The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-08-09
Religion and Politics
The Experiences and Con clusiOnS of a Reverend :
 (State) Senator.
President F'lavel S. Luther in the
 Churchman.0

(President F'lavel S. Luther in the
 Churchman0
 Considering that politics has to do with the intimate relations of men to each other, and that religion, when real, must include. this range of hu- man activity, the title of this article ought not to suggest any paradox or incongruity. Of course we often use the word politics" as if it referred only to things base and disreputable in society. Probably it is true that to speak of a man as a politician is to dsparage him in the minds of a large number of excellent people. This is a pity. For a politician is often a man who strives with all his might to serve his generation by taking, part in the conduct of public business. In- deed, from one point Of view 1t is difficult to see how a religious man political matters and active participa- tion in political warfare. The admin istration of justice the maintenance Of order the distribution of the pro- ducts of labor and of the bounty of nature, the assistance of the weak, the restraint of the strong all these are political matters They are also the marks of religious civilization.
 We are suffering from a survival in many minds of the notion that re- ligion has to do principally with the rescue of the soul of one protesting it from ever lasting misfortunes and t1IS W1Al111IS TUT lAdl SOQl Ol d hdPPy eternity. Yet casual observation of the kind of work now carried on by a large majority of our religious or ganizauons must convince us that the into politics" in that they concern themselves seriously with the prac- tical affairs of this mortal life that men live together in this world. The churches see that the year of our Lord 1909, is a part of eternity. Hence it will not do to draw a sharp dis tinction between the relations of men to each other after death. Thus re-
 igion and politics, if not identical, must deal with some of the same problems and must become allies.
 There is this distinction, undoubt- edly. Religious teaching concerns it. self more with the fundamental char acters of men. It would make men kind, honest, brave, self-sacrifcing. It is good politics to make men act as if they had these several virtues, with others like them. So the good politician and the sincere Christian seek the same ends. Their points of attack, however, may not be iden- tica1.
 For example: In the Connecticut General Assembly of 1909 there has been much discussion of the proper manner of dealing with sinners, with those who have violated the statute law. Laws have been enacted and great sums of money. have been appro- pIldleQ IOT IuS PuFpOSo OI SdNulS souls, for preventing men and women from falling into sin or continuing in sin. This assembly has also taken great thought as to the education of the young, as to saving them alike from the selfishness of some parents and the carless greed of some em- ployers of labor. Furthermore the assembly has under consideration, at tance regarding the relations of men in their business dealings with each other as individuals, and when or ganized in the carrying on of semi public enterprises. Now all these things. are discussed and ordered by men who have some claim to be call ed politicians. But the questions themselves are religious questions and the answers, when determined upon help fix the religious status of Con- necticut for the time being. There is more in religion than is included in the matters above mentioned; but religion careless of matters would be but a poor, decrepit thing.
 The fact is that the administration of human affairs in the furtherance of religious interests is every day be- coming more a matter of politics. The severance of Church and State has not become and cannot become a sew erance of religion and State.
 Is there any convention or synod or assembly of any religious organization or Church which really has to do more intimately with practical religion than has the Congress of the United States or the legislatures of the several states? Do we EpiscopalianS not pray earnestly that as a result of the en- deavors of the Senate and Represen- tatives. Peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all gem erations?" Now what it is right to pray for it is our duty to work for. The man who reads the prayer for Congress, or says Amen thereto, and does not rise from his knees resolved to be a politician has missed one pur- pose of prayer and has done some thing to make his prayer ineffective.
 It is, nevertheless, not always easy for religious man to see just what particular thing or things he ought to do as a politician, or what steps he should take if he would become one. He is full of queries about the conflict between the Church and the world and perhaps he has been taught and must keep apart from the world. This inheritance from an earlier state of society or this misunderstanding of words is an occasion of real dis turbance in many minds. Yet the diff ficulty disappears in the fact of a specific problem. An illustration oc- CUTS to me. Two or three years ago a clergyman of our church was chos- en a member of the Legislature of this state. A much older clergyman, a valued friend, remonstrated earnest ly, advising him that he was degrad- ing his high office in the Church of God, that he could not serve God and Ynamrnon. However, the reverend leg islator persisted and took the seat to which he had been elected. Before the end of the session he received a pa thetic letter from the man who had condemned his course, begging his earnest effort in the Legislature to prevent the passage of an objection able bill. Surely the venerable doc tor of divinity might have concluded, if he remembered, that even in the Legislature a man may choose wheth- CT he will serve God or Mammon. And perhaps this will suggest an early duty of the religious man. He can inform himself as to what is going on in the political world, he can seek to instruct and influence men temporarily in au- thority he can interest himself in the making and the enforcing of laws that make for justice and righteousness. And it may be added that he will have opportunity to cultivate the Christian virtues of patience, of faith