Religion: Better in a Hall?

When the annual year book of Trinity Parish, Manhattan, was published last week, many persons felt the need of sitting down to ponder and digest an article signed by Rector the Rev. Caleb R. Stetson of Trinity Episcopal Church. He wrote:

"We in Trinity Parish do not marry people indiscriminately. We marry only those who have been baptized. . . .

"The fashionable church wedding is often vulgar as well as pagan. The church is turned over to a florist who does his best to take away every appearance of the Holy Place. . . .

"There is no excuse for the use of the church for such display. It were far better if such weddings took place in a hall where an adequate entertainment could properly be given. The church should draw the distinction more clearly than ever before between civil and religious marriage ceremonies. . . .

"Only those who believe in the Christian ideal of marriage should have the right to be married in church."

Commenting on present trends in marriage, Dr. Stetson prophesied:

"There is a definite propaganda for freer divorce which seems to be making considerable headway. We may even come to the point where trial marriages may be legalized; or to the condition where divorce is granted without question on the application of both or even of one of the parties to a marriage. . . .

"It may even be argued, that legalized polygamy has certain features which recommend it as compared with the progressive polygamy and respectable promiscuity toward which we seem to be tending. Polygamy, as practiced in the East, at least preserved the home for the children."

Of the modern concept of love, Dr. Stetson wrote:

"There are many persons who think and say that when what is called 'love' has died, as the sort of 'love' they mean does die, then man and wife should separate. What they mean by love in many cases is simply sex-appeal, or a passing whim."