The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1913-12-19
Freedom Of Speech
To the Editor:

10 the Editor:
Religious organizations in the
United States, with a member
ship of hundreds of thousands,
have officially declared their de-
termination that every voice pro-
testing against what they term
our holy religion" shall be
silenced. These organizations
have the right to silence voices
antagonistic to what they candid
ly believe to be the only true
religion, but they must adopt
proper methods. Argument
must be met by counter-argu-
ment, and if false statements are
made, the truth must be made
known. Argument, persuasion,
entreaty, truth, - these and these
only-are the christian weapons
of defense. and when used in the
fear of God and in the spirit of
Jesus Christ will convince the
gainsayer and lead men to the
true church, in which there is
present peace and everlasting
salvation.
However, methods other than
these are proposed, chief among
them being the boycott and an
appeal to civil authority. The
boycott is contrary to the teach
ing of Christ, who instructed his
disciples to feed their enemies,
and thus heap Goals of fire on
their heads, burning away pre-
judice and bigotry.
Civil authority can never justly
be used in a religious controversy,
as religion is entirely outside the
realm of civil government. Each
person has right freely to ex-
press his conviction concerning
any religion, whether it is true
or false, and no law of any
government should in any way
interfere to silence the voice
whether it is on the platform, in
the pulpit or the press. So long
as personalities are avoided, and
nothing libelous about the char.
acter of the individual protesting
religion is stated, no interference
by the state is to be brooked.
Grant the right of the state to
interfere with the free and un.
trammeled discussion of religion,
and the bible itself can no longer
be preached. In the old tesla
ment repeatedly do we find the
religion of the time denounced
by priest and prophet, and the
people who alone professed the
holy religion" were censured
for their apostasy from the truth.
Baal worship was not spared,
and no matter what the position
llof the apostate, his conscience
was goaded by the spirit of re-
form and righteousness.
In the New Testament the
story is the same. The voice
of John the Babtist rang out in
no uncertain tone decrying the
errors of the religionists of his
time; and later the voice of the
son of God was heard in unison
with that of the man sent from
God, whose name was John.
With tears in his voice, Jesus
Christ made known the errors
of those who professed to be the
only true church, and urged a
return to the simplicity of truth.
Apostle after apostle entered
the ranks of protesters, and in
this way the truth of the gospel
triumphed. Truth is not afraid
of investigation; it invites it.
In the book of Revelation
terrible denunciations of error
are to be found, and persistent
pleas made to all to forsake
systems of religion protesting tc
be christian, but which are
proved to be false. The wrath
of God is to be inflicted upon
those who are followers of a
religious system denominated
by the term Babylon, and his
I