Following the attempt of several state legislatures in recent...

Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune

Following the attempt of several state legislatures in recent years to enact laws concerning the religious denomination known as Christian Science, the members of that church have made an appeal to the country at large for "religious liberty." To one who knows the history of the American people an appeal of that kind has a strange sound. On reading that appeal in the literature of the Christian Scientists one is moved to ask: Why need such an appeal be made? Why should any American legislature seek to abridge a right as old as the nation itself?

The question in this case is certainly most appropriate.

The Christian Scientists have not sought to force their religion upon any community or any individual of whom we have ever heard. They merely seek the right of peaceful assembly and peaceful worship. They acknowledge the sovereignty of the Almighty in their spiritual affairs and ask only to be permitted to worship Him as their own consciences dictate. The charge is made against them that they are not "orthodox." To our way of thinking the lack of "orthodoxy," as at present interpreted by many churches, will be a badge of honor, rather than a moral stigma, before another generation has passed from the scene of action. In the matter of Scriptural interpretation it were better that none of the so-called orthodox churches cast stones at those without their pales, if they would avoid disturbance and dissension among the brethren within their own folds.

Measured by the standards of clean living, high thinking, and unselfish, patriotic citizenship, we believe the men and women of the Christian Science faith will compare favorably with the membership of any church in America or the world. But whether they will or not is beside their contention. They are simply taking safe ground, in their plea for religious liberty, on the guaranties of the federal constitution, of the ordinance of 1787, and of every state constitution of which we have knowledge. The whole trend of American history was given more definite shape by those who sought her shores as the result of religious persecution abroad than any other single factor. The awful condition in which Europe was plunged for centuries as the Christian faith, left in the name of the peaceful Founder of the Christian faith, left a deep impress on the founders of our own Union. That any American legislative body in the twentieth century should even think of abridging the time-honored right of peaceful and unrestricted worship, is to betray an amazing ignorance of the basic thought and purpose of this government.

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