Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1868-06-12
The Bible in the Public Schools.

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To say that the question involved in this case
is g whether the common schools must be heath
en- in order to be unsectarian" is not fair
statement Of the controversy. The reading Of
the Bible in public schools of mixed religious
faiths can do no good, and is very likely to do
harm since it fosters a feeling of discomfort
among the Catholics, and gives q ground Of
complaint against the perfect freedom Of our
free schools that is calculated in time to narrow
their influences for good among the people So
long as we insist on the Bible In our common
schools Of mixed faiths, we are not free from the
suspicion of sectarAn culture that is enough TO
irritate the Catholic unnecessarily into an atti-
tude of opposition to the very system Of educa-
tion that We pride ourselves upon as one Of the
most precious privileges that the foreigner is
accorded in America.
Catholics and Protestants both have their
churches, their Sunday schools, their religious
teachers, afforiing ample opportunities for hear
ing the Bible read and expouRded each accord
ing to his own version. Lament as we may, the
feeling which prompts the Catholic dislike to the
reading of our version, we cannot insist upon
his submitting to its use, without falling short
of the perfect idea of free public school. The
Catholic might with equal propriety ask that his
version Of the scriptures be read, as for the Pro-
testant TO insist that the Catholic shall listen to
the exclusive reading Of our version. The pub
lie reading Of the Protestant Bible in our free
schools seems to US out of place, and the largest
public wisdom for the best interests Of these
schools dictates its entire disuse.- Burlington
Times.
The Times point is not quite as clear
as it might be. The first paragraph above
reads as if our neighbor objected to the Bible,
as such, on the ground that it Is a sectarian
book the last paragraph as a whole seems
to indicate that the THncs' objection il to a
particular rersion of the Bible, or to 1.-THE
Protestant Bible; while from one SEN
tence it may perhaps be inferred that the OBJ
lection Is after all to the - ercl4ar. read
ing of a particular version.
If the latter were all, we perhaps should
not differ so widely from the Times. We
certainly would not insist on the erciusre
reading Of any particular version. We
should be willing that the Catholic teacher
should read from the Douay version, and the
Protestant teacher from King james yer
sion, as they might prefer. But as the protes-
tants send some children to our public schools,
and may have some right to have their pre-
ference considered as well as the Catholics,
we would not consent to have "the pro-
testant Bible thrown wholly out Of the
schools, in order that the catholic version
might everywhere take its place. Perhaps
it is not iair to suppose that our neighbor
would be suited with that arrangement,
though it objects, in terms, only to the pro
testant version.
But when it comes to throwing the Bible
in any shape wholly out of the schools, the
question takes different phase. We had
supposed the Bible to be not a sectarian book
but the corner stone Of all christian seets
No particular denomination has any special
monopoly Of the Deity, or Of His revealed
Will All draw from it their tenets, andou
no denominational ground can the protest
against it, use in the schools be made. Any
Christian community had better think twice
before it proscribcs the Book Of books, in its
common schools. We know of none tha
does So. In New York, Philadelphia, Bos
ton, Troy, Manchester, y H.. Chicago, Louis
vile and in many other cities in the L 5. ant
the Canadas, with large Catholic population
and many children of Catholic parents in tn,
schools. there is a uniform rule requiring The
public schools to be opened with the reading
of a passage Of 5 cripture, and commonly th'
repeating of the lords prayer The rules o
the Boards Of Education. in most Of thos'
cities simply, and very properly, require
only that the religious exercises shall be ac
comfanied with no sectarian comment and
have no sectarian bias and that is all that any
christian man can ask.
We do not understand that the Catholic'
in Burlington as a class object to the use OF
the Bible in our schools their objection t,
the common schools is rather that there i.
not enough of religious teaching in them
such as they deem important.
Certainly no sect claiming to be christian
can consistently object TO the use of some yer
sion of the Christian Scriptures. 1t is only
as between Paganism and Christianity that
the Bible can he called sectarian; and if If
Is to be prescribed in ourschools, it is because
we must be heathen in order to be unsccta
rian.