p. 53 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · February 16, 1893

The Rights of Christians.

[The Morning Times, of Oakland, Cal., publishes, editorially, these just and well considered strictures upon the false Christianity so much in vogue. When the Church departs from the example and teachings of Christ, it is no longer Christian.]

WITH all deference to Christianity, and even to much which passes for Christianity and is not, we are compelled to note that there is coming to the front a dangerous sentiment which assumes that the rights of Christians as represented by the churches transcend the rights of other people. In other words, the churches, especially the ministry, are becoming unduly arrogant in their demands. The phrases, “This Christian people,” “This Christian Nation,” and others of like import, are paraded with an air that implies, “You stand aside, we are coming; we are entitled to first consideration.”

This idea is emphasized by the assumption that to open a theater on Sunday night is an “insult” to a “Christian community,” and ought not to be “tolerated.” Toleration is the language of the autocrat, and implies the authority to coerce at will. Toleration has no place in the definition of the rights of a free people. In this (at least nominally) free country, there is no such doctrine as one class tolerating another. The theory of our Government is that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” There is no dictum as to how men shall pursue happiness. So far as the right to do so is concerned, one man has the same right to pursue happiness in the theater that another has to pursue it in the church. The theory of nearly all Christian sects is that man is a free moral agent.

The Christian Church never assumed the authority to tolerate or to coerce, until it had so far degenerated from primitive principles as to become a persecutor of opponents. And when Christian ministers talk about a Christian community, as Christians, tolerating or not tolerating in a municipal sense, they assume a prerogative that belongs to the citizen as a citizen, and not as a Christian. Christians are the last people in the world that ought, even if in a majority, to deprive others of their rights as citizens; for in so doing they admit the right of their opponent, if in the majority, to deprive Christians of their God-given rights. They ought to remember how their brethren have been made to suffer in many ages and in many localities by the spirit of disregard for the rights of others.

But such a spirit, though called Christian, is not Christian in a proper sense; and many, who are to-day pronounced infidels, are such only because they take for granted that all which passes in the name of Christ is Christian. A Christian is one who is like Christ. Now any one who will take the trouble to read the gospels will learn that Christ never asked the people

or the law-making power to put down any public enterprise that happened to be inimical to his work. He never resorted to anything like retaliation or coercion, no matter what hindrances came in his way. When he went to a place and could not carry on his work because of the unbelief and hostility of the people, he simply went away and left them to themselves.

Neither Christ nor his apostles ever sought either municipal or provincial or imperial enactments for the special benefit of their work; although wherever they went they found the conditions a hundred fold more unfavorable than in any part of California. They boldly proclaimed the gospel where it was treason to uphold any god but such as were recognized by a pagan government; but they asked no special favors, and asked no one to get out of their way. This is Christianity; to strive for the mastery by human right or power, by municipal ordinances or provincial laws, is common politics. If Christian churches would pursue their work in the same spirit as did He whom they profess to follow and proclaim, they would no doubt wield more Christian influence if not so much political power.