# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S287
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

3 Pe

PARISH EDUCATION 287

to stultify the conscience, to weaken the moral sense, to pervert
the reason and the will in the direction of atheism and libertinism.

Menace of Evolutionistic Teaching.— Although Darwinism lacks
scientific proof, evolution continues to be taught as a fact in public
school textbooks and in reference works intended for use in the
schools, and some teachers account for the origin of the universe
and of mankind by evolution. Christians do not object when the
theory of evolution is adverted to, but they are justly opposed to
the theory when teachers present it as the true account of the
origin of the world and of mankind. This brings the school into
conflict with the Christian Church. Evolution is then more than
a theory; it becomes de facto a philosophy, and for the school to
confront immature children with a choice between the philosophy
of evolution and the teaching of Holy Scripture is a grievous
infringement upon the religious freedom guaranteed in the Consti-
tution to conservative Christians. The tendency of the evolutionary
theory is to undermine belief in God and to unsettle the faith
of Christian children. The churches should therefore caution
parents to keep in close touch with the teaching presented in the
public schools, and parents should protest every time a teacher
advances the theory of evolution to account for the origin of the
world and of man. Christians should proceed, in a manner con-
sistent with law and order, to have all public school textbooks
purged of the lie of evolution. We are wholly within our rights
as citizens when we demand that no falsehoods be transmitted to
our children and young people; when, in particular, we object to
the teaching of errors that threaten to undermine faith in God and
revealed truth.

A Theistic Background Necessary. — Lutherans approve of all
State legislation which prohibits the teaching of “sectarian” or
denominational religion in the public schools. Such prohibition
constitutes a necessary safeguard against the encroachment of the
State upon the domain of the Church and the encroachment of
the Church upon the domain of the State. We consider it a serious
mistake, however, and out of harmony with what the founders
of the public school had in mind, to attempt to strip the schools
of every vestige of theism. We believe that the theistic back-
ground, which was accepted as a matter of course in the nine-
teenth century, should be made apparent. This does not mean
that religion should be introduced into the public schools. It means
only that the program be projected on a theistic background;
that references to God be permissible in textbooks; that the Moral
Law be accepted as the standard of human behavior; that teachers
be allowed to speak of the human body as God’s handiwork when
teaching physiology, and the like.