The Aim of the W. C. T. U. as Stated by a Friend.-

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 46.

The Aim of the W. C. T. U. as Stated by a Friend.—

We have sometimes been thought uncharitable because we have said that one of the great objects of the W. C. T. U. was to bring about a man-made theocracy, a union of church and state, not in the sense of any particular church, but in the sense that religious organizations would control legislation, pervert it to selfish ends, etc. In proof of this we have quoted extracts like the following, declared in the Union’s national convention of 1887:—

“The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, local, state, national, and world-wide, has ONE vital, organic thought, ONE all-absorbing purpose, ONE undying enthusiasm, and that is that CHRIST SHALL BE THIS WORLD’S KING; yea, verily, THIS WORLD’S KING in its realm of cause and effect,—king of its courts, its camps, its commerce,—king of its colleges and cloisters,—king of its customs and constitutions. . . . THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST MUST ENTER THE REALM OF LAW THROUGH THE GATEWAY OF POLITICS.”

If this does not mean union of church and state in its broadest sense, we do not know what language can express it. The New York Voice of November 7 has an article on “The W. C. T. U. and Its Critics,” in which it defends the Union against the charges of inconsistency with reference to union with other reform parties. The most of this editorial is immaterial to the point we are discussing, but the closing paragraph is peculiarly to the point. The Voice says:—

“But the truth is, most of the criticisms of the W. C. T. U., both now and heretofore, proceed on the assumption that the union has but one object, namely, prohibition. The W. C. T. U. holds no less firmly to that object than it did at the start; but it has broader aims to-day than it had at first. It has been growing and developing, lo! these many years; and to-day its purpose, whatever may have been the case at first, is not included in the one word prohibition. The purpose now, as we view it, may be broadly stated as the application of the laws of God to political affairs; to carry the standards of morality and religion into national life; to bring about, not a union of church and state, but a harmony between them, and to make the acts of the citizen conform to his acts as a Christian.”

The only way to keep harmony between church and state is to keep them, in the words of U. S. Grant, “forever separate.” But the aim of the W. C. T. U. will result in the strongest union of the two, which will form the weakness and ruin of both.