Arizona republican., 1898-06-15
WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTING?
A Seventh Day Adventist Takes Issue
 With Phoenix Clergymen

To the Editor of The Republican. Sir:
 Saturday you printed an article in your daily that should set the people of Arizona and especially of Phoenix to thinking. This article seems to be a petition from the elders of the Phoe- nix churches. As 1 belong to that pro fession and was not consulted in this movement, I request the privilege of making known through The Republi- can the position that we. the Seventh Day Adventists, take upon all religious legislation.
 We believe that religious denomina- tions, like citizens, should be protected in all their rights and privileges and that no one should be allowed to hin- der or interrupt them in any way in their devotional exercises; but this pc titiOn seems to go farther than this and menace the rights of others. To this we most emphatically object. Not even clergymen have any right to cur tail the inalienable rights of others. Every man, Christian. pagan or infidel. has rights which every other man should respect. This petition requests that an ordinance be passed by the city council prohibiting the giving of con- certs by the band or any other Organi- cations on Sunday, which they call the Sabbath. They first bring forward the fourth commandment to sustain 1 their position, but how in the world they can read the fourth commandment 1 into a Sunday law I do not know, for | It says that. the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God" and every divine who put his name to that petition knows that it is the first and not the the seventh day. So their plea on this ground is worthless, as it rests on a false basis.
 l In order to have law passed to stop these entertainments they next bring forward the example of the Pilgrim Fathers resting on that day. Why did they not bring forth the religious laws those same Pilgrim Fathers enacted and by which they persecuted the Quakers and drove defenseless men and women from their homes and com pelled them to seek refuge from these exemplary Christians among the wild savages in the dead of winter? Why, say, do they not bring forward these flaws and tell us how successfully they were executed even to the burning the tongues through with hot iron and the execution of the death penalty ? Would not these laws make a fair counterpart of the one that they wish to be enacted in Phoenix? What right has the city council or any minister of the gospel to forbid any company meeting together for a quiet musical entertainment on any day of the week.
 How soon will these same men enter
 into our homes and forbid us the lsame privileges there? Has music SC Ideteriorated in value that it is men, ace to our town?
 A musical entertainment was once
 prized as rare treat and in the holy
 scriptures which these eminent di- , vines claim to eXpound we learn thai music is an accompaniment to the heavenly choir as they sing around the , throne of God.
 Is not he whole animuS of this pc
 tition to compel people to come te } church? Supposing that this stopping
 of these entertainments does not fully
 accomplish their purpose, will thej
 still bring forward the Puritans an(
 say that when men would not go tt
 church in those days the Good Pilgrim } Fathers had them arrested and finet