Church schools 1: submit to State? No! (A. C. Stellhorn) Part 1

      This blog does not focus on English language publications from the Missouri Synod as much as what was published in the German language.  But a 1935 CPH book by A. C. Stellhorn, Manual for Lutheran Saturday-schools, Summer-Schools and Week-Day Religious Instruction, stated the following on the last page, p. 63, all emphasis is mine:

Separation from Public-School Control.

We should of course cooperate politely and justly with the public schools in such matters as giving an attendance account of children released to us and sending the pupils promptly back to these schools where that is required; but we should not unite with the public schools in this endeavor in any other manner, such as permitting the State to approve our courses, our teachers, our textbooks or to stipulate manner of organization, instructional standards, pay of teachers, and the like. In other words, we should not in any way be tied up with the public schools or with other church denominations in the conduct of our schools; for it is our responsibility, not theirs, what courses are given, how they are given, and by whom.

I am not an expert on current State laws in America regarding this subject, but they are surely overbearing against church schools, as they are against Homeschooling. The number of church schools in the LC-MS dwindled compared to Old Missouri before the World Wars. There was no week-day school at my church in the Central Illinois district when I grew up. I had to go to public school. I only had Saturday morning Catechism class at church when I grew up, until I was confirmed. The sad state of Lutheranism today is a product of this loss of week-day church schools, and the loss of pure Lutheran teaching in what remains of them. — In the next Part 2, we hear Walther comment of Lutheran children in non-Lutheran schools…