p. 178, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · June 2, 1892

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 22

THE Catholic Review, of May 28, has the following note:—

Our Methodist friends never cease to cry out that the Catholic Church is trying to influence politics in this country, and that is wrong, very wrong, so they say, for it to do. But it seems to be all right for them to put the pressure of their organization on the course of public affairs. Their General Conference protested against the Chinese exclusion bill, resolved that the education of the children in the public schools must be free from religion, applauded the motion that the denominations engaged in work among the Indians of the West should receive no money from the Government, etc., etc. Of course, if the Catholic Council were to do these things, it would be “meddling in politics,” but the Methodist Conference can do them without objection or offense. Why should our neighbors have different rules of right and wrong—one for themselves and one for us?

The charge made by the Review is true; but that fact does not make the evil any the less, but just so much greater. Formerly the Catholic Church had a monopoly of political wire-pulling, now nearly all the so-called Protestant denominations are taking a hand in that sort of work; but it is no better when done by Protestants than by Catholics. And the mischief of it all is that it is done not in defense of God-given rights, but for the sake of obtaining or holding “a sort of factitious advantage” over their neighbors of other faiths. The evil is not only a gigantic one, but it is growing.