Newspapers / Hyde County Messenger (Fairfield, … / Sept. 1, 1928, edition 1 / Page 8
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In testimony hereof, I will take this most holy and blessed sacrament of the Eucharist and witness the same further with my name written with the point of this dagger dipped in my own blood and seal in the face of this holy sacra ment. BAPTISTS HAVE BEEN AND SHOULD EVER- BE DEFEND ERS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY Taken from the June 1928 Issue of the Advocate and Messenger, Luray, Virginia. No citizen who loves his country, who has proper respect for his fellowman and a due re gard for constitutional law, wants to prohibit any citizen from the free exercise of religious liberty so long as such liberty is equally free for all. But when this freedom, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, is abused to the extent that any church or denomination becomes oppressive of other religions and seeks to use the strong arm of the State to crush them, then, any such church or denomination has become dangerous and cliould be opposed by every citizen who wants to see “equal rights to all and special privileges to none.” Now such an oppressive religio-political in stitution the Roman Catholic Church has been in the past, and is today where it has the power, —and it is the boast of Catholicism that it never changes. This record of Catholicism cannot be successfully denied. Pages of history written in . blood cannot be easily erased. For centuries before the reformation Baptist history has left unmistakable proof of Rome’s hatred of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. And such reformers and historians and statesmen as Cal vin, Knox, and Luther; Carlyle, McCauly, and Hassell; Gladstone, Bismark, and Jefferson, and hundreds of others have given the same authori tative testimony. And woe be to this nation,— this “land of the free and home of the brave’’ —wThen its citizenship shut their eyes to the truth and listen to the siren voice of the relent less enemy of the popular government. And there seems to be more danger of this right at this time than ever before in the history of our Nation. And never before has there been such efforts made to force a Catholic President upon this Protestant Country. The daily papers seem to be in the clutch of Catholicism. Politicians seem to be without principle, and a large por tion of the people seem to be willing to be marched up to the polls and to vote as they are told. Now, no man should be opposed because of his personal religion. He has a constitutional right to any religion, but the same constitution forbids him oppressing others because of their religion. And if any candidate represents a church or institution that is oppressive of others, such candidate should be, and will be, opposed by all enlightened, patriotic, wide-awake Ameri cans who love the principles of Washington and Jefferson more than they love the name of any political party. And according to history, past and present, the system of Catholicism, which is a mixture of religion and politics, is a menace to American institutions; and any candidate that represents this system should be opposed because it advocates: 1. A union of Church and State; 2. The supremacy of Church over the State; 3. The abolition of our Public Schools and the establishing of Parochial Schools; 4. Taxation of the people to support Church Schools in which the religion of Catholicism is taught; 5. The establishing of one State religion sup ported by the State; 6. That no marriage is legal not performed by authority of the Catholic Church; 7. That there is no salvation except through the Catholic Church. Besides these things Catholics are taught to devote their energies to influence and control politics; to be Catholies first and Americans second; to put (whenever possible) the flag of the Church above the Stars and Stripes; to be kind to other orders and religions when it is policy to be so, but are cruel and oppressive when they have the power. More than this they deny the open Bible to their lay members—ob ject to their members reading it tor themselves; they teach their members that it is a sin to go into the churches of other denominations, and “good Catholics” who do so make their con fession “of such sin” to the Priest; they raise their children in mental slavery and fear,— teaching that not to be submissive to “the Church in all things’, endangers their soul’s sal vation and brings upon them the wrath of God. Shall w.e by elevating Roman Catholics to high official positions, bind upon our children and future generations this cruel, relentless and bloody system that has been a blight to other nations? Catholics have already had more than their share of political offices,—for being only about eighteen per cent of the population they hold about sixty-five per cent of the ofnces. And still they whine and cry “intolerance.” Never has there been a more intolerant system on American soil. And never has any people sought more continuously to advance their own selfish interest and to destroy the principles upon which this government was founded. But, what shall we do? If we shall follow wisdom’s way we will “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s,” we will look more to the principles which candidates stand for and bow less to the party lash; we will relegate to private life more of the defenders of Romanism and put more Americans on guard.—R. H. Pittman. -o--—— When a person gets into the habit of wasting time, he is sure to waste a great deal that does not belong to him. -o Lack of wealth does not justify the poor in voluntary idleness.
Hyde County Messenger (Fairfield, N.C.)
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Sept. 1, 1928, edition 1
8
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