"For Packard, matters came down to the authority to be instilled in students as the principal require to making good citizens of the republic. He elaborated the implications of authority and firmly charged the public school as the state's instrument fro achieving the benefits to be had by inculcating submission to authority. "To this end," he reasoned, "[students] should assuredly be taught that supreme authority is in the Creator and Governor of the world. and that earthly potentates are but his vicegerents and subject to his law."
In this passage, Morgan is referring to Packard's belief of necessitating religious education in school; this passage occurs as one example of many showing how Protestantism became a national religion unofficially, and likewise tried to influence the republic. Thus, as we see in this passage, there is a blending between the nation and religion; that religion does not exist solely for itself, but for the good of the republic, and vise versa.
Interestingly, this recalls the Pledge of Allegiance from my memory, and how it is almost an echo of Packard. True, we have removed most religious connotations from it (minus the Under God), but there is still the call for total allegiance to the state. I think this is a great exercise in showing Marxist hegemonic powers.
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