| OCR Text |
Show ANOTHER METHODIST MINISTER WRITES HIGHLY QF MORMONS Tho Deceit News has this to say as a prelude to an artlclo written itV defense of tho people of Utah! ''In tho last Issue of Tho Outlook, a magazlno edited by Lyman Abbot and Theo-doro Theo-doro Hoosevclt, appears an article by Rev.' Frederick V, Flshor of Ogdon. The Rov. Mr, Fisher, in addition Echoing Ec-hoing pastor of tho First Methotflst Episcopal church In tho Junction c(ly, Is vice-president of the Ogden lloty torment league, was first vlcopvoaU dent Of tho recent Ogdon "dry" campaign cam-paign committee, manager of 'ttyo Utah Chautauqua sessions which hava Just come to a successful conclusion, and ono ot tho leading men in thu country in tho boy scout movement, He hns been very closely usbocIiv'. ' with Klder David O. McKay, luUfo Betterment loaguo1 wdrk In Okdon', and has come to know tho peoplo here an they really1 are, nud -nit 'tt t they aio mltiepresentcd as bolng by many others claiming to be ministers of the gospol:" Tho following Is tho Rev. Mr. Fish-ei" Fish-ei" article as It appeared In Tho Outlook: Out-look: A METHODIST MINISTER'S VIEW IA OF MORMONISM. By Frederick Vliiing Fisher, Pastor ot Flrut MothodlBt Episcopal ChuJch, Ogden, Utah. For tho lost tow mouths magazines maga-zines havo boon grayoly attacking Utah In articles which rnugo from tho dignified to tho disreputable. Fooling r that Utah resorves .somo fair play at tho hands ot tho pross, 1 lake tho liberty lib-erty to write you and ask for n, brief bearing in the Interests ot Justice, 'Continued oa. Page 8. Another Metiiodistjinister Writes Highly ot Mormons Coming to Utah to tho pastorate of a lending (Sentllo church of this city, coming with the personal knowledge of conditions 20 years ago, now, after af-ter some months of personal contact with that Chruch and Its leaders and with conditions in Utahi I hnvo como tp some conclusions, and I feel 1 am at least in as much n position to apeak as magazine writers who hao spent from two days ton month' Ti." the state, seeking material to prove p predetermined prejudice. To understand "Miirmpn'.ptn' mtc in list romember clenrljrjtfiw-j thl'tigi, Klrst, that it Is a deeply rcll?loiu ojly an evangelical Protestant church If the test of the Federal Council o( t. luirches Is to bo a truo test. I'r.rn tn an age of religious bigotry and crude theology and exiled across n wldortiess, It has nept these relics longer than dome of the rest of im, but, ( cpltn these fucts, which linger longor In its books and outof-wuy U'Wps than In real life, 11 i" tculrty church of half n million praying, Dilile leading, law-abiding, thrifty, (Icd-fear-mg men and women. Amcrici lias no Litre strong, genuine, devoted Christians Chris-tians than' bomo pf tho First 1'rssl dciicy, apostles, and Icadoi.i of the "Mmjnon" Church. Second, the "Mormon"' Church was turn of.Bomeof the best blood oC Xew l,;iglnnd und tho middle 'west of. early ear-ly days. The men and. women of Utah, are the- proud kinsfolk of ti,- hcVoes of thu. Revolution. Her later sons and daughters are from, .the same sturdy Scotch, English and Teutonic stock' which has made America. Utah today is a distinctly American state. Third, the "Mormon" peoplo. aro not peasants or illiterate. Some of their forefnthers niajNhavo been, but they nre not. Their leaders are graduates gradu-ates of Harvard, Cornell, Michigan or Gorman universities, and some of their young men lead the world today In scholarship. Utah has a strong public school and university system; education and music are her pride. She has aver C.000 college and unl-'vcrslty unl-'vcrslty students. Tho chief chargos ngalnst tho "Mormons" have been polygamy, deception, de-ception, bigotry, mid the seeking ot political power. Polygamy is dead. At tho conference confer-ence just closed in Snlt Lake City, President J, F. Smith said: "Plural marriages have ceased in. tho Church. Thoro is no man who is authorised to perform a plural marriage. mar-riage. No man or 'woman has the authority, au-thority, to have Its ceremony per-formejl per-formejl for them, W'c havo been doing nil' ln-our power to stop this. Wo have been doing nil we can to trace the men who are performing these ceremonies. It Is hard to locate them, .but when we do find them, we will deal with them. "VJth respect to the Idea proposed by somo to Induce thoCongress of the United States to amend the Constitution Constitu-tion so as to give the federal government govern-ment the authority to regulate plural marriage, so far as I am concerned, I ,haye no objection whatever to such an amendment. Neither has any other oth-er Latter-day Saint. Let the states petition the nation to regulate the whole subject of marriage in tho United Un-ited States, and it will be a godsend to the peoplo everywhere." Goodwin's Weekly of Salt Lake, a ' noted opponent ot "Mormonlsm," acknowledges ac-knowledges that this -statement Is Just and sincere. That is a fair putting of the whole case, despite somo current article to the contrary. It Is a dead Irxuo In Utah. More than that, p61yg-amy p61yg-amy to most of the "Mormon" people, prnctlced as a religious duty, was not sensual and was infinitely better than tandem polygamy In the casL The young men of tho "Mormon" church nro clean young men, clear-eyed, binlny, and manly. The records of the half-mllllon-dollar Deseret gymnasium gymnas-ium If the "Mormon" church In Salt Lake City show that of the hundVedb of young men examined theio Is, yet to bo found one tainted with unclean disease a' record unparalleled Inmost. In-most. American cities. Whativer of deception the cuds and bltterncs'B of years gone by, It is n criminal act to chnrgo the- stalwart Christian men of Utah with' being nTnco of deceivers, No mnn who works side by side with them In -tlio fight for tempernnce, clean cities, and tho boyhood of Utah, as I do, for ono moment believes any such chnrge. Today "Mormonlsm"1 eagerly welcomes wel-comes tho best Ideas nnd aids wn'lch the ago can furnish to uplift humanity, human-ity, Her Sunday schools aro up-to-date, her great Deseret' gymnasium at Snlt Lake City, is the peer pf nny weet of Chicago. She' is shoulder to shoulder with us in tho work for boys, and is leading in tho great tight to wipe out the saloons In Utah, and lately, In common with thu English .speaking wqrld, she celebrated tho anniversary of the King .lames version ver-sion of tho English Bible. As to bigotry, no doubt it exists wherever thoro is isolation, but oven then it Is no worse (haft that of nil our nncestors. In the light Of common friendship nnd service togethor for common good it dies In Utah, as It dies anywhere. It is truo ' that for very self-protfectlon In tho past thoy had to go into politics, but the char ges that they ni'm at national supremacy supre-macy and threaten tho life of the republic re-public aro about as real as England's dred of Germany and America's fear of the little empire of tho Pacific. Truo It is thnt "Mormonlsm"' dreams of a world-wide Christianity, bound -together in n great restored church, the old nicdlaval dream. Others have dreamed tho Batno; it was no sin for them, nor Is It for "Mormons." "Mor-mons." They will all como somo day to seo, as we see, that the bond of the future Christianity will not he a church, but the Christ; not n vlslblr. temple, hut an Invisible brotherhood Until then wo can afford to wait and be hrothors in tho common work ot God and man. Tho statements oirculated lu England Eng-land causing tho riots and agitation there at this time nro refuted by facts here and seem absurd to ono In Utah, President Smith hns cabled tho British Brit-ish government; "Chn.rges absolutely and totally false. Polygamy is forbidden forbid-den by 'Mormon' Church us well as by Utah laws." Again, at. tho late eighty-first annual coufcrcnco ot the church, President Smith said, In giving giv-ing tho yearly statistics, that, besides be-sides tho religious ceremonies of mar. riage celebrated in tho temples, that there had' been 1,100 civil marriages among their peoplo. The Salt Lake Tribune represented him as saying: "Eleven hundred marriages were con tracted last year, not In accordance with the law of God. As announced twice und again, plural marriages havp ceased In this church. This statement, state-ment, copied in the Los Angeles Examiner Ex-aminer was headed "Eleven Hundred Polygamous Marriages in a year," Und so has gone broadcast over tho continent. What Utah needs today Is not a fight on "Mormonlsm," but a com- " won tight of "Mormon" nnd Methodist, Metho-dist, Protestant nnd Catholic,- on sin; not bitterness, but brotherhood; not missionaries to savo thousands ot American boys adrift on our city streets; not a chasm between Gentile and Mornio.i, but a union of tho strongest louders ot both types of Christianity to build between these mountains the best kind ot Christianity Christian-ity on earth. |
