Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1907-10-24
Rev Madison c. Peters Attacks Assaults
Upon Personal Liberty in this Slate.

Froia the Philadelphia Press Oct. 4, 1907.
E New York, October 6.--Dr. Madi-
son G. Peters in his sermon here on
"Why the Church Has Lost Her
Hold on the People" referred to the
Fairbanks cocktail" incident and
made reference to the interference Of
certain religionists in Pennsylvania
with personal liberty and with max
ing Temperance a partisan political
issue DIR. Peters said: "All men re-
sent interference with personal liberty.
When fanatical men of straight-laced
views undertake to dictate to broad
minded men of liberal views and at
tempt to guide them in the narrow
path of their own stunted natures,
as to their private business and per-
sonal relations with the world, when
the church does this, she strikes at
the foundation not only of personal
liberty, bu. interferes with what does
not concern her in the least.
'Churchly interference in private
life has recently been emphasized in
the matter of Vice President Fair
banks luncheon to President Rose
welt, where the serving of cocktail
has been made by the churches of
the Middle West a political issue. If
Mr.. Fairbanks deemed it proper to
serve cocktails in the privacy OF his
own home that was his own affair
and he acted entirely within tt ,uris
diction of a free-born American.
'Mr Fairbanks has been savagely
attacked in hundreds of sermons, all
of them lacking that Christian chari-
ty which, though supposed to cover
a multitude of sins, as practiced by
these men is not large enough to
cover a single cocktail. And the
church to which he has given a life
time of service and support, after a
most bitter campaign, defeated him
as lay delegate to the general Con-
vention. Of course Mr. Fairbanks
happens to be real Christian gentle
man, broad-minded enough to over
look the pettiness of small minded
men, yet who would blame him if he
kept out of the church for the future?
While those ministers who have de-
nounced Mr.. Fairbanks may repre-
sent the spirit Of the church, the
Vice President knows full we'll that
they are not the true eXponents of the
of Jesus.
Then DR.. Peters who is a native of
Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania Dutch
ancestry, and who was for many years
A minister in Philadelphia and knows
whereof he speaks s, further said ."I'he
attitude which the church is taking
on the temperance question in Penn
,ylvauia in its fanaticism is like that
which the people of Indiana have
shown toward the Nice-President. In
the name of Temperance, political
are held in the churches,
even OH the Sabbath Day, with the
lvowed purpose of advancing the
political interests of a minority party,
men who had been con-
spicious in the church for years, but
who cannot see the temperance ques-
lion as some of their neighbors see it,
with the consequent result that
throughout the State in every COM
can be found men who were
regular attendants and supporters of
the church twenty-five years ago, but
who now never enter church with
The possible exception Of attending a
of witnessing a wedding.
IL believe myself in total abstinence
for the individual, but that gives me
no excuse for interfering with the
personal liberty of my neighbor. Not
withstanding our proud boast of free
dom, we are still both under secular
and churchly restrictions. The church
in her severe attitude is only living
up to her old-time traditions, regard
less of civilization and progress.
When she sets her anathema on those
who step beyond her narrow confines,
she assumes prerogative on matters
alien to her jurisdiction. When she
takes upon herself the reg
ulation of private actions and usurps
the right of conscience, striking, as
she has in the Fairbanks incident,
at the privacy of the home-life and
with what does not con-
Germ her, she will lose her hold upon
the people.
"The church is fundamentally wrong
when she seeks to extend her jurisdiction
TO the affairs of private life. The people
will not stand for such interference in
Europe, much less in America. The
church is driving Thousands from her
doors 10y the assumption of an authority
she does not possess. la the past she
has always suffered from her meddling
with personal liberty and freedom of con
science. She is under the ban in Europe
at the present time for just this very Of
fence. BY interfering with the rights of
others, religious fanatics in this country
are driving men out of the church. The
narrow minded, conservatism, the petty
the contemplate bigotry dis
played in the Fairbanks attack ought to
be a warning to the American people, for
the American people will resent any in
~ II