# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S286
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

286 PARISH EDUCATION

purpose of Christian education is to achieve Christian character
(justification, sanctification, eternal blessedness, through the
agency of the Holy Spirit), the purpose of the State is to achieve
civil righteousness. In order to produce that righteousness, the
educational program of the State must be consistent with those
norms of conduct which even natural man universally accepts
and often idealizes. Even apart from revelation, man knows that
there is a God to whom he is accountable. The Moral Law is
written in his heart, and the Creator has endowed him with con-
science. Therefore education is according to reason and in har-
mony with human nature in its fallen condition only when the
educational program recognizes the existence of God and the
sanctions of the Moral Law and conscience.

Complete Secularization a Violation of Human Nature. —
A completely secularized educational program, which repudiates
God and the Moral Law as the standard of human conduct, is
contrary to reason and a violation of human nature. A mute
atheism pervades such a program. For that reason many earnest
Christians believe that the complete secularization of the public
school infringes upon the principle of religious freedom. Atheists
alone can approve of such a program. No theists can approve of it.
The tendency of the secularized school is to breed a generation
of atheists and libertines, who have respect neither for the laws
of God nor for the laws of men. Juvenile delinquency and the
general breaking down of moral standards in our country are
due, so we believe, in no small measure, to the secularization of
our public schools,

Menace of Naturalistic Character Education. —In keeping with
the concept of secularization, character education courses have
been prepared for our public schools on a wholly naturalistic
level. The authors avoid all reference to God and repudiate the
Moral Law as the standard of human conduct. While some edu-
cators favor this ineffective type of moral training to avoid any
charge of sectarianism, others advocate it because they consider
belief in God to be contrary to the scientific spirit, and they con-
demn all organized religions, including the Christian religion, as
a hindrance to democracy, which they frankly declare to be the
religion, the one unifying force, in our American culture. Or-
ganized religion and parochial schools, they say, are divisive and
a hindrance to democracy. Christians cannot approve of a type
of character education which denies the existence of God and
brazenly casts aside the Moral Law. Not only is that type of
character education without any effective motivation for the pupil,
but it also violates human nature. Such character education tends _