Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1914-10-16
THE POLITICAL
'''- PREACHER
THE PULPIT WARNED AGAINST
THE YELLOW PERIL or
POLITICS.
A Consecrated Ministry Needed TOT
the Rural Churches.
BY Peter Radford
.Iecturer National Farmers Union

Lecturer National Farmers Union
The farmers of this nation have Oh
their payroll $4,000 preachers and TINS
number applying themselves dlllgent-
ly and exclusively to the religious
work at hand is sadly inadequate 10
properly serve their respective COM
munities.
Those who put on eccleslastlcal
robes are in a, measure free 10 unlock
every door to the human heart anu
enter the secret chambers of reason
and every person should submit their
conduct to review and seek the coun-
sell of those divinely appointed mes
sengers of life, but the moment the
minister closes the Bible and opens
the law book, he becomes menace 10
.ocity. .sy...z,.
The difficulty of keeping the preach
er in the pulpit ia 1 !
bargain c9a lter back to the pulpit.
fOur pHgffm fathers met It when,
through the influence of the clergy, a
witch court was established at Salem
Mass, In 1892, that precipitated legal
holocaust threatening to reduce the
population to ashes and which was ex-
'inguished by the laymen uniting and
forcing the preachers back to the pull
pit.
The greatest peril to the church to-
day is politics. The temptation of the
ministry to throw down the cross of
Christ and pick up the club Of the
policeman; to substitute the penalties
Of the law for the power of the altar
and to legislate religion into human
hearts, never was greater.
The world never needed a religious
ministry more nor political preachers
less than it does today We need min
listers to teach US how to live; we
know how to vote.
The religious preacher Is the most
capable servant and the political
preacher the sorriest master the world
has ever known. Wherever power Is
placed in the hands OF the latter they
invariably become intolerant, bigoted
and vicious and resort to the whip and
the faggot to enforce their opinion.
Civilization has. many times been
compelled to drive incorrigible preach
ers back to the pulpit at the point of.
the bayonet. -, Many Of the pages Of
history are wet with blood shed at the
hands Of political preachers who wrote
laws on the statute books that COM
mitted arson upon mankind, manned
human beings with the Ratchet and
sent helpless women to the torture
rack, all because they disagreed with
their views. When in control of gov
eminent, the pulpit politicians invari-
ably undertake to perform legislative
miracles such as casting out witches
with the flame Of a torch, suborning
conscience with shackles and enforc-
Ing opinions with the guillotine.
Mixing Politics and Religion.
Politics and religion will not blend.
No free government can long exist OF
the church perform It's mission to
society when preachers and politicians
temporarily exchange callings, and
civilization that will countenance
such conduct will soon decay. Such
traffic in occupations is as unsound In
crinciple as the white slave trade Is
immoral in practice.
The hand that passes the sacrament
should not collect slush funds for po-
litical purposes. The gentle voice that
comforts US in sorrow and pronounces
the last sad rites upon our departed
loved ones should not rave and rant on
the hastings. do not believe
preacher can manipulate political ma
ehinery and be righteous any more
than he could become burglar and
te honest. l think it as immoral
Cor preacher to seek to lobby while
he prays as 1t would be for him to
gamble while he breaches.
A preacher can no more preach a
political sermon without converting his !
pulpit into q political rostrum than