The Religious Press

April 16, 1847

“….. The religious press of the country, generally is hostile to human progress, and under control of those who care nothing for the people —- everything for sect and creed.   With scarcely an exception, it is in the hands of the priesthood, with whom the safety of their order is, of all things under heaven, paramount, and who, as a class, are as little identified with the laity as possible.  We pronounce them to be utterly incompetent to manage a journal, in accordance with the needs of the age.  Such men never live in the present, but  are ever found doing homage to the past.”    The article then names journals which are edited by clergymen.  “.this has not been purely accidental…..priestly forecast, design, ambition, have effected this alarming supremacy, and secured this dangerous monopoly. It is a contrivance to subjugate the churches to clergy domination, to prevent the people from receiving the light they need, to give a spurious order great and powerful means of self-protection, to keep in chains the spirit of progress…… In their columns may frequently be found the fiercest invectives, the vilest misrepresentations, in regard to the various reforms of the age, and their advocates; but no reply is allowed through the same medium. Free discussion they will not tolerate, and dare not encounter….”

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