Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 10, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 10

IN commenting upon the proposed Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Christian at Work says: “This amendment forbids any appropriation of public moneys to sectarian purposes. . . . Its adoption would at once solve the vexed public-school question in every State in the Union. It would also render the introduction or passage of such measures as the Freedom-of-Worship Bill impossible.”

THE Freedom-of-Worship Bill is a measure now before the Legislature of New York which provides that no institution in this State shall receive any State aid unless it is free and open for any denomination to hold religious services for the benefit of such inmates as desire the services of that particular sect. Of course the object of the bill is to secure the admission of Romish priests to certain institutions supported by the State, but under Protestant control so far as the religious instruction given is concerned.

THE religious instruction now given in the institutions, which would be opened to the priests by this Freedom-of-Worship Bill, is what is known as “unsectarian religious instruction.” However, such religious instruction is “unsectarian” only as to Protestants. From a Roman Catholic standpoint this so-called “unsectarian” instruction is intensely sectarian, for it is anti-papal.

THE papal theory of religion is that all religions, except the Roman Catholic, are either entirely false or else insufficient for the moral uplifting of man, and for the salvation of the soul, and that the church, that is the Papal Church, is alone authorized to teach religion. It follows that the teaching of any other religion is itself a denial of the doctrines and claims of Romanism; in short, such religious instruction is essentially Protestant; and in the very nature of the case it can not be otherwise.

THE SENTINEL has not the least sympathy with the assumption, that Romanism is the only true religion, and that therefore all other religious instruction is insufficient; but it is the right of that church to so hold, and to so teach; and it is manifestly unjust to require Catholics to contribute to the support of schools, and other institutions, in which the falsity of the papal claim is taught. Protestants ought to deny the Roman assumption; and as far as possible, by proper means fortify the minds of the rising generation against papal superstitions; but they ought to be at the expense themselves, and not ask the Catholics to help foot the bills.

THE American State is, or at least professes to be, purely secular. This is the American theory of civil government, and it is the correct theory. The proposed Sixteenth Amendment is not, however, designed to correct such abuses as this; it provides, it is true, that no State shall “use its property or credit, or any money raised by taxation, or authorize either to be used for the purpose of founding, maintaining, or aiding, by appropriation, payment for services, expenses or otherwise, any church, religious denomination or religious society, or any institution, society or undertaking which is wholly, or in part, under sectarian or ecclesiastical control;” but the well-known views of the promoters of this measure forbid the hope that they intend anything more than to cut off State appropriations to Roman Catholic institutions.

AS THE SENTINEL has previously remarked, concerning this amendment, it might be so construed as to cut off all appropriations for religious purposes. The effect of the amendment, should it be adopted, will all depend upon the turn given to the terms, “sectarian” and “ecclesiastical.” As these terms are now used by many, the amendment would cut off all State aid to Catholics but leave the doors wide open for the indirect support of that colorless thing called “unsectarian religious instruction.”