The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-11-17
POLITICS AND THE PULPIT.

dTllCl6 Oh IOllulCS anu thO uPio
for the November number of the
North American Review.
He does not think that politics and
religion can of right be discovered
from each other. He says "the
Christian ministry must incarnate
and voice the best conscience of the
age, not shrinking when the sins tC
be denounced are entrenched behind
political barracades."
That is very true; if politician or
party bride, buy votes or steal The
public money it is obviously the duty
of the clergy to enforce that command
Of the decalogue "Thou shalt not
STEAL" but what has that got
to do with politics, which gives
warrant to the preacher to harangue
the masses on the street corners or
hold tickets for a fav0rite candidate
on election day. Let him preach as
loudly and as eloquently as he can on
the sin of corruption by bribery or the
sin of stealing things that may be ly-
ing temptingly about, and let him
train his batteries on all the evils that
exist in the best regulated commune
ties, but let him keep himself clear
from the pollution that is poisonous to
him in his political arena, for an at
mGsphere that might not be danger
Gus to another man would strife the
voice of the ambassador of God.
The board of bishops of his own
church at their quadrennial confer
ence in May last at Omaha, made the
following deliverance as their rule of
conduct:
"With regard to politics, the atti-
tude of our chnrch is strenuously nom
PARTISAN and non-sectiOnal. 1t ack-
nowledges no allegiance to any politi-
cal creed or association. 1t urges all
its members who have the right to
vote to discharge that duty, but it
leaves every voter absolutely free
from ecclesiastical interference to de.
termine for himself for whom his bal
lot shall be cast. The right of suff-
rage, or the franchise, we regard as a
great and responsible trust, which
should in all cases, ecclesiastical and
civil, be exercised conscientiously,
but in absolute personal freedom,
How, in the face of such declara-
ton by body of which he is a shin
ing light, can the learned bishop
maintain his proposition that the
pulpit and politics ought not to be dis
severed ?
1t would be unfair to the bishop not
to mention the main thing that has
excited his desire to mingle politics
and religion. He is an advocate of
"total abstinence and legal prohibit
tion," and thinks it right that the
clergy should advocate such a cause
and use their eloquence on the hust-
ings against licensing liquor dealers.
If this is not a plunge into politics
prohibited by the declaration of the
bishops quoted, what is it -?
The bishop must be aware that some
of the most profound statesmen, some
of the purests men, some of the total
abstainers from all intoxicants, regard
this prohibition as stab at the rights
of every man in this country, not
merely to vote s,s he pleases but to do
as he pleases in matters that do not
interfere with any human being in
any rights social, religious or political
that have been so amply and fully Sc.
cured to him by the laws of the coun
try.
If he knows this fact what is he do
ing? These men referred to would
say stepping down out of his pulpit
and attacking the personal rights of
men, advocating old and abandoned
sumptuary laws to prescribe to man
what he shall eat and drink and
mayhap what be shall wear.
Does he recognize that in stepping
out of his pulpit he is not only betoul-
ing his white clerical garments in the
slums of elections but that he is per-
hitting his religious zeal to lead him
on to an attack on the fundamental
principles of Republican govern
ment?
1t will be interesting TO the reader
TO know that while the bishop at first
seemed to limit the duties OF minis
tiers of the gospel to this single matter
of "prohibition," his political zeal has
worked him up into white heat and
before he concludes his article he
branches out into the broadcast claim
for his cloth. He says:
Republican institutions on this
continent are now confronted and
menaced by two great and growing
evils, both requiring the presence OF
the pulpit in the political arena; the
enormous and unblushing corruption
of many of our municipal govern
ments, and the frightful and widen
ing chasm between the rich and the
poor, or rather, between manual la
borers and their employers. The in