Religious Liberty Notes by C. B. Haynes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1911

Religious Liberty Notes

By C. B. Haynes

PETITION blanks and suggestive resolutions have been sent to the different conferences throughout the United States, and churches are now sending in their protests against religious legislation by the Sixty-second Congress.

To the brethren and sisters of Lansing, Mich., belongs the honor of placing before Congress the first memorial opposing the passage of the Johnston District Sunday bill (S. 237), through Hon. S. W. Smith, the congressman from that district.

A VERY significant statement was made by Representative Murray, of Boston, at a mass-meeting of the Catholic Holy Name Societies of the District of Columbia, held in Belasco theater, Sunday night, May 14. After speaking of the “wonderful growth of the Catholic Church in New England, where not so many years ago the Catholics were persecuted,” he said: “To-day, there is hardly a law passed in the Massachusetts Legislature without the Catholics first being consulted about it.” It would be interesting to learn how many other legislatures are under the same church influence.

THE following news item appeared in the Washington Herald of May 15, 1911: “Captain P. J. Haltigan, the reading clerk of the House, announced that arrangements for field mass on the Monument Lot, Sunday, May 28, at 11:30 A. M., had been completed, and requested a large attendance. The mass will be given under the auspices of the Spanish-American war veterans; and President Taft, Cardinal Gibbons, and Papal Delegate Archbishop Falconio will be present.” This is another illustration of Rome’s attempt to secure the prestige and influence of the government in the pomp and pageantry of its public functions.

A FEW days ago a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives by Representative Pepper, of Iowa, “at the request of the Christian party,” which provides that “the use of the decalogue and Jesus’ rule shall be the standard measure for the laws and regulations of the government of the United States, regardless of sex, nationality, creed, and party, and that the united prayers and cooperation of all Christians and patriots are asked for the adoption and use of the Lord’s standard nationally as an expression and example to the world.” While this bill is regarded by the country as ludicrous, yet every Sunday bill, stripped of its superfluous verbiage, demands the same thing.

IN commenting, editorially, upon a murder case in which a woman shot her husband, and then gave herself up, telling the authorities that she had taken his life to save his soul, the Washington Post of May 11 says: “Soul salvation is a very important matter. There is a possibility, however, that the soul-savers may carry their efforts to an extreme. . . . Of course, Mrs. — might readily cite history for precedent, and that with a measure of success only too mournful. She mentions religion as the main impelling cause, and it is in that particular phase of human history that the calendar is crowded the closest. Catholics persecuted unto death the Protestants. Protestants, in turn, getting the upper hand, sent the Catholics to kingdom come with swift despatch. The Puritans fled from England to America that they might obtain religious freedom, and immediately proceeded to celebrate their liberty by driving Roger Williams into the wilderness, and whipping Quakers at the cart’s tail—all in the name of religion. The crusader fought the Turk to the glory of God. The Moslem smote valiantly on the field of battle, and fell with a fierce smile on his lips. . . . John Calvin burned the body of his friend Servetus, in order to save Servetus’s soul from eternal fires.”

C. B. HAYNES.