The semi-weekly miner., 1885-05-02
RELIGION AND POLITICS.

RELIGION AND POLITICS.
Our more or less esteemed contem-
porary objects to our quoting against
DR.. O. B. Whitford, the Republican
candidate for Mayor, from his book
issued about six months ago, entitled
-"Christianity Reward for Crime" "
It claims that no paper has the right
to raise cry Of religion against q
man in a political fight. In Its
snatchy, catch-as-catch-can style il
throws out the following as the lead
ing points in its argument:
The people of this city demand that religion
and po itics be segregated His reiig
| Ion Is a matter of private conviction. No one
suffers as a result of his views ON biblical mat
| tiers, Our cont mporary will ind NJ
| intolerance and fanat:cism in Butte upon wh1cl
it may depend for applause of its course IN thl'
morning issue
Oar contemporary errs as usual, IN
arguing from false premesis. II
isn't DR.. Whitford,s religion that we
find fault with, but his irreligicn
| If DR.. Whitford was mere avoWe
infidel, we should oppose him upon
the broad principle that man VINO
does not believe in the existence OF q
Coda G,d with the power to re-
ward or to punish-cannot take an
oath and the man who cannot take a
legal oath is not man to be intrusted
| with power of any sort. To oppose
| the election to office of an infidel is
not dragging religion into politics
To oppose a man because he is a
Catholic, a Presbyterian, Metho-
| dist, a Raptist, an Episcopalian. a
Lutheran or Swedenborgian is a
different thing than opposing a man
because he does not believe in the
sanctity of an oath and because he
does, like DR.. Whi.ford, say that
the Christians God is liar" The
MINER cannot Introduce into this
discussion that which DR.. Whitford
does not possess.
But the atheism of DIR. Whitford is
not an ordinary atheism. He is
more, he appeals to Il submission Of
the question to the votes Of the people.
To illustrate we will quote on this
from three or four pages OF DR.. Whit
f1rd's pamphlet, issued by the Truth
Seeker Company, under date of 1885.
On page 4, in the second paragraph, +,
after showing-by system of false
reasoning that pervades the whole
book-that the Infidels, Liberals as
he mis-calls them, had a majority Of
1O,150, l45 over the Christians In the
United States, he grows bold enough
to say:
Now, what do we mean, allowing such
minority of Bible-bangers and their dupes 10
CONTROL oVR SCHOOLS, OUR POLITICS, and to
suppress our thoughts?
On page 6, toward the bottom,
after bitter trade against the
Christians and an untruthful illustra-
tion of the reason why trades-people
cling to the Christian faith, he makes
the following raliying cry:
Merchants, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, and
school teachers, can we not feel the effects of
these atrocities, forego our early false training.
our prejudices, AND BATTLE AGAINST this re-
ward Christianity for crime"
On page s, after villitication of
the Catholic Faith and a travesty on
the Fathers of Christianity, he leads
once more to war:
Christians are just AS vindictiye now as in the
days Of Constantine but fortunately for ma
lures children, not so powerful. If they were
my life, and yours, Liberals. would not be
worth nickel. The fagots would be ignlted
around us before tomOrrow's sun could gild
the eastern horizon; yea, Def IRE the dawn OF
day we would he smouldering in ashes and the
Christians reward consummatea. Thanks to
Erect aought and science, We have passed the
crisis and are out Of danger.
On page Is, after asserting that
"Heaven is a Christian bait for crime,
and hell a scare-crow for idiots" he
says, speaking of Italy Spain ireland,
and Mexico: 'These priest-ridden
countries are ruined, and the Pope is
now massing his forces of Jesuits to
capture America" and he thus calls
his followers to arms:
Can we not flank and repulse the enemy ?
Let every lover of home and family who is
capable of uttering sentence i'll defense OF
right raise his voice to rescue our beloved coun
try from this array eff popery before they seize
our ballot boxes and stuff their God into our
Constitution. If they accomplish that Our free
dom is gone, our rights usurped, our land con
taminated and blasted by the black robes Of
superstition mildewing every art and science,
thereby relapsing (in time back to the dark
ages when people were burnt for not kneeling
to the pope an1 confessing to his holiness.
tremble to think of the near future if Catholi-
cism continues to increase as rapidly as in the
past twenty five years.
Itwlll be oh served that in all these
extracts, all Of them being the eli.
makes to the portion Of the book
from which they were taken, DR..
Whitford appeals to arms, to the
press, and to the ballot Boa. But the
direct issue is made on page 10, where
he says:
Hence no person Of brains can now believe the
Biblical account Of creation, and for that rea-
son OUGHT NOT TO SUPPORT FOR OFFICE ANY
PERSON ALLIED WITH THE CHRISTIAN CREEDs
= > We ought, then, to be careful and keep
this furious Jehovah out Of our Constitution, by
casting our ballots IN THE COMING ELECTION,
for the candidate who is the least tainted with
orthodoxy. lam a Republican, but could not
support Blaine, connected as he was with Cath
olicis n. Neither could support man whose
name is preaxed with SAINT, and whose votes
were obtained by prayers from the Women's
Christian Temperance Association. $
IT these Christian women should succeed in