p. 16 | Vicious Legislation by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 13, 1909

Vicious Legislation.

By Editor

CONGRESS has reassembled, and it will have pressed upon it legislation of all sorts and kinds, evil and good; and the evil will be so mixed with the good that the average legislator will not be able to determine relative values. For instance: The Christian Advocate, of November 26, pleads for five bills which should be "pressed to their passage," and says, "The probability is that the moral sentiment of the country will force their enactment if they can be brought to vote." Three of these are in the interest of temperance and one against gambling, all of which are proper subjects of legislation, for they pertain wholly to civil matters. The fifth one, however, is a Sunday bill—religious legislation pure and simple. It is called by the Advocate "a protection against Sunday toil and traffic." It is brought in under the guise of reform; it is rather a step toward the Dark Ages. Every responsible soul in the United States has the right to refuse to work on Sunday if he so desires.

Such bills compel the government to decide between the citizens of different religious beliefs, to discriminate and favor the one, and against the other. It is a step which demands further steps until religious dogmas and tenets are become a never-ending part of legislation. This editorial of the Christian Advocate is borrowed almost word for word from an editorial sent out by Wilbur F. Crafts, the Sunday-law champion.