Show = = THE UTAH SITUATION r I C lvin Reasoner Treats It by the Light of History THE TRUE THEOCRACY OF SPIRIT A Calm and Philosophical Review of the Coarse of the Mormon Church Past and Present To the Editor ol THE HERALD A writer in the Tribune of last Sunday signing himself an Elder of tho Oldtime Church and a friend of the Mormon people peo-ple who also claims to have had 4 very intimate knowledge of to Mormon people for nearly fifty years discusses at length in a courteous and intelligent style certain phases of the Mormon question and in the course of his article makes frequent reference to contributions from my pen in the Tribune concluding as that paper does that the writer lackedsomo experience in order to speak understanding about the conversion of the Mormon people The article of this Mormon Elder is mainly devoted de-voted to a consideration of tho grounds and necessities of a reformation of TIlE SOnMOX FAIT AND PRACTICE and it seeks to show that tho church has departed widely from the spirit fellowship enthusiasm teachings andprocedents of its foundors and that such reform is practicable practi-cable and desirable With the Mormon church as a religion I have but little to say I have no mission in the direction of its maintenance main-tenance reform or destruction There is however much that appertains to the question ques-tion of religious reform in general that is pertinent to the Utah situation No general religious reform is either possible pos-sible or of much value except as it is accompanied ac-companied with social and economical changes which servo to transform the civilization civil-ization Judea would have absorbed and extinguished the reform of Christ had it been confined to the Jewish people But the nation was broken up and its capital overthrown by the Roman armies thus scattering the seeds of A SEW CIVILIZATION throughout the vast empire In these new and widespread conditions Christianity accomplished ac-complished much but it finally became almost al-most totally eclipsed by the ignorance conservatism con-servatism formalism and corruption of the dark ages The reformation inaugurated by Luther came with a revival of pagan literature and art Grecian culture and free thought Roinanlaw government and valor These vere heralded to the world with the newly discovered process of printing now inventions in art and science were made new industries were started society was renewed and rapidly hastened into retypes re-types of civilization The work of Luther would have died away like an evening zephyr had it not been for the other changes that gave it body and wings I can not see why THE GODBEITE MOVZMEKT that was started here twenty years ago should have disappeared as an organization organiza-tion but for tho reason that a system so devoid of coercive and authoritative qualities quali-ties could only flourish uuder intellectual and spiritual conditions more pronounced than we have anywhere at present John Huss came a hundred years too soon and he went to the stake The political social and industrial changes that are now rapidly developing in Utah will soon call for and justify the fullest recognition at the hands of the Mormon church This has already been demonstrated r JX RELATION TO POLYGAMY and it will not be long ere the church faith and practice will in some way be shown to be squarely in harmony with the spirit and genius of American institutions Says the Mormon Elder in the Tribune The Mormon people may reasonably be divided into two classes the deceivers and the deceived de-ceived the rulers and the ruled If it is meant by this that there is a class of men in the Mormon church who see differently from what others do that they see beyond and around others and know that things which are held by others as absolute and final truth are merely relative and preparatory phases that many are children and hold necessarily to the interpretations of childhood child-hood if this is what is intended I would suggest the use of different words to express ex-press the thought It is unwise to suppose that all must see alike in degree and quality qual-ity Vo need not feel grieved if our babies revere Santa Claus as the best fellow the world A TRUE STATESMAN must look on things as means to ends aId the question of the absolute verity of doctrines doc-trines and measures does not concern him primarily He exercises his judgment as to what may and should be accomplished and what means will best attain the end No statesman proceeds on any other principle prin-ciple than the calculable mechanism of human action Whatever the nature of the freedom of the human will it comports perfectly with the free operation ot the aggregate ag-gregate of social causes which bring about definite social results Human action in its general results is as much under the control con-trol of definite causes as are the planets in their orbits In all prpsper oire churches there are statesmanlike minds who consider not so much the abstract ab-stract truth of doctrines and practices as their place and importance in the current progress of the organization Thus in TilE CASE OF DE BPIGG6 who is on trial for heresy for qualifying and limiting the inspiration and infallibility infallibil-ity of the Bible he being a professor in a Presbyterian theological school the men who are pursuing him that is those that are really statesmen and who hola his ecclesiastical standing under their control I will decide the issue not so much on the ground of absolute truth or falsity of the teaching in question as its effect on the growth and prosperity of the church It is the battle of conservatism against the oncoming on-coming dawn of radical progress and in tho case of Dr Briggs the conservatives will doubtless win just as the priests before Pilate won the sacrifice cf a pure bright spirit that disturbed them and unsettled the repose and comfort of their habitual conservatism THERE CAN BE NO MAIVTENAXCE of an institution wherein different stages and developments of intelligence are embraced em-braced without a certain trend of conservatism and tho men who control tho progress and destiny of the organization must minister to many what they know would be to themselves illusion or self deceptions We must realize in looking oat upon the universe that the truth of things or rather the absolute reality of things as apprehended by the human mind 3 Is wholly relative and that it falls into stages or gradations determined by the degree de-gree of mental development Probably tho faith of the human soul at one stage of development de-velopment is just as necessary and as conducive con-ducive to happiness as the faith of any lower or higher stage Every stage of existence ex-istence is necessary to the perfection of a single human life and no one can triumph without passing through them all THE WHOLE DRAMA OF EVOLUTION IB conceived on this principle The earliest and simplest forms of life passed through millions of years of drill In order to fix a type of being and make a solid stepping steno for a variation that would also carrv the fundamental idea of the typo along with the divine purpose that reveals itself as ever reaching up throughout creation to a closer similitude of type and experience with the Infinite the source and substance of all life Creation is built up by variations vari-ations each resting upon fixed habits and conservative types as steps in the heavenward ascent The divine plan implies = im-plies conservative maintenance as much as radical progressive action for conservatism of type is the only foundation for radical progress AMOXO mrjfAx BEINGS th kinds of action the radical and the t c nservative based upon sincere be of and impulse but in the mind of a wise tatesmaulike ruler action is based on Q n knowledge and prudence as means to ends As the case stands the Mormon leaders are exofficio rulers and statesmen This is implied in the theocratic idea of the priesthood Allowing that they are wise unto their day and generation and that they can read the lines and seasons quite as well as the Tribune it is reasonable to suppose in this period of ferment and change that they intend to usher their people into the fullest enjoyment of the spirit and practice of American institutions institu-tions It may be taken for granted that the action of those men who are called apostles is a genuine outcropping of the settled policy of the church authorities It should not be thought necessary just now as AN EVIDENCE OF SINCERITY that their rulers should all at once wash their hands of this people and bid them go unconcernedly into the hands of tho first demagogue who thought worth while to pad his chances by applying for their suffrage suff-rage They may be supposed to have a real care for those people and it is fair and reasonable for outsiders to rest content under existing circumstances that they will give all their followers to understand that it is their duty and privilege to embrace and honor American institutions in their fullest significance Such confidence as is here expressed could not come from any kind of personal intimation or information It could only como to any rational mind from considering the circumstances conditions con-ditions and causes general and special which are calculated to induce action in the premises TUB TRIBUNE and all those who think with it because they cant as yet think beyond it believe that the time will come pretty soon i several years perhaps but in no case I until the Gentiles immigrate in such numbers num-bers that with the resident Liberals they may overpower all opposition and inaugurate inaugu-rate statehood independent of all antagonism antago-nism For my part I should deprecate Liberal intolerance about as much as that of the Mormons under the old recline There Is no doubt that Mormon intolerance in the past is no peculiarity of Mormonism more than any other sect Intolerance is simply a necessary and universal concomitant concomi-tant of all religious systems as long as they are built up on written creeds and verbal inspirations All such things are vicious in their limitations and perversions and they necessarily I BREEDS CniSMS AND INTOLERANCE If the Presbyterians or the Methodists occupied these intermountain valleys as the Mormons have in the past with almost their entire membership and their hier arcnyin tho priesthood where would there be a chance for an apostate like Bob In gersoll to get an office or political recognition recogni-tion of any kind It is only a single step back in history till we find the orthodox I sects of England Scotland and Geneva leading their Christian brethren to the stake for the sake of some trifling shade of difference in religious belief Half the sects of today if they dominated domin-ated individually the United States would make a theocracy that would constitute the leaders of the dominant sect the representatives represen-tatives of God on earth TilE QUESTION or INTOLERANCE is only a question of opportunity The Liberals Lib-erals just now areas intolerant toward the Mormons as the latter have ever been in the past For my part I disbelieve in it and feel that any political programme which contemplates the exclusion of either Gentile Gen-tile or Mormon from future political recognition recog-nition is vicious and wrong Far better that there should be a season of intermingling and political affiliation and this can only take place by inaugurating inaugurat-ing national politics and disbanding those which align our Utah population on a basis of ecclesiastical antagonism AS TO THOSE SUSPICIONS wherewith the Tribune is constantly charging charg-ing the Mormon leaders with insincerity tho times and conditions dont warrant such duplicity if there were no other reason rea-son emanating from the honor of the men themselves The reaction of the consequences would be terrible and furthermore the leaders have too much wisdom and prudence to entertain enter-tain such a programme The doctrine of i temporal theocracy was probably the honest and sincere policy of the Mormon church up to the time of the Godbeite schism The church was violently shaken by that event and doubtless the minds of many lenders were awakened Since that period I should say that the temporal theocratic theo-cratic policy has been on the wane and now it is the sheerest prudence and good sense to assimilate the temporalities of the church entirely to AMERICAN I = STITUTIO = Sand S-and this is what the leaders will do The Mormons may now wholly abandon the temporal and secular side of their theocratic theo-cratic church polity and yet build up an ecclesiastical system that will occupy a peculiar and important sphere in the religious ligious culture of mankind Their teachings teach-ings relative to the immortality and ultimate ulti-mate being of man though crudely expressed ex-pressed and believed in the main are yet more in harmony with the faith of the world in all ages and under all systems outside of Christian creeds since Origen than are those of the orthodox standards Only the most advanced philosophers and thinkers Christendom entertain views of PREEXISTENCE AND IMMORTALITY I of soul which while the orthodox world rejects as pagan heresy the Mormon faith would cherish as a vital principle There are others doubtless but it will suffice for one great historic faith to lie at the basis of a church organization There are at best only a few fundamental thoughts that have dawned upon the human sonL Churches are simply elements and factors of civilization md now that the social status of Utah is bound to change rapidly there is no reason why the Mormon church may not achieve a great mission by evolving Into active church life what lies within her system mplicity She may address herself to the higher spiritual life of the people and strive to bring about I TIlE TRUE THEOCRACY of spirit whereof she has ministered largely I in the temporal and secular types I and shadows It would be a i great and noble mission for a church to labor with tho people to elevate and ennoble their minds in keeping with that great and true theocracy wherein the mighty Jehovah rules through natural law and human institutions and free secular action ac-tion until bv indefinite progress there maybe may-be a full revealing of the kingdom of God on earth RespectfullyCALVIN CALVIN REASONER SALT LAKE CITY Juno 5 ISOI |