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JIZO, BUT NOT JESUS

WHAT THE CHILDREN LEARN TEACHING BY NEGATION Preaching at St. Anne's Church, Northland, on Sunday evening, Canon Garland said:— I hold in my hand a "School Journal" for tho present month of May, I'art I, for Classes 1 and 2, the young children. In this "Journal" I find over fivo pages given to a lesson: "Jizo, tho Friend of Japanese children." Now, what are you going to draw from that? Let us listen: "According to their belief, Jizo loves and protects little children when they die." "The loving Jizo, comforter and playfellow of all the child souls." Is it a lesson about Jesus Christ, do you think? It is nothing of the sort. It is a lesson about a heathen legendary god. Who, this "Journal" says, and correctly, is one of tho bo3t beloved gods in Japan. It says how Jizo lias always about his feet and hands,' in the folds of his robe, and wherever room can be found to place them, hundreds of pebbles and ' small stones, which are prayers from the hearts of the children. Every stone if offered, with a prayer from the heart "helps' some little dead child in tho place of shadows." "The legend irvery old; it was written by a piicst nearly a thousand ago. "Let me toll you tho story, and after hearing it you will vasily understand that the people who believe it must dearly love the god Jizo. When little children die, says the legend, their souls go to the Sai-no-Kawara. . . . And it is here that • Jizo is their playfellow and friend." The lesson speaks of the "loving Jizo, friend and comforter of all the child souls who dwell there." Canon Garland continued:—This is a Christian land, and we. can tell, and tell beautifully, the story of a heathen Jizo, a purely legendary god, and we cannot tell the story of Jesus Christ, Who came down from heaven and died for children, Who gavo His lifo. for tho children, Whoso story is no myth, but a historical fact. We can teach heathen mythology, but wo cannot teach about Jesus Christ. We nan tell tho children of the beliefs of a foreign nation, but we must not tell them of the belief of tlifeir own nation and their own people? Japan believes in teaching.its children tho stories which have built up their people. Wo by law prohibit the one .. story which, more than anything else in all our history, has made our nation what it is/ There are over five'pages devoted to a heathen story. I a'sk :' Where are there fivo pages telling tho story of Jesus Christ put into children's hands in school?v And this is not the.only time: Last August I remember there were five pages- given to'the story of Mahomet and Mahometanism,' and ,'the Koran, and a page also given to tho precepts of Confucius: ''Then I asked the question: Why should not the Ten Commandments be placed on tho' same level as tho precepts of; Confucius? Think of it. The Ten Commandments are part of the law of every English-speaking people, they aro incorporated into our Constitution, but wo must not tell the children of them in school, though we can tell them tho precepts of Confucius. It is absurd, but it is something nfore. We ought"' to beat our breasts in shame at tho way in which we have cast-contempt npon all that has made ns what we are to-day. Yes, it was well.' prophesied by noblo men in tho New Zealand parliament in 1877 that the rosult of making the Education Act "entirely secular" would mean that heathen gods and goddesses could walk in at the school doors, but the one true God in Whom our people believed l was to be locked and bolted out. They pointed out.tho effect of -tho law then being passed, and their words lyivo como true. Mahomet, Confucius, Jizo, an imaginary god, hut not Jesus. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. I* do not say it is wrong to teach those stories. I say 'that it is a good thing that tho children should bo taught of the religions of other nations, they should know something about them. That is essential to a right understanding of tho character of other nations. But is it not equally necessary, more necessary, that they should bo taught tho religion of the country in which they live, the religion which' has mado it possible 'for them to live in this country," tho religion which has made tho Empire of which they form a p.art what it is? I am not finding fault with the editor of the "School Journal." Ho is complying with the law of the land, which says the teaching shall he "entirely secular." Mark this, the masters of ethics—l do not mean the little-great men wo sometimes hear about, but.. , tho great men whom tho world' recognises as masters in ethics — say clearly and positively that teaching by negation is a more definite way of impressing the. child's mind than -making a positive statement. What they moan is this: that to say to the child "There is no God" would not have tho same detrimental effect upon the mind of tho child' as the entire exclusion of, or ignoring the existence of, God. Tho moment you say "There is no God" you excite a question in the child's mind as to whether there is a God, but the State by negation teaches with all its weight that God—as Christian people, the English nation believe in Him—is of no account. This sort of thing has been'tolerated for 37 years. The people wore never directly consulted about it, and for 37 years tho people have protested in vain, in Parliament and out of Pai--1 liamont, in churches, out of churches. Now to-day what are we asking?' AVe 1 are not merely protesting, we are asking.something more —we are asking that 1 the people of New Zealand-shall he al- ' lowed to express their opinion as to 1 whether the teaching of ".Jizo" is to ' go on with all the authority of tho State, and the teaching of Jesus is alone ' to be debarred. Wo do not fear tho re--1 suit onco the people are asked to say 1 yes or no. Our complaint is they have [ iiover been allowed to say yes or no. '' The question before us is: Shall tho peoplo of New Zealand bo allowed an . opportunity of saying whether tho knowledgo of God as declared by Jesus Christ' is to continuo to be tho only prohibited subject in the schools or not?-

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19140512.2.56

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2146, 12 May 1914, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,107

JIZO, BUT NOT JESUS Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2146, 12 May 1914, Page 6

JIZO, BUT NOT JESUS Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2146, 12 May 1914, Page 6

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