The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-03-19
Is In Earnest About
Inter.ChurCh Movement


Interchurch World Movement Meet
in Grenada. Gives Figures Worthy
of Thought.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
There are but three ways to give
the American people religious ed
ucation. First, by teaching religion
in the Public Schools. Second, by
withdrawing our children from the
Public Schools and establishing ParO-
chial Schools where religious and sec
ular subjects may be taught under
the auspices of the Church. Third,
by teaching religion in our homes
and in our churches. This would re-
quire the building of system of re-
hgiouS schools paralleling and coop
Grating with the Public Schools. The
first of these three methods violates
our principles Of the separation of
the Church and State. The second
would destroy the Public School sys-
American Democracy The third
is the only method consistent with
the fundamental principles of the
that the price which we must pay
for our religious liberty is whatever
price it may cost to build system
of religious education which will par
allel the public schools and be equally
efficient. And though we are reveal
ing many defects in our system of
public schools, it has clearly shown
the importance of rural education,
the necessity for a complete program
of physical and health education, the
need Of radical measures to reduce
adult illiteracy, and the necessity for
the preparation and supply of compe-
tent teachers and the equalizing of
educational opportunities.
The Smith Towner Bill now pend
ing before Congress is the Nations
educational program for the recon-
struction period. This bill creates
a Department of Education in our Ma
tional Government and places a sec
retary of education in the President
cabinet For the first time in our
Nations life it provides a national
educational policy. This is done with
out limiting the initiative and self
government of Cities and States. The
active support of this bill by the
Church is but an expression of deep
seated conviction of the Protestant
Church that Christian citizens should
aid the State in guaranteeing ade-
quate educational privileges to all the
children of the Nation regardless of
whether they are born the sons of
wealth or in the midst of poverty.
The man who stimulates an interest
in the raising of corn and hogs in
the United States has seat in the
Presidents cabinet as Secretary of
Agriculture. Why should not the
man who stimulates an interest in the
education of boys and girls in our
country also have seat in the
Presidents cabinet and be known as
the Secretary of Education? Our
present national emergency makes it
important that every Christian citi-
zen should actively support the Smith
Towner bill, which is the most i'm
portant piece of educational lekisla-
tion ever presented to an American
Congress. We have set out to build
the most effective system of Public
Schools that the world has ever seen.
These schools will give us a people
physically and mentally capable of
sustaining a socialized industrial de-
mocracy
But the Democratic State has not
yet established the machinery which
will conserve and perpetuate the NOR
al and spiritual achievements of the
race and guarantee that the citizen
of Ln Tod
by the highest of moral and spiritual
ideals. Democracy must learn how
to make intelligence and righteous
ness coextensive. The national pub
lie educational system must be sup
plemented by a unified program of
religious education which will guar
antee the moral and spiritual ideals
of our children.
The survey of the American Re-
ligious Education Survey Department
of the Interchurch World Movement
has revealed five facts which should
startle the church people of America
out of their self-satisfed compla-
cency and cause them to enter upon
a holy crusade for the religious nur-
ture of the childhood of America.
/. The Unreached Millions. There
are in round numbers 58,000,000 peo-
pie in the United States who are not
identified with any church, either
Jewish, Protestant or Catholic, ap-
proximately 100000 of this number
are nine years old or under, leaving
.an army of 5O,000,000 who have
reached the age Of accountability,
nominally Protestant, who are not
identified with any church. There are
in the United States 53,197 $50 chill
dren and youth under. % years OF
age. Of this number only 16,318,-
600 receive any form of systematic
instruction either in Jewish, Protest
ant or Catholic religious schools.
There are 1926, 900 children and
youth under 25 years of age in the
p-ot oafant Church homes of the uuite