ARE WE BECOMING PAGANS ?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13723, 13 April 1908, Page 8

ARE WE BECOMING PAGANS ?

REV. W. BEA'TTY'S VIEWS. LACK OF BIBLE TEACHING. "MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE." fx the opinion of the Rev. Wm. Bcatty, vicar of St. Mark's, Remuera, bishops and clergy are to blame if people nowadays are becoming pagans. In the course of a plain-spoken sermon, delivered at bu. Mark's, last night, the rev. gentleman dealt pretty thoroughly with the subject, around which controversy has raged since the publication of the recent utterances at Home of Bishop, Neligan. His criticisms of ministers of religion were candid and trenchant. . Mr. Beatty commenced by remarking that there was a great- stir at present about the question of religious and secular education. It had been stated that owing to the want of religious instruction in schools many people in New Zealand were already, or were becoming, pagans. It was asserted that the introduction of religious instruction into the public schools would remedy this deplorable condition of things. Now, for my own part," said the preacher, I believe firmly that an education that is deficient in the knowledge of God is essentially defective. I accept heartily the principle that the fear of Cod is the beginning of wisdom, and that to know howto make a tight use of learning is as important as to acquire learning. I cannot accept the theory that human nature is constructed, so to speak, in water-tight compartments, and that the intellect, the r " will, the conscience, the affections, the emotions, can be educated and developed altogether separately. At the same time there are certain facts I cannot ignore. For one thing, I am quite convinced that the main responsibility for the exclusion of religious teacliing from the public schools of the Dominion lies at the door of religious people in general, and of _ ministers of religion in particular. It is a matter of history that endowments for educational purposes were misused or perverted by different religious bodies, and that grants of ,•!' money were secured by. dishonest means. It is a matter of experience thjit religious divisions, and the ill-will, jealousy, suspicion and contempt which flow from them, • ! hinder any general agreement in the direction of a safe and efficient method for pro- £ Tiding religious instruction in the public Vschools. And it is "well known that ministers of religion in general make no attempt to- avail themselves of the opportunities afforded under the present Education Act for Scriptural teaching outside school hours, 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 - the existing ;. , system.' In my 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. .Beatfcy, "that ministers of religion themselves know the Bible, reference it, seek to understand or obey it. If they did, they would see and confess the evils of religious divisions. And they would 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 m'oral condition of ;L 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 twilled religious education must necessarily be good md wholesome. That depended entirely upon the nature of the religion. There was, 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 in humanity, and contempt of others. " For my own part," declared Mr. Beatty, ''I say deliberately that I would f 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 be truthful, honest, obe- } dient. brave, unselfish, and public-spirited —than send him t-c a seminary where his mind was filled with religious trivialities, where the principles of abject submission to - human authority were inculcated; and S where ho was encouraged to consider himself possessed of exclusive spiritual privileges, and to hate or despise those who held a different form of belief, or practised different rites of worship." A child might be taught at home to love God, thus sup- £ plying some of the deficiencies of secular education. But no parent could reason- } ably hope to correct the subtle and profoundly demoralising influences of bad rei ligious teaching. f y " No child need grow up a pagan, even if he does not learn the Bible at school," the preacher said; " But if I had to choose between " the' two I would rather be an is honest, kindly, useful, manly pagan, than a crooked, shuffling, treacherous, cruelPharisee. So far as my experience goes : most parents in New Zealand desire their : children to receive a religious training. . . . Tn public schools, and in private schools, Bible classes, conducted by Christian ministers, are freely attended "by children of all denominations. • And no rightminded man would tike advantage of°the opportunity _to draw children from the faith of their fathers to win proselytes to $ his own body.; The, religious difficulty," B lie 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 tie various Christian bodies, and the want of confidence on the part of the public in ministers generally. If the people are becoming pagans, it is bishops and clergy who are doing most to make, and to keep, them pagans."

, Sir,— letters on the above subject of most of your correspondents in Thursday's Ht.rald seem to call for a word of reply from me. I shall try to he as brief as possible. Replying to the first letter—(a) The danger of a lapse into paganism, owing to secular education, would mainly be in the country districts, not the town:;. When the Bible was removed from the schools only one among many opportunities > of Bible teaching was removed from the town scholar; but virtually every odportunity was taken from the country scholar. (b) A large number of the clergy have tried, and not a few are frying to " use the opportunities" (such as they are). The writer tried for three years. He held classes in three schools, one before school, another :'n the dinner hour, the third after school. Only a small proportion of scholars attended and those manifestly least in need of special Bible teaching. I believe most of the clergy have had a somewhat similar experience, (i. ) The duties of the clergy are " too absorbing" for them to undertake the work —(remember we are speaking mainly of the country, not of the towns). To take • the parish I know most about: There are 11 schools in this parish, and to supply them would involve for each visit an average journey of 14 miles (including the school nearest home). To do this work properly would take all of one man's time and energy. Replying to the second letter(a) Per--1 sonally I would not, " throw obstacles" in anyone's way, for I would sooner see any Bible teaching given in day or Sundayschool than none, (b) The remarks about the '"good heathen Japanese" are not in "Conflict but in harmony with what 1 wrote 5 ibut "well-conducted heathen." • } '■■■ , Replying to the fourth letter, I still u Void to my statement that "the greater number of. children go to no Sunday-school whatever."' (It. must be kept in mind ■ r that the controversy is mainly on the ! country districts). I take it for granted

that the figures quoted are correct. While, however, the day scholars ate spread all over the country, the Sunday scholars are mainly confined to the towns. Moreover, the Sunday-school figures need discounting owing to the fact that children attend Sunday-school at an earlier age than they attend the day school. Replying to the fifth letter —(a) The " facilities'" are a myth. 1 do not know that the school at Cambridge is open to me. Committees frequently refuse the clergy permission to teach, and there is no appeal. Moreover, the experience the writer had in the past, as given above, debars his doing anything further in this direction, -(b) The unanimity with which the clergy in the city declined to respond to the invitation of the City Schools Committee, as referred to by your correspondent, is at least significant of their general conviction •of the hopelessness of feeing able to do any satisfactory work. They are experts and they know. Replying to the last letter(a) 1 will take the second remark first. Personally f should like to see the hours of Sundayschool less limited ;" but scholars, and sometimes teachers, rebel. It is only possible for the writer to be at one Sundayschool in this parish, and there only once in three months. (b) Re "the clergy mending their ways," the writer has already mended his. When the present secular Act was first brought in, he tried to teach under it, but finding it impossible to do that, he now takes another course; and fairly claims to have an unworkable and unjust Act repealed, and the Bible restored to its proper place as a class book in all the schools of the Dominion. ' Wm. N. de L. Willis. ' The Vicarage, Cambridge. P.S.—The clergy have no desire to shirk any of their proper work. The work of the Slate and of the schools is to give the grounding in literature and history ; the work of the clergy and the Church is to apply it, and to draw lessons helpful to good living. Sir,lf one were to take for granted all that, has appeared in your columns on the above subject, the answer to the question would be " Yes," but I beg leave to differ with ea:;h and all of your correspondents who take that view. If Bishop Neligan did make the statement that we are becoming pagans, then he made a mistake.

I submit that many of the rising generation of this Dominion are growing up worse than pagans. This term was applied by the early Christians to those villagers who worshipped false gods: at the present day it is more properly applied to rude and uncivilised idolaters. The people of this country cannot be said to be uncivilised, therefore they are not. pagans, but they, i.e., many of them, are growing up without any religion or moral principles, and they are in this respect on a lower plane than the pagans of the early centuries, and fall far below the consistent followers of Confucius of the present day. , . History declares with no uncertain sound- that when the leaders of a State scoff at all religion and when these are copied by the commonality, then comes the collapse of that State. All, therefore, who have the true interests of this Dominion at heart- will do what they can to avert so great a calamity as. the collapse of this country. That "something ought to be, and must be, done is quite evident by the increase of juvenile crime. Many earnest and good men pin their faith in Bible-reading in our public schools. In this I believe they are ' mistaken; moreover, I do not think that this or any other Government will ever allow that Book to be a standard school book, firstly, because it is too large and unwieldy, and, secondly, because it would be manifestly unfair to force that Book on the children of Jews, Mahommedans, Parsees, etc. Clergymen of all denominations say that the hour or so on Sundays is not enough in which to train the youngsters of their respective flocks. There is some truth in that statement, for it is almost an impossibility to teach both the history and the tenets of the Christian religion in the short space of time they can give to the work on Sundays. I submit that the history should be taught in our week-day schools, then it would be an easy matter on Sundays to teach, say, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles' Creed. A simple, 'concise manual of the history of the Jews, and the more important facts of history as related in the Bible, aould surely be drawn up by and at a, conference of our bishops and clergy and laymen of all our religious bodies. Such, manual could be . used by any teacher, and such instruction would not be objected to by any parents. The various tenets of the innumerable religious bodies would be left for Sundays.. The difficulty has been not only in England, but also in this Dominion —the jealousy of some of the* leaders of the smaller religious "bodies, and npt being willing to meet in fair, open conference the leaders of the larger bodies. The "odium theologicum" should for nt e be bottled and tightly corked, and the subject faced like men, not fanatics. It must be clear to anyone that a youth's education ' is not complete, unless he gets a knowledge of the history of the principal events recorded in the Bible, and no ' Anglo-Saxon' should neglect to peruse and study some of the finest specimens of pure English as found in that Book. Selections of noble, elevating, soulinspiring passages from the Bible could be added.to the manual I have suggested, and that without treading on the corns of any religious denomination. -Unless something is done, and that soon, the youths of this -Dominion will become atheists; and atheism spells anarchy. ••• — George Wilks. East Tamaki. : ; . ■ >