p. 6 | A PRESUMPTUOUS CLAIM by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 8, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 10.

A PRESUMPTUOUS CLAIM.

By Editor

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS, styled "the most eminent Roman Catholic prelate in America," declares through the public press that "every impartial student of history is forced to admit that woman is indebted to the Catholic religion for the elevated station she enjoys to-day in family and social life." He attempts to prove his assertion in the following manner:

The Catholic Church [by which he means the Roman Catholic Church], following the maxims of the Gospel and Saint Paul, proclaims woman the peer of man in origin and destiny, in redemption by the blood of Christ, and in the participation of His spiritual gifts. "Ye are all," says the apostle, "the children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus. . . . There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor freeman; there is neither male nor female." Gal. 3:26-28. The meaning is that, in the distribution of His gifts, God makes no distinction of person or sex. He bestows them equally upon bond and free, on male and female. And as woman's origin and destiny are the same as man's, so is her dignity equal to his. As both were redeemed by the same Lord, and as both aspire to the same heavenly inheritance, so should they be regarded as of equal rank on earth; as they are partakers

of the same spiritual gifts, so should they share alike the blessings and prerogatives of domestic life.

Now, these declarations of the cardinal look very much as tho he was claiming for the Catholic Church all the blessings that have come to the world through the Gospel. We agree with the cardinal in all that he says about the equality of women and men. However, the world is not indebted to the Catholic Church, but to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for that principle. The cardinal might as well have stated that for every truth of the Gospel we are indebted to the Roman Catholic Church. It would have been just as true. The world is not indebted to any man, set of men, or any church, for the truths contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially to a church that has handled that Gospel as the Roman hierarchy has done, and treated those who chose to believe in it in its purity in the manner that it has. Further, it is strange, if the cardinal's claim be true, that women are accorded equality to a greater degree in countries where Rome's influence is less dominant than in countries where it has had full sway for centuries. The cardinal claims, also, that woman is indebted to the Roman Catholic Church for monogamy as opposed to polygamy; but long before that church was established we hear the apostle directing that an officer in the church should be the husband of one wife, and our Lord Himself made the matter very plain indeed. Did Christ receive that truth from Roman Catholicism? Was Paul indebted to the Roman Catholic Church for what he knew of the Gospel?—We think not, for we hear him asserting that he was not even indebted to the disciples of Christ for his knowledge of the Gospel, but to the Lord Himself. We are willing that the Roman Church should have credit for any good thing it has done; but when it would take to itself all the blessings that have come to the world through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we think it is time to protest its claims.