p. 8 | Protection Against Apostasy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 5, 1909

Protection Against Apostasy

It is a perverted idea of religious liberty which asserts the right to remain in an organized body of believers and at the same time to teach doctrines subversive of the very purposes of the organization. This subject is discussed by the Advance (Chicago) in an editorial, from which we quote:— Certainly a body of believers ought to be free to organize for the purpose of teaching, preaching, and establishing such doctrines as they believe to be true and important to mankind. But if a member of the organization finds that he can no longer believe or teach such doctrines, but feels it his duty to antagonize them, and yet insists on retaining his membership in the body, what becomes of the freedom of all the rest of the members? Must the freedom of the many to organize for certain purposes be surrendered for the sake of the one who has changed his beliefs and become an enemy of that purpose? Is the freedom of a great body like that of the Baptist denomination of so little importance, while that of this individual professor [Professor Foster, of Chicago] is of such vast importance?

The fathers of the American republic fought for freedom to build up a government which suited them; but when the government was once established, they felt it their duty to fight any citizen or state that undertook to destroy that government. They called it treason, and put it down. And the same principle runs through religious organizations and all other organizations. The member who proves false to the purpose of the organization is put down or put out. In no other way can the rights and freedom of the many be maintained.

When therefore the Baptist Church asks Professor Foster kindly to take himself out of the body, it is putting one of the inherent necessities of freedom in the mildest form. It is not persecuting him or wronging him; it is simply asking him not to wrong a great and noble body of believers, by making them give aid and comfort to a cause which they abhor.

True religious liberty consists in the privilege of believing and worshiping, or refusing to believe and worship, so long as one does not interfere with the equal rights of others, but does not involve the privilege of making others responsible for one's own beliefs. To do this is to rob others of their rights.