Do you know that the United States and San Francisco started at the same time? But oh, so differently!

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson and his friends declared our independence from the oppression of England and its official state Church of England.

At about the same time, the Roman Catholic church began the settlement process that was to become the City of Saint Francis, now called San Francisco. Father Junipero Serra, a powerful priest, was well known all the way up the California coast from Mexico for beating Indians into submission. He built a chain of missions about a day's ride apart, connected by El Camino Real, "The Royal Road." He built Mission Dolores, the northern end of his famous chain, at the tip of the San Francisco peninsula in the center of what would become San Francisco. Not just a chain of motels for weary travelers, the mission system was a highly profitable industry for the Catholic church. Using Indian slave labor (is there a connection between the words "mission" and "submission"?), Father Serra's missions were big industries. Each one produced many farm products to send back down the long El Camino Real to enrich the Catholic church and its Mexican headquarters.

"Not just a chain of motels for weary travelers, the mission system was a highly profitable industry for the Roman Catholic Church. Using Indian slave labor... Father Serra's missions were big industries."

The Russians had a similar arrangement. They built a chain of forts from Alaska, down the North American coast to San Francisco Bay. One of their costal forts with its Russian orthodox church still stands at Fort Ross, just an hour's ride north of the city. Eskimo and local Indian labor were used to produce furs for shipment back to Russia, decimating the sea otter population in the process. The Russians were not as numerous, or as ruthless, or as successful as their Catholic neighbors to the south, but they did coexist, like street gangs agreeing not to interfere in each other's turf. The entrance to San Francisco Bay was the unofficial dividing line between Russian and Catholic territories.

This system of pastoral persecution and profitable plunder of California natives and resources by Roman Catholics and Orthodox Russians continued for many years, till it came to an unexpected, abrupt end.

Gold! The discovery of California's gold in 1849 changed everything. The massive Gold Rush brought greedy settlers from around the world who quickly overwhelmed the territory and cared little for Indians, Catholics or Russians. In this gold-fever excitement, the boundary line bay entrance got renamed "The Golden Gate." The settlers' rush for a "golden future" almost obliterated the years of effort by Mexico and Russia. The United State government quickly joined the Gold Rush by adding California's wealth to the growing Union, which ended the territorial dreams of Mexico and Russia.

In a short time, barely a historical heartbeat, the strange far-off Indian/Catholic/Russian holy mission-land of California had become as free, as secular and as American as Thomas Jefferson. Few visitors to San Francisco today care why the big hotel is called the Saint Francis, or why Mission Dolores is on city maps.

San Francisco was started by an oppressive foreign church, but it stands today as one of America's best triumphs of secular freedom over established religion.

"Gentleman Jim Heldberg" writes from his favorite City by The Bay, and welcomes mail at jheldberg@atheists.org.

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