RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

Southland Times, Issue 1732, 25 April 1873, Page 3

RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN SCHOOLS.

(From the London Daily Telegraph, Jan. 17.) There is a " Bull Ring" in Birmingham —a street so named because, in not very distant times, the populace enjoyed the old sport of seeing a bull tied to a stake and baited by dogs. The law has abolished the amusement ; but the members of the local School Board have invented an excellent substitute : they call before them the candidates for the office of schoolmaster, and torture them with theological questions of the keenest kind. Sydney Smith indicated a fierce martyrdom in the phrase " preached to death by wild curates;" but as all of them might have been of one divinity school, there would, perchance, be found n blessed monotony in the infliction dulling the sense of pain. At Birmingham, on Wednesday, there was no such advantage. The aspiring schoolmaster bad to face a Board of thirteen — ominous number! — representing at least a dozen distinct views on every point of modern theology. The minority clause had secured this sweet diversity ; a Roman CatbollC Triest, an Unitarian layman, an Independent minister, some Church of England clergymen, lay sceptics who " hold no form "of creed" and are equally tolerant of all, other laymen who believe no doctrines and are equally intolerant of all, together with very exceptional divines who have constructed systems of their own. One of the rules of the Board directs that " the Bible shall be read and taught" in Board Schools. This little resolution is a fossil from one of the more ancient strata of our educational geology. It was thought shortly after the Education Act was passed that, aB fish and fowl are sometimes served up with the bones taken out, there might be a religious teaching divorced from all dogma — an unsectarian Christianity to the teaching of which the most conscientious ratepayers could not object. We are not at all surprised that the idea should have been entertained. Clergymen and ministers of different creeds unite in other matters — in charity and public affairs; and as there are some leading doctrines common to all Christian Churches, it was hoped that the schoolmasters could teach them, abstaining from all controverted inferences. In the early days of Irish National Education a little book of religious and moral teaching was compiled under the careful eyes of Archbishop Whately and Archbishop Murray, and, thus doubly sanctioned, was read by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. This example probably inspired the Birmingham School Board. But the difficulties that surround the matter were amusingly illustrated in " the question" so relentlessly applied by the thirteen inquisitors — with many different shades of scepticism and superstition, of faith and doubt, represented in this Happy Family of school rulers. The first candidate was a Mr Ball. We can fancy him entering the room and "walking delicately," like Agag — not without some consciousness that he might be "hewed to pieces" before he was allowed to leave. He first fell into the hands of the Roman Catholic priest, Canon O'Sullivan. Having, ascertained that the teacher, before reading the Bible, would tell the children that it was "the Word of God," and "inspired," the Canon asked the candidate to explain what he meant by " inspiration " Here there was a pause. " Every word inspired ?" asked another member. " No," answered the candidate, " the translators might have failed," and finally he was " let off " on this point with a new answer put into his mouth by a friendly examiner, that " the translators were not inspired." Then came the crucial difficulty. To be examined by a parson or a priest is not so bad, because the candidate can easily guess the sect of his questioner by the shape of his collar or his coat ; but it is difficult to know a layman's views from the style or hue of his garments. Persons who object to eternal punishment do not wear any special waistcoats, and dark trousers are equally affected by the upholders and the opponents of the Athanaeian Creed. "Would you teach the doctrine of the Trinity ?" was the next query addressed to the unfortunate man : and, so far as that doctrine could be inferred from the well-known words in the Apostles 1 Creed, the answer was affirmative. " Would you teach the eternity of punishment?" was the next and more formidable question ; to which Mr Ball ingeniously replied, " I think all children must see that there must be some punishment for ill deeds, but as to what kind I don't think I should enter much upon it." Then up rose an Anglican Canon, who, quoting the passage, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," asked what the teacher's explanation would be. " I think," said the poor harassed man, " I should tell them that the punishment would be eternal." '* But," interposed another member of the Board, " would it not be better to say that that is an open question, and that the Church of England does not know whether it is eternal or not ?" No reply. He was next asked whether he would teach " the doctrine of the Atonement," but he was saved further torture by the kind interposition of a statistical theologian in the room, who interposed by saying, " Which ? There are at least twenty-five doctrines of the Atonement." So the question dropped. This must have been a great consolation to the unhappy examinee. If he thought himself hardly used in having had to explain the. amount and character of his teaching on the Trinity and Eternal Punishment, he must have been thankful that he had not to show which of the twenty-five phases of the other doctrine he intended to expound. He might have hoped that, as the members present were only thirteen, all the shades could not be represented, unless, indeed, each individual adopted two. The Unitarian members of the Board admitted that, intellectually, he seemed a suitable man, but objected that, if he taught the Trinity, he might "detach children

from the Unitarian faith." The Church- ■ men present did not see that this was any great objection. " But," persisted the Unitarian advocate, " suppose the position reversed, and a Unitarian candidate came before v*, and said that the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ was a superstition, and that he could not teach it to the children, would you vote for him ?" On which the representative of the Church said that the Unitarians ought to rest content with the Conscience Clause, and the consciousness that they were a minority. The .Roman Catholic priest here interposed, with the placid expression of his belief that the schoolmaster, in reading and teaching the Bible, would be " able to draw strong Catholic doctrine from it." And with this parting shot from his guns, the priest ceased from troubling, and the candidate was at rest. The next aspirant, however, excited the greatest amount of antagonism ; difference of opinion raged hotly and fiercely. Mr Cooper, in answer to some general questions, said he would teach " the plain meaning of the words," but would "touch lightly" on disputed points. Then, aaked the priest, " "W"bat is the plain meaning of 'This is My Body ?' " The query led to some confusion. The Rev. F. S. Dale objected " on the ground of public decency." "This would involve the discussion of very deep and very sacred questions." " Which you don't believe," retorted the priest. Then in rushed the Unitarian to help the Eoman Catholic divine, and to ask the poor badgered candidate, whose only relief was the occasional rows between the inquisitors themselves, " What do you mean by plain meaning of the words ?" " I should refer to great divines." "Of | the Church of England ?" said the new ' torturer. " Yes." " And teach what they teach ?" inquired the angry Unitarian. " I must take some one's interpretation," exclaimed the man at bay ; " a child must belong to some denomination" — a necessity which perhaps all the Board did not admit. He was again taken up by the priest who questioned him closely as to the meaning of the word " everlasting," and would not take several evasive answers. At length the candidate cleverly said, " To answer that question, I ought to know the original language." " Yes ; and many other things," retorted the pertinacious divine. Then he fell into the hands of a gentleman — a Particular Baptist, perhaps — who asked, " What is the plain meaning of the passage, ' Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit ' ?" — on which the poor fellow utterly broke down, and requested a period for consideration. Then Mr Ball, the first candidate, was recalled for a fresh baiting, and, in answer to a question closely pressed, said he did not tbink that he ought to teach the doctrine of the Trinity. A third candidate, aMr Haymau, was asked to " define a miracle," and to " give a fair statement of the Unitarian view of the first chapter of John," but was not very successful. So ended the amusements of the day. If they are continued, we shall look to the Birmingham School Board for some important light. It was said lately that the Mikado of Japan had ordered some officials to invent a new State religion ; and if any persons in England could achieve a similar task in this country, we might look for its accomplishment to the elected delegates of our midland metropolis. Indeed, Mr G-eorge Dawson, one of the Board — a man of considerable capacity and greater courage — threw out a suggestion of the kind, saying, " It would be better if the Board, not the candidates, settled all these things." " I should like to see the Board settling any one of them," remarked the Romanist divine In another passage of arms we find the priest, tired of baiting the humble candidate, turning sharply on an Anglican clergyman who had spoken of the Bible as plain and easily expounded. " The Rev Canon O'Sullivan : ' But does Mr Dale mean to say that the Bible, which is the subject of the mysterious revelation of God, is as clear in its expressions as a history of England would be ?' The Rev. F. S Dale : 4 Certainly.' The Rev. Canon O'Sullivan : ' Then, all I can say is, Mr Dale ought to write dissertations upon the Scriptures all his life.' (Laughter.) Mr Dawson : ' That would be eternal punishment ' (Laughter.)" When the French Chamber has had a very important discussion it orders particular speeches to be specially printed and circulated throughout France. The Birmingham Board, following this example, might post up in every school, a full report of this very free-and-easy debate as to religious creeds. It would certainly tend to edification. After all, however, the serions question is whether painful exhibitions like that at Birmingham, which may be imitated in every large town, do not cast grave doubts on the expediency of retaining in the Act the source of the mischief — namely, the words " and taught."