The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-06
SUNDAY, JAN. s, 1901.
RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY.

Those who have watched the career
end conduct of the Rev. Washington
GLADDEN. for the past fifteen or twenty
years have observed in him one of the
most profound thinkers and one of the
most earnest and disinterested advocates
Of those views of public problems which
tend to the elevation Of popular standards
that the entire country possesses. His
activity is not confined to consideration
Of the problems of religion alone Those
of society and of government have oc-
cunied- him throughout his life, and his
contemporaries kase been greatly the
s<1iEsns .h2E. ahis.is7eontributions to ~. the
thought of his tinle.Ts~. -. s~
y fASen.ts .4.Safia4butiop platIe bye DR..
GLADDEN. 30 the independent is entitled to
the, most thoughtful consideration of.
every man and woman who has observed
the tendencies. of American society in all
public relations to disregard the influence
OF religion and to conduct the work of
life on purely theistc basis That con-
tribdtion VIII # it produces no other eff
eetdtc-ACHi liQlNluudl IlOuRnt on the
great cues ioR.,.whether a democracy
with religion eliminated from it's public
concerns can be truly promotive of the
true welfare of the people who maintain
ii? ......
Questions of this general purport are
every day forcing themselves on thought
ful minds, We know from our histories.
even those,of us who have read but little.
that the influence of religion was invoked
for the oppression of mankind, and most
Of the popular revolts that We know of
against akingly'. tyranny were in some
sense against the influence of the church
in temporal affairs wrongly or unwisely
exercised. We know, too, that in their
public expressions. at least. the fore
most men among the founders of the re-
public showed dislike and suspicion of
religions agencies in the work of govern
nent. Jefferson was among the most
advanced, IL this direction; and while he
was essentially Of a religious and hui
name nature, his cultivation of Thomas
Paine, ana his sustainment of even the
excuses of.the French Revolution show
cd plainly his conviction that the in
huencc of the churches on the progress
Of civil government was inirnical 10 bu-
man freedom. But if we will read more
deeply wes might. regard ourselves as
knowing, too, that the church influence
OF religion has been the most availabl
If not the only available power in the
past to hold irresponsible civil authority
within any limits at all in its treatment
Of the masses.
When we disestablished state religions
we did not and did not intend to discard
the influence of the,Christian faith Who'll
ly from our conceptions and practices in
public relations. Unfortunately that has
been the tendency And our practical
disregard of religion. as a people has al
ready brought home to us the conscious
ness of certain dangers which are
amongst the most Serious that threaten
American society. Many of these are pal
pable. The divorce evil is one of the lead
ing of such evils The utter absence of
any sense of the sacredness of an oath
on the part of the great mass of men is
another. The remorseIessness which has
crept into mems treatment of each other
in business transactions; the utter base
ness and brutality of politics in most Of
its expressions; the general prevalence of
corruption in public life; the utter alb
sence of the sense of sacredness from the
popular conceptions. and the sodden ma
terialism which underlies our estimates
of what is best and most to be coveted
are all expressions of results accruing
from the discarding of religion ana its
influence in the affairs of life
For devout monarchy there is some
hope; for an atheistic democracy there
} is none" says DR. GLADDEN.. II he is
right there is mighty little hope for the
American democracy unless it imendss its
ways; for it is become almost wholly
Rtheistic in the ,o5alar eildcrsts a&i.is