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Show MODERN FREEDOM OF WORSHIP. The debate in the Senate on the. Edmunds Ed-munds bill, a full report of which appears in the Congressional Record of January 8, is very interesting. As one reads it over and recalls the history of the Christian religion, the conclusion cannot be escaped that there is more bigotry and intolerance intoler-ance in the world to-day than the nineteenth nine-teenth century is wont to admit. Among Christian denominations the Mormon church enjoys the unique distinction of being hated by both Catholics and Protestants. Religionists of different differ-ent denominations are disinclined to admit that Mormonism is ' a religion in any sense of the word. This is no doubt the case with all except the Mormons, Mor-mons, but to them their religion is as much a religion as Catholicism is to the Catholic, Methodism to the Methodist. Whatever a man thinks is religion is' to that man religion. It is impossible to have a test as to religion. - Every church and denomination has its rules for determining deter-mining what is religion according to its tenets and beliefs, but these rules merely determine what is and . what is not religion relig-ion for a particular sect. Even to-day Catholics speak of the Reformation as an apostacy, . and Catholic writers in speaking of that movement always make a quotation of the word. To a Protestant that seems most strange. Catholics look upon Protestantism as an emancipation of the flesh. . The Catholic church is a great church and the most wonderful and perfect per-fect organization that the mind of man ever created, and it was old, as Macaulay says, when the oldest of the modern dynasties of Europe was still unborn. That church naturally looks upon Protestantism Protes-tantism as the chief source of all the evils , which afflict modern society. The Rt. Rev. John Walsh only recently spoke of Catholicism and Protestantism in these terms: "Enough, however, has been written to show that the Catholic church is the mother of Christian civilization, and the friend and savior of society; whereas, Protestantism, in its teachings and influences, is principally the cause of the terrible evils that afflict modern society so-ciety and menace it with ruin. Other evil agencies, such as Freemasonry and kindred associations, have taken up the destructive forces brought into life and action by Protestant principles, and are energetically carrying them out to their sad and fatal consequences." These words of Dr. Walsh in all probability prob-ability represent the general feeling of Catholics towards Protestantism, but occasionally occa-sionally a Catholic more bold and ardent goes further still. Thajate Dr. Ward, in January, 1876, went so far as to affirm . that "a Catholic's freedom of conscience is ffrievously impaired by the civil tolerance of other religions." Such a sentiment is not far removed from the sixteenth century, and is - in full accord with the judgment of Cardinal Benno, who declared that if Charles V. had ordered the death of Luther at the Diet of Worms the whole mischief of the Reformation would have been prevented. Some of the Protestant religious journals of the East are fully as severe and bigoted big-oted in their denunciation of the Catholic church. The fight in New York over the "Freedom of Worship bill" plainly shows the liberality of Protestants towards to-wards Catholics. Such showings as these should make Senators careful in saying what consti-utes consti-utes religion and what does not. When the religion of the Mormons teaches that polygamy is right and its practice proper and justifiable, then that religion, to the extent that it conflicts with the law of the land, should be treated as anything else that is in conflict with the laws of the land and be put down. It makes no difference whether a practice conflicts with and contravenes the law of the land under the name of religion or under the name of something else, such practice must be made to cease. But it is ill-advised ill-advised for those who are dealing with I such unlawful practices and framing and enacting laws for their suppression to undertake un-dertake to say what is religion and what is not. It should never be forgotten by people who discuss or deal with religious questions that "Orthodoxy is my doxy and heterodoxy is your.doxy." |