The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-05-21
LIKENS BRITAIN
TO STOCKYARD
English Clergyman Is
Against New Di-
vorce Bill

LONDON am generally count
ed as an optimist, but am frankly
dismayed by the march of events in
my dear country, and more especial
ly am | scandalized by the new d.
vorce bill, which has just passed its
second reading in the house of lords.
, The bill will legalize poligamy.
The clause which gives any husband
or wife the right to divorce and re-
marriage after three years. separa-
ton, or desertion, can be interpreted
in no other way. 1t simply becomes
question to be arranged between
the parties when they happen to be-
come tired of one another.
What chance will the plain-look-
ing penniless woman get of remar-
riage. Her last state will be worse
than her first.
| am equally Mortified by the
clause which gives husbands and
wives on lower rung of the social
ladder the right to apply for d.
vorce after two years. separation on
police court order, and by the pro-
posal that judges should be allowed
to call for the suppression of the
evidence in divorce cases.
This last will mean that many
cases will be heard in secret, which
will naturally increase the moral
laxity that is growing apace in Eng
land today.
No longer is England in any clear
| ly defined sense Christian country.
1t has passed that milestone on life's
journey to Beyond. Having given
up the Divine Teacher, logically
enough it is now giving up the Di-
vine Teaching.
Catholics, of course, hold that a
valid marriage can be divorced only
by death. With us marriage is some
thing more than natural contract.
1t is more than a divine institution,
for it has been raised by the Founder
of Christianity to sacrament.
Hence all your divorce laws, no mat
ter what their sanction, are to us no
more than "a scrap of paper"
But you will ask me what l think
of these divorce facilities, not as
Catholic, but as citizen. AS an
, Englishman l think they are as de-
plorable as any other change from
Christianity to paganism. Panied
l was to read what the lord chan
cellor has had to say about the mar
riage tie. Surely he was giving his
opinion about it as Mr.. Smith and
not as the lord high chancellor of
England! 1 should like his lordship
to meet the lord high chancellor, Sir
Thomas More, venturing the state
ment that the supporters of indis-
solubility belong to another world"
and that the arguments in support OF
it were "whisperings of the aban-
doned superstitions of the middle
lagos"
"If the teaching of Christ on this
Overwhelmingly grave subject is a
mere superstition" then the sooner
the Sermon on the Mount is confined
to the pages of our fairy tale books
the beteer for all of us.
When / peruse what some of my
countrymen say and write, | cannot
help pausing to ask myself, Have
they as citizens weighed fully the
consequences that must follow upon
opening wide the doors of the d.
vorce court in their country" Does
it not mean exchanging monagamy
for polygamy? Does it not mean
weakening of character? And does
it mot mean breaking up the home
of England on which, as our high
principled king has reminded us, the
glory of our empire rests?
/ know l shall be told that the
country will no longer tolerate the
illegitimacy of children born out OF
wedlock, that very soon we shall de-
mand no marriage ceremonies at all,
and that during the short day OF life
spent on this planet people must live
together only till they agree to part,
or till they find more congenial COM
partnership. In fact it looks as If in
the near future it will become easier
to get divorced than to get married.
1t is argued that every woman has
right to motherhood, and that un-
less she has INDUCED that right she
knows nothing Of the happiness OF
life. And today it is asserted quite
openly that for man or woman to
live together when the love for one
or other has fastened elsewhere be-
comes gross immortality.
Whittier is our country in this
twentieth century drifting? 1t seems
Ito me that we are like ship that
has dropped pilot, flung overheard
compass, and torn up chart. We are
drifting on to the rocks where disas-
ter sure and sad awaits our storm
tossed bark.
My pleading cry to my country is,
tighten the marriage ties, do not
loosen them; build up the human
character, do not tear it down;
= e hA