The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-08
WHAT THEY MEAN BY LIBERTY.

In another column of this page of
The Tribune is printed letter from
one classed as an apoetate who indi-
Gates In his communication that he is
somewhat intimate with the workings
Of the Mormon priesthood Perhaps
many of our readers will be unable
10 agree with our correspondent where.
In he says that be has received some
special assurance from the Almighty,
but they will admit that his right to
make the inquiry stated, and to re-
celve the answer suggested is equal
IN legitimacy TO that professed by the
priesthood of the Mormon church But
there is no question that most of them
will be able to coincide with the opiu-
ION he expresses, that there is nothing
to fear. in the end, from the hatred
and intolerance which the high priests
exhibit
Upon numerous occasions The Trib-
une has called attention TO the fact
that reasoning analysis of the priest.
ly attitude of Mormondom reveals
many gross errors. As natural re-
suit, the conclusion is that, unless re-
formed, the cult cannot stand perma-
nently. The correspondent seems TO
have been made to feel the ostracizing
sting of the holy ones, in company with
others who "have gone astrayD It
is evident that he has been prosecuted
because be refused to subject himself
TO such "liberty" as the Mormon
church permits to it's members. In
other words. he has been bounded about
in his social and business relations on
account OF the fact that he has intel
hgently refrained from bending his
neck TO the ecclesiastical yoke. Yet,
ii would seem, he is confident in his
ability to beat the prophets in their
game; and doubtless he will succeed in
doing so if he maintains his independ
ence Of spirit and his courage in CON
tending for his rights. He probably
has discovered, as have many others,
that the fight is hardest at the begin
ming; that familiarity with freedom en-
genders contempt and loathing for the
slavery of fanaticism. He has come to
know that any fearless and determined
man, once broken away from the priest
ly rule, is a living terror to the cow
ardly priests. Only by the successful
deception of the people into a belief
that the prophets, seers and revelators
of the Mormon church are possessed OF
some extraordinary special favor with
the Almighty are the governing Off
cials of that organization able to main
tain their hold upon and power over
the people. Therefore, any man who
is brave enough to deny their authority,
in the open realm of thought and
speech, at once becomes the object of
their most bitter hate, Through his
reasoning, and in his success in spite
of his apostasy, others of the down
trodden may find sufficient encourage
ment to also throw aside the self-as-
sumed authority and power of the
priesthood. Consequently, the stealthy
malice Of the cult is directed toward
him, and he at once becomes the object
of the xenomous priestly hatred and
of the cowardly ecclesiastical fear.
After a while however, the persecu-
tion ceases-that is, if the object of
it continues to go his defiant way in
unharmed interest and in erect con.
sciousness Of his own rights. Even the
lay saints, who at first obediently sneer
at him and slavlshly foretell all manner
Of evil to come upon him, begin to re-
spect him, After their wonderment has
ceased over the fact that the indie
pendent one has not fallen dead before
reaching the end of the block, nor
been stricken with some frightful
blight, on account of his disobedience
of the servants of God, the rank and
file assume that he is pretty good
fellow after all. So that the only way
TO have freedom in the Mormon com
munity is to get ont from under and
fight for it.
Our correspondent uses one express
sion which is significant He speaks Of
"the woman who until recently has
claimed to be my mother 1t indi.
Gates the hateful lengths to which the
priests have gone in order to make him
feel the poisonous fang of priestcraft
1t is more than likely that the other
wise good woman has been persuaded
that her son has disgraced his parent