CAN A CHRISTIAN BE A POLITICIAN?
HARRY L. ABBOTT is the name of a printer employed on the Daily News, at McKeesport, Pa., who has been a member of the common council of that city for the past fourteen months. From the nature of his employment it is reasonable to suppose him intelligent, as well as from the fact that he had, prior to becoming a member of the council, served several terms acceptably as a member of the school board. To all these positions he was elected by the unanimous vote of his ward, showing the great confidence reposed in him. But he has now resigned because he does not believe a man can be a Christian and a member of the council at the same time, and being a Christian he had to quit as a matter of conscience. He says politics is the most corrupt thing he has ever been mixed up with, and he found that in order to be of use to his constituents to secure needed improvements for his district, he must stifle his conscience, enter into cliques and schemes, and become a low politician. As Mr. Abbott served several terms on the school board without feeling a necessity to resign, it is evident it is run on different principles than those governing Detroit’s aggregation similarly entitled. While this religious typo held these views and acted according to the faith that is in him, Rev. W. F. Slocum, a college president, talked to a general religious meeting of Yale students at New Haven, Sunday evening, on “Loyalty,” and his positive assertions and strong language are diametrically opposed to his printer brother in Christ. He said, among other things: “We are told nowadays that the devil is walking ‘up and down the country saying a man can not be a politician and a ‘Christian. There is no more abominable and damnable lie than that a ‘man can’t be a politician and a Christian, and it ought to be stamped ‘out.’” The Rev. Slocum then said that America needs men who are loyal to what is true and right; that loyalty in olden times stood for adherence to the king, whether good or bad, and in later times it stood for what was good in law, but to-day the Christian idea combines the two. He added: “We should pound into men’s heads the thought ‘that a man can be a politician and a Christian. They must have the ‘thought of honesty forced upon their attention. We must pound into ‘society the thought of purity.’” Here, then, we have two views of the question, “Can a man be a ‘politician and a Christian at the same time?” The first is from a religious gentleman of intelligence who had been brought in direct contact with the situation. The second is from a reverend gentleman and college president, filled with theories of right and wrong, but without any practical experience in the matter. Which is correct? If all men were honest and pure and loyal to what is true and right, we should probably vote with the preacher; but until that millennial day dawns, we are compelled to agree with the printer.—Detroit Free Press.