Why Are “Mormon” Missionaries Expelled from Germany?

Why Are "Mormon" Missionaries Expelled From Germany? BY ELDER GEORGE F. RICHARDS, OF THE QUORUM OF TWELVE APOSTLES. [On July 21, 1910, Herr Dalwitz, the Prussian Minister of the Inter- ior, on recommendation of the political police, signed orders for the expulsion of twenty-one "Mormon" missionaries, most of whom were Americans or Englishmen. On the day following, they were given three days in which to depart. Among them were three American students who, upon the request of Hon. Irwin B. McLaughlin, charge d' affaires at the American embassy, were permitted to remain. It appears that the missionaries had assembled from various parts of Germany at the Latter-day Saints' headquarters in Berlin, to meet President Thomas E. McKay, of the Swiss and German mission. As early as the 31st of May last, Elder McKay wrote from his headquarters in Zurich, Switzer- land, to President Joseph F. Smith, stating that he had requested the police to grant permission to have the meeting held. On the 21st, as services were being held, the agent of the political police, who was seated in the audience, rose and declared the gathering dissolved. Then several members of the criminal police appeared, and virtually took the congregation into custody. It will be remembered that in 1903 the status of the "Mormons" in Germany was taken up in a council between the foreign office and the foreign embassy. At that time the govern- ment took the position that the teachings of the missionaries were sub- versive of morality. It was then arranged that they should withdraw from the country, and that their headquarters should be moved from Ber- lin to Switzerland. Subsequently the missionaries, numbering abrut one hundred and forty, departed, leaving the German Latter-day Saints, with a total membership of eight thousand, in the care of Germans. In recent years, the Germans say, the "Mormons'' have disregarded the under- standing of 1903, hence this action.

WHY ARE "MORMON" MISSIONARIES EXPELLED? 1005 Elder George F. Richards, in the following communication, discusses the position of the government that the teachings of "Mormon" mission- aries are subversive of morality. To any one familiar with the subject of morals as they exist in Germany and among the Latter-day Saints, the conclusion which the government arrived at is very humorous. — Editors.] The status of "Mormons" in Germany was taken up in exchanges between the foreign office and the foreign embassy, in 1903, when the government took the position that the teachings of the missionaries were subversive of morality. — Telegram in the Deseret News, July 22, 1910. The statement made by the German government officials as the cause for the banishment from that country of ''Mormon'' missionaries will appear most absurd to thousands who have for a lifetime lived among the Latter-day Saints, heard their teachings and become familiar with their manner of living, and the high standard of morality which they have raised to the world. The statement is so vague as to preclude a specific answer. To say that we deny the charge would seem to be an answer as full and comprehensive as the indefinite charge would merit or demand. We would ask the authors of that remarkable statement where- in the teachings of the Latter-day Saint missionaries are subversive of morality? No church on the earth has a higher standard of morality than has the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the "Mormon" Church. That standard is ordained of God. With it adultery, in the category of crime, stands next to murder. An adulterer or a fornicator can not have membership in the Church except he repents. "If a man com- mit adultery, he can not receive the celestial kingdom of God, even if he is saved in any kingdom, it can not be the celestial king- dom." {Compendium, p. 280.) We are sure the teachings of the Latter-day Saint missionaries upon that topic, and the example set by them, could be followed with profit by their accusers. Wherein, then, we would again ask, are the teachings of the "Mormon" missionaries subversive of morality? Is it in that they teach as did Jesus (Matt. 6: 9) that God is our Father and we his children? Or, as do the scriptures, (Gen. 1: 27) thab we are made in his image and likeness, and that he is a God of parts and passions

1006 IMPROVEMENT ERA. even as is man; and that the Trinity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost — are not one substance, but three separate and distinct individuals, the Father and the Son being personages of flesh, bone and spirit, as tangible as man, and the Holy Ghost a personage of spirit only? (Doctrine and Covenants 130: 22, and Matt. 3: 16, 17). .Or, is it that they teach that faith in Christ is essential to salvation? If so, then condemn the scriptures, for so they teach (John 3: 18-21; 8:24). Or, is it that they teach that men cannot be saved in their sins, and that sins can be forgiven and remitted only after repent- ance and compliance with the ordinance of baptism (Luke 13: 5; 3: 3)? Or, that they teach, as did Jesus, (John 3: 5) that except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the king- dom, outside of which there is no salvation? Or, is it that they teach that authority to administer the gos- pel ordinances is as necessary today as it was in the primitive church? (John 15: 16; 20: 21). Or, is it because they justify Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Moses, and others, whom God justified, in having a plurality of wives? (Matt. 8: 11). If so, then we answer that the Latter-day Saints neither teach nor practice plural marriage, at home or abroad, it being forbidden, both by the law of the land and the rule of the Church; therefore the action of the German officials, on such ground, means a needless fear of an imaginary foe. Or, is it that they teach the immortality of the soul, as do the scriptures, (I Cor. 15: 21, 22) that as Christ died, and after three days took up his body— the same body he laid down (Luke 24: 30-43; John 20: 27) so we, after a season, will take up the same bodies that we lay down, and as Jesus went to the Father and sat at his right hand in his kingdom, as seen by Stephen (Acts 7: 55) even so we may, by following the example set by the Savior, become joint heirs with him in the kingdom and glory of God? (Luke 15: 31). Or, is it that they teach the eternity of the marriage cove- nant—that wives and husbands, sealed so for time and eternity, by

WHY ARE "MORMON" MISSIONARIES EXPELLED? 1007 one having authority, will be man and wife after death, and their children born under that covenant will be theirs fcrever — the covenant to be kept, the identity to be preserved, the relations perpetuated, and the individuals glorified? (I Cor. 11: 11; Doctrine and Covenants 132). Or, is it that they teach that little children have eternal life, being redeemed from before the foundations of the world, through the blood of the Lamb of God — no little children in hell, but "of such is the kingdom of heaven"? Or, is it that they teach that salvation is for the dead as well as for the Jiving, for the heathen as well as for the Christian (1 Peter 3: 18; 4: 6; Gal. 3: 8, 9), the heathen to have this gospel after death, if not before? Or, is it that we believe the scriptures literally? (II Peter 1: 20; Isaiah 8: 20.) If the officials of the German government, or any one else, has discovered that, as a people, we teach any principle which is not scriptural, we would be pleased to have them point out to us wherein we are so doing, that we may make our teachings conform —for as yet we have not been able to discover any such discrep- ancy. One of the strongest evidences of the truth of "Mormon- ism," and that which is the most potent factor in converting men and women to our faith, is the fact that we teach only true scrip- tural doctrine. An investigation will prove this fact. It is a matter of regret that the officials of the German government did not make such comparisons, and point out in detail some of our non-scriptural teachings. "Mormonism" means so much to the individual, if true, that it is worth his while to give a careful and unbiased consideration of what it purports to be. Saul of Tarsus fought the primitive Saints, believing he was doing God a service. He afterwards learned his mistake, and it was a thorn in his side forever after. The German government officials will, no doubt, see their mistake later. Truth will manifest itself and will prevail.