DO YOU BELIEVE IN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY?
By C. P. B.
To THIS question almost every man will give an affirmative answer. Even Cardinal Gibbons declares himself in favor of religious liberty. But what does the cardinal mean by this term? He says:— A man enjoys religious liberty when he possesses the free right of worshiping God according to the dictates of a right conscience, and of practising a form of religion most in accordance with his duties to God.—Faith of our Fathers, p. 264. But the reader will say, and say truly, that the cardinal’s declaration amounts to nothing, since, from his standpoint, “a right conscience” must be a conscience educated in the Roman Catholic faith; and that from the same standpoint, a man to practise that “form of religion most in accordance with his duties to God,” must worship according to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church; in other words, that the cardinal has, in effect, declared himself only in favor of religious liberty for himself and for those who hold the same faith and worship in the same manner that he does. But, reader, how is it with you? Do you believe in religious liberty as broad as the Golden Rule? Are you willing to accord to every other man, woman, and child in all the world the same liberty in faith and practise that you demand for yourself? Are you willing that your neighbor shall worship when and what he will? And is there nothing in your heart that rises up and says, “If I only had the power I would soon show him that he can not thus outrage my religious sensibilities; I would at least compel him to show a decent respect to my religion”? Are you willing that other denominations shall use the schoolhouse or town hall for meetings on exactly the same terms as your own denomination? or would you exclude one or more of the smaller sects, possibly the Mormons, because their faith and practise are different from yours? Do you favor the exemption of church property from taxation when your4own church, and possibly a few others, are involved, while wishing in your heart that there was some way to make the Catholics pay a good round sum on their valuable churches, convents, and schools? Do you take the same pains to see that all under your care show the same outward respect to the worship of others that you feel should be shown to yours? or are you willing that your children should be less reverent in a Seventh-day Adventist meeting than you feel that the Adventist should be in your meeting? Do you work just the same on the seventh day of the week that you do on the sixth, knowing the while that your seventh-day neighbor is resting, and then demand, even in your inmost soul, that he shall rest on the first day of the week out of respect to your feelings and practise? Such questions might be extended indefinitely, but it is unnecessary, since it is the principle we are after and not specific acts. The fact is that religious liberty, like religious bigotry and intolerance, has its seat first of all, not in statute-books nor in constitutions, not in this or that form of government, not even in this denomination nor in the other, however much they may profess in that direction, but in the heart of the individual. It is a good thing to have religious liberty written in our law books; it is a better thing to have it written in our own hearts. For while religious bigotry, supported by civil law, may bind the bodies of men, only disregard of the divine law which requires each man to love his neighbor as himself, can fetter the soul. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And he only who knows the joys of this freedom can heartily and uniformly accord to every other man the same rights which he claims for himself. C. P. B.