Editing Francis Bellamy (section)

==Political views==
Bellamy was a [[Christian socialist]],<ref name="Mason" /> who "championed 'the rights of working people and the equal distribution of economic resources, which he believed was inherent in the teachings of [[Jesus]].'"<ref name="Reason">{{cite book|last1=Jones |first1=Jeffrey Owen |last2=Meyer |first2= Peter |title=The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance |url=https://archive.org/details/pledgehistoryofp0000jone |url-access=registration | publisher =Thomas Dunne Books | date= 2010|isbn=9780312350024 }}{{page needed|date=November 2018}}</ref> In 1891, Bellamy was "forced from his [[Boston]] pulpit for preaching against the evils of capitalism",<ref name="Freethinkers 2004. p. 287" /> and eventually stopped attending church altogether after moving to Florida, reportedly because of the racism he witnessed there.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://oldtimeislands.org/pledge/pledge.htm |title=The Pledge of Allegiance – A Short History |publisher=Oldtimeislands.org |access-date=2012-11-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106000037/http://www.oldtimeislands.org/pledge/pledge.htm |archive-date=2012-11-06 }}</ref> Francis's career as a preacher ended because of his tendency to describe Jesus as a socialist. In the 21st century, Bellamy is considered an early American [[democratic socialist]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://prospect.org/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-and-resurgence-democratic-socialism-america|title=Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Resurgence of Democratic Socialism in America|date=July 3, 2018|first=Peter|last=Dreier|work=[[The American Prospect]]|access-date=September 7, 2018}}</ref>

Bellamy was a leader in the public education movement, the nationalization movement, and the Christian socialist movement. He united his grassroots network to start a [[collective memory]] activism in 1892.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book|last=Kubal|first=Timothy|title=Cultural Movements and Collective Memory : Christopher Columbus and the Rewriting of the National Origin Myth|date=October 2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Basingstoke, Hampshire, GBR|doi=10.1057/9780230615762|isbn=9780230615762}}</ref>

French philosopher [[Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon|Henri de Saint-Simon]]'s "new Christianity", which stressed using science to tackle poverty, influenced Bellamy and many of the "new St. Simonians." They saw nationalization (de-privatization) and public education as the policy solutions.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

In 1889, Bellamy served as founding vice president and wrote several articles for the [[Society of Christian Socialists]], a grassroots organization founded in Boston. The newspaper ''Dawn'' was run by his cousin [[Edward Bellamy|Edward]] and [[Frances Willard]]. Francis Bellamy wrote about the [[Golden Rule]] and quoted Bible passages that denounced greed and lust for money. He was also chairman of the education committee.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

Bellamy offered public education classes with topics such as "Jesus the socialist",  "What is Christian Socialism?", and "Socialism versus anarchy".  In 1891, Bellamy was asked to write down this last lecture, which called for a strong government and argued that only the socialist economy could allow both the worker and the owner to practice the golden rule. This essay, along with public relations experience, allowed him to coordinate a massive Columbus Day campaign.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

On [[immigration]] and [[universal suffrage]], Bellamy wrote in the editorial of ''[[The Illustrated American]]'', Vol. XXII, No. 394, p.&nbsp;258: "[a] [[democracy]] like ours cannot afford to throw itself open to the world where every man is a lawmaker, every dull-witted or fanatical immigrant admitted to our [[citizenship]] is a bane to the commonwealth.”<ref name="Reason" /> And further: "Where all classes of society merge insensibly into one another every alien immigrant of inferior race may bring corruption to the stock. There are races more or less akin to our own whom we may admit freely and get nothing but advantage by the infusion of their wholesome blood. But there are other races, which we cannot assimilate without lowering our racial standard, which should be as sacred to us as the sanctity of our homes."<ref name="trofrelig">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/libertyofconscie0000nuss |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/libertyofconscie0000nuss/page/201 201] |quote=There are races more or less akin to our own whom we may admit freely and get nothing but advantage by the infusion of their wholesome blood. |title=Liberty of conscience: in defense of America's tradition of religious equality |year=2008 |publisher=Basic Books |author=Martha Craven Nussbaum |access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref>