Politics and Religion

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 47.

Politics and Religion.

The "Labor Churches" starting in England are but another impetus to the union of Church and State which will soon dominate the entire world. It has been said that in these "Labor Churches" politics would be so much discussed that religion would have no place; but Tom Mann, the English Labor leader, says: "Let those who say that the Labor Church makes a divorce between religion and practical politics go to the Brotherhood Church, in Southgate Road, of which Mr. Bruce Wallace is pastor, or to Mr. Belcher's, at Hackney, and there he would find earnest and devout worship going on." The fact is that these Labor Churches are only politico-religious churches, and they will force the backslidden Protestant churches into just the same channel, into which many now have already launched themselves; for while it is popular to preach to the rich politicians and public men, the politicians and public men want votes, the Labor Churches can supply them, and therefore the politician will court the favor of the Labor Church; and to hold this influence the other churches will become labor churches also, or religio-political clubs, in which problems of labor will be discussed, as a sop to the growing socialism of the day. Religion and politics is but the beginning of Church and State.