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Show Playing Unfair to Mormons. AMONG MEMBERS of rrotestant churches in Salt Lake a petition I Mag circulated praying con-Press con-Press to enact a national law- against Polygamy, m order to cay out such a law legally, the federal constitution would have to be amended so ss to ake away from the states the option Io make laws prohibiting polygamy within their lKundarles and punishing he offense. other words, the fed-'-' arm of the law would supplant that of the state in nominating what is Cl'illln mi1 . l . , --- ....... .ueniou or punishing criminals. "While Its effect would be general if the law is adopted, the intent of the Methodist Home Missionary society is to direct attention to Utah especially Me have heard no complaints about violations of the state law in a long iie. and if polygamy is carried out in remote places in southern Utah it will be found that the males cohabiting cohabit-ing with more than one wife are the (lift MAimnn. -I . ., ""'"o. nuu iaKe cnances. and whose domestic affections cannot be alienated from the creed first taught by the Mormon church. It is safe to say that the youth of Utah will never consent to the restoration of polygamy in the Mormon church. Any attempt or the kind would mean the dissolution of the Latter-day Saints. The circulation of those petitions in Salt Lake appears to be done on the sly. The dally press, in publishing 1 Sunday sermons, omits mention of I anti-Mormon discourses; so we take it for granted that none are delivered. Terhaps the alliance of the Deseret Sunday school with the Ministerial association as-sociation carried a protocol to let up on attacking eacli other In the pulpit and Join hands in attacking the saloons. sa-loons. If that was called off after the city election, what is to hinder the sects from coming out in the open with their petitions? vvc hardlv think the Ministerial association j3 playing i fair with its erstwhile Hiy. I But Salt Lake and Utah are not the only places where tbev . ' in uiwi mis 10 tongress are being circulated. The spinsters whose chances . fur conjugal bliss have follow, the iast 10,e tlf summer are especially active in the New England states. The leading spirits spir-its in the movement are Protestants of various sects and denominations. We doubt not a majority of them are honestly hon-estly opposed to the Mormon belief in plurality of wives. But do they realize re-alize that there is but slight difference between the Mormon practice and the practice prevailing everywhere in the United States of divorce and remar riage? Protestants recognize marriage as a civil contract which can be terminated ter-minated by the consent of both parties or by the action of one party who may have tired of his or her bargain. This practice runs squarely counter to the divine injunction: "Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder." asun-der." The marriage of one or both of the parties to the divorce is nothing short of bigamy or polygamy. Human laws may recognize it as legal, but in the Christian view of the case it is , polygamous Mormonism. j Iet the Christian men and women ! w ho profess Protestantism clean their own houses before they undertake to clean the houses of their neighbors, say. the editor of the Boston Republic. Let them set their faces against the demoralization caused by divorce and remarriage before they attack the cit- j adel of Mormonism, which has the merit at least of religious backing. The Mormons believe they have scriptural authority for their doctrines. The Protestants who go against t'he scriptural scrip-tural injunction have no excuse for their position. Let them begin at home: |
