The record-union., 1894-06-06
RELIGION AND EDUCATION.
Opposing Views OF Prominent Men III
This CO1ptl.y.

Opposing Views of Prominent Men in
This Country.
We are indebted to Henry NJ. Taber in
the F1reethjnkers' Di0gdzine, Now 1ork,
for a concensus of opinion regarding ''Re-
ligion and Education"
Bishop Chatard of Vincennes says:
six hundred thousand pupils are now
receiving instruction, at an expense to
the tCatholic) church of $4,000 year,
and demand that this S9,O0O,OO0 should
be paid by the State out OF the money
raised by taxation"
Archbishop Purcell says: "We cannot
approve OF that system Of education for
youth which is apart from instruction in
the Catholic faith.o
Plus x. declares: Education of chill
dren in knowledge of natural things,
apart from the Catholic faith, is damna-
bic heresy."
Bishop Gilmour of Cleveland, o., says:
"We solemnly charge and most posi-
lively require every Catholic to send his
| children to Catholic school, and author
ize contessors to refuse the sacraments TO
such parents as disobey."
a komish Archbishop Qreland) so in
sists upon the teaching of religion in the
public schools teat ne expressed himself
| as tavoring the teaching of the Protestant
rather than no-religion: and Protest
y
redge OF Chicago) has said that ''if the
position of the public school is to be : =
no Bible 3 then | stand with the
Roman Catholics for religious schools"
The Rev. Joseph Cook of Boston, of
course, insists upon religious teaching in
the public schools. He demands that ed
ucation must be supplemented with ''the
theology OF the fail of man, the immor-
tality OF the soul, the Judgment to come"
etc.
DR.. Shearer, President of Davidson Col
lege, \. g., denOunces the commOn-
school system of the country, advocating
the education of children of Protestants
in schools tostered by the church.
EX-Presdent Woolsey OF Yale College
denied the right of the State to teach the
discoveries of science, ''if theSm and
revelation be banished from the scholas-
tic halls" aud adds, 'why permit evolu-
ton to be publicly profeSsed more than
predestination? ?"
1he late Rev. A. 4. Hodge, d. D., of
Princeton Seminary, i'll insisting upon
religious teaching in lie public schools,
says: christians have the power in
their own hands The danger arises SIM
ply from the weak and sickly sentiment
ality respecting the supposed equitable
rights Of an inndel minority
President Seelye OF Amherst College,
says: The State must teach religion. Ii
tile ccnSclenceS OF It's subjects approve,
well; ii not, the State must not falter.''
On the other hand. the following dis
tinguished ministers have expressed
themselves strongly against State-aided
religious education:
President Eliot of Harvard University
has expressed himself in opposition to
imposing religious opinions upon the
susceptible mind, not only IN State edu-
cation, but IN alt our colleges and amber
SitieS."
President James C. yelling. of the
Columbian Univers.,ty of Washington, u.
C.. argues that "pubnc education should
be confined to that modicum which may
be necessary for the common defense and
general welfare" his conclusions being.
''the State cannot 1ighfully teach the ten
cts OF any particular religious creed,
whether 1t be Jewish. Agnostic or Athe-
lstlc Public education, supported by
public taxation, must needs be colorless
in point OF religion"
The late Rev. Howard Crosby, d. D.,
has said: There is no safety for our
country but in non-religious elementary
education in the public schools. If the
State is TO teach religion. what religion is
it TO furnish: the roman Catholic, the
Jewish, the Chinese. the Agnostic? Why
not these? II the State must furnish re-
lgion, it must also logically furnish the
inquisition, and so the foundation of
American independence must be de-
stroyed. Is it not better that the Atheist
should make his children Atheists, than
to break up the country and array men
against each other?'i
Dr.. j. q. Holland, in ,Sc41bRe1's, Feb
ruary, 1876, speaking of the compulsory
reading of the Bible in the public schools.
says: 1T is to the Catholic, Jew and
atheist a grievance, hardship, an op-
preston"
The Rev. DR.. S. H. Greer of st. Bar
tholomew's Church. New York City, has
expressed himself as opposed to allowing
| the Bible to be read in the public schools,
and added: Tho charge that the schools
of to-day are goddess is largely rhetor-
ical.'
The Rev. Charles II. Eaton, pastor of
the Church of the Divine Paternity, New
York City, says: 1--WE would remove
from the public schools the Bible and
take away all religious exercises, and
make the public schools what they were
intended to be-the foundation and be-
ginning of knowledge, which shall be the
best protection of the American Repub-
| lic."
The Rev. DR.. Parkhurst says: 'The
reading OF the Bible in the public schools
is good deal of performance and is
conspicuous for nothing so much as for
! its farcical features. 1t is more 'fetich'
than moral agency" Literary Digest.