BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1933, Page 3

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I do not agree with your correspondents who advocate Bible teaching in schools. I gave Scripture lessons daily in a Church of England boarding school, but we were all Anglicans, and it was not a State school. I should like to put two questions to your correspondents: (1) Is it the duty of the State to teach religion? (2) If so, what religion? If some of the ardent advocates of Bible teaching in schools would concentrate on securing more soap and water and more clean- 1 liness in the care of school buildings, 1 they would be doing God’s work j nobly. I am, etc.,

ALICE J. GREVILLE

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Ro " Wahed V reply to H.R.B.'s letter on "Bible in Schools." I am not an upholder of the faith of orthodoxy or of any of the so-called churches or sects of Christendom as it is today, excepting that "one faith" founded by Jesus Christ and preached by His Apostles (the nucleus of that despised little sect which was "everywhere spoken again," and which remains both small and despised to this very day). I have the honour to claim allegiance to this "one- faith," and, according to its requirements, I must "earnestly contend for it" (Judo). Therefore I challenge either H.R.B. or "Wahed," or anyone else, to show, either in public or through your valued paper, that the Bible teaches that frightful calumny against the God of Israel: "The eternal torment of the wicked in Hell." As to the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish prepared by God, perhaps '' Wahed'' thinks he knows better , than Jesus Christ, who upheld that ' story. As to Balaam's Ass, let i "Wahed" and all those interested, if they have any hope beyond this present life, read what the Apostle Peter has to say about it in 2nd Peter 2, verses 15 and 16. And let "Wahed" take heed lest he come under the condemnation referred to in verse 12 of ; that same chapter. I am, etc.,

A. P. FISHER.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The letters of "H.R.8." and "Waned" both raise controversial points impossible to be dealt with properly in the colums of a newspaper, but they agree that the Bible should be taught in our schools, and will be glad to know probably that their agreement is being increasingly shared by the parents of the children. The Whangarei Ministers' Association has taken a poll of nearly 20 schools on j the adoption of the Nelson system of Biblical instruction and in every ease a majority in its favour has been recorded. This, however, provides for half an hour only on one day of the week, while the proposed Bible in Schools Religious Exercises Bill would commence each day's teaching in a similar manner. This, would approximate to the system instituted by the London School Board long ago, and now being extended by the 'Agreed Syllabuses' largely adopted in different towns and counties in England. On this system, in the course of his ordinary school career, a child would receive instruction in the life and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, and some account of the work of His Apostles, together with an acquaintance with the outstanding men and women and facts of the Old Testament, thus laying a solid foundation of Scriptural knowledge which undoubtedly has proved of great value to very many people.' Hoping for the adoption of something on these lines in New Zealand, I am, etc.,

W. HEATHEE. Secretary Whangarei Ministers' Assn