The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-09-28
DECAY OF ORTHODOX Professionalism

News that Mrs Katherine Tingley intends 20
duplicate in Newburyport, Mass, her theosophical
colony at Point Iona, Cal emphasizes the fact
that the New England and original American
states have been most prolific fields for the cultiva-
ton of social, religious and sexual fads and here
sizes. These original and essentially Protestant and
Sectarian states which, not long ago claimed an
educational supremacy over all America, have been
the nursing mothers of more eccentric and bizarre
religious idiosyncrasies than the rest of North and
South America Boston still advances a claim -
be the intellectual center of the union. and yet
its newspapers print more advertisements of in
dividuals claiming mysterious powers, of psychic,
fakers trance mediums and the like than those of
any other city of similar size in the world.
There are spots of ground in Boston and Sa-
lem where the ashes of men and women and even
of children, burnt for witchcraft in the seven
tenth century, have changed the nature of the
primitive soil. Nowhere else in North America
witchcraft practiced so fanatically, and no
where else did it assume such frenzied and pecu-
liar forms.
New England, in 1913 and again in 1854 was
afre with Milersm and its incredible prophecies
Here, too, spiritism, Shakerism, Minonism and
Quakerism found fertile soil where the seeds of
their weird and gloomy doctrines expanded into
noxious spiritual weeds.
At New Zion, Me-. Elijah Sanford and Silas
Holland established the "Ancient Church, and
such the gullibility of the rural worshipers
that the state compelled to intervene to save
them from the predatory schemes of Elijah and
Moses incanated in Holland and Sanford.
The "free love" seed of spiritism struck deep
into the inviting soil of New England, matured
and lowered as in no other region or territory in
North America. In and about Boston, Mrs. Ed
dy's Christian Science originated and expanded
into the present colossal humbug There, too, the
Brooks Farm" experiment of high and intellec-
tual Communism was unavailingly tried and in
Boston today the Hindu-Brahamanitic cult of the
osophy, claiming astral affinity and psychic unity
with the gods, with the Christs, with the saints
thrives as in nowhere else on the American CONT
nent.
In these sectarian states, Transcendentalism.
Unitarianism, Universalism and Agrosticism
reaped and now gather in their harvest from among
the brightest minds of the clergy, the universities
and the teaching professions. The historic and
imperishabe Catholic church alone in these states
and amid this awful confusion of religious opinions
presents the only example of religious unity for
which our Divine Lord prayed.
1t is a suggestive fact that many of these
strange religious systems and singular superst
tons originated with the early settlers of New
England and are perpetuated largely by their de-
scendants. 1t is also worthy of notice that the
great Catholic population, the Irish and French
Canadians have escaped these mental plaques and
epidemics, are increasing in numbers and are dis
possessing the New Englanders in the cities
towns and rural districts. When these facts were
lately brought to the notice of the New York
Christian Advocate the editor had this to say in the
course of defensive and lengthy article:
High intelligence, town meetings, constant dis
cussion will always produce quite large proper
ton of individuals almost Historically hankering
after some new thing, and if solid, sensible and