Protestantism, Catholicism, and Social Evils
By L. A. S.
MEMBERS of the Roman Catholic Church are taught that their church is the hope of civilization in its warfare with sociological evils, which they are told have sprung directly from the Protestant doctrine of the right of individual judgment in religion. This was the theme of a paper read at a recent convention of the Knights of Columbus, in Wallingford, Conn., in which the members of this order were told that they “are as truly knights of the church as were those brave souls who fought the heathen centuries ago,” and were exhorted to be prepared to “defend the faith” on all occasions. To this end they were admonished to acquaint themselves with the teachings of Catholic books, and to make it their aim “to see that Catholicism gets a fair representation in the public library” wherever such libraries exist. It was stated by the author of this paper that “the divorce evil, socialism, lynching, and burning at the stake, defiance of law and order,—these are the direct outcome of the freedom of individual opinion, that refusal to lean on, or be guided by, the authority of the church, that self-sufficiency of private judgment in matters of conscience which are the distinctive evils that will destroy our civilization unless they are themselves destroyed.” The Knights of Columbus constitute one division of the forces which the Catholic Church is directing against these evils, and as they are in her view the direct result of the exercise of freedom of individual opinion in religious belief, it follows that her aim is to destroy this freedom by every efficient means, among which are ignorance, the suppression of the Scriptures, and the repressive power of persecution. By implanting conscience in man, the Creator bestowed upon him the right of freedom of judgment in religion, since without such freedom conscience would be useless. And when conscience is destroyed or is made subservient to human authority, the individual becomes fitted to commit the very crimes against which the Catholic Church professes to be civilization’s bulwark. “Lynching and burning at the stake” is a dreadful evil, but it was when the Catholic Church had most fully imposed her authority over the consciences of men that there were more burnings at the stake than ever before or since in the world’s history. And the doctrine that the pope’s authority is supreme in both church and state, is a direct incentive to “defiance of law and order” on the part of Catholics in Protestant lands. The Protestant faith does not rest upon “freedom of individual opinion.” It rests upon the Word of God, and upon that Word as interpreted by the Holy Spirit, and not by the church. “Freedom of individual opinion” and the right of private judgment, against which the papacy speaks so much, does not mean freedom to reject the Word of God or to give it any meaning that may suit individual fancy or prejudice, but freedom to be guided by that Word as interpreted by the divine Guide in answer to prayer, in the place of being bound by the human authority of “the church.” With the intellectual enlightenment that has come in modern times men have rebelled against such bondage, and the multiplicity of sects is largely due to the tendency of Protestant churches to be bound, like Rome, by creed and human tradition. In the present decadence of the Catholic nations of the world, is written the truth regarding the nature of the papal religion. This is an open book which the whole world may read, and its testimony can not be offset by all the Catholic books that are now in print.