The Girl and Her Religion

by Margaret Slattery

Despite all the words that have been written and spoken in the past it is still true that many of those engaged in the religious training of a girl, or responsible for the form of religion which is presented to her, do not realize, or else they ignore the fact that she is in the hands of a triad—body, mind and spirit. As a triad she develops if she be a normal girl, as a triad she acts. Her character is made by these three agencies working together. It is a fact, the significance of which none of us fully realize, as yet, that a clean mind and a clean heart in an unclean body is very rare. A quick, alert balanced mind and a pure, heroic spirit in a starved and diseased body is also rare. A well-nourished, well-cared-for body with all its functions doing their work and a mental weakling is a rare combination.

Once we did not know that adenoids made children mentally deficient, nor did we dream that teeth properly attended to, and a pair of glasses could transform a girl from a sullen, morose disobedient child into an interesting, happy and obedient one; but some of us have seen that transformation and marveled at it. Once we believed that inherent moral degeneracy sent a twelve-year-old girl to the courts. Now we are beginning to see the relationship between a room with no windows and no running water, a dirty alley or a wretched street and the moral degeneracy. Once we shook our heads and said, "Well, they say there's one black sheep in every family." Now we are beginning to see that the black sheep may be made by the gratification of every physical desire and every mental whim and the neglect of the spirit.

Churches, schools and individuals are beginning at last to seriously consider the teaching of morals and religion and as they give themselves to the task of laying down practical workable plans, suddenly as if it were a new revelation comes the fact that the individual is a triad and she must be taught as such.

If homes were ideal it would be an easy task. If it were possible for the majority of homes to approach the ideal it would seem an easier task. But with poverty, ignorance, inefficiency and indifference clutching at the very center of dynamic power, the task is one of the greatest which men have as yet been asked to meet. If homes were ideal, from the moment the little girl comes into the world, and even before her coming, sensible, rational care would be taken of her body, not only to make it beautiful but that it might do its work for her in healthful, normal fashion and be a good servant throughout her life. Her mind would be awakened and trained to think, her will to act and to control and all her sense of reverence, wonder and worship developed while her love for the good and the beautiful, the heroic and self-sacrificing was stimulated.

But homes are not ideal and the majority have neither accepted nor considered deeply the task of preparing the whole girl for life. Some prepare her physically and let the rest of the triad develop as it will. Some prepare her mentally and morally while both body and spirit suffer. Some seek to prepare her spiritually by fitting on as a sort of garment what they believe to be religion while body and mind receive little attention and some let all three develop as convenience and chance may dictate.

When men's consciences have been awakened and they find the home incapable or inert, they have turned the responsibility over to the public school and the church. Of late civic forces have given their aid. Those directly interested in the religious training of the girl are coming to agree that these three agencies are needed and that they must work together if the whole girl is to be helped.

Some one must teach a girl the things about herself that she ought to know. That some one is her mother. No one else can do it with the same power. Neither church nor school can perform well the delicate task of revealing life's secrets, and blundering is deadly. But church and school and civic forces together can help the mother, can give her a proper conception of her duty, give her the words to say, perhaps. The school can teach morals and keep its own moral standards high; the church can awaken the spiritual life of a girl and nurture it, that knowledge and high ideals may work together to fortify and strengthen her. The civic forces can see to it that the girl has the opportunity for pure physical enjoyment, for mental stimulation and moral uplift.

What civic forces have been able to do through tuberculosis exhibitions and child welfare exhibits, by showing parents the truth regarding the importance of the physical care of their girls, furnishes encouragement to go further. Good newspapers may speak to parents untouched by the school and out of touch with the church and have done so. The majority of parents when they see and believe will act.

There was a time, and not long since, when those engaged in teaching religion were not concerned with the number of hours the girl worked, the age at which she began, the sort of room in which she slept, the amount of real food she had. And because they were not concerned they lost her. Today a teacher cannot teach religion if she does not care about life. She attempts it but she fails. Jesus astonished the Scribes, Pharisees, Doctors of the Law and Priests of the Temple by His intense interest in the physical needs of men. He took into account the whole man and set body, mind and spirit free.

When one considers how little mental stimulus and training comes to the average girl after leaving school and is aware of the vast majority who leave school at any early age, she is not surprised at the lack of power to think on the part of so many, and at the very limited knowledge she finds when attempting to teach. The girls of today need to be informed on matters of public welfare and political and economic affairs as never before. Where shall they go for that information and how shall they be led to desire it? Girls need to know the meaning of religion and in simple fashion the history of creeds and denominations. They need instruction from the Bible which cannot be given in a half hour a week of more or less regular study.