Education and Crime

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 33, 2 November 1933, Page 13

Education and Crime

Sir.—When “H. 0.8. argues that the words of Jesus. “Render unto Caesar, etc.,” prohibit the use of the Bible in promoting morality in .State schools, no wrenches the words from. their setting. The words teach the obligation to pay Caesar hie dues, and similarly to render to God what is due to Him. To draw from thia wise saying the conclusion that the State has no obligation with regard to God, or that God has po claim on the actions of the State, that religion and public education must be divorced, or that a sound educational system must oust God from any place in it, is to treat this wise saving of Christ in a way quite at variance with His own teaching. Does "H. 0.8.. who quotes the words of Jhe Great Teacher, believe for a moment uiat He would commend an educational system that prohibited a teacher of His ‘little ones” from using any word that He ever uttered? Let him face the question. Home teachng (Deut. vi, 6-1) : rhe command to teach at home surely does not prohibit similar teaching elsewhere. Home and school teaching should be in harmony. „ , . . _ Liberty of conscience: How to interpret the proclamation of Queen "V ictona about liberty in religious belief is shown bv England’s educational system. iv ■rives the right for religious education without coercion of conscience ; it does not prohibit it. New Zealand withholds the right from those who claim it. The upholders of an entirely secular system compel those who disapprove of tjie divorce of all religious elements from education to accept what their consciences disapprove, nnd pay for it. In nnv sound system of public euuca tion legal rights of conscience car i be met only by providing the secularist with a secular system, and the religionist Pith a religious' system.—l am., etc " Bo B Feilding, October 31.