The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-07-10
ISSUE IS MORAL

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| CONTINUED from First Page)
marily physical. We are not. first Of
ALL concerned about preventing the
transmission of all bodily defects and
diseases. Important though it be that
that tremendous end should some day
| be achieved through the proper
| agencies, our objective is smaller and
! more intense. We are trying to safe
| guard marriage simply from one
single loathsome sort of disease. and
we are seeking to do that not SUI
! premely because Of the physical
misery Vt the transmitted disease it
self, but still more because in strik-
! ing at this disease we are striking
at the immortality which gives II birth
! 1t is a moral issue we are fighting
A Clear Vision.
Lifted out of the hogs of ignorance
and satisfied prejudice. lifted up out
| of the valleys of contented accep-
lance with things as they are and look
\ ing at facts as they stand revealed
/ in the inexorable light of truth, 1t
seems to us that this Is what clear
eyed men must see.
THE double standard which. In our
own time as in all the past. has led
thousands of men and boys carelessly
into the immortality which would
brand a woman forever Is in de-
1 fance Of Gods eternal laws of right
eousness and purity and some day
that world old wrong shall be over
thrown.
The chief lair save that of brute
| passion itself. in which this i'm
morality couches, Is ignorance 1t Is
I ignorance which makes unnumbered
boys imagine that dissolute life
means manliness. 1t is ignorance
which makes them go fisppantiy into
paths which later they will bitterly
regret. They are ignorant of the
dreadful later consequences, ply
steal as we'll as spiritual. Of the i'm
moralities they may indulge In.
"A man and woman come to the
church to be married with its bless
ing. The man may be tainted at that
j moment with some shameful disease
I the tragic results of which he still
/ does not foresee. In her sweet and
! trusting innocence, the girl is far
more ignorant still. The church
, h'esses that union, fraught as it may
} be with seeds of disaster, Because
Of IT, the girl becomes in no long time
woman physically ruined, and with
/ her pur.st ideals shattered forever.
/ "Ir the light If these facts, we who
constitute the majority of the Epis-
( copal ministers of Richmond, together
with others of our brethren in the
! diocese. propose for the future to per-
I form the church's marriage service
only when there is brought TO ns
! reasonable medical assurance that the
| man to he married is free from a COM
municable disease Of immoral origin.
The Ends Sought
What 40 we hope to accomplish
I by this attitude?
Supremacy we hope and believe
that we may help light the darkness
OF that ignorance in which now i'm
morality so often finds Its shelter.
| Tor time beyond measure the church
| has preached purity in the abstract,
tand hundreds Of men and boys. have
/ e. ne their Needless ways because the
church's words rang hollow and fee
( BILE, being unsupported by her acts.
I While she preached purity. she mar
red the pure and the impure by the
same sacred service with no deter
mined attempt to discriminate be-
! tween them. Tho time has come for
! the church TO take a militant atti-
lude, so unmistakable that men can
not ignore it. When men and young
boys perceive that the church consid-
ers immortality and its consequences
so grave and shameful a thing that
she will rot, If she knows II. marry
those who are thus tainted. boys and
men can themselves he no longer ig-
norant. They will he helped to un-
| dnrstand the shame and peril of that
which they may have regarded flip
PANTY.
TIN ouch everything. then, our aim
| is education. We believe the church
can help the manhood of today real
ize more and more how 1t may be
/ Letraying its highest possibilities, and
with cowardly lack OF chivalry endan-
! Eering the womanhood II may come
10 love, We believe that we may help
fathers and mothers appreciate more
/ WILDLY their duty to safeguard their
! daughters against marriage with men
when Miss aHttie florence Post became
! who lack the chivalry to keep their
| own lives clean. and we believe that in
! the church's requirement we put into
| the hands of fathers a sword for their
! daughters protection which they can
! use as powerfully as they choose. For
the girls of our congregations who
have no natural protectors. we believe
we can stand henceforth In larger
the perils of which their innocence
is unaware
Fighting Conditions.
/ II has been asked whether we SER
iously expect by this requirement to
prevent any marriages The answer
is that we are not seeking to pre-
vent marriages. We are seeking to
prevent the conditions which now
make too many marriages end in
tragedy This, under God. we do hope
and Joyously expect to do. We be-
lieve that in some degree now. and
din greater degree as time goes on,
the imperious truth of the reasons
we have given for our attitude will
work through the awakened earnest
ness of parents and through the
answering chivalry of young men to
shame and brand that immortality
among men which now makes such