The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-10-28
RELIGION IN

LMMN,WEH 4HW@E. "- HaMN q eN9.. l#GEF< N8E
The dispatches give an account OF a very
sensible opinion expressed by the convocation
of Episcopal clergymen who expressed them
selves against having religious instruction in
schools. 1t must be granted that where di-
vines, who would seemingly be most inclined
TO favor it, oppose such instruction, laymen
need not be over-anXious to retain it.
The truth is, the strife over this matter is
caused principally by the failure on the part
of very good men, or those who wish to seem
good, to perceive the distinction between mo-
rality and religion. These are sisters, it is
true, but they are not one and the same.
Now the statutes of Montana make it obliga-
tory upon teachers s'to impress on the minds
of their pupils the principles of morality,
truth, justice and patriotism; to teach them
to avoid idleness, profanity and falselood,
and to instruct them in the principles of a
free government, and to train them up to the
true comprehension of the rights, duties and
dignity of American citizenship" No act, or
part of an act, on our statutes, is of wider i'm
port than that part just given. 1t gives the key
to the reasons for supporting our public school
system, viz: because the life of the Republic
depends upon training up our youth to
avoid the vices indicated and to enable them
to become citizens in the right sense of the
word. 1t comprehends everything that is
necessary to the moral education of youth,
and confers an obligation on teachers to give
instruction in morals, which could be Gon
by means of the Bible just as well as by any
other text book, provided it is thought suit
able. Similar enactments have been made
by the legislatures of nearly every State and
Territory. Above all, there is nothing in it
vents the cultivation of the moral faculties
but in fact it commands this to be done.
Just as forcibly do our statutes say: "No
books, tracts, papers, catechisms or other pub
locations of a partisan, sectarian or denomi-
national character, shall be used or distribu-
ted in any school. Neither shall any politica.,
sectarian or UNCONVENTIONAL doctrine BIZ
taught therein, etc." These show the dis
tinction between morality and religion; the
one is admitted by everybody as proper to be
.inculcated, the other no one is willing to have
taught unless it is his kind. But it can nev-
er be arranged to give religious instruction II
our schools. Will the Presbyterian consent
to have his children taught the tenets OF Uni
versalism, or the Methodist to have his in
structed in Catholicism, or will Catholics
approve of Protestant doctrines, or any of
them allow the religion of Ingersol to be
taught? Moreover, the Constitution of the
United States is in opposition. Advocating il,
directly or indirectly, strikes a blow at our
ommon schools. Let parents who desire
it, see that it is given in the family, at church
or in the Sunday school-the proper places
for il. There is not a more moral class in the
community than teachers. We hear often of
clergymen who commit crimes, but seldom
can an immoral teacher be found in our pub
lie schools, so the principles of morality can
safely be entrusted to their care, but the rellg-
ion of different sects has no more place in our
schools than it has in our blacksmith shops
OF wash-houses. Arithmetic may be as we'll
taught by a Methodist as by an E~piscopalian,
and so can morality.