religious man? Do you believe in God?
Sinatra: Well, that’ll do for openers. I think I can sum up
my religious feelings in a couple of paragraphs. First: I believe in you and
me. I’m like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that
I have a respect for life — in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the
sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If
these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. But I don’t
believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort or for a natural on the
next roll of the dice. I’m not unmindful of man’s seeming need for faith; I’m
for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a
bottle of Jack Daniel’s. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which
man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle. The
witch doctor tries to convince us that we have to ask God for help, to spell
out to him what we need, even to bribe him with prayer or cash on the line.
Well, I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It’s not
necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him
anyplace. And if that sounds heretical, my source is pretty good: Matthew, Five
to Seven, The Sermon on the Mount.
Playboy: You haven’t found any answers for yourself in
organized religion?
Sinatra: There are things about organized religion which I
resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed
in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in
the name of religion and I’ll show you a hundred retrogressions. Remember, they
were men of God who destroyed the educational treasures at Alexandria, who
perpetrated the Inquisition in Spain, who burned the witches at Salem. Over 25,000
organized religions flourish on this planet, but the followers of each think
all the others are miserably misguided and probably evil as well. In India they
worship white cows, monkeys and a dip in the Ganges. The Moslems accept slavery
and prepare for Allah, who promises wine and revirginated women. And witch
doctors aren’t just in Africa. If you look in the L.A. papers of a Sunday
morning, you’ll see the local variety advertising their wares like suits with
two pairs of pants.
Playboy: Hasn’t religious faith just as often served as a
civilizing influence?
Sinatra: Remember that leering, cursing lynch mob in Little
Rock reviling a meek, innocent little 12-year-old Negro girl as she tried to
enroll in public school? Weren’t they — or most of them — devout churchgoers? I
detest the two-faced who pretend liberality but are practiced bigots in their
own mean little spheres. I didn’t tell my daughter whom to marry, but I’d have
broken her back if she had had big eyes for a bigot. As I see it, man is a product
of his conditioning, and the social forces which mold his morality and conduct
— including racial prejudice — are influenced more by material things like food
and economic necessities than by the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the
high priests of commercialized superstition. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m for
decency — period. I’m for anything and everything that bodes love and
consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity
permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday — cash me out.
Playboy: But aren’t such spiritual hypocrites in a
minority? Aren’t most Americans fairly consistent in their conduct within the
precepts of religious doctrine?
Sinatra: I’ve got no quarrel with men of decency at any
level. But I can’t believe that decency stems only from religion. And I can’t
help wondering how many public figures make avowals of religious faith to
maintain an aura of respectability. Our civilization, such as it is, was shaped
by religion, and the men who aspire to public office anyplace in the free world
must make obeisance to God or risk immediate opprobrium. Our press accurately
reflects the religious nature of our society, but you’ll notice that it also
carries the articles and advertisements of astrology and hokey Elmer Gantry
revivalists. We in America pride ourselves on freedom of the press, but every
day I see, and so do you, this kind of dishonesty and distortion not only in
this area but in reporting — about guys like me, for instance, which is of minor
importance except to me; but also in reporting world news. How can a free
people make decisions without facts? If the press reports world news as they
report about me, we’re in trouble.
Playboy: Are you saying that . . .
Sinatra: No, wait, let me finish. Have you thought of the
chance I’m taking by speaking out this way? Can you imagine the deluge of crank
letters, curses, threats and obscenities I’ll receive after these remarks gain
general circulation? Worse, the boycott of my records, my films, maybe a picket
line at my opening at the Sands. Why? Because I’ve dared to say that love and
decency are not necessarily concomitants of religious fervor.
Playboy: If you think you’re stepping over the line,
offending your public or perhaps risking economic suicide, shall we cut this
off now, erase the tape and start over along more antiseptic lines?
Sinatra: No, let’s let it run. I’ve thought this way for
years, ached to say these things. Whom have I harmed by what I’ve said? What
moral defection have I suggested? No, I don’t want to chicken out now. Come on,
pal, the clock’s running.
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