ONLY “IN CONFORMITY WITH THE CIVIL LAW”!
By W. N. Glenn
A WASHINGTON dispatch says that Delegate Caine, of Utah, is distributing an official declaration of the Mormon Church, signed by several leading authorities, which is addressed “to whom it may concern.” The document affirms that “the Mormon Church views the shedding of human blood with the utmost abhorrence.” This is probably the reason why their Endowment House oath requires the faithful to avenge the death of Joseph Smith upon the United States Government, from the President down. Again it says: “We regard killing human beings, except in conformity with the civil law, as a capital crime, which should be punished by the shedding of the blood of the criminal after a public trial before a legally-constituted court.” That exception, “in conformity with the civil law,” is not very soothing when we imagine the civil law to be enacted by a people whose most sacred obligation is the Endowment House oath, and supposing the legally constituted court to be composed of like material. But such a condition is in perfect keeping with all civil government under control of church dictation. All the blood of martyrs,—whether shed by instigation of the Jews in the days of Christ, or by pagan persecutors in the early centuries, or by papal Inquisition in the Dark Ages, or by Covenanter rule in Great Britain, or by Puritan sway in New England,—was poured out “in conformity with civil law.” And the imprisonment of seventh-day Christians in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia, within the past four years, for quiet, unobtrusive work on Sunday, has all been “in conformity with civil law.” And when the way shall have been opened for religious legislation by Congress, through such measures as the Blair Sunday-Rest bill and the proposed religious amendment to the Constitution, what shall we expect? It has been truly said that history repeats itself, because human nature is always the same. All that any class of religiousists desire political power or influence for is that they may be able to shape civil legislation to suit their religious ends. The Catholics have many peculiar dogmas which in this country are practically dormant for want of civil power to enforce them. The Protestants, notably the Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters, who are foremost in the misnamed National Reform movement, have also pet schemes which the present Constitution has its foot upon. And the Mormons find themselves cramped by embarrassing circumstances of a like nature. Let any or all of these have the kind of civil law they want, and they can carry on any extravagant or intolerant measure they may choose “in conformity” thereto. To what extremes any of these religious bodies would go if they had the power, is amply illustrated in their past history. Then with a combination of all upon any one scheme in which they might unite in the name of religion, there is reason to fear a crusade of intolerance commensurate with their established character. Protestants and Catholics could and do unite in the adoration of Sunday, and in the desire for the enforcement of a national Sunday law. Mormons are believers in Sunday sacredness, and would no doubt throw their influence in favor of a Sunday law for policy’s sake, if for nothing else. Leading Sunday-law preachers demand a law “characterized by small exemptions and large penalties.” Of course their object in having a law is that it may be enforced. They seek a national law as an impetus to the enforcement of State laws already in existence, some of which are stringent in the extreme. Some of these, handed down from colonial days, have lain for years unavailable because their oppressive provisions were repulsive to the liberal spirit of a progressive republic. But with the aggressive influence of an awakened spirit of church dictation in civil affairs, encouraged by an overconfidence of the people in the supposed invulnerable character of republican institutions, these old relics of bygone fanaticism may be brought into full force at any time. The religious enthusiasm that would be aroused in the churches by the power placed in their hands through the enactment of a national Sunday law, would set all the demons of persecution to work resurrecting these old sleeping terrors and enforcing them upon the defenseless heads of dissenters. Some people call us alarmists who intimate that the time will ever come in this country when Sunday laws will compel people to go to church on that day; but such laws already exist, notably in South Carolina, and only await the time when Sunday zealots, feeling sure of the power, will aim to enforce these oppressive provisions upon offenders. Nor will it then be deemed persecution, but the action will be merely “in conformity with the civil law.” Herein lies the danger of placing civil power in the hands of the church. No church or ecclesiastical organization wants to control the government or indicate its policy except for the purpose of advancing church interests, enforcing its dogmas upon the people at large, and for the embarrassment of opponents. All religious legislation is designed for the purpose of making people religious, or for the satisfaction of punishing them if they decline to so act. The most that can be accomplished by such action is to make hypocrites at the expense of true religion.