TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1931, Page 13

TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE

ADVOCATED IN SCHOOLS.

“MOULDER OF CHARACTER.”

“It makes my blood boil when I: hear people talk as though the introduction of the Bible into the schools would create sectarianism, when for more'than fifty years the system of education in 'New Zealand has been narrowly and viciously sectarian,” declared Canon Percival James, of Wellington, speaking lit a united intercession service at Masterton in the interests of the Bible-in-Schools Bill. ■

“What else is it but sectarian,” he continued, “a system which reflects the opinion of a tiny minority of the people of this country —a system which bans from the schools the Word of God as though it were pernicious literature—that denies the children the great influence of the Bible, which has had the greatest moral influence in shaping the character of the people throughout , the centuries.”

Canon James declared that the exclusion of the Bible had been the most flagrantly undemocratic thing throughout the greater part of the history of the Dominion. He referred to plebiscites which had been conducted throughout New Zealand a few years ago among parents of children to ascertain their views on the question, It was shown that well over 80 per cent, of the, people favoured the Bible in the schools, yet how was it excluded? They were living in a most difficult era, he stated. The old restraints had gone, the old conventions, the old taboos, were discountenanced, and the young people were thrown up against a furnace of temptations ten times hotter than they knew. They needed to use every power they could lay their hands on to strengthen the mould that built up the people, and there was no more patent power than religion. If they kept the Bible out of the teacher’s hand, they took the moulding of character out of his hand and removed the crowning glory of his vocation as a teacher.