Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words. ACADEMIC FREEDOM This is to express my appreciation to Professor Sidney...
...Miami, Fla...
...One might reasonably conclude here, having in mind some of Dr...
...A recent study of 761 juvenile delinquents in Passaic, N. J. found that 54 per cent attended church and only 6 per cent did not claim a religious education...
...and women were treated as chattels...
...RELIGION IN SCHOOLS I read with interest the debate on "Religion in the Public Schools" between Philip Phoenix and James S. Donnelly [NL, February 6] and would like to offer some belated comments...
...feudal lords and kings made war against each other...
...Such colleges or universities exist for purposes other than merely the discovery and publication of truth...
...Even today, we can see the evil fruits of religious education in Spain, Portugal and South America, where illiteracy remains extremely high...
...If he will turn to page 219 of Heresy, Yes Conspiracy, No, he will find an extended discussion of the difference between Communist party teachers and Catholic teachers in secular schools, I had in mind teachers who are members of the Ku Klux Klan or who are on the payroll of corporations under instructions to take advantage of their position to indoctrinate for the company line, etc...
...the Crusaders looted and raped their way through Europe, massacring Jews as they went...
...If there was only one religion and complete agreement as to the nature of God, the problem would not be so difficult...
...Sinclair's book is located in Great Neck, Long Island Ed...
...Religious education has had a long and more than fair trial, and it has failed...
...That there is no academic freedom, as usually defined, in religious Catholic colleges or any other religious colleges is a commonplace and is indirectly acknowledged by the AAUP...
...New York City Brother Cormac Philip, F.S.C...
...But Christianity is divided into scores of sects, each claiming a monopoly of truth and fighting for supremacy...
...Vesalius was punished for dissecting corpses...
...It was during that Golden Age of religious education that the slightest suspicion of holding heretical opinions meant torture and the stake...
...It is not inconceivable that a more specific development of the sentence I have quoted above would reveal that Dr...
...Hook, Catholic teachers might be considered a group similar to the Communist teachers...
...the Catholic Church had an absolute monopoly until the Reformation and then the French Revolution partly broke it...
...He must be aware that for hundreds of years all education in the Western world was religious education...
...Fortunately, the world has rejected this totalitarianism...
...Galileo was terrorized into silence...
...Among the fallacies propounded by Dr...
...Actually, the Channel Press which issued Mr...
...In the public schools, there must not be Catholics, Protestants and Jews...
...Even a high-school graduate knows that laws are made by man and change with time and circumstances...
...Hook's earlier statements in his book Heresy, Yes Conspiracy, No (e.g., "There is no academic freedom, in Catholic colleges"), that, according to Dr...
...Donnelly offers us the same old nostrum of religious education...
...there must be only American children studying together, learning together and playing together in harmony, for only thus will America remain free from the religious strife that ravaged Europe...
...Donnelly really meant was that all laws must come from the Catholic Church, for, according to the Popes, she is the only church founded by God and her laws must be obeyed by all mankind...
...M. Novella NOTE In his "Home Front" column of May 7, William E. Bohn discussed Upton Sinclair's Cup of Fury and noted that it was published by Channel Press...
...Phoenix could have made a much stronger case against religion in the public schools by pointing out the record of religious education in the past...
...Here we can only look for voluntary acceptance...
...Donnelly is this one: "Our laws are from God...
...Brother Philip may deplore this state of affairs...
...I'd like to get from Professor Hook, however, some elucidation of one sentence in his article: "Mutatis mutandis, the same principle [i.e., the principle that membership in the Communist party should constitute presumption of unfitness for teaching] should be applied to members of any group bound by a similar discipline and under similar instructions...
...It seems to me that Dr...
...He can hardly deny it exists...
...Yet, Dr...
...In secular institutions of higher education, the principles of academic freedom should have the force of professional and legal sanctions behind them...
...Learned men displayed their eloquence and their ignorance by discussing how many angels could dance on the head of pin...
...ACADEMIC FREEDOM This is to express my appreciation to Professor Sidney Hook for his characteristically enlightening analysis of the American Association of University Professors' Special Committee report on academic freedom ("The AAUP and Academic Integrity," NL, May 21...
...My concern until now has been with secular institutions...
...Hook is not as knowledgeable about those groups "similar to Communism'' as he evidently is about Communism...
...Hook replies: Brother Philip, I fear, has not done his homework diligently...
...Do we want to bring that into our schools...
...illiteracy was rampant...
...It should also he pointed out that religious education divides children, creating prejudice and suspicion instead of love and brotherhood...
...We still have a long way to go to win recognition of the principles of academic freedom everywhere in this sector...
...however, it would violate freedom of conscience in religious matters to enforce it in religious institutions...
...What Dr...
...What is more, investigation has shown that religious education does not prevent delinquency or produce ethical, peace-loving citizens...
...Personally, I would like academic freedom to obtain universally...
...books that questioned Church dogmas were placed on the Index...
...No teacher would be permitted to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Messiah and Redeemer, at a yeshiva college or Bruno Bauer's version of Christianity at Catholic college...
...This, we have been informed, has resulted in orders for the book being sent to the now defunct Channel Press of 1440 Broadway, New York City...
...Let us now give an equally fair trial to scientific education...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 23
