POLITICAL RELIGION by Alonzo Trevier Jones

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 5, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 36.

POLITICAL RELIGION.

By Alonzo Trevier Jones

It is rather astonishing to hear from one as well informed as the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, who has recently been traveling in Russia, that he "found as much religious liberty in Russia as there is in New York or Washington." There may be as much religious liberty in Russia as some professed Christians would like to see in New York and Washington and all other parts of the United States. In fact, certain States of these United States have shown about the same regard for the religious liberty of certain Christians as we know exists in Russia; and many conscientious Christians are now under the condemnation of the laws of this country for daring to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. But this is not in accordance with the principles which the founders of this government intended to establish in America. Mr. Talmage was not arrested for worshiping God as his conscience dictated while he was in Russia; but, nevertheless, it is a fact that had he attempted to get a congregation around him and teach to them the tenets of the faith he professes, he would have been sent out of the country or transported to Siberia, as many another has been treated. The testimony is overwhelming in support of the charge of Russia's religious intolerance. All faiths, except that of the national established Greek Church, are practically under the ban in that country. Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews have suffered at the hands of the government because of infringement upon the patent rights of the national church in Russia. Within the past three years 10,000 persecuted Christians of Russia have sought asylum in America, and thousands of others, too poor to emigrate, suffer mutely in their home country. The world knows this, and the victims of the intolerance feel it. We have heard ministers of the Gospel in a kindly, persuasive way state that there was no religious intolerance in America—"that is, none to amount to anything; very few States where there had been any persecution, and was doubtless none now." But some who have been members of chain-gangs, and those who have been inmates of prisons, could give strong evidence to the contrary.

The Greek Church is intensely jealous of other faiths. So was the Roman Church jealous of other faiths, and made her jealousy manifest in the same way. So is every State church a jealous church, and so will it always be, and America has only to consult her own history to find an unenviable record in this particular; and still the clamor for religion and government grows louder with each succeeding year. The intolerance we condemn in Russia is the direct product of political religion, and a political religion is what thousands of Americans are laboring for at the present time, through various organizations. It is a national religion, or political religion, that teaches the Mohammedan to regard the blood of a murdered Christian on his hands as a passport to heaven. It was to set an example for the world that America flung such teachings to the winds, and established a government upon the equality of man and the rights of conscience. It is a sad spectacle to see the sons and daughters of such fathers going back to the pagan principle of a national religion, and extinguishing the light which this nation was commissioned to hold up to the world. "Keep the Church and State forever separate," is the wisest admonition a statesman ever gave to the children of the founders of this republic. That there is less religious liberty in this nation now than its founders designed, is true; that it will continue to grow less with the increased mingling of politics and religion, is also true. C. M. S.