Plain, yet Perplexing

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · Mar 29, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 15, No. 13.

Plain, yet Perplexing.

REFERRING to the religious problem in the Philippines, The Churchman, of this city, says:—

“It has been necessary to deny the political demands of the Filipinos, but it will be a strange thing if the United States, with religious liberty at home, should herself turn loose among these sheep the wolves whom her approach had scared away, and should protect the destroyers against the guardians of the sheep-fold. They have already gathered, partly by force, partly by fraud, partly from superstitious fears, enormous wealth,

and still greater claims on which the courts will have to pass in due season.” Just titles to property we must uphold, but it is a manifest iniquity to foist on our fellow-Christians priests whom they hate; and it is also impolitic. It will be a menace to peace and order, to life and property. The matter is a perplexing one, and new to our governmental diplomacy. It must be handled wisely; but it must be handled fearlessly, and it must be handled soon.”

But if it is “a manifest iniquity” and “a menace to peace and order, to life and property,” to continue the religious orders in power there, why should the matter be a perplexing one? Certainly the perplexity cannot be in knowing what are the demands of right and justice. The perplexity must arise in trying to deal with the matter in a politic way, aside from the plain requirements of equity. Such problems are always very perplexing, and frequently lead only to greater perplexity and difficulty as the attempt is made to settle them by the politic method.