Religion in the Public Schools
By F. M. W.
WHAT is known as the Religious Education Association held its annual meeting recently in Providence, R. I. William Lawrence, D. D., bishop of Massachusetts, delivered the opening address. In speaking of the founding of the American republic, according to the Boston Evening Transcript of February 15, he ascribes great wisdom to the framers of the Constitution, and shows how far removed they were from the bias of their age, and how great was their wisdom for the future, in enunciating the principles which they did as the foundation of the American state:— Each decade in the history of this nation reveals more distinctly the wisdom of the men who framed our Constitution. So remarkable were some of their acts, and so prophetic, that we are sometimes forced to think that they builded better than they knew. In no subject is this more noteworthy than in the principle which they laid down in regard to the independence of church and state. Bishop Lawrence considers this the more remarkable for the reason that these men did not represent various religious beliefs, but were for the most part of one common faith:— Had the country been peopled with men of such varied races, faiths, and traditions as at present, this would not have been so remarkable. But with a population composed largely of one race, with sympathetic religious traditions, accustomed, most of them, to a close relation of church and state, we wonder at the clearness of their vision in recognizing that in the freedom of church from state, and state from church, was the secret of civic as well as religious liberty. For thereby the citizen and official were freed from religious tests, and the forces of religion were set free to do their work without the bondage and, what may be more dangerous, the patronage of the state. The story of the struggles of the nations of Europe, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, and England toward this freedom during the past generation, fills us with gratitude for our happy heritage. Turning to the present condition of religious faith in the United States:— Now, however, that in most parts of our country we have all races and faiths and no faiths, there is a sensitiveness to the teaching of even the simplest elements of the Christian faith, which, if we are to uphold liberty of conscience, must be regarded. And so it has come about that through protests from many directions, religious teaching has been reduced to a vanishing-point in the public schools. Here, then, we have one acute phase of the American situation,—a people of nearly one hundred millions, who, on the whole, are a religious people, heartily supporting a great educational system in which they firmly believe, from which the positive teaching of religion is excluded. Many are arguing to-day “that we are paying too high a price for our religious liberty in the loss of religion from our public schools.” This situation, however, he believes can be met through the religious influence of the home, and through the personal religious awakening of those who stand as instructors and educators:— You may shut out every word of Bible or God from the class-room; but while the teacher, a woman of faith, love, and prayer, teaches, you can not shut out religion. More, far more, you may call your schools godless, and harden your churches with formalism; but if the boy is going home every night to a home saturated with the spirit of religion, he is getting a religious education. This, then, is the thought that I want to emphasize: We may have in our public schools fuller and better teachings in morals and ethics; we must have, so long as there are some religious teachers and some religious homes, a touch of religious atmosphere in the schools; but we can not have, and have no right to expect, any such definite or positive religious education in our day-schools as to sustain, or even give much aid to, the religious life of the children. We must keep this clearly in mind, if we want to rouse ourselves or to rouse others to a sense of duty and opportunity in discovering other means for the religious education of our children. Let this also be clear: Because there is no definite religious teaching or even religious atmosphere in the school, that is no reason why the child should not receive a rich religious training; the question of place and hour is of little importance. We have become so accustomed to the thought of religion in the public schools that we think that if the schools do not provide it, there must be no religion. One might almost as well say that because the public schools provide no breakfast, there is no breakfast. Above all, Bishop Lawrence argues that in the conditions which exist in the world at the present time, the chief peril to be considered is that of the home and home life. He argues that it is time to cease repining, and go to work to redeem the home and upbuild the ideals in the family:— Our conclusion, therefore, is this,—that as a power for personal religion, there is nothing equal to the influence or teaching of a spiritually minded, praying, and intelligently praying mother in the first few years of a child's life; then comes the opportunity of both parents, in simple, quiet leadership, carrying the son or daughter as far as is in their power toward an intelligent, thoughtful faith. The essence of true religion is in its touch upon the individual soul; but its results must be the development of the whole man, body, mind, and spirit, “into the measure of the fulness of Christ;” and while the church worships, preaches, and educates, she must have such interest in the improvement of conditions, especially in relation to the family, as will make her work effective. As Bishop Lawrence truly says, the first and most important place for religious instruction is in the home. Our forefathers built wisely and well when they established the American state with the recognition of no religion, leaving the religious instruction where it properly belongs,—to the church, the home, and the individual. The strength of this government will be in conserving those high ideals which stood before the minds of its founders. A departure from them will corrupt the church, and wreck the ship of state upon the shoals and rocks of religious bigotry and intolerance, as European nations have been wrecked before it. The strength of the American state, and the strength of the Christian church in America, is in preserving inviolate the principles of state and church separation upon which this government was established.