Is it Prejudice, or Something Worse?
By Editor
The Oregon Churchman, an Episcopalian paper, avowing the faith of "the church" in the doctrine of the advent, takes occasion to speak in a contemptuous manner of the "Adventists." In this tirade—it deserves the name—it says:— "We do not believe that the Adventists derive any comfort from it. Only the other day the telegraph informed us of a horrible crime—the murder of a child by its father—the father having been urged to the deed by the insane promptings of his creed. Surely, when such a deed is done in the name of religion, all sober minded people should shun the system that produced it." The man who committed this crime had no connection with us, and no sympathy with our faith; but in the name of justice we repel such a slanderous charge as the above. Though the organ of the party to which he did belong, in a recent notice, gave a very ungenerous fling at us, and one entirely uncalled for by the circumstances, we announce to the Churchman and to all, that there is nothing in "the creed" of that party to "prompt" to such a crime. No reason was given by Freeman which could not have been assigned by any one religiously insane. That reason had not the least connection with any peculiarity of the faith of any body of Adventists. Why will professed Christians be so bigoted, and let their prejudices lead them to do such injustice to those whom Christ commanded them to love as themselves? Their conduct is only calculated to make the world lose confidence in their honesty as professed followers of Christ, or to deride Christianity itself as leading to selfishness and intolerance. The "liberal" paper which said that "all religion" leads to such action as this of Freeman's, was no more unjust nor illogical than is the Churchman in the remarks quoted above.