Liberty Opposes Church-State Union

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 21, 1906

Liberty Opposes Church-State Union

MORE than three columns of space of the May number of The Christian Statesman are devoted to the first issue of Liberty, which it designates as “a new opponent in the field.” It declares that “its zeal is explained by the fact that it is the mouthpiece of the Seventh-day Adventists, and is published by the Review and Herald Association.” It further says:—

When Liberty is willing to learn the truth concerning the National Reform movement, it will know that we are as earnestly opposed as itself to any union of church and state, and that there is nothing in our principles or designs which look toward any infringement of the rights or liberties of other men.

And yet the Statesman advocates Sunday laws, and one of its charges against Liberty is that “it has all Sabbath laws as its special object of attack.” But what has the state to do with the Sabbath or with Sabbath laws, if there is no union of church and state? Every form of religion has the right to expect impartial protection from the state, so long as it does not involve acts of incivility, but there can be nothing more than this without a union between the state and some form of religion, which is the same as a union of church and state. The views of the Statesman belong to the fourth century and the succeeding dark ages, but are contrary to American principles.