Evening star., 1925-02-03
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
PLEA ENDS PARLEY
Dr.. Speer Tells Missionaries
That Home Must Pre-
serve Functions.

A warning against allowing the
state and the church to lift from the
Christian home it's proper functions
and a plea to adhere to the doctrine
of religious freedom for all peoples
of the world, stood out in the speech
of DR.. Robert E. Speer, retiring pres
ident of the Federal Council of
Churches, representing 27 commun
ions and 100000 communicates, at
the conclusion of the sessions of the
foreign missions convention in the
Washington Auditorium, last night
He sounded a caution against al
lowing the state to take over that
discipline which should rest within
the home.
I'VE are lifting today off the Chris
tion home" he said, "and transfer
ring to the Christian church and to
the state, functions that belong in
the home. And again and again, cross
the line of proper functional division
between church and state, one agency
or the other strays across to the
other side
There is no small danger in our
world today, that in the interest of
the great ends that we seek, we
should relieve the state of religious
obligations because We have not
patience to wait until the state shall
assume them, only to discover at the
last that we have incapaCitated the
state from ever taking them over"
Demands Religious Freedom.
For my part" he added. Il believe
that the right of absolute religious
liberty is an inalienable human right
that ought not to be denied a single
child of God. There are great areas
of the world today, where that funda
mental right is denied. 1t is denied
in Turkey to Mohamm edan and Chris
tian alike. 1t is denied in Afghanis-
tan to Christian and Mohammedan
alike. fellow Mohammedan of an
other sect was stoned to death by
Mohammedans in the streets of a city
of one of those countries because the
latter counted him a Mohammedan
hereto.
Il believe it is the missionary task
of government to assert that uni
versal right and | can cite three times
in our own American history when
our Government conceived it to be it's
right and duty to deal with other
governments not in the interest of re-
ligious liberty for American citizens,
but for the subjects of those nations
themselves"
He turned to projects needings sup
port and assistance and stressed con-
dftions among the blind of India and
lepers of the world.
There are 100000 blind in the
United Provinces of India alone" he
said. 'and not one blind institution
for them except few broken down
barracks in the city of Alahabad,
where 20 or 80 of the 900 are mis-
erably housed.
81 have seen it stated that there
are 2,n00, 900 lepers in the world. One
thanks God for all that Christian mis-
sions have done for them, but one
thinks of the hundreds of thousands
of lepers whom, if Christ were in the
world today, He would touch, to whom
we have never gone as yet with any
mention of His love and His power"
This address was in a manner
summing up of the work of missions
throughout the world and a forecast
as to the needs which would be crop
ping up along educational, social and
religious lines of endeavor
He took occasion to castigate YER
bally authors of books tending to
exalt one people and seeking subver
sion and subjugation of other peo-
pies, characterizing them as 'idiotic
biologies" in one case and "devilish"
creations in another.
Wants Clear Speaking.
In his peroration, he said:
There should be some far clearer
thinking done here and some far
more honest speaking than we have
indulged III in the past. 1t is not
matter of giving these churches their
independence. If am dependent
upon another man for my independ-
ence, where is my independence? No
man can give another his freedom. A
man Is free or he is not free. No other
man can make him free.
Let there be no misunderstanding
| here We have been asked again and
again in this convention whether we
are willing to give these churches
| their liberty. willing? Why, we wait
| for the day when they will take it,
passing over to them the administra
| ton of forty or fifty millions of dol
| lars That is trifling thing. What
we want is to see them take the re-
sponsibility for evangelizing one
thousand millions of human souls.
Rev. DR.. James L. Barton, who pre-
sided at the last session, had Assistant
Secretary Leslie B. Moss cite statis
tics to the members as to the scope
of the convention.
Mr.. Moss said that $3.50 delegates
appointed by mission boards and So
cieties had registered; that 1000
tickets had been distributed to repre-
sentatives of Washington churches;
and by estimate, between 5000 and
10, 900 Washingtonians attended ses-
sions of the convention.
Bishop William F. Mcdowell opened
last nights session with prayer and
Rev. DR.. James II. Franklin gave the
concluding prayer.
Six thousand stood with bowed
heads Ten minutes afterward. at
1910, the auditorium was only
place of empty seats and silence and
the foreign missions convention,
broadest in scope of any meeting of
its kind and a chapter, in itself. in
| the history of Protestantism was
! at an end.