Show Mr Heists Views The evil effects of the manifesto in so far as it may in practice result inputting in-putting both politcal parties under the domination of a few ecclesiastical leaders lead-ers is so apparent as to need little or no discussion I therefore will discuss I only the question of a preventive for the evil without denying to the church the right to make any rule of discipline disci-pline it may see fit The church leaders are entitled prima facie to the presumption of sincerity in this matter and if they are as desirous de-sirous of carrying out the spirit of the constitutional inhibition aainst a union of church and state as they appear to be the solution is easy In the Deseret News of May 12 I find the following quoted with seeming approval ap-proval from the Catholic fReview Indeed In-deed the Mormon leaders should go further and lay down thb law that no clerical official in the Mormon church should be a candidate for political office of-fice If that regulation were generally enforced religion would l > e saved sUon scandals as last year shamed the state I of Ohio when a clergyman in the legfs Jature offered to sell his vote for a bribe t From this I draw encouragement that I the church organ will endorse my plan I I for a remedy of dreaded evils My remedy rem-edy is this Let the political conventions conven-tions adopt a resolution omething like the following f Whereas The dominant church of this state has adopted a rule of discipline disci-pline for its members bvy which they say that every leading iofficial of the church shall before accepting any political po-litical position which would interfere with the proper and complete discharge of his ecclesiastical duties apply to the proper authorities to learn from them I whether he can consistently with the church obligations tak upon himself the responsibilities of the new position I And Whereas This same church I and its leaders express themselves opposed op-posed to a union of church and state And Whereas We are likewise opposed op-posed to a union of church and state and by this we mean to oppose as much the practical union by which a few ecclesiastical ec-clesiastical leaders will control the political po-litical action of church members in all poitical parties as well as the legal and technical union I Now therefore be it Resolved That while we recognize the right of every church organization to make any rule of discipline its members may see fit to submit to yet we conceive it to be our right and our duty to so regulate the affairs cf our party that no rule of church discipline shall have the effect ef-fect of putting it under the control of any priesthood whatever We believe that B H Roberts when speaking upon this in the Salt Lake Herald of October 1 1895 correctly correct-ly outlined our course in this matter when he said If the churoh permits its high officials to enter politics at all then those men ought to be absolutely free to follow their own discretion as to what their politics should be and thee the-e > ten t to which they shall engage in the affairs of the government as anytHing any-tHing short of this would render party I loyalty impossible I do not believe that Democratic church officials ought to be expected to go to Republican superior su-perior church officials for counsel in political po-litical affairs or vice versa Such a requirement in our community commu-nity would place the control of the respective re-spective parties under the church officials offi-cials and would give political affairs entirely into their hands I see no middle ground between absolute and complete retirement on the part of high Mormon church pfficials from politics poli-tics or else perfect freedom of conduct in respect to politics In view of the fact that the church has seen fit not to leave its high of flclas free to act as they think best now therefore we declare that for the purpose of preventing a practical union of church and state no person shaH he deemed eligible for nomination nomina-tion tr > any office in the gift of this partyift whom this rule of discipline bove referred to applies unless such person shall first have publicly renounced re-nounced the right of every man or priesthood to either give or withhold their consent to his candidacy or that of any other man We regret that those who framed the church rule referred to have seen fit to leave it uncertain as to who comes within the designation of leading lead-ing officials but considering as we do that the weight dl public interpretation interpreta-tion by those in authority is that it applies to all holding the office of bishop bish-op presidents of stakes and their counselors coun-selors presidents of quorums of seventies sev-enties apostles the president of tho church and his counselors We therefore declare them ineligible ineli-gible to receive any nomination for office of-fice in this convention except upon the condition above specified It is not our intention to make war upon any church or creed and in the adoption of this regulation for the government gov-ernment of our organization we are only taking the necessary steps to bring about a complete separation of church and state To this end we invite the earnest cooperation co-operation of those church officials affected af-fected thereby fedling sure that upon reflection they will consider it fortunate that the temptation to hold political office will never induce them to forego what they consider their highest duties du-ties toward their God There are twelve states in this union over 50 per cent of whose population ala Catholics and yet no Catholic priest has uttered a complaint beca sean se-an unwritten law precludes him from holding public office In one of these states the percentage of Catholics is greater than the percentage of Mormons Mor-mons in Utah When a Cathcfiic priest accepts his ecclesiastical position he chooses to forego political aspirations for the performance of what he considers con-siders a higher duty A few Mormon I officials with whom I have talked have taken this same view of the matter Would it not be better for all the people peo-ple of Utah if the unwritten law against Catholic priests were here applied ap-plied as against the Mormon leading officials More than that is it not a religious duty incumbent upon Mormons to acquiesce ac-quiesce in this rule if they are in earnest earn-est in believing the Doctrine and Covenants Cov-enants which say We do not believe if just to mingle religious influence with civil government By what other method can this provision pro-vision of the Doctrine 1 and Covenante be made effective A T HEIST |