Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-15
by CHARLES II. PARKHURsr.

when a question keeps arising notwith
attending all efforts that are made t
keep 1t down, the necessary inference Is
that Il will have to be dealt with and con
structively answered sooner or later. Suca
a question is that of religions In schools
which has again emerged to the surface
In connection with the discussion OF the
Gary system.
IL appears that the idea involved in
that system is, so far as relates to re-
ligious training. to classify the pupils ac-
cording to the religious affiliations, or
better perhaps, according to their de-
norninational affiliations and to train
-rs4sln off into distinct groups to be sever
ally instructed by religious teachers
clergymen, priests or rabbis, according to
the distinctive tenets of each group.
Now, not only on religious grounds, but
from a statesmanly point of view any
method Of dealing with this question
which creates in the minds OF children
distinct lines Of cleavage is vicious.
From a religious standpoint 1t is vicious,
for che rason that it necessarily creates
in the young mind the idea that re-
liSfon. in and ct itself is not 90 bNt
manifold, three-fold at least, and this too
at a time when there is general move
mept.. away from the diversity and m IL
tiplicity, taYard unity.
1t is similarly open to criticism from a
civic and statesuanly point ~ Vi w
Religious 5ivergcnces and antagonists
are more divisive than perhaps any other
Religion purely conceived so touches the
deep places IN our nature that rivalrieS
i'm that sphere, especially If they reach
to the point Of antlpathies, work inhar'
nlony of the most irreconcilable kind and
ifsengendered in the minds Of the young
can have no other effect than to issue
farther on in cleavages seriously i'm
peFilling civic unity.
1t is difficult to see how such cleav-
aaes can be more effectively and dsas
tr5usly started than by the method o.
frank and emphatic segregation proposed
nS%y the Gary system. Now religion is one
q thing and Professionalism, Roman
CStholimism, Judaism, or If you please
NIohammedanism, is each of them a dis
tfnct thlng-distinct so far as this, tina
they each of them include differing ele
msnts of their own, and yet at the SAM
time they are of one with each other il
50 far as they participate in the on
universal conviction Of a Div NJ Bei1
/ say universally because in the com
parison the exceptions are so few as t
be negligible. Now therein is furnished {
common basis. So far forth we stand TO
gether. To- that extent we have a DOM
npmity of religious belief. Amy thre
most conservative representatives Of tn
religious bodies just mentioned can com
together on that basis and most sincerel!
fraternize And not only that, bat thi
same belief In God is the fundamenta
afhcles off faith in each OF the three com
nnnnions. 1t is that upon which all othe
articles are founded and from which the,
derive their theoretical or their practica
Significance.
The introduction OF religion to that ex
tent ran have alleged a - MT H. tn %
prtoA objections. But such introduction
need not at all involve the idea of max
ing religion distinct branch of study
a policy which almost inevitably degen
crates into somothirE very much Tx
theology. But the Divine Being stands /
vital relation to man and nature In a
their aspects. He stands behind natur
as SIS Creator and Us the active cnergr
n nature and operant there He is rulin
y %2ctor in life and history and in maxim
them subservient to His purposes. 1t
His will that we respect when we d
right and His will that we resist when W
do wrong.
Now, any teacher who is 4 believer /
God can make those ideas effective in tn
pupils mind while working along the lin
OF usual secular instruction and thus tn
idea Of God and of His relation to every
thing that is of common earthly cor
Germ be made Ineligible to the pupils an
Of influential interest to him without trei
passing by so much as hairs breadt
upon territory that is distinctively Pro
testant, Catholic or Jewish.
A letter has just come to me froI
a man in Brooklyn, suggested by a state
ment recently made in this column I
the effect that sufficient leisure tim
should be allowed TO the working class
to leave them opportunity for self-in
provement. In such matters a practici
example works more effectively tina
precept or theory. A difficult thing b,
comes easy and an imprGcticable thin
possible when once we have seen
done.