Lutheran Church Defies Vigilance Corps Over German Schooling

Insisting that in conducting a parochial school they are but exercising the right to religious liberty guaranteed by the constitution, the Bethlehem Lutheran congregation has refused to close the school as requested by the Kennewick Vigilance Corps. The Lutherans’ reply to the request stated: 'Above all our constitution grants to all its citizens religious liberty. That implies the grand privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of our own conscience. And we are conscience-bound to instruct our children thoroughly in the Christian religion... Experience has taught us that the parochial school is the only adequate means of living up to this command. In the second place, it would seem to us extremely un-American lightly to give up and abandon the rights the fathers of our country have given us.' The letter was signed by the Bethlehem Lutheran Congregation, S. B. M. N., Pastor, and Trustees Emil Albrecht and H. W. Hansen.