Tobacco Using and Church-Membership by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jun 27, 1912

Tobacco Using and Church-Membership

By Editor

If a man who uses tobacco is eligible to membership in a Christian church, by what logical reason can he be barred from filling a church office? Should the church have one standard of Christian living for its ministers and another for its lay members? This is evidently the position taken by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At its recent session in Minneapolis a resolution was adopted to the effect that no man who used tobacco in any form should be elected to a General Conference office.

We are heartily in accord with the spirit of this resolution, but we believe that it should be carried a step further, and that our good Methodist brethren should exclude from church-membership those who indulge in this filthy habit. The Seventh-day Adventist Church insists not only that its ministers refrain from using tobacco, but that its members shall as well. The Word of God recognizes but one standard of Christian living. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one example for all his children. We can not conceive him as using tobacco in any form.