RELIGION AND THE NATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGION AND THE NATION

By the - - - Rev. C. W. Chandler

SINCE the war started, and particularly since children have ■ been evacuated from crowded 1 areas in England to safer retreats in the country,"the absolute insuf- ; ficiency of our present system of secular education has been brought to light. What can be said of England can also be said ■ of New Zealand. Our State i system of education is producing ■ crops of half educated pagans. I say half-educated advisedly, because • education has to do with the whole man, • arid a system which leaves the greatest ! character-building influence, namely, re- ' ligion, out in the cold is entirely inade- [ quate. That heated controversies have » been waged over this matter in times past I am fully aware, nevertheless, I ; dare to affirm that the day Avhen the i State commenced to take over the sole [ responsibility for educating the young ; was a sorry day for the world as a i whole. ; A soulless machine is busy turning out a standardised product which, in , part, is responsible for the growth of totalitarian ideals. "Godliness is an indispensable part of good learning," says an English schoolmaster, and "keenness pnd a lively faith are more important qualifications in the teacher than the possession of diplomas or degrees, for religion that is worth having is cauglit rather than taught," he concludes. The London "Times" has recently _ published two leading articles upon this "" important subject, and the Australian Catholic Truth Society has very wisely published these articles in pamphlet form, together with a sheaf of letters \ which also appeared in "The Times" in J connection therewith. Our War Aim Hero we are, supposedly fighting for tho defence of Christian principles, and a very large number of our children attending our State schools in New 7 Zealand depend upon one half-hour a week for gaining any knowledge of Christian truths. In consequence of this more than half of tbem, at a rough, estimate, can barely say the Lord's Prayer correctly. I grant that this is as much a. reflection on the parents as on the school, but here again the parents are tho product of the same system. Tho sins of omission of the fathers and mothers is being visited on the children, although the omission in this case was

not the parents* fault. They are not teaching in the home to-day:, what they" did not learn in the, school yesterday. ' Nineteen out of thirty-one 'children who were asked by:, an English country clergyman what happened on the • first Christmas Day could not provide the answer. Very much the same" condition of affairs obtains in New Zealand, if,l: got "Our Father Wizard in : heaven": from a high school girl recently. Edward Thring, of Uppingham, sixty years ago said: "Education without God only makes clever devils, who are more dangerous to society than stupid ones." Because I feel that, our present "Nelson" system in New Zealand is entirely inadequate and even harmful, I find myself ou£ of sympathy , with what is known as the Bible in Schools League. I recognise that half a loaf is better than none with regard to most matters, and I do not fail to appreciate the immense amount of good work the league has attempted, but if the sum total of its efforts is shown in half an hour a week outside the curriculum, plus a small devotional exercise in "some" places every day, then I feel that it; has only succeeded in impressing upon the child mind the generally accepted idea that religion is a' sort of vermiform appendix, all right stuck on as an unimportant extra, but which at any time can be cut out or cut off without endangering the life cf the patient. Of course it can rightly be said that the State cannot teach religion; that is the Church's province. Just so, and because it is, education in its fullest sense is the Church's province too. In this matter the Roman Catholic Church is on sound lines. Religion cannot be taught just as a subject, it must be experienced. Our children should be brought up in the atmospheregoi God, that is if we are sincere in our desire to uphold our socalled Christian civilisation. My whole case stands or falls upon the sincerity or otherwise of those who so constantly affirm that this is precisely what we are fighting for. Days of Prayer With every National Day of Prayer we find our churches thronged with people, more than half of whom never come at any other time. The effort is thereby rendered more than half a mockery and a sham. These less-than-

casual-worshippers cannot beliefs i a God and His power to help our cau se If they did, they would no longer bo s 0 casual about their religion. This g equally true of those who do come more frequently, and who, if thev rsallv believed would see to it that the Churrt ' was rarely empty any day of the *tek or any hour of the day. "£v; Our pagan educational system''i 8 largely responsible for this state of affairs. God is merely a last resort. He has little or no claim upon the lives of ot er : half tlie population of this Dominion, in' . spito of the fact that we utter His j Sacred-Name every time wo enter.; a f. picture house or attend any public >" entertainment. . . Why cannot we face facts J The eon. r dition of affairs 20 years hence will ■ even worse than it is to-flay if the posi: s tion is not radically'changed at once." ' Recruiting Stations ' By way of an effectual remedy I sn „. 5 gest that in every town a recruiting ' station be opened, with the following ' notice prominently displayed: ° f i RECRUITS IV ANTED . ' L FOB TIIE 6 | ARMY OF THE LIVING COD. , Insido the station, officers of the , various churches should be seated ready , to witness tho signatures of all who . sign on, and to draft them to' their > various regiments, Pr-sbyterian, Roman j Ca.Miolic, Church of England, Methodist; , Baptist, and so on. Every recruit I should undertake to be on parade in , Church every Sunday and to attend j special classes of instruction. Everv r recruit should further be required to . wear prominently displayed on his or her person a cross with regimental num. ber stamped on the back thereof. - ; In addition to this all those who ' enlist should, at noon each day/ matter where they may be, pause-for 1 two minutes' prayer. Be it in the middle of a husy street, over a washtub, or out jn a field, it matters not.' There should alco be occasional processions of witness by way of demonstration. The initiative for such an effort must rest with the Church, and even before this appears in print I think 1 shall have started in my own parish. ■ Just imagine what such an army of men and women, boys and girls, say, 250,000 strong, all pledged to prayer and worship, love and service could do in this country at this moment. 'In.the name of One Who said; "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, 'remove to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing 6hall be impossible unto you,'" there is no telling what far reaching results such an effort could' achieve.