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Bridging the Gulf

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 2, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 14.

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Bridging the Gulf

By C. M. S.

EVENTS are moving rapidly toward a culmination which we have been expecting for a number of years. We have been faithfully warned of a coalition that was soon to take place between professed Protestantism and Roman Catholicism — the bridging of the gulf that has so long separated those two religious houses. It was not to be expected that this coalition would come about through any one organic act; but would rather be a gradual process, each step preparing the way for another that would go farther in the same direction until the predicted union was effected.
The indications of such a coalition were extremely faint at first, and to some hardly discernible. Today steps are being taken that unmistakably lead toward that consummation. We have felt for a long time that this union would be reached through Romanists and Protestants working for similar objects; and the efforts to secure more rigid Sunday laws, and the more rigid enforcement of Sunday laws already enacted, have been drawing these two religious bodies toward each other. The Protestant bodies saw the need of the help of Rome in securing and enforcing such laws; and Rome, knowing the Sunday institution to be one of her own establishing, was glad to see Protestantism championing the institution. The common purpose was making for coalescence.
These two religious bodies are in hearty accord for another common object, and this also is a religious object, the securing of a large increase in the number of chaplains in the army and navy. The unconstitutionality of the whole matter can be easily shown. It is entirely out of harmony with the fundamental law of the land, the government being based upon the idea of the total separation of religion from the functions of government, and the support of religion being left entirely to individual choice, as it should be. Madison saw this when the nation was still young, and wrote strongly against the support of such religious teachers by public taxation. If it were right according to the nation's fundamental law to support these religious teachers by public taxation, then there is no argument that could be successfully used against the support of all religious teachers by general taxation.
That the government has committed itself to this unwise and unconstitutional procedure is deeply to be regretted, and never ought to be used as an argument for inducing the government to go still farther in a wrong course. But that is exactly what is being done. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, which claims to represent the great majority of all Protestant believers in this country, has committed itself definitely to that program; the Catholic Church in America has as definitely committed itself to the same undertaking.
On January 20 there was held in one of the rooms of the national Capitol, before the House Committee on Naval Affairs, a hearing on the subject of an increase in the chaplain corps of the United States Navy. Roman Catholicism was there represented officially by "Father" Lewis J. O'Hern, of Washington, D. C., who spoke as the designated representative of the Roman hierarchy in America. "Father" O'Hern, representing the entire Roman hierarchy in America, read the following letter as his credentials: —

The Cardinal's Letter

CARDINAL'S RESIDENCE, 408 NORTH CHARLES ST., BALTIMORE, MD., Jan. 15, 1914. Rev. Lewis J. O'Hern, C. S. P., Apostolic Mission House, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR FATHER O'HERN: As our representative in matters pertaining to army and navy chaplains, may I ask you personally to call on the members of the Committee on Naval Affairs, both of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and urge upon them the necessity of more chaplains for the navy? Explain to them that the proposed scheme of substituting "welfare secretaries" for chaplains does not meet with the approval of the American Catholic archbishops, since no layman can do the work of an ordained clergyman. Most faithfully yours in Xt., J. CARDINAL GIBBONS, Archbishop of Baltimore.
This representative of the Roman Church was in complete harmony with the purpose of the other religious leaders in the hearing, and asked for the same thing as they were asking for. The harmony between them showed plainly that these representatives of opposing religious bodies had settled upon their demands by conference before coming to the hearing.
The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America was represented there officially by Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, the secretary of the organization. The Episcopal Church, which is outside the Federal Council, was also officially represented at the hearing, adding the demand of Episcopalianism to that of Protestantism and Romanism for the further committing of the national government to the principle of the union of church and state.
That these men believed they were speaking as one man for the one object,and in that speaking they were uttering the composite voice of religion in America, was plainly apparent at the hearing. Dr. H. King Carroll, associate secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches, who has been designated by those whom he represents as "in short, a sort of religious lobbyist at the national Capitol," in opposing the plan of the Secretary of the Navy for the appointment of forty "welfare secretaries" to positions in the navy, said: "Congress might for various reasons think it expedient to adopt the Secretary's recommendation. Such a compromise could not be acceptable to the churches." This attitude was further demonstrated in the following declaration by Dr. Carroll: —
The churches are also agreed in the conviction that the present discrimination against chaplains in the matter of consideration according to rank and length of service is, in effect, a disparagement of religion and the worship of Almighty God; which disparagement should not longer be countenanced by the national government.
Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, who was given charge of the program at the hearing, believed that he and the men there gathered represented all religion in America. The first sentence of his remarks reads: "We have practically here representatives from the whole nation." He then enumerated the various religious bodies there represented, to impress the committee with the idea that the united church was speaking, and the lawmakers must take heed. In this matter there was a definite adoption of that suggestion made a few years ago at the Federal Council of the Churches, that this union of the churches would create "a force which lawmakers and lawbreakers would respect and heed."
The result of this demonstration of force upon the lawmakers was made apparent when the Committee on Naval Affairs, after this hearing, made its recommendation to Congress. The recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy for the appointment of welfare secretaries was ignored, but the demand by federated religion that the number of chaplains be increased was complied with. Federated religion was strongly opposed to the Secretary's recommendation for welfare secretaries, and the committee eliminated it. It voiced its demand for more chaplains and more pay for them, and the committee recommended it.
In this incident a precedent was set that will plague the nation to the end of its history. Government by demand of federated religion won a victory which it will not be slow to take advantage of, and we shall see more and more of that kind of government and legislation,—the churches demanding and the lawmakers yielding,—in short, government by the churches in place of government by the chosen representatives of the people; and, flushed with each new victory, we shall see them making greater and still greater demands, uniting religion and the state in greater and greater degree, until the prediction of the revelator is fulfilled in the decree of death against those who will not yield their conscientious convictions in religious things.
Romanism and Protestantism have met on common ground, each strengthening the other's hands, united in a common purpose, the coercion of the government in a matter that involves a union of church and state. He who thinks they will stop with this is reckoning without his host. This is the taste which whets the appetite for more. If the government may tax the general public to support teachers of religion, it may do many other things that violate the true principles of just government. By yielding to that demand of federated religion—federated for the purpose of enforcing its demands—the government enters the first circle of the maelstrom, and the vortex of disaster is a matter of time only.
The Federated Churches are not only united in demanding more chaplains and more pay for them, with higher rank, but they propose that what they demand in this matter shall become a matter of fixed law. Dr. Carroll declares that the churches "are convinced that this is the time to have the principle of an adequate supply of chaplains incorporated in legislation," and adds, "Ought not the united voice of the churches to have a determining influence in this matter?" It will have, and has already had, a determining influence. Dr. Carroll is stationed in Washington for the purpose of carrying through this and other such church-and-state projects in the interests of federated religion. Rome also has her official representative in Washington to foster the interests of the Roman Church. And it may safely be predicted that when these two organizations make a united demand through their official representatives, as in the case of the chaplains, the government will permit itself to be coerced into giving them what they desire.
The American government is now entering upon its most critical period. The great religious bodies are uniting to cause the nation to forsake the principles that have made America great and free, and the lawmakers seem unable to resist the pressure. Romanism and professed Protestantism are voicing common demands which are opposed to the Constitution and opposed to the genius of representative government. When they have achieved their purpose to the full, what lies beyond? — The church dominating the government, the oppression of the Dark Ages again — and the end. This is written plainly in God's Word, and we see it plainly in process of fulfillment. The bridging of the gulf between Romanism and Protestantism is fast approaching, and, in that, the culmination of the controversy between truth and error, between light and darkness, between righteousness and iniquity.
C. M. S.