The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-03
(The Roanoke Times. }

Many old fashioned Virginians and
Americans and it seems We are con-
signed by the suffragettes and profess
sional progressives from speaking for
anybody eIse-would shuddet at the
thought of having children brought
up in the capital city of this State
without knowledge of the Bible. DR..
Mcdaniel. in his sermon, said it is
The business of the parents to give
biblical instruction. Yet we have no
doubt he is interested actively in
various movements based on the as
sumption-and the fact--that parents
do not or cannot do their duty to
their children always According to
/ the statistics there are parents who
are ignorant, others who are debased
F.. or careless, some who are neglect
/ full Of the religious and intellect
+ dren DIR. McDaniel's theory is that
the community should equip the chill
+ dren of such parents with what he
calls eduCation--ahility to read, write
and calculate, knowledge OF some
facts of history and geography, ac-
=. quaintanCe with strictly secular litera-
ture and some bare precepts of law,
tlt@EeH6htp ana TnOFai1Iy. IHeTe the
duty and fiie44 of the community TO
the child stops. Nothing is TO be
taught or told of the foundations and
principles of all our Law. all our
morality, all our history and hopes.
No hint is 10 be given of the possible
beauty and the real purposes OF life.
OF the existence OF Creator, of our
possibilities TO ourselves. our fell
low men and our Maker. no glimpse
is TO he given outside tho text books
learned and rncited by note
Sending into society young women
and men SO trained and taught the
community would he "A Frankcnstcin
doing q wholesale business, manufac-
turing monsters 70 menace IL and de-
stroN il. creatures with KNOWLEDGE
Intellect and the natural passions
with carefully given ability to do evil
without counteraCting impulse to. good
or restraining instinct OF reverence
for God or humanity
The Bible in the schools. DR. Nc
Daniel says means union Of church
and State, violation OF the Virginia
bill Of rights and of the constitution
TIE some of us IL seems much nearer
and more dangerously union of
church and State when cIereyman,
with the authority of their churches
behind them, undertake to dictate to
their congregations and the public
on political questions sometimes
going SO far as to threaten excom-
munication and eternal punishment
10 men who vote against what the
preachers believe to tie right; TO men
who dare Ia express their own opinion
on matters of public policy. But how
far Is this sensitiveness against church
and State to go? Does il mean that
all religion Is TO be banished from
Our public afraira2 When. prayer TO
Almighty God is offered before the
daily sessions of our congress ard
legislatures frequently ending with
for Christ our Savior's sake. Amen, :"
ts II violation Of the hill Of rights
and the constitution There may he
ia these assemblaEes Jews atheists.
aguostjcs, 6nd people nf all shades
and kinds Of belief and Unbeiief pay
taxes to pay the ciergvtnen who pray
and the lawmakers who hear them.
no We invade the rights az any ef
these when we have expressed the
faith ana feeling of the vast majority
~ the people If the country and the
States?
The American people and the peo-
pie of Virginia have common sense
and tolerance, Nobody wants public
schools to be means Of PROSECUTING.
for shaking the faith of any child in
! the religion OF it's parents or for Civ
ing offense 70 the feelings OF any
citizen or child In all the country
schools the Bible is read regularly
, as part Of the duty Of the day Here
in Roanoke. where we have a mixed
population and taxpayers and chill
dren and teachers OF many -creeds.
discretion is used The Bible is used
as part of the daily manners and
morals instruction in tho lower
grades and otherwise in the upper.
care being taken to avoid doctrinal
passages The literature. many Of
the best beauties. so far as is reason
able the general spirit Of the book.
are instilled into the minds OF chill
dreu Of all kinds of parentage with
the belief that the knowledge will
make them better and more useful
citizens, regardless of who or what
or how they may worship
This is sensible and right and we
have here no talk of church and State,
no protest or denunciatory or alarm
Cd declarations and none of us feel
that our liberties or our souls are
, threatened Nobody is demanding
that the Bible be excluded. Being an
/ Intelligent people, Roanoke people
, realize that If we undertook to prune
|. out from our educational system the
e Bible and Christ and God and all
references to them we would have
-llttle left: that children brought up
barren of the Bible would go forth
with dreadful intellectual vacuity, to
say nothing of the moral lacking.
DR.. Mcdaniel objects to the use OF
the Bible in the schools even as litera-
ture. He is quoted as saying in his
sermon
ut takes a keenly trained mind to
appreciate the Bible as literature. To
foster literary appreciation Of the
Bible by means of daily selections an
accompanied by comment or discus
sion would he as hopeless "A task as
/ to create by the same methods appre-
| citation of Gibbon or Tennyson."
| Why n keenly trained mind should
| be needed to comprehend the majesti c
| periods and steadily continuing mar
| rative of Gibbon we cannot under
| stand, AS for Tennyson, veteran
| newspaper men with minds toughened
and made masculine by constant con-
| tact with the varying hard facts OF
| life, generally dismiss most of his
| work lightly with the gruff profess
| sional phrase that it is good woman
| stuff" and one authority has describ-
ed 1t, more elegantly, as intellectual
| lace work. But even a mind not
| keenly trained can appreciate the
| Charge of the Six Hundred Clara