Teaching Obedience

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

Teaching Obedience

In an editorial on “The Roman Catholic Church in America,” the Outlook makes this observation:—

One of the chief lessons Americans need to learn is reverence for constituted authority and willing obedience to law. This lesson the Roman Catholic Church is peculiarly fitted to teach.

This is a mistake. The Roman Catholic Church inculcates absolute disregard of law or authority when they conflict in any way with her decrees, as was shown in France when mobs of Catholics resisted the enforcement of law, and were not even rebuked by the church, much less restrained. The Roman Catholic Church demands the submission of all men and all organizations of men, including the state, to her own authority, and this is not the teaching which America needs.