CHRISTIANITY NOT POLITICAL.
By G.
Day unto day uttereth testimony that Christianity is not the inspiration behind many of the so-called reforms presented to the public for consideration. Christianity is not in politics, nor can it be advanced by political methods. Christianity never advocates retaliation. One of the “reforms” that has been long advocated by some women and some men is woman-suffrage. Now it is not the province of this paper to discuss the merits or demerits of woman-suffrage as a State policy. Suffice it to say that politics could hardly be made any more corrupt by its introduction, and in some respects there might be a temporary improvement in certain localities. How long the improved condition would last, time only could demonstrate. Some very good improvements in politics have been of short duration, and “reform” politicians, who have rode into office on very high professional steeds, have in a short time proved anything but reformers. So that in politics only one thing is certain,—political ambition can not be implicitly trusted. In noting the defeat of the Woman-suffrage Bill in the Kansas Legislature, the Woman’s Tribune says:— This bill has done as well as any to get a test vote upon, and now the Kansas woman-suffragists have something to work on. They should at once organize to defeat every man who voted against the bill, no matter to what office he aspires. According to this sentiment no man is fit for any office whatever, and should be politically boycotted and ostracized, if he be not favorable to woman-suffrage. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union advocates woman-suffrage, and includes a franchise department in its work; but it could not very consistently take up such a line of battle. Christianity emphasizes the doctrine, “See that none render evil for evil unto any man,” and no Christian can consistently do so. The politics that requires such methods is antagonistic to Christianity. Where party lines are closely drawn, the old political parties work on that principle, but even they make exceptions sometimes. And the W. C. T. U. has all along decried the political methods of the old parties. Yet it seems that politics is politics, and no one can enter the political arena with any prospect of success unless he adopt the current political methods. This is the logic of the woman-suffragists, as enunciated by the organ of the movement from which we have quoted. And they seem to believe that the more forcefully these methods are applied the brighter the prospect of success. But this resort to retaliation on individuals as a means of success certainly dissociates the cause from Christianity. That politics seems ever to rely on such principles for success, is still further evidence that Christians can not consistently engage in political warfare.