The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-27
CHURCH AND STATE.
DR.. J. L. York Says They Must Be
Kept Apart In This
Nation

DR.. J. L. York, the well-known liberal
lecturer, delivered an interesting lecture
last evening at 105 Larkin street. His sub
ject was: "Romanism or Professionalism
Which ?" In the course of his remarks he
said:
What religious superstition and priestcraft
did in all the past to promote an unnatural
and false system of religion in the world, you
may see to-day In the discussion now going on
between Father Yorke and Protestant Chris
tianity. In the early days of Christianity their
councils of bishops and priests were character
lied by fierce contention over the settlement
OF every dogma.
So in this discussion in THE CALL the same
spirit and struggle for ecclesiastical supremacy
appears. But to the freethinker the main
question Is untouched, as both sides assume
to be Gods church, and yet neither Roman nor
Protestant Christian is able to prove that God
ever had anything TO do with the founding of
Christianity in the world any more than he
had with founding Mohammedanism or Nor
monism, and that all religions are man-made
and bear no stamp of true divinity.
This being true, how can any amount of dis
cussion based upon bare assumption solve the
problem?
If, as we claim, Christianity has not divine
origin, and grew out of the mythology of the
past, and that the stories of Mathew, Mark,
Luke aud John are wanting in the elements Of
credibilitv in the light of reason and science,
and that Christianity is man-made and has no
more claim to being divine than Mormonism,
what significance can there be whether the
early Popes claimed superiority over the state
or not? To the bar of science, reason and
higher criticism than Protestant Christianity
must Romanism be arraigned TO answer her
many false claims upon the intellect of the
world.
We do not mean TO say that Romanism is all
bad and Professionalism all good as they are
mother and daughter and have many traits
and tenets in common. All of the religions
known TO man contain some truth, and so far
as Roman or Protestant Christianity has
moral influence and promotes true sense OF
m fhlNT
good.
So far as they exercise any spiritual author
ity as from God to control the free exercise OF
human reason IN men and women in regard to
deity, heaven, hell or salvation, they are, and
ever have been, q bar to mental development
and brake on the car of human progression.
Religion is well enough in its place, but it
| finds rocky road when out of place. If re-
| ligions creeds and dogmas were of God, their
| true place would be in all human relations;
| but as all religions have no higher origin than
| human ignorance, hope and fear society is
called upon to define this mental disease, and
! fix limit for its exercise compatible with our
| free institutions and widest human liberty
| The realm OF church and State are as wide
! apart as the realm of a dog and cat. The State
! being simply form of force has nothing to do
with religion of any kind, and the people de-
mand complete separation of church and
| State, and we have no right, under our secular
! Constitution, to hire chaplains to pray at the
peoples expense for Congress, army and navy,
or any prayers or religious songs in the COM
mon schools of our country.
sion, and must begin and end with persuasion
a moral force, and when coupled with civil
power, tends to churchism and ecclesiastical
despotism and popery in its various forms.
We are pleased to commend the noble ana
timely words of Rev. E. B. Payne of Berkeley
in sermon printed in the San Francisco CALL
of Saturday, January %, and find ourselves in
happy accord with his views on the Yorke-
Ross controversy. And that more especially
as both Catholics and Protestants are open 10
the charge of being in politics and seeking to
infuse religion into the state and schools For
years Protesta Christians, by systematic
effort, have appealed to Congress for an amend
ment to the constitution OF our country
recognizing God, Christ and the Bi bic
and the persistent appeals to Congress
and State legislatures for Sunday laws
by Protestant Christians render it obvious
that the keynote for the solution of this
problem Will never be found in invective, and
a gospel of hatred between Catholics and
Protestants, but rather in the broad and lib
eral view that our Government is and must be
secular, and that our public school system is
creature of the State and that "hands-off'' to
all ecclesiasticism should apply equally to both
Catholic and Protestant Christians.
A war waged upon any other basis than that
of justice and fair play can only stir up secta-
rian strife and cruel feelings among friends
and neighbors, quite at variance with true
Americanism, to say nothing of the high pro-
fession of peace on earth and good will 10 men