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Show FIERCE ANSWER BYAJJJTHERAN B Beseret News Excoriated for B Its Indecent Attack on B Lutherans. COMPULSORY UNANIMITY IS SHOWN TO BE DESPOTISM ''Conglomeration of Heathen-ism'' Heathen-ism'' Is Dealt Out to Mor-mon Mor-mon People. H Editor Tribune: Sicca the editor of the Destret News has considered it his buslsifc B to attack none things which wero said and H done at tho Lutheran conference lately held B in Salt LsU City I .nk you kindly to give PBpBpM room for an answer. I turn to you with H this request for two reisoss. namely: I V have learned as a constant reader of Tie H Tribune, that I can depend upon, that whit I tayu-ill be correctly reported if reported at all. Secondly, because Tho Tnbuuo his H such & wide circulation that it will reich the ' J, Tho editor .' tho illfamed Desorct Neivj 1 watted so Ions to print his tirade hit it II nearly escaped notice. Evidently ho thought I that if ho waited until Dr. Brodino had do- I parted for Rock Island. II) . and tho under R, Mpntd for Idaho Falls, Idaho, he could per- I petrato any nisroprosftnution he pleated I -with Saponify; as it would hardly he possi D ble that lorort of the truth would seek out I his sheet and read it, aud ho would no I doubt hive succeeded In his covert attack had not tho writer's" attention been called to it 1 To break what has been said out of it I connectiou and separate it from its qualify isg cttrlbutes is. o way of prevarication common com-mon to the editor of the News. Perversion and Fact. The Newt, says: "Another objection to i thi 'Mormon conference' raised by tho j " Lutheran priests was apainst 'the unanimity wjh which tho Mormon people transact their ' business. Mr. Bcngtson, who made it, said j he hoped 'the Lutherans would never get in the way of doing so.' I What I did siy wts as follows: "The Lutherans are and Save always been an in telligent and independent people. Such a j thing as has taken place today in this city j where a roligious body decided every quw : tiis in unanimously that not an objection : was made or a question asked would not be ! possible wiih the Lutheran people. Our peo ple- will not give their sanriion to any ques-1 ques-1 tion until i: has been made so clear to them j that they can vote intelligently and iude nondently." II I do hope, nay, I will make my erprestion II! stronger still and say that my earnest i prayor to God is that my peoplo may new Ij know a unanimity based on snch circun- stances as is ihat of tho Mormon church of I. the present day. It is not to long sincft J that wj hare forgotten it that a member of the Mormon church dared to have na opinion opin-ion difforeut from that of the priesthood of I his church, and what is more than most Mormons dare do, he dnred to oxpress his I, opinion in open couforonco by bis vote. And wo remember also that it was but a short ' tlnio afterward until he was excommunicated. I I happen to hjivo talked with somo "liberty I loving Swedes! ' of the Mormon church, and. for that nutter, with hberty-lovlag people of othor nationalities, who are members of the i Mormon church And they have told me again and again that opposition to their ro-L ro-L ligious leaders would result in being thrown out of tho church, In social ostracism, in business boycott, in loss of work; that is, in loss of means of subsistar.ee. Compulsory Unanimity. Evidently thero arc priests today who are llk the Jowp o old of whom John speaks in the 22nd vtrse of the 9th chapter of his sospel. ' Tho Jews had already agreed that if any man did confess that ho was Christ, ho thould be put out of the synagogue " God in his mercy, sarn us from a unanimity unani-mity brought about by such means. It takes excommunication, ostracism, bor-i bor-i cott. etc., to force the people of tho Mor mon church to sustain tho professed breaker of tho "law of man and tho law of God," the selfconfc?sed perjurer. "Wboi surprises liberty-loving people is that in this country, and in our enlightened enlight-ened times, even the above-mentioned means will suffice. How servllo must not that people have liccomo. how past every feolinz of independence,- who will cringe for such threats and bow the neck heneath the en-f en-f loving yoke. In one thine the editor of the ews is right. I hqvo "never ba obi to appreciate the joy and blessing of such unanimity But I do know of n iininim ity where in brotherly love each ouestiou is ducuss-id intelligently, to that 'each on clearly understands it; where each one can state his opinion freely, and know it -a- caus him no oscommunicitlon. but will b considered in all Christian forebearanc. and where each one wjlj vole, nor. as lie was told, not becauM he dare not do oth-rwi-, or because he ignorantly takes it for granted that it must bo right, since so and so says it is right, but votes intelligently and in-dopendently. in-dopendently. and Mill the voto is unanimous" , This is christian ucacimltv. Hew noble is it compared with the forced unanimity of tho Mormon church! Conglomeration of Heathenism. Th editor of tho News takes exception to the name Dr. Brodino gave to tha conglomeration con-glomeration of heathenism the Mormon church deals out to its mombor6. Lie calls it "husk." Well. sir. candidly speaking, what can Caristlan call your resurrection of Greek polytheism, in your doctrine of God. your pharnsalcal doctrine of salvation by faith in works, and yonr Mohammedan doctrine of tho life after this, with its inoro than Mohammedan materialism As tho Greeks, you have ouo great God and then many gods of various degrcts of lesser dignity. Aft the Pharisoes. vou bind inany burdens arid grievous 10 bear upon tho shoulders of tho peoplo. bnt n-'lect to show them to .Team., ln whose blood I cleansing from am and who is tho source of all spiritual strength. The result is that while thorn is much talk of charity me-cv truthfulness. God fearing, etc . the power to do these things is absent, an din place of fearing God, the Mormon people, from the priests down, tho little children as well as the- older people, ore the worst people to swear and curso one can ever meet: and in place of truthfulness, the chief prophet, seer, and revelator of the Mormon church comes back to his peoplo and openly, without a shade of regret, tells them tha: he has perjured per-jured himself AND HE WAS SUSTAINED by THIS PEOPLE, who call themselves TRUTH LOVING; and PRAISE the VIRTUE VIR-TUE OF TRUTHFULNESS. A Dark Picture. So we might go through the catalogue of virtues and find the condition the same throughout. There are exceptions. Some Mormons are better than their religion-With religion-With Christians it is the exception who does not show tha mark of God's grace upon his heart to a better life, not tho rule. The dances wblch are 3 part of the Mormon Mor-mon religion tend so to break down every instinct of modesty and virtuo that people are unable to judge correctly concerning morals between the sexes. And when they have succeeded in obliterating modesty so that they have no shnme in living according accord-ing to the license of their lusts, they call It "Christian freedom; ond when the civil jaw attempts to make their lives accord with the standard of morals of the community, commu-nity, they cry of persecution for conscience R.I l?A When I was studying the history of religions re-ligions a few years ago I was struck by the fact that in every false religion tho danca was given plenty of ranctionod practice and that immorality flourished. The Mormon religion re-ligion certainly bears the ear-marks of its class Husks, nay, it's worse than husks: it not only starves its victims spiritually, it poisons him so that he becomes incapable of free thinking and spiritual doing. When the writer troubles himself about, conditions in the Lutheran countries across tho Atlantic ho evidently forgets, otherwiso he would know that in no country, your own not excepted, is individual liberty less curtailed cur-tailed than in Lutbercn countries. The Question of Baptism. As far as tho quettion of baptism is concerned. con-cerned. I can point out that the Lutheran doctriao of baptism was founded so firmly in the word of God that it has nosdod uo change from the time of Lnther until the presont day. The Mormon church, on the other hand. has. seen fit to chango during the last fifteen years. Thera was a time, namely, when they practiced repeated baptism bap-tism When anyone had done wrong he was baptized again, but this has fallen into disuse. dis-use. It is not tho custom now. Where, sir. does the biblo soy that infants shall not be baptized! Baptism was not an unknown thing to tho Jews, when John tho Baptist came. Tho idea of baptism goes back as far as to the days of the patriarchs. In Genesis 35:2 we read "And Jacob said unto his household ond to all Ihat were with him: Put away strango Gods Ihat bo among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. " And again in Exodus 1010 wo read: "And the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes." Again, wo read in Leviticus 8.6, 7, "Toki the Levitcs from among tho children of Israel and cleanse them, and thus sholt thou do unto them to cleanse them. Sprinkle water of purifying upon them ond let them shave all their flesh and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves." So th idea of cleansing by water was not new to the Jowf. and wo find that in tho Soptuagint thes) cleansing! and washings are translated from the Hebrew into the Greek word which we translate baptize. It was common knowledge among tho Jews that when u heathen father of family professed pro-fessed the Jewish religion, he was baptized with all his house. In Mark 7:-l wo read: "And when thev come- from the market except they wash they oat not, and many other things there are which they receive and hold as the washing j of cups and pots and brazen ware and tables.' ta-bles.' Again the word wo translate with ' baptize is used concorning these washings. When, therefore, tho Lord commanded his disciple to baptize they asked him neither how nor who, for they know from their ro-llgion ro-llgion theso things: It would, bavo beon tomothing new indeed for tho apostles had Jesus given them command not to baptize children, and wo seo them follow their mas ter's command by baptizing whole families as soon as tho father of the family believed. Lydi was baptized with family (Acts, 16:1-1, 15). The prison guard of Philippi with all his family (Acts 16:33.31). So also Stephen and ond his household (I. Cor. 1:16). Those who deny baptism to children nust prove that infants do not belong to tho household, ond that they are not people, for Christ's express command was to baptize all people. Baptism for Infant3. ( We could also point out that baptism just meets the need of the infant, for David says, in 51t Psalm, 5th vorso: "Behold, I was shapen in iniouity ond in sin did niy mother conceive me ' And Paul sayo of the Ephe-sians Ephe-sians In the 2 and 3, of his letter to thorn, that they "were by nature children of wroth." And Jesus says. John, 3-5, "Except a man be born of water and the spirit ho cannot onter tho kingdom of God." So tha children according to the Biblo are "shapen in iniquity md conceived in sin." os are all otherk by nature children of wrath and can- ! not outer the kingdom of God except thev be born of water aud tho spirit. And Paul calls baptism "a washing unto regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5. 8). Juit adapted, then, to act th children's needs. As far as the mode of Baptism Is concerned, con-cerned, whore. If you ploas. does it say that Immersion is baptism! When in Mark 7:3 and 4 it speaks of washing the hands the cups, pots, brazen vessels and table, th sarao Greek word is ujed which wtt othor-wu othor-wu tjaailate with baptlie Whore can the idea of immersion cozso in hero? When God told Moses to cleinto tho Levitcs (tho Hebrew He-brew word which, translated "cleanse' in English, ti translated into Greek m the Sen-tuagint Sen-tuagint using tho Greek word which we translated by th word baptize). ..eloV,houl,i thls. bPt.s k take place? Sprinkle water of purification upon thm " itys the word of God When John bintlzM ' ihir: V "0,hillF new cither as to tue f. dlviduilt who should bo baptized or con-cerning con-cerning the modu of baptism, and when th apostles of Christ lLr baptized th-y re ceived no new command on either ouesiion In Christian baptUm w,s tV, he-should he-should baptize in the "name of th KaihV the Son. and tho Holy Ghos'" And in the hlenings of which baptism waa th, hearer to the participant, namely "forgiven- of ? 'Tewneratioa and renewing 0"f the Holy GhosC' win th editor of tie troubles himself because Ihe Christians of Sweden try to prevent the spread of the Mormon propaganda among themselves. And as is usual with the Mormons, when they havo done something atrocious and are called to account, complain of persecution of their missionaries. Mind Your Own Business. If tho Mormon church would take the editor's edi-tor's advico lo us and "leave other peoples' faith and doctrines and worship alone." there would be no question of persecution for there would be no missionaries. It is a poor rule Ihat don't work both ways, and while I think of it. if tho Mormon church had only followed tho News editor's rulo from the beginning, thero "would be no Mormon Mor-mon church today. "If they," i. e.. the Lutherans, "would mind their own business and attend to their own affairs and leave other people's faith and doctrine and worship wor-ship alone." says tha editor of the News. So all they want is to be let alono. From three classes of peoplo I have hoard (ho same expression before. From grafters, who havi) entrenched themselves on a muniei-palijy; muniei-palijy; from saloon-keepers, when the community com-munity has tried to keep thorn within the law, and from keepers of houses of ill fame. Now, the Mormons, according to tho editor of tho Newr, m3ke a fourth class Verily. I don't envy them their choice of company. Slur for Lutherans. In the beginning of his article, tbe editor of the News evidently intends to be facetious by casting a slur at the numbers of the Lutherans gathered in conference at Salt Lake City. When we think of tho over 70.-000,000 70.-000,000 Lutheran Christians in the world, we are certainly but a littlo flock out here in the intcmountain country But we aro growjnr Last year, for instance, the Lutheran Luth-eran church in this country increased over 2 per cent more, proportionately to membership, member-ship, than any other Christian denomination. And I dare prophesy that when the man made religion of tho Mormon church will be loss than a memory, it will be the Lutheran Luther-an church that will hold aloft the banner of (he cross of Christ over the States upon which onco Mormonism had its clutches. Vory respectfully. REV. CHAS. E. BENGTSON, Idaho Falls. Ida . Oct. 15. 1906 |