OCR Text |
Show THSIE. PRETENDED TOLERANCE. The subject of toleration is therefor timely. Without it there ran bo no rapid advance In civilization. Intolerance, when it la permitted to divide, citrons In classes aniagontelng each r.thr will .Inject poison Into th-; spiritual life who entertain it. Tt will hinder civic progress and retard scientific research- To live in intolerance is to gropo about In the dark, stumble and fall. Let thero bo light. Let thd light of freedom shlno irons overy pulpit. Jt Is tho only way to :urthcr the Intuitu of truth. Descret Nows editorial, December 22, 100$. In iho foregoing tbo Deseret News was commenting upon tho excellent ad-I ad-I dress delivered in the tabernacle . on ! Sunday, December 20th. by President Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell University. Although the matter was not in print when tbo News editorial appeared. The Tribune iiad a. short note written to tho effect rbat the church pulpiteers and writers would do the very thing which tho church organ has begun to twist Professor Schurman's address into a defense of their own cause. - ' First let us state, that Mr. Scaur-man's Scaur-man's entire preseutatiou was iu the interest of scientific truth and the application ap-plication of comjnou-scuso rules to all of life's activities, whether spiritual or temporal, and was therefore and of necessity arrayed in exact opposition to the superstitions aud frauds sought, to be perpetuated by tho Mormon priesthood. Interpreted literally, as doubtless Professor Schurman iuLendii it to be, the address would have no other effect; and it is only by the most deliberate and b3-pocritieal misinterpretation misinter-pretation and special pleading that his utterances may be construed othcrwioc. Among all religious pects pretondiug to bo of Christian belief and. practice, it would be extromely difficult to fmd' ono more intolera.nt than that cm-braced- in- Mormouibm. Primarily the Mormon priesthood declares that it presents to the world tho only trno gospel the one plan of salvation which will bring humanity into the presence of God. It is asserted and reasserted from the pulpits of that church that while men will be rewarded in tho hereaftor for the good deeds they have dono in the body, they will never be a.ble to achieve a. celestial (meauing the highest) glory without first having accepted the Mormon gospel. In order to compensate 6omc-v;hat 6omc-v;hat for tho utter absurdity of this claim, the priesthood of this cult huyc audaciously provided that some living person may 4 'perform a work" for the dead, individual, and that the deceased party will then be at liberty ; in the other world to accept that work and bo saved, or reject it and be damned. Then there is ,the dreadful matter of apostasy. Supposo that a. member of the church phould come to tho conclusion, conclu-sion, that while ho was honest of purpose pur-pose when bo embraced Mormouism, I he. fiually discovers that ho was mistaken mis-taken iu his convictions, and that study of his position had convinced him that, to remain identified with the sect would be dishonest and would be merely playing the hypocrite. Should ho have been baptized, for instance when lje was S. years of age, at tho command of his Mormon parents which is tho 'rulo, in tho Mormou church and having grown up, hid experiences and studies had the result, of prompting prompt-ing him to disagree vrith tho tcachiugs and tenets into allegiance toward which ho had been forced when he was helpless to resist. Under any of theao circumstances he withdraws from, the church. Now, accordiug to Mormon teaching, what is it that confronts him? First, be i . called an "apo5. itato" tho inoit hatevi cf ail earth's vile creatures, " in the bigoted Mor-'mou--opinion. ITe is denounced upon all sides; he is maligned; he is persecuted perse-cuted by his former brethren; be is shunned by bis old associate?; the doors of his neighbors' bomcs are sealed against him; -he i3 ostracized from tho society,.-. .which he was formerly perhaps a shining light; he is looked upon as the worst enemy tho church could liavo: his children arc , no longer permitted to join tho games of their former- playmates; he is boy-' cottod in business; and. more devilish than all. his wife is cajoled, threatened and frightened in a fiendish attempt lo drag her away from him, provided she still cling to tho faith. And why all this? Simply because he has committed com-mitted the most grievous sin in the Mormon catalogue of crime, barring the shedding of innocent blood. Can auything more intolerant than this bo conceived uuder prctcuso of religion'? Tho News truthfully says that the practice of intolerance ''will hinder civic progress and rotard scientific research. re-search. " It is history that Salt Lake City experienced no growth in proportion pro-portion to her resources until thr.fc growth was stimulated by the influx here of uon-membors of the Mormon, church. This sluggishness was duo to the very intolerance which wo have pointed out. On account of. religious belief thero was a persistent effort to keep tho Saints aloof from all others of the population of this country a 3 a peculiar people, bolter and holier than others; and to keep nou-boliovers, whom the high priests of Mormondom designated as Gentiles, out of the Territory. Ter-ritory. Thoso bravo spirits who invaded in-vaded Zion iu tho early days were subjected sub-jected lo the most outrageous treat-meut treat-meut imaginable. Some of them fell victims to tbo fatal hatred borne toward to-ward them by fanatics of the Mol-ciicdck Mol-ciicdck priesthood. Apostates who took sides with them fell by tho kuife or by the bullet in some mysterious mauuer, and iu some dark isolation. Perhaps fhcfc extreme visitations wcro fewer than they arc sometimes reported re-ported to have been, but that there wero some such gruesome avengings not even the Mormon authorities will deuy (provided yrul givo to them iho privilege of falsely attributing to the victim an ovort act woicb iu those days would partially, if uot wholly, justify capital retribution.) Then thero was the matter of business busi-ness aitack. Even lb civil police ofiiccrs wero pressed into service to keep tho saints out of Gonfilo stores. It was preached from the pulpits that damnation awaited those who patronized "iho-enemies of tho king- doni of God." Tho entiro machinery i and membership of tho church were utilized iu the exercise of tho mo?t rigid exc-Iusiveness aud intolerance. It is ono intolerant mass today, so far as a. fanatical priesthood can make it. so, aud will remain so just as long as the people are taught aud "believe that tboy havo tho ouly true religion and plau of salvation -now upon earth, because f'thoix system is of heavenly origin." and all others arc of man-made and spurious design. That ono assumptiou alouo is the highest form of intolerance, aud we have uo doubt that Professor Schurman would concur with The Trjbuuo iu that view. It is. tho constant complaint of tho chureh orgau that the uttorauces of its prophets arc misconstrued, and that tho Mormon soet is misrepresented. Especially is such criticism directed against The Tribune. "When tcc havo quoted the blunt, words of the Mormon prophets and apostles, aud havo given to them their plaiu and sometimes brutal meaning, the News has endeavored en-deavored to softeu the effect by "spiritualizing" them out of court. Now that Professor Schurman has spoken, the church organ is endcavor-iug endcavor-iug to treat his words in a. similar man. ncr attempting to cause the Mormon people to view them through spectacles prepared by itself. Even tho people who heard the address it endeavors to befool in this respect, and with those who believe in Mormonism in its entirety en-tirety it will succeed because ;iuy mau who is convinced that the president, presi-dent, prophet, seer, aud re vela tor ("so-called ("so-called and self-styled) of the Mormou church, is God's vicegerent, and that his words are as tho words of tho Creator, and that in turn tho Dcserot News is his organ, can be made to believe anything. If tho News were go minded it could cause him lo "bear testimony to all the world" that he know for himself, and iudependently of all other men, that the -moon was a mill stone. However, there is but oue explanation explana-tion that we can make with respect to the treatment accorded to Professor Schurman's philosophizing by the Deserct News. It is that tho church organ did not dare to let the peoplo understand Mr. Scburmau as he desired to bo understood. That would have been damaging to its cause. But it is no excuse for the Pharisaism displayed. |