RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION by W. M. Healey

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 13, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 11.

RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION.

By W. M. Healey

ITS RELATION TO CIVIL LAW AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION.

[Extract from speech of W. M. Healey, before the California Assembly Committee on Constitutional Amendments, on a proposed amendment to embody in the Constitution the first day of the week as a day of rest, Feb. 4, 1907.]

WHY should this body legislate, or the people vote, on this religious issue any more than on the question whether Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, or Joseph Smith, were true prophets? or, whether the Godhead is one, two, or three? whether prayers should be offered to the Virgin Mary, or to Christ, without her intercession, and many like questions? We may as well pass a law that every one in this State must be sprinkled by some clergyman, excepting those who have been immersed. All these religious questions, including that of Sabbath observance, are for each individual to decide for himself.

It is said that we are on the same side as the saloon, and against the church. We seek no party affiliation. We stand on the solid rock of liberty, in the land of equal rights, and cry, "Whosoever will, let him come." If the church is less responsive to these principles than the saloon, then we bow with grief and shame.

It is a sad commentary on a man's religion that it can not stand without the support of human legislation. This Sunday cause from the days of Constantine until now, has ever cried in pitiful weakness for human aid thru civil power. It is a law of nature to receive strength from the source that gives existence; and this Sunday institution, being only of human origin, ever seeks to nurse at the breast of her own maternity.

THE SABBATH OF GOD NEEDS NO HUMAN LAWS

for its support. Truth and righteousness are born of God, fed by His word, cheered by His Spirit, and are as far beyond the need of human legislation as heaven is from earth. We ask no laws for our religion. We only ask a continuance of our civil right, which grants that we may, or may not, be religious. Surround all men, religious or otherwise, with civil protection, but give to no religion civil power.

A RELIGIOUS MEASURE.

It is worse than useless to say that this is not a religious measure, when the only pretended exemption from its penalties is on religious grounds. I say pretended, because without reflection upon the motives of the framer or advocates of this bill, this clause as it reads is a deceptive fraud, in that it requires evidence impossible to furnish a human court. It reads, "Who conscientiously believes." No earthly judge can know what another man conscientiously believes. He can not read another's conscience, and he is not an interpreter. It was said by a gentleman on the other side (Mr. C. H. Dunne), somewhat to my astonishment, that the courts would have to take a man's word for that. Gentlemen, will the courts take a man's word for that? Has a judge a right to make so broad and liberal a construction as that? Presuming some judge might do that, then, gentlemen, what security have you from being punished by another judge who will not believe that it is "conscientious," or a biased or prejudiced judge? There is but one judgment bar where conscience can be admitted as a witness; and that is before the great Judge, who can read the intents and purposes of every heart.

THIS AMENDMENT SETS ASIDE THE AUTHORITY

of the Legislature and the courts, and gives the supreme power of the State to each city or county therein, permitting it to add provisions and penalties ad libitum. It makes it possible for this power to be wielded by a very small percentage of the people, as it provides that ten per cent. of the voters of any city, or county, may compel the holding of an election to add any new provision and penalty. And a single insertion of a single line in the most obscure place, in the most obscure paper, in that city, or county, two weeks previous to the day of the election, is all the notice that is required. It would be easy under these provisions for an election to be held, and three-fourths of the voters have no knowledge of it; but they would be bound by the vote cast, with no redress by legislative power or in the courts. To what length might some city of religious bigots, should such exist in our fair and liberty-loving State, go in this matter? Gentlemen, you must see the danger that lies before us in passing such a measure as this. It would tend to no end of confusion. A man going from one locality to another would be in constant jeopardy on the first day of the week, there being different laws and penalties in different cities and counties. If ten per cent. of the voters, or even a majority thereof, have a right to say what a man shall and shall not do, in his own private affairs, upon one day of the week, they have that right on any, and therefore, on every day of the week, and the right of human slavery is then established. The whole principle of the doctrine advocated by this measure is, "I WANT TO, therefore, YOU MUST." A Sunday law alone deprives a man of his individual liberty one-seventh of his time, making a man of seventy ten years a slave.

THE LABORING MAN.

It is said the laboring man needs the Sunday law, that he may have this day for rest. A large per cent. of the employed workingmen are in the employment of the railroads and street-car companies, and would not come under the provision of this amendment. So that even in this matter the amendment would be a complete failure. There are times when the laboring man is with some quite a "pet lamb," because he is wanted to "bleat" thru his ballot at the polls; and it is generally supposed that if kindly treated, he is easily "fleeced." The laboring man is in need of DAILY rest and sleep more than the rest of one day in seven. Why not make a law compelling him to spend certain hours of the night in bed? He needs the rest; it is for his good.

SUNDAY-CLOSING OF SALOONS.

It is said, "We must have this law to close saloons on Sunday, because there is more drunkenness on that day than on other days of the week." Why more drunkenness on that day than on other days of the week? The saloon is the same. The reply is, "Because so many people are idle." Then, the responsibility for this increase of drunkenness rests upon the Sunday institution, which is the cause of increased idleness on that day. Thus Sunday with its idleness is an accomplice with the saloon, and this amendment is to greatly increase that idleness.

But it is said this amendment closes saloons on Sunday. A number of years ago I was in the editorial rooms of a friend of mine who edited a temperance paper. He was a strong advocate of the Sunday-closing of saloons; and while he was talking his theory with all the ability he possessed, he was constantly smoking his tobacco-pipe. I said to him, "You smoke nearly all the time; suppose we should have a law in this State forbidding the sale of tobacco one day in the week, what would you do?" Said he, "Do you think I would not know enough to buy a sufficient supply to last over?" I replied, "I do not know; I know the people know enough if their supply of water is to be shut off for a season, to draw a supply to last them over. I know if I drank intoxicating drinks every day, and could buy them six days in the week, and one day I could not, I should secure enough the day before to last me over, just the same as you would with your tobacco." You invite, instead of the glass and the decanter, the jug and the keg. Instead of drinking in the saloon, you invite drinking in the presence of the wife and the children in the home.

FREEDOM TO REST OR LABOR.

Put this first day of the week back in its own God-given place, stripped of its stolen robes of sanctity and dressed in its own simple working garb, and there will be no more drunkenness on this than on other days. Compel no man to be idle; rather provide employment. Leave all good citizens free to work or rest as they may choose. The saloon question is in no way connected with the question of Sabbath observance, it is only attached to it in order to give influence and effect. Whether it has a right of existence or not, is not a religious, but a civil issue, affecting all classes of citizens, religious and non-religious, and involving every day of the week alike. Give us a clean, open temperance movement, resting on its own merits, and we pledge you our heart and hand for the cause in every fair and honorable way.