Christianity and Political Expansion
ALL the talk about the extension of Christianity through the expansion of our territory, or through our influence as “a world-power,” rests upon a confusion of ideas. Our government has no right to seek to do any such thing. And it does not do so. The notion that the mere annexation to this country of the Philippines or of a few provinces of China is of itself going to evangelize these regions, rests upon a survival of the old theory of a state church, which the United States has absolutely discarded. As a matter of fact, there is much to show that when a so-called Christian nation acquires the political sovereignty of a heathen country, while missionary work is made easier for the subjects of the suzerain nation, their efforts are less effective. The great successes of modern missions have been achieved in countries that were not under the rule of foreign states. Pattison and Paton, Williams and Judson, did not know what home protection meant. They did not appear before the natives as representatives of a foreign power, with designs upon their great political independence. One great advantage that, up to the present time, American missionaries have had in the Asiatic colonies of Great Britain has been that they have escaped the suspicion of being agents of a power that had designs upon the political control of the land.—The Watchman.