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Religious Liberty Notes

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 12, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 50.

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Religious Liberty Notes

The Ministerial Federation of Seattle, Wash., passed a resolution recently to the effect that the officials should perform their duty in enforcing the Sunday laws of that city.
Elder B. F. Kneeland, president of the New Jersey Conference, secured the publication of an excellent article in the Trenton Times, of New Jersey, recently, on the question of the evils of Sunday laws.
A young man sends in three dollars for copies of the last number of Liberty, and says, “I am a young man of twenty-seven years, and expect to earn my living, selling Liberty.” We hope that many other young men will do likewise.
“The enforcement of a Sunday mine-closing law is a new wrinkle to mining men,” says the Arizona Democrat of Nov. 13, 1907. It continues: “It has been the custom of miners all over the country to work seven days each week.” The monstrous evil of religious legislation has found another avenue in which to exercise its growing power.
The Arizona Democrat of Nov. 12, 1907, says: “Upon a platform advocating the Sunday closing of saloons and the imposition of a high liquor license, the Tucson Democrats last Saturday nominated candidates for three positions in the city council.” It is evident that any candidate who will champion a Sunday-closing law will obtain the votes of those who hope to effect a great moral reform through the medium of Sunday legislation and enforcement.
The Philadelphia Ledger, of Nov. 19, 1907, contains nearly a column article on the Sunday navy dance on League Island. It appears that Admiral Pendleton has lost confidence in the Philadelphia Sunday-closing crusaders, and the outcome of the affair is that a strong resolution was adopted by the religious element in Philadelphia, and sent to President Roosevelt, making a vigorous protest against what is deemed a flagrant violation of the Sunday law by the navy.
JUSTICE O’GORMAN of the supreme court of New York rendered a decision December 2 in a test case involving the closing of theaters on Sunday. He denounced as clear violation of the law every possible form of Sunday stage entertainment, under whatever title. As there is no appeal from this decision, any relief must be found in new legislation. Police Commissioner Bingham has announced his intention of enforcing to the letter the law as interpreted by the court, even to the stopping of Y. M. C. A. lectures.
The Daily Picayune, of New Orleans, La., bearing date of Nov. 25, 1907, contains over a half-column report of a sermon preached in New Orleans, November 14, by Elder S. B. Horton, on President Roosevelt’s position in eliminating the motto, “In God We Trust,” from the ten-dollar gold coin. Elder Horton showed that such a motto in such a place is not in accord with the words of Jesus, when he said: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s;” and further compared such a custom with that which was established by Constantine in 321 A. D., of having on one side of his coin the name of Christ, and on the other side the figure of the sun-god.
Elder W. R. Andrews, the religious liberty secretary of the Southern New England Conference, writes in part as follows: “I will send you on a separate sheet a copy of the bill passed last June by the General Assembly of this State. There were seven bills introduced, but this one, and one other concerning hunting on Sunday, were the only ones passed. As the law now stands, any person found in the open air with a gun will be deemed a violator of the law, and will be dealt with as such.”
The Washington Post of Oct. 23, 1907, contains the following: “Clergymen of Philadelphia have entered a vigorous campaign to stop Sunday baseball at League Island. Having found that the protests to the commandant are unavailing, they have decided to petition President Roosevelt to prohibit a sport, which, the ministers say, is harmful to the city. The Rev. T. T. Mutchler, secretary of the Sabbath Association, said that he called upon the commandant at League Island and requested him to stop the Sunday games. The commandant refused to do it, declaring the sport was beneficial to the men.” It will be interesting to learn what the President’s attitude will be toward this petition.
Section 1 of “an act concerning the observance of Sunday, passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, and approved June 29, 1907,” reads as follows: “No person who conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and actually refrains from secular business and labor on that day, or who conscientiously believes that the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night and ends at sundown on Saturday night, and actually refrains from secular business and labor during said period, and who has filed written notice of such belief with the prosecuting attorney of the court having jurisdiction, shall be liable to prosecution for performing secular business and labor on Sunday, provided he disturbs no other person who is attending public worship.”
The Kansas City Times, of Nov. 13, 1907, contains the following interesting comment on the exemption clause contained in the Missouri Sunday law, a St. Louis barber having been recently convicted for working on Sunday: “His contention is that a law which would put one man in jail for working on Saturday and another for working on Sunday, but not both for working on either day, is class legislation. If two men are arrested for shaving people on Sunday, and one is subject to fine, the contention is that it is not good law to exempt the other if he can say, ‘I am Jewish, I didn’t work Saturday;’ yet that is what the law provides, though it might be a question for the jury to determine whether the Jew observed his Sabbath properly. In case of the theater people it might be as much of a hardship to close Saturday as Sunday. The case is a curious one that is attracting considerable attention among lawyers. It is supposed to be the only law on the statute-books that attempts to apply a religious test forbidden by the Constitution of the United States, and it is not improbable that it will result in the whole Sunday law in that State being vitiated.”