That England in the present Century should be undergoing a hard-fought
battle over the matter of religious control over her public schools
proves the tenacity of sectarian clutch when Church and State join
hands in bonds of government. The new educational bill which has passed
a second reading in the House of Commons is a compromise measure
which embraces a Nonconformist concession to the church of what is
known as “the right of entry” which permits parents or guardians to
request denominational instruction for their children during certain
hours—teachers being expected to volunteer for this service. On its
side, the church relinquishes control of the schools and the abolition
of all religious tests for the teachers. The British public is still
stolidly Episcopalian and that Church yields slowly any of its
prerogatives. The bill, if enacted into law, will therefore not make in
years any appreciable change in the practical status of the schools,
but will enable those objecting to enforced religious teachings to have
their sentiment respected. The use of public funds for denominational
instruction is without doubt one of the most vicious forms of
intellectual slavery to which any people may be forced to submit.
* * * * *
Yet this very slavery is openly advocated for America today by Cardinal
Gibbons, of the Roman Catholic Church, who desires the public schools
to be wholly denominational and supported by the government. Small
wonder, then, that Mr. Roosevelt’s characterization as “bigotry” the
refusal of anyone to vote for a Roman Catholic for the presidency has
met with profound disapproval. Nowhere did he strike a “popular note”
and protests have been dignified, but severe. In the selection of
his creed, the citizen has been given unhampered choice, but in the
restriction of those eligible to the high office of Chief Executive,
the people will continue to consider the preservation of their
institutions of paramount importance. To democracy everywhere, and
in all the ages, the Roman Church, as an organization, has been the
consistent foe. Centralization of authority in the hands of puppet
monarchs under its control is its undeviating aim. No man who can
submit himself to the domination of a priesthood, and all that it
means, could be a safe president of a free republic.
In candidacy for any office, a man must expect the opposition to make
capital even out of his religious affiliations, and it is true a few
silly Protestant preachers tried to do this in the case of Mr. Taft,
a Unitarian, but that the general mass of people gave his faith any
adverse thought is ridiculous. The Protestant vote divides along
political lines just as do those voters of no creed at all.