Tuesday, November 26, 2019

War Revealed Lack of Intelligent Religious Convictions, Says Robert E. Speer, Nov. 26, 1919

From The University North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., November 26, 1919

A Central Flaw

By Dr. Robert E. Speer

The war has revealed to us the magnitude and gravity of our whole problem of education. A democracy is not safe with such a mass of illiteracy as the war has uncovered. But the problem is not solved simply by decreasing the percentage of illiterates to the total population. We need not simply education, but Christian education—training that issues in religious conviction and Christian personality.

Among all the things that the chaplains and others who have been in touch with the religious side of the Army have revealed to us, few are more appalling than the lack of comprehension of the meaning of Christianity and of the elements of religious faith, which were found to be characteristic of great masses of our men, side by side with a widely prevalent and child-like religious instinct.

Such ignorance is a central flaw in a self-controlled and self-governed nation. Our strength lies in the intelligent religious convictions of our people.

In the more comprehensive sense of the term the whole problem of the church is now more clearly seen to be one of education. We have to bring every available resource to bear to make the pulpit, the Sunday school, the day school, the university, the theological seminary, all our educational factors, efficient in carrying out the great task of the church of training men and women in Christian character.

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