The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-10-03
BISHOP TUTTLE QUOTED.

The church organ on Saturday even
ing, noting the utterances of Bishop
Tuttle of the Episcopal church in favor
of local option and against State wide
prohibition, claims TO make point in
the following words:
The point is this when a Bishop of
the Episcopal church enters the political
arena and expresses his Views on a party
issue il is all right: II Bishop of the
| Church Of Latter-day Saints does the
| same thing, II Is wrong. Strange all
| this difference should he, twiXt tweedle-
| DUN and twcedledee,
| Inasmuch as it is the church organ S
yokefeIlow, TO wit, the Smoot organ
that is making so much of Bishop Tut.
tie s utterancc on this question, the
point fails politically because the Smoot
organ and the News arc on the same
side of the fence, both religiously and
politically. A Mormon Republican
making point against another Mormon
Republican can hardly be expected TO
have much point conceded to his
point. y
With respect to the main question
involved, however, there is a very
marked difference between an express
or from any other Christian minister
in its effect upon his congregation,
from the like utterance of a Mormon
ccelesiast. thus:
When a Mormon ecclesiast who is
sustained as prophet. seer, and
revelator makes an utterance, he
speaks, according to the Mormon claim,
by the authority of God, and his voice
to his people is the voice of God, They
themselves have decreed it. in their
sustaining and in the titles they
give him. Their obedience is required
under their own system; and If not
rendered, the voter disobeying is sub
iect to be arraigned as a "traitor TO
his church." violator of his cove
nants, and as repudlating his own vol.
untary act of sustaining his superiors
in the priesthood The dictum of a
Mormon ecclesiast is therefore SUI
preme and binding. This not alone in
spiritual matters. but in temporal as
President Joseph F. Smith said; GA
man who admits my right to govern
him spiritually and denies my right to
govern him temporarily, lies in the face
of God; that is, if he has sense enough
to know what he is talking about Ii
is plain, therefore, that dictum on
any matter, civil political or religious,
coming from a Mormon prophet, seer,
and revelator, stands on an entirely
different footing from an utterance by
any minister who does not talk by such
confessed supremacy and direct divine
uthority.
When Bishop Tuttle talks about any
matter. even religious matter, he
talks simply as a man and as an eccle-
siast without any claim of special di-
vine inspiration. nor does any body of
people ''sustain' him as prophet, seer,
and revelator. When he speaks on po-
litical or temporal matters he speaks
simply from his character as man and
standing as citizen. He does not
claim nor docs anyone accord to him
the right to dictate in temporal mat
tiers, and to denounce as traitor to his
church anyone who declines to follow
his views on politics, prohibition, or any
other question of public concern.
The distinction is very plain, the line
easy TO draw. II is drawn in the above,
and, as seen, the condition claimed for
and credited to Mormon ecclesiast
is exactly at the opposite pole of human
thought and concession from an utter
ance delivered by a minister Of any
other church. especially on matters po-
litlcal and temporal