Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-25
MUST DISSOLVE THE
UNION Of CHURCH
AND STATE
DR.. LANoRUM TELLS OF EVILS
FOLLOWING STATE APPRo-
PRIATIoNS TO DENoMI.
NATIONAL SCHOOLS.

DR.. w w. Landrum. pastor of the First
Baptist church, preached a strong SER
mon last night on the union of the church
and the state, in which he dealt several
severe blows to the UNCONVENTIONAL schools
and colleges which are taking money from
the state to aid in the payment Of teach
ers and instructors.
His text was from Matthew xii 81:
Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesars and unto God the things that
are Gods" He declared that the union of
the state and church, as was partially
practiced in UNCONVENTIONAL schools, is I'M
constitutional and un-Christian.
In the beginning, DR.. Landrum asked if
it were constitutional for the state to
make appropriations for secretrian
schools; if it were Christian for these
schools to accept this money from the
state to pay their teachers? He said that
il was unconstitutional for the state to
paronize religion, and that was exactly
what was being done when the state paid
money into the treasury Of sectarian
schools and colleges.
Neither the church nor the state in
tended to form this union, he declared,
but that it came about unconsciously. In
certain localities the state needed schools
and colleges, and in these localities some
denominations was running a denomina-
tonal school or college. So the state said:
.''In order to save the money in the state
that would be necessary to erect a new
schoolhouse, let the UNCONVENTIONAL school
accept money from the state to pay teach
ers' salaries, and let the state use the
school free of all rental
Teachers in such schools, he declared,
became servants of both the church and
the state. This, of course, was not in
tended, and was caused by the desire of
both the church and the state to do
wit he h
out the state.
DR.. Landrum ridiculed the idea that
these schools became non-sectarian after
they had passed under partial control of
the state.
The teachers, he said, were selected by
UNCONVENTIONAL boards and these selec-
tons ratified by county boards of educa-
ton. He said that each denomination Sc
lected as its teachers men of the same de-
nomination, and although they were not
allowed TO teach their religion in the
school house, their very actions and man
ners were, in manner, productive Of
teaching their religion to the pupils.
lie told of a town in which there were
two high schools. one run by Baptists and
the other by the Methodists, and each
received $1,CC0 from the state every year
The teachers in one school were Baptists.
the board of trustees Baptists, and every
thing in the school run according to the
Baptist belief. The same condition of
affairs was seen in the Methodist school,
where everything was Methodist. And yet
each of these schools were receiving mon
ey from the state. If this was not a vir-
tual Acknowledgement of the union of
the church and the star, then he did not
know one.
He referred to the friar question in the
Philippines, and said that the friars were
religious teachers under the Spanish re-
CINE, and that this was a splendid ex
ample of the dangers of a union between
the church and the state.