ARE WE PAGANS?

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 91, 16 April 1908, Page 3

ARE WE PAGANS?

BISHOPS AND CLERGY TO BLAME. AN OUTSPOKEN VICAR. AUCKLAND, April 13. The Rev... "William Beatty, vicar of St. Mark's, Remuera, always a plainspoken preacher and a fearless critic, stated in a sermon last night that if ' people are becoming pagans the bis-' hops and clergy are to blame. "I am quite convinced," he said,, "that the main responsibility for the exclusion of .religious teaching from the public schools of the Dominion lies ; at the door of , religious people in j general, and of ministers or religion: m particular. It' is a matter or history that endowments for educational purposes were misused or perverted by different religious bodies,! and that * gran J>> of money were secured by hishonest means. It is a matter of experience that religious divisions and the ill-will, jealousy,, suspicion, and contempt which How" from them, hinder any general agreement in the direction of a safe and efficient method for providing religious instruction in the public schools, , and it is, well-, known that ministers of religion in , general make jap attempt to avail themselves of .the. opportunities afforded under the present Education Act for Scriptural teaching outside school hour>, but prefer to declaim in the press, in the pulpit, or on the platform against the defects of the law, to exaggerate the evils, and depreciate the benefits of fhe existing system In niy Judgment the agitation for the introduction of the Bible into the schools is largely insincere and artificial, and has _ little solid earnest conviction behind it." ■* ' ~ '"There is' very little evidence," continued Mr Beatty, "that ministers of themseslves know "the Bib^e, reverence it^ seek lo understand or obey'it. If they did they -would see and confess the evils of re- j ligious divisions, and they jpould set themselves to repent of their own sins and amend their own faults, instead of attacking others; for the Bible all through bears witness that the spiritual and moral condition of a nation depends upon the spiritual and moral condition of religious teachers and professors; that the sins of the priest are the chief causes of the sins of the people; that judgment must begin from the House of God." He went on to remark that if what was called secular education was seriously defective it did not follow that what was called religious education must necessarily be good and whole- .? some. That depended entirely upon the nature of the .religion taught, as there had always been religious teaching that was false, superstitious^- irrational, which enfeebled the mind, and perverted the conscience, which bred hypocrisy, dishonesty, cowardice, slavishness, inhumanity, and contempt of others. .

"For my own part," declared Mr Beatty, "I say deliDerktely that I would rather send a child to a school where'he. received no religious teaching at all, but where, by precept, example and influence, he was trained to he truthful, honest, obedient, brave, unselfish, and public-spirited, than send him to a seminary where _ his | mind was filled with religious triviali- j ties, where the principles of abject submission to human authority were inculcated, and where he was encouraged to consider himself possessed | of exclusive spiritual privileges, and to hate or despise those who held different rites of worship. A child might t>e taught at home to love God, thus supplying some of the deficiencies of secular education, but no parent could reasonably hope to correct the subtle and profoundly demoralising influences of bad religious teaching., No child need grow up a pagan even if ho does not learn the Bible at school, 1 but if I had to choose between the two I would rather be an honest, kindly, useful,-manly pagan than a crooked, shuffling, treacherous, cruel pharisee. So far as my experience goes, most parents in New Zealand desire their children to receive a religious trainins; in public schools, and in private schools Bible classes,, conducted by Christian ministers, are freely attended by children of all denominations, and no right-minded man would take advantage of the opportunity to draw children from the faith of their rathersj to win proselytes to his own body/ ' "The religious difficulty," he concluded, "which originally called into existence, and still maintains the system of secular education is mainly due | , to the want of confidence between the ministers of the various Christian bodies, and the want of confidence on the part of the public in ministers pronerally. If the people are becomiir- pagans._ it is bishops and clergy Ice <r ...on: p-gaus. v