the country the proposal to allow the children to
absent themselves without detriment from the public schools on Wednesday
or on some other afternoon of the school week for the purpose of
attending religious instruction in their own churches; and we urge upon
the churches the advisability of availing themselves of the opportunity
so granted to give such instruction in addition to that given on Sunday.
"The further consideration of the subject was referred to the
Executive Committee. By direction of this Committee a report on Week-day
Instruction in Religion was presented at the First Meeting of the
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ In America, held in
Philadelphia in 1905. After an earnest discussion, resolutions were
adopted indicating the importance which the representatives of the
churches of America attached to the general question.
At the Second Meeting of the Federal Council, held in Chicago in
December, 1912, the Special Committee of the Federal Council presented a
report recognizing the difficulties confronting an adequate solution of
the question and providing for a more thorough investigation and
discussion of the entire subject."
In his report for 1909 (Vol. I, page 5), the United States
Commissioner of Education, Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, refers to this
subject in the following words:
"Those who would maintain that the moral life has other rootings
than that in religion, would, for the most part, admit that it is deeply
rooted in religion, and that for many of our people its strongest
motives are to be found in their religious convictions; that many, in
fact, would regard it as insufficiently grounded and nourished without
such religious convictions. The teaching of religious systems is no
longer under serious consideration as far as our public schools are
concerned. Historical and social influences have drawn a definite line
in this country between the public schools and the churches, leaving the
rights and responsibilities of religious instruction to the latter. It
would be futile, even if it were desirable, to attempt to revise this
decision of the American people. There has been, however, within the
past two or three years, a widespread discussion of the proposal that
arrangements be made between the educational authorities and
ecclesiastical organizations, under which pupils should be excused from
the schools for one half-day in the week-Wednesday afternoon has been
uggested