RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS

Southland Times, Issue 25704, 13 July 1943, Page 6

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS

5 Sir, —We should all thank you for , your patient acceptance of letters on !»• both sides, and for your thoughtful 5 leading article on the decay of faith. We • should, too, be grateful to “Veritas” 1 for his able replies. I myself have also ' to acknowledge the right you give me ■ to have the last word in this corres- > pondence. The more I read the letters ] of those . who support the Bible-in-i' Schools movement, the more I am cer--1 tain that there is too much narrowness and too little tolerance in them (sincere ' and earnest though they are) to make their doctrines acceptable, supposing we could force ourselves to their belief—which, as has been said before, is an I impossibility. Those of us who are rationalists do not wish to interfere with the beliefs of others, but we cannot > submit when our children are to be of- , fered what we consider false teaching. ’ And, anyway, any intelligent child will be sceptical of such stories as that the sun, when commanded, stood still. Will he not ask what happens to the system of which the sun is a part?—to the planets and the other greater suns? The persecution of teachers and children who do not, and cannot, join in the Christian beliefs is no figment of the imagination, even if it takes the form only of the whispered comment passed from one to another. Our religion is a private matter, sacred to ourselves and sometimes quite unintelligible to others who have different opinions. As for conduct, we have all seen some of the kindest and most charitable acts done by the unbelievers, so often people of integrity and the highest ideals. They look for no rewards such as are offered in the joys of Heaven: they are satisfied if they can do their duty as they see it and occasionally they, too, find the peace that passeth understanding. PARENT. [This correspondence is now closed.—Editor, The Southland Times.]