The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-11
Stands Up For Divorce.

MIS- 0dTltlOu SdlQ. IN narT-
The sentiment of educated pecDIe
who have given the subject serious
thought. stripped of sentiment. is that
the divorce evil is the OutgrOwth Of an
Incorrect marriage relation. Despite
the great number of divorces granted
because of trihing causes. the great
proportion of them is granted because
of a higher and rot a lower ideal of
marriage When the home has become
disrupted in reality. il is time il were
disrupted publicly and. so far as the
rela tionShip If the home has been pub
lie. known to be so The marriage tie
has been found since the tribes OF man
became gregariOus. to be an economic
one. and today the special tie which
links the marriage of today with thac
OF thousands of years & c. is an eco
nOmic one Hence much of the trou-
BILE in the marriage relation arises from
the economic standard
The whole trend Of modern thought
IS to make the marriage relation more
serious one and one less easy to enter
In only a few countries of the earth do
the local governments take up the mat
ter of who shall marry. In our own
country any one who wants to. may
marry. The diseased. the unwholesonc.
the foul, all have the right. In Indiana
q law is under discussion today which
shall prohibit the marriage of diseased
persons till they have been on proba-
continue TO wish to enter on the mar
riage relation. prohibiting their having
children This is one of the ways of
remedyinS the divorce evil. The right
sentiment in regard TO the matter
would Pre- hibit i'll advised and i'll con-
sideTed marriages. and the marriages Of
children which are permitted all over
this country. and much of the evil
would die out
Christianity and Marriage.
christianity. it is claimed. has done
much for woman. l do not think ChVis-
tianity has done anything for woman.
When the founders of the early Chris
tian church were ready to deal with tlEa
sex question they did the best they
could with it according TO their knOwI-
edge. The idea of marriage as a S2CTa-
ment came not from Christ but from
Paul. Paul as a bachelor thought only
of the carnal side of the marriage rela-
tionship. and with all respect TO bach
elors, co bachelor ever yet gyt to see
into a pure wOman's heart. Paul
sought to sanCtify the marriage relation
by making il a church sacrament. and
even then accepted il as only the lesser
of two evils
The words written by Matthew
about ChriSt's idea OF marriage were
written thirtytwO years after they
were said to have been spoken. ana
they were ever said at all. Both Luther
and MelancthOn saw that the marriage
relation was not a sacrament. but
should be i'm the hands OF the state. not
the church, but they never were vic
torious in this reform.
For 800 years the matter of the mar
riage relation was allowed TO lie as
Paul had stated it. and then il was
taken up by bachelors. discussed and
settled by Augustine. These men new
er learned TO know the marriage rela-
tiOnShip in its purity. The church did
the best IL could all through i'm carry
ing out the teachings of the gospels
But when il came down into the cen
turtles to become a matter of law as
well as of doctrine, the words of the
church were read with two meanings
Cause For Dual Standard.
This reading gas rise first 10 the dual
standard Ct morality and made possible
the barbarous laws Of England today
which make il impossible for a woman
to obtain a divorce for the same reason
for which it is given to a man. unless
there are additional reasons Instead
OF Christianity. therefore. freeing wo-
man Of the yoke of paganism, it has
sought TO eHslaVe her and 10 establish
a double standard as between men and
women Modern science has come in.
however. and has taught that woman
is really from a sociological standpoint
the important one of the sexes as the
mother Of the human race AS such.
she has the right TO decree who shall
be the father of her children. the right
to her issue and equal right with the
man I'm the eyes of the. law This is the
reason for a large percentage OF the di-
vorces, because those whom God has
not Joined. cannot be kept together.
This is evidenced by the great proper
ton of divorces in our northern border
states The people of Canada, which
boast a stringent divorce law. find the