Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1869-12-30
GBs yolua Ypter,
A. F. Sperry, Editor.
The Bible Question Again.

accepted as a fair and authoritative
summing up Of what the Catholics
desire in this matter.
Appended to the article are some
comments by the Gate city, which
strike straight at the root on the
other side of the tree.
In former paper we made few
observations on this subject, which,
we are sorry to learn, some friends
understood a little wrongly. They
will pardon a few words further:-
For ourselves, provided that the
Teachers themselves had faith in and
reverence for the Bible, and provid-
ed that the people interested in the
Schools as much as we felt equally
willing and ready, we should be glad
to have the Bible read regularly, or
at least occasionally, in the Public
Schools. We would be glad to have
the children taught the fullest rever-
ence for the Sacred Word, and made
to understand that from its revela-
tions and teachings comes all that is
pure and good and noble on the earth
that it is, or ought to be, the found
alton of all Law, and itself the high
est Code. In other words, we would
have our children taught as we our
selves believe.
But we must remember that there
are thousands of citizens Of our coun-
try, yes, hundreds of thousands per-
haps, who do not believe as we do
exactly. The Catholics believe in
the Bible, but they don't believe in
our translation of it. They hold to
their Douay version, which we Prot
estants cannot accept. The Jews also
believe in a part of the Bible, but
reject the New Testament which is
for us the esprit that giveth life."
And there are thousands of others,
who, though technically accepting
the Bible, do not believe in and hold
to it in the same way we do. Yet
these are all citizens, possessing
equal rights with ourselves in every
respect-the samerights and no more
the same right as we have to the
benefits of Schools, and no more than
we. We must then respect their
rights and opinions, as we would
have them respect our own.
We could never consent to have
the Old Testament read in the
Schools as the only True Word, and
the New Testament rejected as false;
vet the Jews would have as much
right to force this on US as we would
have to force them to accept the
New Testament.
We could never consent to have
the Douay Version read in the
Schools as the only true Bible; yet
the Catholics would have as much
right to insist on this as we would
have to compel them to accept our
common version.
And the same axiom applies to
other classes not enumerated.
To sum up, then:-Thevery funda-
mental idea of our Government is,
Toleration-Equal Rights for all.
And the only way to preserve this
idea, as applied to the subject in
question, is, as we have before re-
marked, to leave the people them
selves to decide. whether or not they
will have the Bible read regularly in
their respective Schools. If they will
have it, well; If not, let there be no
compulsion. This is the present
theory and practice, if we correctly
understand the case; and this is right
and just, and in accordance with that
spirit of Charity which the Bible SO
fully teaches. Let us aDin souls to
the Truth, but we can never compel
them.
But now, as to the Catholic plan OF
apportioning the School monies, we
can have but one opinion, and that
is the one SO forcibly expressed by
the Gate city in the remarks quoted
on the second page of this paper.
Let such division once commence,
as the Catholics desire, and our
School System would inevitably fall;
and with it would fall the strength
and bulwark Of self-gOvernment, and
Liberty would soon perish from the
face of the earth. But this can never
be-. There may possibly come a
struggle on this point, though we
can hardly yet expect it. But if it
does come, having granted equal
rights to others, let us stand firmly
by our own, and give up our Free
School System only when we are
ready to abandon with it our princi-
pies, our country and our liberty.
The SANTANA Lease.