Spiritual Stirring in South America

1900

South America is usually considered such congenial soil for the cultivation of papal institutions, that few of us realize the immense strides which the nations of the Southern continent have made in the direction of emancipation from Roman oppression. In the Argentine Republic, for instance, a recent army order releases soldiers from the obligation of attending Roman Catholic worship. The minister of education has proposed the reading of the Bible in public schools. A public educator of considerable distinction has boldly recommended attendance at Protestant services. Religious gatherings in the open air are now permitted on the principal squares of the capital. Free speech and an open Bible are not congenial to the growth of papal influence, and it is reasonable to expect a diminution of that baneful power and a growth of evangelical faith in Argentine and throughout all the South American nations where a similar spirit of liberty is encouraged.

What has been done in South America in the direction of introducing the Bible into public schools puts us to shame. We have so weakly surrendered to the demands of Romanists and Infidelity that we have practically divorced not only religion and state but religion and education. There are few places where any pretense is now made at giving religious instruction in public schools. So far has the pendulum swung in the other direction that it is almost with apology that we even read literature which contains any reference to God.

In the public schools of New York the other day a child was asked to copy a sentence from Longfellow which contained some casual mention of God and His creation. The teacher found that the child had omitted that passage and stubbornly refused to insert it on the ground that his father had instructed him never to write that name since there was no such Being and it was a falsehood or pretense to speak of His existence. It would not be strange if the teacher was called upon by the official board to send an abject letter of apology to the irate parent.

The nation will some day, and that soon, if we are not mistaken, come to a lively sense of the danger of omitting to make the essentials of morals and religion a part of youthful instruction. The Educational Union of Chicago has done a wise and patriotic thing in preparing a special book of sacred selections from the Bible wholly removed from sectarian reference. It is edited by a committee representing several denominations and has met with most hearty acceptance on all sides. It has not yet secured entrance to public schools of Chicago, but it is being used elsewhere in places where the Jesuit activity in the form of political influence is not so widespread as it is in this and other large cities.

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 4.