The Outlook by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 22.

The Outlook

By W. N. G.

"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what He will speak with me."

Religious Chapels at West Point.—The Catholics secured from Secretary of War Lamont the privilege of erecting a chapel on the military reservation at West Point Military Academy, and are putting up a substantial edifice. It is questionable whether a mere cabinet officer has a right to give away government land, especially when Congress, some years ago, refused to do a like act. But, as long as there is no authoritative protest, the privilege will hold good.

Instead of recalling the order, the present Secretary of War says any other religious denomination may have a like privilege. It would indeed be a strange sight if each of the one hundred or more denominations in the United States should erect a chapel on the West Point reservation. Of course there is no probability of their doing so, and the Secretary does not expect that they will. There has been so much protest by the other denominations that none of them could consistently accept the proffered privilege.

So the West Point religious training is virtually left to the Catholics and Episcopalians. The chaplaincy is usually in the hands of the latter denomination, and this special privilege will give the Catholics a prestige almost as good, excepting only the government financial support. (And the Catholics seek and obtain like privileges at all the prominent military posts.)

But in either case it is ritualism that is inculcated by government special privilege into the minds of the young men at West Point, who are to wield the physical forces of the country. The meed of religious instruction that they receive is in the line of ritualistic Church and State doctrine. The result is that far the greater portion of the officers of the army, so far as they are anything religiously, are either Episcopalian or Catholic. The difference is slight. If the Roman propaganda had consented to acknowledge Church of England orders, there would now be no difference to speak of. The American Episcopalians claim to be Protestant, but they are ritualistic; and all ritualistic churches are, in principle, supporters of practical Church and State union. They all seek State support wherever it is possible to obtain it. W. N. G.