The Freedom of Religious Faith by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 9, 1914

"The Freedom of Religious Faith"

By G. B. Thompson

DURING the recent session of the Pacific Union Conference, under the above heading, there appeared in the Oakland (Cal.) Bulletin of March 19, 1914, the following editorial:—

"There is in session in this city a body of men the superiors of whom in industry, orderliness, loyalty, honesty, good repute, and all that makes for the best citizenship, we think it would be difficult to find. These are the Seventh-day Adventists, now holding their biennial conference.

"The members of this church observe Saturday as the Sabbath, and no matter whether this is sound theology or not, it is their belief and their undoubted Constitutional right as citizens and free men and free women, so to keep the seventh day as holy.

"Observing the seventh day as the Sabbath, it is at once a violence offered to their faith and an unreasonable business hardship to compel them by law to observe also the first day of the week as a day in which they shall not labor or carry on their usual business and professional vocations. And upon these grounds these good people are strenuously opposed to all so-called Sunday laws.

"We think they are absolutely right in their contentions for their civil privileges under the guaranties of the Constitution. They have an indefeasible right to their faith. They are entitled to religious liberty. And it is impossible to say that a citizen who is compelled to keep as the Sabbath a day which is not holy to him and which he believes it sinful to keep as the Sabbath, enjoys religious freedom within the true intent and the full meaning of the Constitutional guaranties.

"The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that it is within the police powers of a State to make and enforce laws forbidding work to be done on Sunday. But, as a matter of justice and fair play, such laws should expressly exempt all citizens who honestly and as a matter of conscience observe another day than the first of the week. It is manifestly unfair to compel a man who conscientiously refrains from all labor on Saturday, also to refrain from labor and amusement on Sunday, simply because there are more persons who believe that the first day is the Sabbath than there are who believe that the seventh day is holy.

"In the theological dispute we are not greatly interested. But in the maintenance of civil and religious liberty we are earnestly and always interested. Without those noble and precious liberties life is not worth the living. And we most assuredly believe that the Seventh-day Adventists are right in contending for those liberties, and heartily do we wish them courage in their good fight."

If all newspaper editors would, in the same clear, concise, and fearless manner, contend for the Constitutional principles of this great republic, they would indeed do much to stem the tide that is setting in in the direction of tyranny and religious despotism. That backward movement is threatening to extinguish the torch of liberty which has long been shining on these shores, and would revive again the "good(?) old colonial times" when Baptists and Quakers were whipped for their faith, and religious intolerance sent into banishment those who dared to exercise the right to think.

G. B. THOMPSON.