The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-26

Herald for Sunday, May 18th there ap- peared letter signed by Frank s. Moody of Tuscaloosa, state senator from that county, with the caption Shall the Church Go Into Polities?" Inasmuch as Senator Moody has reputation of being leader in temperance activities, I have deemed 1t necessary to reply to his letter l nasmuch as 1t is a covert attack upon l the Anti-Saloon league and his eonclu- sions are based upon a wrong premise.
 We have no quarrel with Senator Moody and believe that his entire circle of ac- quaintance appreciate fully the moral worth and integrity of the man. but he no longer believes in prohibition as a solution of the liquor problem and does l consider the sale of liquor through the dispensary saloon as the solution of the liquor problem, therefore must be con sidered antagonistic to the prohibition principles which the Anti-Saloon league stands for first in local activities then l in the larger activities of the state and nation.
 The letter referred to bases it's conclu- sions upon the premise that any activ- 1 ities where ballot is cast is purely political function. therefore the local op- ton principles advocated by the Anti Saloon league as a step toward the elim- ination of the liquor traffic from neces- l sity makes the temperance problem, from | league activities, a political issue. The l weakness of such a charge is apparent l Sunday schools elect. often by ballot l their superintendents and other officers 1 Churches elect, frequently by ballot, their 1 pastors, or by the same means decide 1 questions relating to change of location l the erection of new place of worship | or other matters of congregational in- 1 terest. Arguing along the lines of this l good brother, such actions are purely | political, and the church should never 1 do such things, leaving these important 1 matters for the manipulation of 8 few, l or to be determined by chance circum- l stances. The Anti-Saloon league never l has and never will stand for the union of l church and state, but 1t has and will l continue to plead that the state should 1 be controlled by the same principle that l dominates the church, namely: the right 1 eousness of the Kingdom of God to be the | ruling power in the administration of our | temporal affairs. So long as we boast that l we are Christian nation, so long have l Christian people a right to expect that | the agents of government will be con 1 trolled in their actions by the founda- ton principles of righteousness embodied l m the Kingdom Of our Master.
 l This good brother argues that almost every political question has it's moral pect. This is true, but not everyone of them embodies a religious principle. He places the temperance question in the 1 same category with the question of stock laws, the tariff, the monetary standard, and so on, arguing that the church has nothing to do with the solution of such | malsers. We are wholly agreed on this point. but where he would relate the tenn perance question to these, and argue that | 1t Is purely question of the same char acter then we must disagree. God says l in His word, 'sNo drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God" We cannot get around such decree. It means just what it says, else the whole word of God is an error. The mission of the Antl-Sa- | loon league is to prevent men engaging | in a business that makes other men | drunkards and keeps them out of the | Kingdom of God. In short, the salvation | of men from the curse of drunkenness is the foundation mission of the Anti-Saloon l league. That we seek laws at the hands of our legislature is the result of our | present system of government. If we | lived upder a theocracy, as did Gods an- | cient Israel, we would seek such laws di- | rect from the great Lawgiver. We are | taught "the powers that be are ordained | of God" therefore we go to the proper l source of modern lawgiving. When Moses | laws the great Jehovah had written upon the tablets of stone would we justify the | possible charge of some of those golden calf worshippers on the plain below that l Moses was mere politician and unprase- | worthy because of his action? The Anti Saloon league does not seek to make the Baptist church, the Methodist Episcopal church, south, the Presbyterian church or other branches of the Kingdom a rul- ing power in temporal affairs. It does,
 however, seek to compel the righteousness
 of the whole kingdom to find its place in
 the administration of our human affairs,
 so far they relate to the sin of drunk
 enness for the glory of God and the sal
 vation of men.
 In analysing existing evil the church
 should never submit to secular decision
 in determining her standards for, while
 the church must recognize the changing
 of material conditions about her, she must
 be unsweryfng in maintaining the in-
 mutable decrees of Sinai
 In dealing with reforms of a religious
 character that have a semi-political ac-
 tivity, the church today is handicapped
 by the sophistries of interruptions po-
 litical agitators, whose future is endan-
 gered by the appearance of strong
 moral and religious force in the situa-
 ton. Some will tell us that the church
 has no business meddling with affairs | of state. If such mean that the question
 
 tion of permitting the agents of this ex-
 pansion policy to blight, and damn and
 destroy the natives of any such new terri
 tory acquired by the introduction of the
 evil fndulgences and habits of our vaunt- | ed civilization, then I maintain that 1t
 is the privilege, nay. the stern duty of the church to protest vehemently against
 such actions, and if government will not
 heed her respectful and temperate pro-
 tests, then her prayers. her eloquence,
 her prestige, her energies, her actions
 should all be bent together in cohesive ef-
 fort to overthrow a bad administration
 and create one that is good, just and
 equitable to all peoples.
 If they say the question of taxation or
 that concerns the church, I would most
 heartily endorse this dictum, but if they
 say that government should license the liquor traffic, prostitution, gambling or any or the recognized evils to add to the government income then the church should, with stern realization of her mission in the world deny the right of government to give recognition and standing to such evils. and if government persists in her course, then every nflu- ence at the command of the church should be put in operation to install an administration that will endeavor to make a righteous people of her subjects These | propositions are based upon the uncon- troyertible theory that the mission of | government is paternal toward every in-