Editing Mark Twain (section)

==Views==
Twain's views became more radical as he grew older. In a letter to friend and fellow writer [[William Dean Howells]] in 1887, Twain acknowledged that his views had changed and developed over his lifetime, referring to one of his favorite works:
{{blockquote|When I finished [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]]'s ''[[The French Revolution (Carlyle)|French Revolution]]'' in 1871, I was a [[Girondin]]; every time I have read it since, I have read it differently&nbsp;– being influenced and changed, little by little, by life and environment&nbsp;... and now I lay the book down once more, and recognize that I am a [[Sansculotte]]! And not a pale, characterless Sansculotte, but a [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]].<ref>Frederick Anderson, ed., A Pen Warmed Up in Hell: Mark Twain in Protest (New York: Harper, 1972), p. 8, cited in Helen Scott's "The Mark Twain they didn't teach us about in school" (2000) in ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65</ref><ref name=MTLetters>{{cite web|title=Mark Twain's Letters 1886–1900|url=http://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/mark-twains-letters-1886-1900/ebook-page-12.asp|website=Mark Twain Classic Literature Library|access-date=8 January 2015|archive-date=June 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140608072928/http://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/mark-twains-letters-1886-1900/ebook-page-12.asp|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

===Politics===
[[File:New York at the Jamestown Exposition, Norfolk, Virginia, April 26 to December 1, 1907 (1909) (14596132187).jpg|thumb|right|250px|Twain (second from right) with [[NSDAR]] President General [[Emily Nelson Ritchie McLean]] at the [[Jamestown Exposition]] in [[Norfolk, Virginia]], in 1907]]
Twain was a staunch supporter of technological progress and [[commerce]]. He was against [[welfare spending|welfare]] measures, because Twain believed that society in the "[[Gilded Age|business age]]" is governed by "exact and constant" laws that should not be "interfered with for the accommodation of any individual or political or religious faction".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Budd |first=Louis J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5gNAQAAIAAJ |title=Mark Twain: Social Philosopher |date=1962 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0-8262-1368-6 |pages=160 |language=en}}</ref> He opined that "there is no good government at all & none possible".<ref name=":0" /> In the opinion of [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]] professor Guy A. Cardwell:

{{blockquote|By present standards Mark Twain was more conservative than liberal. He believed strongly in laissez faire, thought personal political rights secondary to property rights, admired self-made plutocrats, and advocated a leadership to be composed of men of wealth and brains. Among his attitudes now more readily recognized as liberal were a faith in progress through technology and a hostility towards monarchy, inherited aristocracy, the Roman Catholic church, and, in his later years, imperialism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cardwell |first=Guy A. |date=1963-09-01 |title=Review: Mark Twain: Social Philosopher, by Louis J. Budd |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/ncl/article/18/2/197/64416/Review-Mark-Twain-Social-Philosopher-by-Louis-J |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |language=en |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=197–200 |doi=10.2307/2932778 |jstor=2932778 |issn=0029-0564 |access-date=July 7, 2022 |archive-date=July 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707173352/https://online.ucpress.edu/ncl/article/18/2/197/64416/Review-Mark-Twain-Social-Philosopher-by-Louis-J |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

====Labor====
Twain wrote glowingly about [[Trade union|unions]] in the river boating industry in ''Life on the Mississippi'', which was read in union halls decades later.<ref>Philip S. Foner, ''Mark Twain: Social Critic'' (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 98</ref> He supported the [[labor movement]], especially one of the most important unions, the [[Knights of Labor]].<ref name="helen-scott"/> In a speech to them, Twain said:
{{blockquote|Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.<ref>Philip S. Foner, ''Mark Twain: Social Critic'' (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 169, cited in Helen Scott's "The Mark Twain they didn't teach us about in school" (2000) in ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65</ref>}}

Twain further wrote "Why is it right that there is not a fairer division of the spoil all around? Because laws and constitutions have ordered otherwise. Then it follows that laws and constitutions should change around and say there shall be a more nearly equal division."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Twain |first1=Mark |title=Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays 1852–1890 |date=1992 |publisher=Library of America |page=884}}</ref>

====Imperialism====
Before 1899, Twain was largely in favor of [[American imperialism|imperialism]]. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he spoke out strongly in favor of American interests in the [[Kingdom of Hawaii|Hawaiian Islands]].<ref>David Zmijewski, "The Man in Both Corners: Mark Twain the Shadowboxing Imperialist", ''Hawaiian Journal of History'', 2006, Vol. 40, pp. 55–73</ref> Twain said the war with Spain in 1898 was "the worthiest" war ever fought.<ref>Paine, ed. ''Letters'' 2:663; Ron Powers, ''Mark Twain: a life'' (2005) p. 593</ref> However, he reversed course in 1899. In the ''[[New York Herald]]'', October 16, 1900, Twain describes his transformation and political awakening, in the context of the [[Philippine–American War]], to [[anti-imperialism]]:

{{blockquote|I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific&nbsp;... Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself?&nbsp;... I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the [[Constitution of the United States|American Constitution]] afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves.

But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|treaty of Paris]] (which ended the [[Spanish–American War]]), and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.<ref>From Andrew Jay Hoffman, ''Inventing Mark Twain: The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens'' (New York: William Morrow, 1997), cited in Helen Scott's "The Mark Twain they didn't teach us about in school" (2000) in ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65</ref><ref name=NYHerald19001016>{{cite news |title=Mark Twain Home, An Anti-Imperialist |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201900/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201900%20-%208960.pdf |page=4 |date=October 16, 1900 |newspaper=[[New York Herald]] |access-date=October 25, 2014 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016211319/http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201900/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201900%20-%208960.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

During the [[Boxer Rebellion]], Twain said that "the Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success."<ref>{{cite book|last=Twain|first=Mark |title=Mark Twain Speeches |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhWMWs_7J3UC&pg=PA116|date=2007|isbn=978-1-4346-7879-9|page=116|publisher=BiblioBazaar }}</ref>

[[File:Mark Twain's proposed flag for the American-controlled Philippines (1901).svg|thumb|In 1901, Twain wrote a satirical essay titled ''[[To the Person Sitting in Darkness]]'', in which he expressed his strong anti-imperialist views against ongoing conflicts such as the Boxer Rebellion, the Second Boer War and the Philippine–American War. At one point in the essay, Twain made a sardonic suggestion for a flag of the Philippines under American control; "''And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one—our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.''"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://guides.loc.gov/world-of-1898/mark-twain#:~:text=And%20as%20for%20a%20flag,the%20skull%20and%20cross%2Dbones. |title=World of 1898: International Perspectives on the Spanish American War / Mark Twain |author= |date= |work=Library of Congress |access-date=16 October 2024}}</ref>]]

From 1901, soon after his return from Europe, until his death in 1910, Twain was vice-president of the [[American Anti-Imperialist League]],<ref name=zwick>''Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine–American War''. (1992, Jim Zwick, ed.) {{ISBN|0-8156-0268-5}}</ref> which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States and had "tens of thousands of members".<ref name="helen-scott" /> He wrote many [[Pamphlet|political pamphlets]] for the organization. The ''Incident in the Philippines'', posthumously published in 1924, was in response to the [[First Battle of Bud Dajo|Moro Crater Massacre]], in which 600 [[Moro people|Moros]] were killed. Twain wrote: "In what way was it a battle? It has no resemblance to a battle...We cleaned up our four days' work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people."<ref>{{cite book |title= Comments on the Moro Massacre |isbn = 9788026878148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o101DwAAQBAJ&q=twain+complete+works+comments+moro&pg=PT5120|last1 = Twain|first1 = Mark|date = 2017| publisher=E-artnow }}</ref><ref>[http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/clemensmoromassacre.html "Comments on the Moro Massacre". by Samuel Clemens (March 12, 1906)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206080228/http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/clemensmoromassacre.html |date=February 6, 2018 }}. History is a Weapon.</ref> Many of his neglected and previously uncollected writings on anti-imperialism appeared for the first time in book form in 1992.<ref name=zwick />

Twain was critical of imperialism in other countries as well. In ''Following the Equator'', Twain expresses "hatred and condemnation of imperialism of all stripes".<ref name="helen-scott" /> He was highly critical of European imperialists such as [[Cecil Rhodes]] and [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II of Belgium]], both of whom attempted to establish colonies on the African continent during the [[Scramble for Africa]].<ref name="helen-scott" /> ''[[King Leopold's Soliloquy]]'' is a [[political satire]] about the monarch's private colony, the [[Congo Free State]]. Reports of outrageous exploitation and [[Atrocities in the Congo Free State|grotesque abuses]] led to widespread international outcry in the early 1900s, arguably the first large-scale [[human rights]] movement. In the soliloquy, the King argues that bringing [[Christianity]] to [[Congo Free State|the colony]] outweighs "a little starvation". The abuses against Congolese forced laborers continued until the movement forced the [[Government of Belgium|Belgian government]] to take direct control of the colony.<ref>{{cite book |title=King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa |author=Adam Hochschild |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-395-75924-0 |oclc=39042794 |url=https://archive.org/details/kingleopoldsgho000hoch }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Into Africa |author=Jeremy Harding |date=September 20, 1998 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/20/books/into-africa.html |access-date=February 11, 2017 |archive-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212165426/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/20/books/into-africa.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[Philippine–American War]], Twain wrote a short [[Pacifism|pacifist]] story titled ''[[The War Prayer]]'', which makes the point that humanism and Christianity's preaching of love are incompatible with the conduct of war. It was submitted to ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' for publication, but on March 22, 1905, the magazine rejected the story as "not quite suited to a [[Women's magazine|woman's magazine]]". Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend [[Daniel Carter Beard]], to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." Because he had an exclusive contract with [[Harper & Brothers]], Twain could not publish ''The War Prayer'' elsewhere; it remained unpublished until 1916.<ref>{{cite web |title=Harper's |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Harper%27s |website=Wikisource |access-date=December 26, 2021 |archive-date=February 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213165611/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Harper%27s |url-status=live }}</ref> It was republished in the 1960s as campaigning material by [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|anti-war activists]].<ref name="helen-scott" />

Twain acknowledged that he had originally sympathized with the more moderate [[Girondins]] of the [[French Revolution]] and then shifted his sympathies to the more radical [[Sansculottes]], indeed identifying himself as "a [[Jean-Paul Marat|Marat]]" and writing that the [[Reign of Terror]] paled in comparison to the older terrors that preceded it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/08/that-older-and-real-terror/244113/|title=That Older and Real Terror|last=Coates|first=Ta-Nehisi|date=August 25, 2011|website=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=July 29, 2018|archive-date=July 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729230900/https://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/08/that-older-and-real-terror/244113/|url-status=live}}</ref> Twain supported the [[Russian Revolution (1905)|revolutionaries in Russia]] against the reformists, arguing that the [[Tsar]] must be got rid of by violent means, because peaceful ones would not work.<ref>Maxwell Geismar, ed., ''Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters'' (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), p. 169, cited in Helen Scott's "The Mark Twain they didn't teach us about in school" (2000) in ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65</ref> He summed up his views of revolutions in the following statement:
{{blockquote|I am said to be a revolutionist in my sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by principle. I am always on the side of the revolutionists, because there never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolute.<ref>Maxwell Geismar, ed., Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), p. 159</ref> }}

====Civil rights====
Twain was an adamant supporter of the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]] and the [[emancipation]] of slaves, even going so far as to say, "[[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]]'s [[Emancipation Proclamation|Proclamation]]&nbsp;... not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also".<ref>Philip S. Foner, ''Mark Twain: Social Critic'' (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 200</ref> He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying, "I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature&nbsp;... but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him".<ref>Maxwell Geismar, ed., ''Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters'' (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973), p. 98</ref> Twain paid for at least one black person to attend [[Yale Law School]] and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister.<ref>Paine, A. B., Mark Twain: A Biography, Harper, 1912 p. 701</ref>

Twain was also a supporter of [[History of women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]], as evidenced by his "[[Votes for Women (speech)|Votes for Women]]" speech, given in 1901.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain's Speeches|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainsspeec00twaigoog|last=Twain|first=Mark|publisher=Harper & Bros.|year=1910|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/marktwainsspeec00twaigoog/page/n117 101]–103}}</ref>

[[Helen Keller]] benefited from Twain's support as she pursued her college education and publishing despite her disabilities and financial limitations. The two were friends for roughly 16 years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perkins.org/stories/seven-fascinating-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-helen-keller|title=Seven fascinating facts you probably didn't know about Helen Keller|website=Perkins School for the Blind|access-date=March 20, 2019|archive-date=June 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611010555/https://www.perkins.org/stories/seven-fascinating-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-helen-keller|url-status=live}}</ref>

Through Twain's efforts, the Connecticut legislature voted a pension for [[Prudence Crandall]], since 1995 Connecticut's official heroine, for her efforts towards the education of young African-American women in Connecticut. Twain also offered to purchase for her use her former house in Canterbury, home of the [[Canterbury Female Boarding School]], but she declined.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Prudence Crandall Champion of Negro Education |first1=Miriam R. |last1=Small |first2=Edwin W. |last2=Small |magazine=[[New England Quarterly]] |volume=17 |number=4 |date=December 1944 |pages=506–529}}</ref>{{rp|528}}

At 62, Twain wrote in his travelogue ''Following the Equator'' (1897) that in colonized lands all over the world, "savages" have always been wronged by "[[White people|whites]]" in the most merciless ways, such as "robbery, humiliation, and slow, slow murder, through poverty and the white man's whiskey"; his conclusion is that "there are many humorous things in this world; among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages".<ref>Twain, Mark. 2008. ''Following the Equator''. pp. 94–98</ref> Describing his travels, Twain wrote, "So far as I am able to judge nothing has been left undone, either by man or Nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amritt.com/india-business-guide/mark-twain-india/ |publisher=Amritt |title=Mark Twain in India |date=2009 |access-date=May 8, 2014 |archive-date=May 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140509002821/http://www.amritt.com/india-business-guide/mark-twain-india/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Native Americans====
Twain's earlier writings on [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]] reflected his view of essentialized [[Race (human categorization)|racial]] difference. Twain wrote in "The Noble Red Man" in 1870: {{blockquote|His heart is a cesspool of falsehood, of treachery, and of low and devilish instincts. With him, gratitude is an unknown emotion; and when one does him a kindness, it is safest to keep the face toward him, lest the reward be an arrow in the back. To accept of a favor from him is to assume a debt which you can never repay to his satisfaction, though you bankrupt yourself trying. The scum of the earth!<ref name=indian_hater>{{cite web | url = http://www.bluecorncomics.com/twain.htm | title = Mark Twain, Indian Hater | access-date = 2008-07-09 | date = May 28, 2001 | publisher = Blue Corn Comics | archive-date = September 15, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080915133043/http://www.bluecorncomics.com/twain.htm | url-status = live }}</ref>}} In the same tract, Twain advocates genocide, describing the "Noble Aborigine" as :  "nothing but a poor filthy, naked scurvy vagabond, whom to exterminate were a charity to the Creator's worthier insects and reptiles which he oppresses"<ref>Mark Twain, "[https://www.jrbooksonline.com/PDFs/twain-noble-red-man-facsimile.pdf The Noble Red Man] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506193428/https://www.jrbooksonline.com/PDFs/twain-noble-red-man-facsimile.pdf |date=May 6, 2024 }}", 1870</ref>  This piece sought to undermine the sympathy felt on the "Atlantic seabord" for Native Americans.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Clark |first=Beverly Lyon |title=Mark Twain among the Indians and Other Indigenous People by Kerry Driscoll (review) |journal=Great Plains Quarterly |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747066 |volume=40 |issue=1 |date=2020 |doi=10.1353/gpq.2020.0004 |access-date=April 21, 2024 |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517203954/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747066 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Harris |first=Helen L. |title=Mark Twain's Response to the Native American |volume=46 |issue=4 |date=1975 |pages=495–505 |journal=American Literature |publisher=Duke University Press |doi=10.2307/2924574 |jstor=2924574 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2924574.pdf |access-date=April 21, 2024 |archive-date=March 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325182410/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2924574.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>  In 1895, Twain was still ridiculing the author of ''[[Last of the Mohicans]],'' saying in "[[Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses]]" that Cooper "[...] was almost always in error about his Indians. There was seldom a sane one among them."<ref>{{cite web |author=Mark Twain |website=Mark Twain in his Times |url=https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html |title=Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses |date=1895 |access-date=April 21, 2024 |archive-date=April 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240421173045/https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Political parties====
Twain was a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] for most of his life. However, in [[1884 United States presidential election|1884]], Twain publicly broke with his party and joined the [[Mugwumps]] to support the Democratic nominee, [[Grover Cleveland]], over the Republican nominee, [[James G. Blaine]], whom he considered a corrupt politician.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Leonard |first=James S. |title=Politics |date=2020 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/mark-twain-in-context/politics/BF35295E23B6F72A15FFCE2ED74B50CB |work=Mark Twain in Context |pages=151–160 |editor-last=Bird |editor-first=John |series=Literature in Context |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-47260-9 |access-date=July 7, 2022}}</ref> Twain spoke at rallies in favor of Cleveland. In the early 20th century, Twain began decrying both Democrats and Republicans as "insane" and proposed, in his 1907 book ''[[Christian Science (book)|Christian Science]]'', that while each party recognized the other's insanity, only the Mugwumps (that is, those who eschewed party loyalties in favor of voting for "the best man") could perceive the overall madness linking the two.<ref name=":1" />

===Religion===
{{see also|Twain–Ament indemnities controversy}}
Twain was a [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]]<!-- buried from Presbyterian church, attended Presbyterian services with Livy, raised as a Presbyterian per Autobiography, donated large sums to build Presbyterian churches{{cn|date=January 2015}}-->.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The wit and wisdom of Mark Twain|last=Twain|first=Mark|others=Blaisdell, Robert|isbn=978-0486489230|location=Mineola, NY|publisher=Dover Publications|page=20|oclc=761852687|date = January 2013}}</ref> He was critical of [[organized religion]] and certain elements of Christianity through his later life. For example, Twain wrote, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so", and "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be&nbsp;– a Christian".<ref name="Huberman">{{cite book| title =The Quotable Atheist| last =Huberman| first =Jack| year =2007| publisher =Nation Books| isbn =978-1-56025-969-5| pages =[https://archive.org/details/quotableatheista0000unse/page/303 303–304]|url=https://archive.org/details/quotableatheista0000unse/page/303}}</ref> With [[anti-Catholic]] sentiment rampant in 19th century America, Twain noted that he was "educated to enmity toward everything that is Catholic".<ref>{{cite news|title=America's dark and not-very-distant history of hating Catholics|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/12/america-history-of-hating-catholics|newspaper=The Guardian|date=September 18, 2016|access-date=December 12, 2016|archive-date=March 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314100423/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/12/america-history-of-hating-catholics|url-status=live}}</ref> As an adult, Twain engaged in religious discussions and attended services, his theology developing as Twain wrestled with the deaths of loved ones and with his own mortality.<ref name="199.236.117.33">Dempsey, Terrell, [http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/phipps.html Book Review: Mark Twain's Religion. William E. Phipps] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140915090227/http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/phipps.html |date=September 15, 2014 }} 2004 Mark Twain Forum</ref>

Twain generally avoided publishing his most controversial<ref>{{cite book|title=Letters from Earth|publisher=Ostara publications|page=back cover|year=2013}}</ref> opinions on religion in his lifetime, and they are known from essays and stories that were published later. In the essay ''Three Statements of the Eighties'' in the 1880s, Twain stated that he believed in an almighty God, but not in any messages, [[revelation]]s, [[holy scripture]]s such as the Bible, [[Divine Providence|Providence]], or retribution in the [[afterlife]]. Twain did state that "the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works", but also that "[[deism|the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws]]", which determine "small matters", such as who dies in a pestilence.<ref>Twain, Mark, ed. by Paul Baender. 1973. What is man?: and other philosophical writings. p. 56</ref> At other times, he plainly professed a belief in Providence.<ref>Phipps, William E., [https://books.google.com/books?id=x2HBYrytvRoC Mark Twain's Religion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418110717/https://books.google.com/books?id=x2HBYrytvRoC |date=April 18, 2023 }}, pp. 263–266, 2003 Mercer Univ. Press</ref> In some later writings in the 1890s, Twain was less optimistic about the [[theodicy|goodness of God]], observing that "if our Maker ''is'' all-powerful for good or evil, He is not in His right mind". At other times, he conjectured sardonically that perhaps God had created the world with all its tortures for some purpose of His own, but was otherwise indifferent to humanity, which was too petty and insignificant to deserve His attention anyway.<ref>Twain, Mark, ed. by Paul Baender. 1973. What is man?: and other philosophical writings. pp. 10, 486</ref>

In 1901, Twain criticized the actions of the [[missionary]] Dr. [[William Scott Ament]] (1851–1909) because Ament and other missionaries had collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the [[Boxer uprising]] of 1900. Twain's response to hearing of Ament's methods was published in the ''North American Review'' in February 1901: ''[[To the Person Sitting in Darkness]]'', and deals with examples of [[imperialism]] in China, South Africa, and with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.<ref>Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness", ''The North American Review'' 182:531 (February 1901): 161–176; {{JSTOR|25105120}}</ref> A subsequent article, "To My Missionary Critics" published in ''The North American Review'' in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]].<ref>Mark Twain, "To My Missionary Critics", ''The North American Review'' 172 (April 1901):520–534; {{JSTOR|25105150}}</ref>

After his death, Twain's family suppressed some of his work that was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, including ''[[Letters from the Earth]]'', which was not published until his daughter [[Clara Clemens|Clara]] reversed her position in 1962 in response to [[Soviet propaganda]] about the withholding.<ref name="NYTimes1962">{{Cite news | issn = 0362-4331 | title = Anti-Religious Work by Twain, Long Withheld, to Be Published | periodical = The New York Times | page = 23 | date = August 24, 1962 | publication-date = August 24, 1962 | last1 = Gelb | first1 = Arthur | author-link = Arthur Gelb | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19620824.html | access-date = April 22, 2008 | archive-date = July 25, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080725071803/http://www.twainquotes.com/19620824.html | url-status = live }}</ref> The anti-religious ''The Mysterious Stranger'' was published in 1916. ''Little Bessie'', a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection ''Mark Twain's Fables of Man''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mark Twain's Fables of Man |last=Twain |first=Mark |editor1=John S. Tuckey |editor2=Kenneth M. Sanderson |editor3=Bernard L. Stein |editor4=Frederick Anderson |year=1972 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=California |isbn=978-0-520-02039-9 |chapter=Little Bessie |chapter-url=http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/twainbes.htm |url=https://archive.org/details/fablesofman0000twai }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Twain raised money to build a [[Presbyterian Church]] in Nevada in 1864.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/us/02twain.html?fta=y |title=Church Aided by Twain Is in a Demolition Dispute |agency=[[Associated Press]] |work=The New York Times |date=April 2, 2006 |access-date=October 5, 2008 |archive-date=April 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415235207/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/us/02twain.html?fta=y |url-status=live }}</ref>

Twain created a reverent portrayal of [[Joan of Arc]], a subject over which he had obsessed for forty years, studied for a dozen years and spent two years writing about.<ref name="The Adventures of Mark Twain">Paine, Albert Bigelow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=93o7_0oICWMC The Adventures of Mark Twain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406221221/https://books.google.com/books?id=93o7_0oICWMC |date=April 6, 2023 }}, p. 281, Kessinger 2004</ref> In 1900 and again in 1908, Twain stated, "I like ''Joan of Arc'' best of all my books, it is the best".<ref name="The Adventures of Mark Twain"/><ref>Goy-Blanquet, Dominique, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4QkSZ7cHy38C Joan of Arc, a saint for all reasons: studies in myth and politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406221223/https://books.google.com/books?id=4QkSZ7cHy38C |date=April 6, 2023 }}, p. 132, 2003 [[Ashgate Publishing]]</ref>

Those who knew Twain well late in life recount that he dwelt on the subject of the afterlife, his daughter Clara saying: "Sometimes he believed death ended everything, but most of the time he felt sure of a life beyond."<ref>Phipps, William E., [https://books.google.com/books?id=x2HBYrytvRoC Mark Twain's Religion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418110717/https://books.google.com/books?id=x2HBYrytvRoC |date=April 18, 2023 }}, p. 304, 2003 Mercer Univ. Press</ref>

Twain's frankest views on religion appeared in his final work ''[[Autobiography of Mark Twain]]'', the publication of which started in November 2010, 100 years after his death. In it, Twain said:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec10/twain_07-07.html| title = Mark Twain's Autobiography Set for Unveiling, a Century After His Death| author = PBS NewsHour| website = [[PBS]]| date = July 7, 2010| access-date = July 7, 2010| author-link = PBS NewsHour| archive-date = January 21, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121221718/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec10/twain_07-07.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>{{blockquote|There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory as it is&nbsp;– in our country particularly and in all other Christian countries in a somewhat modified degree&nbsp;– it is still a hundred times better than the Christianity of the Bible, with its prodigious crime&nbsp;– the invention of Hell. Measured by our Christianity of to-day, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the Deity nor his Son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.}}

Twain was a [[Freemason]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mertsahinoglu.com/research/samuel-langhorne-clemens/|title=Brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens: A Missouri Freemason – Mert Sahinoglu|website=mertsahinoglu.com|access-date=October 30, 2009|archive-date=October 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005012246/http://mertsahinoglu.com/research/samuel-langhorne-clemens/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = MIC Mark Twain Award | author = Masonic Information Center | url = http://www.msana.com/twainaward/ | access-date = October 28, 2017 | archive-date = October 28, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171028145355/http://www.msana.com/twainaward/ | url-status = live }}</ref> He belonged to Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.&A.M., based in St. Louis. Twain was initiated an [[Entered Apprentice]] on May 22, 1861, passed to the degree of [[Fellow Craft]] on June 12, and raised to the degree of [[Master Mason]] on July 10.

Twain visited [[Salt Lake City]] for two days and met members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]. They also gave him a [[Book of Mormon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ldsliving.com/What-Mark-Twain-Really-Thought-About-Mormons/s/78635|title=What Mark Twain Really Thought About Mormons|author=Kathryn Jenkins Gordon|work=LDS Living|date=August 18, 2015|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103021105/http://www.ldsliving.com/What-Mark-Twain-Really-Thought-About-Mormons/s/78635|url-status=live}}</ref> He later wrote in ''[[Roughing It]]'' about that book:<ref>''[[Roughing It]]'' – Chapter 16</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/13/i-nephi|title=I, Nephi|author=Adam Gopnik|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=August 13, 2012|access-date=October 27, 2015|archive-date=November 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107092313/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/13/i-nephi|url-status=live}}</ref>{{blockquote|The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament.}}