Bible Reading in Public Schools
RECENTLY an order was given by those in charge of public instruction in New York City, directing that a selection from the Bible be read daily in the public schools. Following this, the city school superintendents voted that the Douay (Catholic) Bible should be supplied for the use of such teachers as preferred them. All Catholic teachers in the public schools will of course use the Douay Bible. Upon this The Independent observes that it is just as fair to use the Catholic Bible, which tells the people to “do penance,” as to use the Protestant, or King James, Bible; and, further, “readings can be from ‘Judith,’ ‘Susanna,’ and ‘Bel and the Dragon’ [these apocryphal books being held by Catholics as of equal authority with the canonical books].” Also, says The Independent, “If there should be a school with Chinese children here in New York and with a Chinese teacher, it would be his duty to read from Confucius; or in a school amid a colony of Syrians the teacher might read from the Koran.” From which The Independent very properly concludes: “It is far better that the State should teach no religion. Leave that to the church; and if the church can not teach the young, then the church has lost its best function and power.”