Principles of TeachingBennion, Adam S. (Adam Samuel)
Religion
Principles of Teaching
Bennion, Adam S. (Adam Samuel)
Religious education
And now the question--what has all this to do with the teaching of
religion? Just this: the differences among men as found in fields
already referred to, are found also in matters of religion. For one man
it is easy to believe in visions and all other heavenly manifestations;
for another it is next to impossible. To one man the resurrection is the
one great reality; to another it is merely a matter of conjecture. One
man feels certain that his prayers are heard and answered; another feels
equally certain that they cannot be. One man is emotionally spiritual;
another is coldly hard-headed and matter-of-fact. The point is not a
question which man is right--it is rather that we ought not to attempt
to reach each man in exactly the same way, nor should we expect each one
to measure up to the standards of the others.
An interesting illustration of this difference in religious attitude was
shown recently in connection with the funeral of a promising young man
who had been taken in death just as he had fairly launched upon his
life's work. In a discussion that followed the service, one good brother
found consolation in the thought that the Lord needed just such a young
man to help carry on a more important work among the spirits already
called home. His companion in the discussion found an explanation to his
satisfaction in the thought that it was providential that the young man
could be taken when he was, that he thereby might be spared the probable
catastrophies that might have visited him had he lived. Each man found
complete solace in his own philosophy, though neither could accept the
reasoning of the other.
An interesting case of difference of view came to the attention of the
teacher-training class at Provo when someone asked how the lesson on
Jonah could be presented so that it would appeal to adolescent boys and
girls. The query was joined in by several others for whom Jonah had been
a stumbling block, when Brother Sainsbury, of Vernal, startled the class
by saying Jonah was his favorite story. "I would rather teach that story
than any other one in the Bible," he declared, and illustrated his
method so clearly that the account of Jonah took on an entirely new
aspect.
Many men and women in the world are shocked at the thought that God is a
personality. To them the idea that God is simply a "man made perfect," a
being similar to us, but exalted to deity, is akin to blasphemy. And
then to add the idea of a heavenly mother is beyond comprehension. To
Latter-day Saints, on the other hand, these thoughts are the very glory
of God. To them a man made perfect is the noblest conception possible.
It makes of Him a reality. And the thought of Mother--Heaven without a
Mother would be like home without one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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