Prosecution Under the Sunday Law of North Carolina.
By Editor
We have received the following letter telling of the arrest and prosecution of a seventh-day observer in Greensboro, North Carolina, for breaking Sunday: “Grissom, N. C., June 12. “Editor Sentinel of Liberty: Mr. Barefoot, of Greensboro, was arrested Friday, June 1, for working on Sunday. He was tried and fined one dollar and costs. “It seems that on Sunday, May 27, Mr. Barefoot went out in his garden after sundown and was preparing ground for planting same peas when one of his neighbors spied him and had him arrested. Mr. B. had often split wood and done other little chores on Sunday, but no attention had been paid to it. We were having meetings on Sunday nights and prayer meeting at his home Thursday nights, and this may be the reason why this neighbor was offended and acted as he did. Mr. B. will not pay the fine. Whatever may have been the motive for the arrest and prosecution in this case, it is plain that only the bitter spirit of intolerance could prompt any individual to inflict injury upon his neighbor for doing a little quiet work in his own garden. For some reason—probably because of Mr. Barefoot’s religion, he being a Seventh-day Adventist—this neighbor became offended at him and desired to do him harm; and there on the statute books of the state was the Sunday law, an ever ready instrument for use against observers of any other than the common day of rest. It is thus that the Sunday laws of the states lend themselves to the unworthy designs of evil-minded persons. There is no exemption in North Carolina for observers of the seventh day. The Baptist minister of Greensboro, Rev. Livingston Johnson, in the true spirit of Baptist principles, made a public protest from his pulpit against this intolerant proceeding, report of which protest appeared in the Greensboro Telegram, from which we quote: “Mr. Johnson said he desired to enter his protest against this because he did not believe that it ought to be allowed to go without protest from some pulpit of the city. It was, he said, an infringement upon religious liberty and a denial of a man’s right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, which should be a man’s sole standard as his duty. The officer might be carrying out the law, for the speaker did not know about the statute, but the law was wrong and had no right of existence. The law had no right to say to a man what day he should keep, as he was responsible alone to God, and he must search God’s Word and decide for himself such questions. “It may be said,” continued Mr. Johnson, “that this man was disturbing others. I reply that he was not disturbing any one half as much as do these trains which dash continually through the country and intrude their noise and disturbance upon Sabbath keepers in all parts of the land.” We shall keep our readers apprised of whatever further developments may arise in connection with this effort to enforce Sunday observance in North Carolina.