# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1920_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1920. 7

Training, on the other hand, for those kinds of occupations that stand neither directly in the service of the state nor of the church is a matter for the individual. The state may enact suitable laws so that its citizens, for example, are not left defenseless against quacks, but it does not follow from this that it must itself take the training of physicians in hand, or could do so without harm. — The church has the task of proclaiming the Gospel to all people, above all to its own members. In practice this may have the result that the church also takes in hand the preparation for so-called secular callings, especially so long as it concerns pupils who are still in the actual years of upbringing, where education and instruction cannot be separated.

So everything comes back again and again to this, that the parents are the educators appointed by God, that they bear the responsibility, and that therefore no one may impair their right to bring up their children according to their own judgment. Besides this the church, as the bearer of the Gospel, has the task of providing for education.

These are the goods with which we are always concerned when we occupy ourselves with the school; so too in the present struggle.

For the exercise of the duty of education and for the attainment of good educational results the institution of the Christian parish school has hitherto proved very serviceable. It would be hard to find a fully adequate substitute for it. Yet it is not this particular form of Christian education with which we are concerned, much as we esteem it. It is not commanded by God, it is not absolutely necessary for reaching the goal. If we wished to maintain that, we should condemn all the people who did not have our system, but who perhaps gave their children a much better education than many parents within the Christian church. Think of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, of the first Christians among the heathen at the time when the church was founded; and then set beside them the indifference of many parents nowadays: family devotions are neglected, the children's associations are not supervised, no one troubles about their reading, and the like.

Now it is very easily possible to empty even the best form of its content. Think of preaching and worship; how often they are emptied of their content while the beautiful form is retained! I need only recall the age of rationalism or the sectarian pulpits. Or think of Christianity in general. With how many people is faith dead, while the form is observed most conscientiously. So it can go with our school too; indeed, many signs point to its being already partly so with us. Has not religious instruction in many places already become a "subject"? What is the main emphasis in the school? By what accomplishments is the worth of a