Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 7, 1915

Religion and Politics

How religion may enter politics while claiming not to do so, was illustrated at the last annual convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies in Baltimore. In that convention the following instruction is reported to have been given by Bishop P. J. Donahue, of Wheeling, W. Va.:—

Religious bigotry should never influence a Catholic in his vote; but if religious bigotry does influence a political man to be unfair, then, in justice to the government and to themselves, the Catholics should strive to remove such an unfaithful man from office.

The cry that Catholics were not receiving proper treatment at the hands of politicians has been one of the chief slogans of the American Federation of Catholic Societies and the real reason for its existence. To the leaders of that organization no politician is fair who will not do what the federation desires, and no official is fair who will not yield to the federation's demands. All such are worthy of dismissal, and the above instruction gives Catholic voters warrant to work and vote for their removal. While purporting to warn against religious bigotry in political affairs, it is all the warrant any Catholic needs for doing what it warns against.