DANCER OF FORMALISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 147, 23 June 1937, Page 13

DANCER OF FORMALISM

(To the Editor.)

S?r,—l do not hope to say the last word concerning the Bible-in-Schools controversy, but I beg space for. a few thoughts. My first objection to the proposed change is that it is controversial, as is fairly evident by now. Not only are there those who honestly disagree with the introduction of religion as such, but there are those who honestly do not believe in the religion of the churches. I regret an apparent attempt to carry-over as taken for granted that all good people are with the churches, but that it not the poirrt; which is, that there is,' beyond all hope of smoothing over, a cleavage, and this is what we do'not want. We have at present no rich' and poor, no politics, nothing calculated to divide into distinct camps; let us keep to' this. One of the chief objections is playing into the hands, if I may so put it, of empty formalism;- If a man is either the one of the other outrightly and wholeheartedly, then well and good; but' if he calls himself a member .of some church, and do ho.more about it, then not at all good.' I am behind the scenes, and know the danger. To go through any forms merely as forms, much more to lead a life of empty form, brings deterioration. That is the point of ' our assistant-secretary's objection that the' lesson' would be a thing apart, undiscussed, and unrelated to the rest of the activities. I do not wish to see our children swell the already large number of formalists. Try to imagine the effect of this unrelated lesson on a child from a home where religious observances are nonexistent or few. .'Remember that most of the- homes could be "so described. Could anything -be more unfavourable to clear-mindedness?—l am, etc.,-' • ANOTHER TEACHER.