Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-27
SEES NO PLACE
FOR BIBLE IN
PUBLIC SCHOOL
REV. E. S. H0DGIN OPPOSES
PLAN OF DR.. C. E. LOCKE
SAYS CHILD is NOT FITTED TO
STUDY THE INFINITE
Must First Learn by Daily Experience
the Lessons of Love and
Duty and Right
eousness


stand directly opposed to that OF Rev.
.C. e. Locke of the First Methodist
church on the use of the Bible in the
public schools.
In his sermon Rev. Hodgin declared
that a child in public school is united
TO learn of God as the Creator except
as the comprehension comes to him in
his daily experience He said in part;
"Our public schools are being sub
iected to such a fire of criticism as
they never encountered before By
some this criticism is entirely misun-
derstood. The bred-in-the-bo aristo-
crat, who has always looked askance
at our schools, thinks he sees in this
dissatisfaction a breaking down of
democracy. The jealous ecclesiastic,
with his medieval squint. whose chief
stock in trade always has been lifting
of the hands In holy horror at our God
less public institutions, is sure this
criticism means the beginning of the
end, collapse of the system due to
the innate weakness and depravity of
it, against which he has always warned
his people.
Nothing could be further from the
true temper of our present-day crit
icism. This dissatisfaction is not due
to a decline of faith in the schools. but
to the fact that the peoples faith has
vastly more of them than ever in the
past 1t means that, under the impetus
of this new faith and this new demand,
our schools are to push out into new
fields and accomplish hitherto un-
dreamed of results.
Methods Are Changing
at is a curious trait of human ma
ture to begin with things far away. 1t
ic in,
tlfic spirit has been abroad. that we be-
gin at the near end of things. The re-
ligions of the past dwelt on things re-
mote. They began with God and as
sumed that God was far away; with
heaven as something distant; with i'm
mortality as that which lay beyond and
apart from this life and with salvation
as a getting out of and away from this
world. The church was the all-impor-
tant institution. The state fostered it
and made it universal. The child was
brought to the sanctuary to be bap-
tized. The first thing it was taught
was a supposedly accurate knowledge
of God, of heaven, of salvation and of
immortality. Worship at the sanctuary
was the one thing that was compul-
sorry. These were thought to be the
states highest duties, because these
were held to be the all-important mat
ters. Whether the child received any
education-a knowledge of the world
that would better enable 1t to meet the
problems of daily life-were left to
chance or to the goodwill of parents
and friends, because this was unimpor-
tant. Such schools as were established
were for the few and were kept in
leading strings to the church, which as
sumed arrogant supervision over them.
Task Of School Outlined
To-day, under the influence of the
scientific spirit, all this is exactly re-
versed. AS of old, the state takes hold
of the child at an early age. but
through the medium of the school in
stead of the church. The school con-
hand. 1t makes the world in which the
child dwells living world. The
processes of nature are unfolded before
1t and made intelligible to it. 1t is
skillfully disciplined in the instrument
of language that it may increase it's
knowledge of what Is going on about it.
1t Is put to work with children from
homes unlike its own. 1t learns to
work with them and to know their
life. By working together with others
and by constant association with them
1t unconsciously and consciously learns
the results of selfish and of unselfish
acts upon itself and upon others. 1t
learns the inevitable reactions of love
and hate, of kindness and unlkindness,
of rudeness and gentleness, cleanli-
ness and of beauty upon the little
community of which it is a part.
Its whole moral nature Is thus built
up through experience with a thor
oughness that is well-nigh impossible
under almost any other conditions. But
II 1t is the eight kind of school not a
word is ever said about God, heaven.
salvation or Immortality. These are
the things that are now left entirely to
the individual Because of this omis-
sion our schools are being condemned
constantly as Goddess and immoral by
the self-righteous pharisees.
Believes in Present System
am more convinced. with each days ex-
perience, that the way to teach religion
most effectively is to teach II just as It is
being taught In our public schOO .s--by never
il during all the early formatiye
period of the chiId's Iife
How can the child know anything about
God as creator except "a great magical
OF the creative processes, of nature around
about him?
How can he know anything about a God
OF righteousness until, through his work and
ms ms daily contact with others, he has learned
the inevitable results of selHshness and Of
unselflshness, of honesty ond OF dishonesty
upon himself and his fellows?
How can he know anything about a God
of love until he learns from experience what
love can do In human society?
when, through contact with his
fellows and through a knowledge of
nature and of natures processes, he
has become responsive and respon-
sible human being, he has something
that will give a meaning to those great
words such as God and salvation by
means of which man has tried to ex-
press the ultimate. Until that time
they only confuse and blur and belit-
tie the vision and lead to the inculca-
ton of superstitions that can be erad-
icated only with the greatest difficulty.
Great Future Prophesed
what the schools have been in the
past and are today is only a slight
of what they are to be in the
future They are to push out into all
lines and the mere drilling OF the pu
pills in book learning will be one of the
less important features. They will set
the pupils at creative work along all
lines. They will minister TO the adult
population as we'll as to the immature
will become the great cathedral CEN
ters of every community to which all
will repair for their daily or weekly
inspiration in the higher things of life.
THE churches must learn a lesson
from the schools. The church needs to
be taught humility--that the great
things and the ultimate things are con-
talned in and are to be found in the
things near at hand. The church will