Religious Liberty and Theosophy
By Editor
Reliable information comes to us that George McLafferty, of Aberdeen, Wash., has been fined $50 for contempt of court in refusing to do jury duty on the Sabbath, which he keeps on the day that Christ kept. He will not acknowledge the justice of the fine by paying it, and is therefore serving his sentence in jail. It is a strange disposition in a man supposed to represent and dispense justice, that will fine and imprison a fellow for doing conscientiously his duty, or refusing to do that which would violate his conscience. Men are excused from jury duty for various reasons; surely a religious conscientiousness should be sufficient reason for excuse to a just judge who believes in religious liberty. Truly said the “preacher:” “And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there. . . . I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.” Blessed is the man who will suffer unjust judgment rather than do wrong. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts has unanimously decided that Theosophy is not religion. Theosophy, however, has a better claim to the right to be called a religion than Sunday has to be called the Sabbath, or the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord’s day.