The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-03-22
PROVO ClfX. MARCH %. 1885,
TAXING THE CHURCHES.

4U1b uiBbtN Qu6SIlOu udo db lhoO
come before the Utah constitutional
convention. Some ways-and-means
philosopher has imbibed the idea that
by taxing church property the steal
able cash balance in the county treasur-
er'S hands would be largely increased.
In this the said philosopher is right.
His conclusion is reached in a legiti-
mate way from q perfectly legitimate
starting point. Of course the propO
sition was met withay storm of dissent
and the panoplied mighty warriors of
the church at once sprang into the
breach and met the daring iconOclastic
proposition with yisors down and with
every indication that it would be op-
posed with the last man, lin the last
ditch and with the last dollar.
The two parties, for and against, in
the convention are probably not SO
far apart as at first sight would appear.
If taxing church property would have
the effect, as 1t undoubtedly woul1, of
inducing Gods saints to worship Him
in less costly buildings, and at the
same time sharing the difference with
His poor chiIdren-His less fortunate
followers who live in dirty back alleys,
in poorly constructed and lily Venti-
lated dwellings, and who feed on un-
wholesome food, and who by reason of
their poverty are unable to educate
their children, we have an old fogy
sort of idea that the Loving Father OF
us all would be better pleased. If this
tax is imposed, when we now have
churches costing fifty thousand dollars,
worth 100000, we could get on with
those which would cost, say, fifteen
hundred. Thus place the $4,000
saved at interest and use the proceeds
to help out our poor, educate them or
to provide little farms for them
in the country, what a world
of good we might get out of the
now practically non-producing bricks
and mortar, the stained glass windows
and costly resounding organs of our
fashionable churches of God, 80 called.
Now, we entirely misread the character
and attributes of the Father if He
would not second the motion by re
sounding aye! one that would ring and
reverberate through the world until
the very crack Of doom,
Take the costly and beautiful ca
thedral lately completed in New York
by the Catholic church, at a cost.
say of $20,000,00O. Build a perfectly |
plain but competent hall at cost of |
100000 and use the remaining Sl9,-
800, 900 as the the foundation of a sum
to be applied as above suggested
make the rule general and applicable to
all the churches in New York, or in
the world for that matter, and what a
sum of benumbing misery, poverty and
wretehedness would be blotted out!
Why, the general application of the
rule would make it so that one of Gods
poor would not be compelled to die to
be happy, to be comfortably clothed or
to have his hunger satiated. Think of
this We men who love the church and
would fight at the drop Of q hat rather
than see this rule of infinite Justice ap-
piled to her! When we get to heaven,
a great many will probably find that
we did not get there because our
church spires on earth pierced the
heavens or that the soft, reverend
light of the stained glass windows
gilded our bowed heads, and also find
that our souls were not waited heaven
ward by the costly strains of music
ground out by church organ the cost
)f which in money would have
bought SO many good things for Gods
lonest, Yirtuous and industrious poor.
3ut rather it was because sometimes
We forgot our pride and sensuous self.
ndulgences and went down into our
private pockets and gave now and
hen pittance to the poor. when our ,
hurch trustees and stewards might 1
IiVe millions upon millions. {
Render unto Caesar the things
which are Casar's," said the blessed u
avior. That is all right. Let us pay b
axes upon our follies, but let us heed y
le common sense and business.like
dmonition:GIve less to the indulgence
our pride and more to the relief of
uman suffering and sorrow, and we g
i'll, after few thousand years of that q q
'rt of self-sacrifce, approximate the K
laracter of those whom God may call W
dwell with Him eternally in the m