Religious Intolerance

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 28, 1856

Religious Intolerance.

"This iron bedstead they do fetch, To try our hopes upon; If we're too short we must be stretched, Cut off if we're too long."

True, we are not stretched upon the rack nor burnt at the stake, but we verily believe there is about as much persecution for conscience' sake now as in centuries past. The form has changed, while the spirit remains the same.

Everybody has a bedstead, if he is too poor to have anything else, on which to place his friends; and woe betide if they are too short or too long, unless they are possessed of the tortoise faculty of contraction and expansion, according to circumstances.

Everybody's bedstead is of exactly the right dimensions, because he constructed it by the Bible; therefore, all who do not agree in religious opinions with Everybody are "Infidels, Covenanters," and the like. As if no one but Mr. Everybody was capable of ascertaining the true meaning of the Bible.

The Rev. Mr. Fearless, a few years ago, began to read the Bible for himself, and before long he formed some new opinions and renounced some old ones. As soon as this, his heresy, began to be whispered about in the church, he was bound hand and foot and cast into the Procrustean bed. His quondam brethren pulled, and tugged, and stretched, till they were quite tired out; but, alas! the conscience of Mr. Fearless was not elastic enough to suit their purpose. Then began the trimming process. His views were too broad, his sentiments were too liberal; he did not make them wicked enough, especially the babies; for he even went so far as to say he did not think them accountable for the sin of Adam! Then he made God a great deal too good. So they hacked and hewed and chipped away till the edges of all their knives were turned, for Mr. Fearless' principles were made of "uncommon hard" stuff. Finally, becoming tired of trying to soften the conscience by flagellation, they concluded to abandon the enterprise, to "scourge him and let him go!" But this must not be done without some manifestation to the world, that they set their faces as a flint against such wickedness. So the big gun ecclesiastic was loaded, enough powder put in to make an explosion suited to the criminality of the case, a forked anathema hurled at his head, and Mr. Fearless was forbidden to preach the gospel of peace and good will to man.

And why? Just because he didn't suit their bedstead. What right had Mr. Fearless to embrace and teach doctrines not found in their church; not sanctioned by his "ministerial brethren?"

What right had he to believe truth, if it chanced to be a truth not contained in the Bible, or supposed by them not to be there?

Now, in the name of Christianity and brotherly love, in the name of justice and common sense, we beg to know if one truth is not as true as another? and we ask why Mr. Fearless is not entitled to an honorable dismission from the church to which he belongs, if his religious views have so changed that he cannot remain connected with it without violating his conscience? If Mr. Fearless moves to another town from pecuniary motives, he can obtain a dismissal and recommendation from the church; but if he desires to be true to himself and his God, and sees his line of duty in a direction not parallel to their articles of faith, then he forfeits all right to an honorable dismissal!

But Mr. Fearless is a good man; Everybody admits that. Mr. Fearless no doubt is sincere in his religious views. The world's people say they believe if anybody goes to heaven Mr. Fearless will. He has ever lived an honest, upright, moral life, confessed his sins to God and prayed for forgiveness, appears to love God and his neighbor as himself, and is happy here, and expects to be more happy hereafter. What, then, is the matter? Of what crime is Mr. Fearless guilty? Why, he is not sound in doctrine. He has been measured by the bedstead of the church and did not fit! Perhaps he believes that the spirits of the dead have power in this mortal state to speak to the living; perhaps that when the body dies the soul dies also, and lives not again till the Resurrection; perhaps that the world will come to an end in ten years; perhaps not till ten thousand, or never. Or it may be he believes there is only one God, and Jesus Christ was his Son; that the wicked will finally be annihilated; that all mankind will be saved; that all but a few elect will be lost. In fine, it matters not what he believes—one belief will guillotine as quickly as another, if it chances to differ from the creed of the church to which he belongs.

These things ought not to be so. If an individual's views do not agree with his church, let him no longer remain a member of that body, but let him come out honorably, not with their curses on his head because he honestly differs from them in opinion. Not till he is guilty of some immoral act, has the church a right to exclude. We could recommend charity and forgiveness, as Christian virtues which the church would do well to strengthen by a little more practice.—Life Illustrated.