Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 24, 1905

Editorial

By Editor

Paganizing Influences

In an official pronouncement recently issued, Bishop P. A. Ludden, of Syracuse, N. Y., gave orders that Roman Catholics within his diocese who should die by accident on Sunday at any public amusement resort without having attended mass in the morning should be deprived of such honors as the church is accustomed to bestow upon communicants in connection with the burial service. This order was given, it is said, on account of the growing desecration of Sunday, and the tendency of Roman Catholics to absent themselves from the service of the church before going to places of amusement. And now former Ambassador Andrew D. White writes a letter to Bishop Ludden, thanking him “most sincerely and heartily” for the stand which he has taken “in regard to Sunday desecration,” and stating that he has “watched with ever-increasing regret the tendencies in our large cities, and, indeed, to some extent, in the country districts, toward a complete paganizing of American life as regards the first day of the week.” This statement leads us to call attention to some simple facts, and to make an inquiry. Sunday is a purely pagan institution, “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times;” it was introduced into the church under paganizing influences, and without divine authority; Cardinal Gibbons himself declares (“Faith of Our Fathers,” page III) that “you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.” We are therefore led to inquire whether the effort to enforce a stricter observance of Sunday is not in truth the influence toward “a complete paganizing of American life as regards the first day of the week.” Popery has been well defined as “an after-growth of paganism,” and the Sunday institution is one of the proofs of this fact. To enforce Sunday observance upon Americans is to compel conformity to a pagan custom. Is not this a paganizing of American life? Would it not be better to influence our American life in favor of Christianity rather than in favor of paganism? Which will the professed Christian church do?