Where the Responsibility Rests by W. F. Martin

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 28, 1913

Where the Responsibility Rests

By W. F. Martin

Since the close of the Christian Citizenship Conference, in Portland, Oregon, there has been considerable criticism of the methods employed by the promoters of the meeting, and the failure on their part to give value received for the cost of the conference to the city. A good part of this criticism has been directed against Dr. Clement H. Congdon. The writer has carefully followed the work of the Christian Citizenship Conference, both in its preparation and in its sessions. It can truthfully be said that the National Reform Association is in the fullest sense responsible for all that was done, both before and during the conference.

In the July, 1911, number of the Christian Statesman, the official organ of the National Reform Association, it was stated that Henry Collin Minton had gone to Europe to secure speakers for the Second World's Christian Citizenship Conference, and that Clement H. Congdon was making a tour of the Middle and Far West seeking a location for the meeting. These men were both working under the auspices of the National Reform Association, and clothed with the authority of the association. When Portland had been chosen and duly announced, the September issue of the Statesman had a three-column article on the conference. It is here stated that the purpose of the conference is to secure “a revival of national religion.” Again in the October, 1911, Statesman is issued the first call for the conference. Contained in this call are the following words: “The immediate result to be sought through this conference, and through all the work of preparation for it, is the revival and diffusion of national religion.” The only way for a nation to speak or make a profession is by and through its laws. For a nation to make a profession of religion, it must legislate upon the subject. That would be religious legislation. Religious legislation inevitably results in a union of church and state. Clement H. Congdon was the regularly authorized publicity manager for the conference, appointed as such as verily as any of the other officers. Again, as to the principles enunciated at the conference, there were two questions emphasized more than any others. These were the teaching of religion in the public schools

and Sunday legislation. This was in perfect accord with the avowed purpose of the association holding the meeting.

On the inside front cover of the Christian Statesman each month one can find the following:—

“The Christian Statesman is a monthly magazine of thirty-two pages, designed to promote needed reforms in the action of the government touching the Sabbath, the institution of the family, the religious element in education, the oath, and public morality as affected by the liquor traffic and other kindred evils; and to secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as will declare the nation's allegiance to Jesus Christ and its acceptance of the moral laws of the Christian religion, and to indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.”

To show that the carrying out of these ideas was the central thought of the conference, note the following taken from the November, 1912, Statesman:—

“The Second World's Christian Citizenship Conference will, therefore, serve the greatest practical use by not only awakening and deepening popular sentiment in behalf of Christian legislation, but by bringing to bear at the same time upon political organizations and governments some definite pressure that may lead ultimately to their open espousal of Christian political principles.”

The enforcement of religion is not within the purview of human government. The true American principle is that government should have nothing whatever to do with the control of religious belief. Whenever the National Reform Association or any other organization or any man sets himself against this, he is setting himself in opposition to true American principles.

W. F. MARTIN.