Religion in the Public Schools by S. B. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 10, 1911

Religion in the Public Schools

By S. B. H.

One of the panaceas suggested by so-called “reformers” for the unrighteous condition of the body politic is to teach a modicum of religion in the public schools of our country. It does not seem to occur to them that in this suggestion they are asking for a union of church and state to that extent. In an address before the Paterson (N. J.) high school teachers and graduates recently, Judge Francis Scott said, among other things:—

“The United States surpasses all other nations in the opportunity it affords to its children of getting an education. . . . In our State, education is compulsory. The constitution provides that there shall be a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for all children between the ages of five and eighteen years.”

“Besides the public schools, we have private schools, and unfortunately in my judgment, we have religious schools. Religion should be taught in the church and Sunday-school, but not in the public school. If there is any one thing that has helped to make this country great, it is the fact that there is no religious creed in the school calendar. Our forefathers were wise enough to keep religion out of the Constitution. Education is compulsory, but religion is voluntary; and that is the way it should be. Each individual should be permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The combination of church and state is accountable for a great many ills of the past, and has soiled the historical records of many nations. The public school in the United States is the place where all creeds and where all nationalities may assemble without reference to their religious faith. The most intelligent thought in this country at the present time is clear that there must be no religious distinction, so far as the public schools are concerned, and no instruction upon this important subject in the public schools.”

With the exception of his observation on the question of religious schools,

we take pleasure in commending Judge Scott’s speech, together with the following from the Detroit Free Press (quoted in the Washington Herald of July 21), to those who would intrude upon the public-school system with their false ideas of reform:—

“The very essence of religious differences is often, if not always, found in different views of the historical events that brought them about, and each different view is inoffensive only to those whose particular denomination it favors. To all others it seems biased, unfair, or untruthful. This is only one of the thousand difficulties that arise inevitably in the management of schools to whose support all denominations contribute, to which children of all denominations go for the rudiments of education, and which can please all only by a negative attitude on all questions that are contentious religiously in history or dogma.”

S. B. H.