Preserving Homeschooling in America

Homeschooling parents across the nation have cause to worry, when an elite group of rabidly liberal judges from the west coast claim that parents do not have the right to homeschool their children. The danger is that their tyrannical views could have national implications. Back in the nineties, when homeschooling was still a new thing in the south, my mother would sometimes keep me indoors during the early morning and afternoon hours, especially when the school-bus went by. There had been reports of children from being abducted from their homes by social workers and placed in foster homes, in response to their failure to comply with the government school system. Ten years later, homeschools have become commonplace in the South, though not so much in the far North.

 

Today, the right to homeschool our children is once again in jeopardy, and it’s up to responsible Christian people to fight for their right to educate their own offspring. But more important than the right to home education, is the right to educate our children from a Christian perspective. Today’s government education system is not only unconstitutional, but decided antichristian in its curriculum and its leadership. Parents who sent their children to be taught in this kind of atmosphere are ignoring the fact that 75-80% of students enrolled in government schools have nothing to do with spiritual matters by the end of their freshman year in college. We have failed to recognize the fact that our teachers are our disciplers. Expect your child to learn that evolution is a fact, that God is a myth, that fornication is okay if done “the safe way”, that guns are bad, that any reference to Christian faith is a criminal offense, that boys and girls are the same in every way, and finally that their own Christian parents are religious bigots. Expect them to either be beat up in school, or become a bully themselves.

 

I would argue that home education should not only be legal, but it should also be considered mandatory for Christian parents. We ignore the fact that the Constitution of the United States gives the government no jurisdiction over education whatsoever! There is also no biblical justification for it either. The scriptures specifically places the responsibility of discipleship and training of a godly generation in the hands of responsible parents. The rise of government “interference” in matters of healthcare, welfare, charity, religion, and education are the seeds of socialism beginning to take root.

 

It is indeed fortunate that our country is still divided into states. Otherwise, a decision made by a federal court on the other side of the continent might well be binding upon us in the Bible Belt. It’s time we made our voices heard. It’s time we made it clear that we will not stand and let our opponents take away the hearts and minds of our children. Let us make a stand for homeschooling, right here in the South!

Homeschooling Threatened By California Judges

From Doug’s Blog

An old lawyer’s adage says that hard cases make bad law. Last week, the accuracy of this statement was demonstrated by a California appeals court, which handed down a shocking decision stating that homeschooling is illegal in the state, unless the parent has a teaching certificate. The case, Rachel L. v. Superior Court, began as a child welfare proceeding. A lower court held that no matter what the family’s problems may have been, the court could not and would not order that the children be enrolled in a full-time “public or private” school because the parents had a constitutional right to home school their children. On appeal, the court for the Second Appellate Division disagreed. It interpreted the California statutes as requiring that students be educated in either public school, full time private school, or else, if in the home, only by a credentialed tutor. Homeschooling, it said, was illegal.

Banning Home Education is Unconstitutional, Contrary to Statute, and a Violation of the Moral Law of God Which May Not Be Amended by Courts or Acts of Congress This court decision is a frontal assault on the rights of parents to homeschool in the state of California. The decision is wrong for many reasons, three of which follow: First, it is a complete rewriting of the California statutes, which for years have been understood to allow home education with only a simple notification/registration requirement.  Second, and more importantly, even if the novel interpretation recently advanced by the court was proper, any prohibition on home education of this nature violates a parent’s constitutional rights in the education of their children. Finally, it is contrary to the transcendent moral law of God which can not be amended by statute or judicial decision. Courts many not deprive a parent of their right to obey the moral commands of Scripture, one example of which is the application of the Greatest Commandment (“to love God”) through a daily parent to child, walk-along, talk-along (e.g. Deuteronomy 6) approach to education and discipleship which many Christians seek to honor and emulate through home education.The case is being appealed, to the California Supreme Court. The original case was argued and decided almost without anyone knowing about it. Now that it’s out in the open, the Pacific Justice Institute is handling the appeal, and HSLDA is filing a brief.

Christians in Vanity Fair

This is a copy of a class I presented to my church last week. I was aiming to effect the young people in the congregation, in particular. The included part of Pilgrims Progress was a last minute add-on, which I thought was very appropriate.

 

The Living Faith of a Christian

 

presented on March 5, 2008

 

THE PILGRIMS AT VANITY FAIR

Then I saw in my dreams, that, when they were out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year long. It bears the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where it is kept is lighter that vanity, and also because all that is sold there, or that comes there, is vanity; as is the saying of the Wise, “All that cometh is vanity.”

This is no newly begun business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will show you the original of it.

Almost five thousand years ago, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these as these two honest persons are; and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions seeing that the path of the pilgrims lay through this town of Vanity, set up a fair; a fair where they would see all sorts of vanity, and it should last all the year long. Therefore at this fair are all such things sold as houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

At this fair there are at all times to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.

Now, Christian and Faithful, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did; but as they entered into the fair, all the people were moved and the town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons; for their garments were very different from the kind sold at the fair; their speech was also strange since they spoke the language of Canaan. But, most of all the pilgrims took no interest in the goods offered for sale. They would not even look at them, and when called upon to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,” and look upward, signifying that their trade and traffic were in heaven.

One trader mockingly said unto them, “What will you buy?” But they, looking gravely upon him, said, “We buy the truth.” At that the pilgrims were taunted and mocked and some even threatened to strike them.

 

 

I. Can a person have a dead faith?

● Refer to James 1:21-27 and 2:14-18

● If we are saved by Grace, what part do our works play? This is what the book of James was written for. Even Martin Luther failed to see the point. Against those who are antinomians.

● What is a dead faith?                                          A dead faith: When a person who has made a profession of faith at some point in their lives, (might attend church every Sunday) but lives, talks, and (yes) looks in every way like an unbeliever without remorse or repentance, this person is exhibiting a “dead faith”. 

● You will know a true faith by its fruits.

● Matthew 7:17-21

● How can modern Christians be compared to Boy Scouts (what defines a true boy scout?) 

● I John 2, 1-6, 15-17

● A true Christian life is “separate”

● Matthew 5:13-19

 

Modern Christian youth have been gradually seduced to the vanities of the world. This truth is reflected in the music they listen to, the movies they watch, what they read, the friends they associate with, and how they choose to dress themselves. Born-again Christians have no excuse to blend into our society. We must be in the world, but not of the world. How can we bring reformation to our nation when “Christian” boys are talking like Harrison Ford and girls are dressing like Britney Spears?

 

 

II. Applications

● You’re responsibility to your family.

- How do you treat your siblings?

- Do you show respect to your parents?

- Do you exhibit a positive attitude when performing your duties at home?

- Do you go the extra mile to spend time with your family?

- Do you really enjoy being with your family, or do you complain in secret?

 

● You’re responsibility to your friends

- If you were given a choice, would you listen to God’s council, or the council                                of your friends’?

- Do you listen to your parent’s council more than your friends’?

- Do you encourage your friends to do what is right, even when it’s unpopular?

- Do you treat your friends with more respect than your family? The point is that you are genuine.

- Do you speak ill of your parents in front of your friends?

- Are you just a follower, or a leader?

 

● You’re responsibility to your church

- Do you attend church? (Obviously yes for Little River)

- Do you enjoy church, or are your parents just making you go?

- Do you listen to what is taught? Do you make applications?

- Do you give of your time and energy to help the church in worship, or ministry?

● You’re responsibility to God

- Do you pray? How often?

- Do you read your Bible? How often? People say that God seems to be far from them. Problem is often with them.

- Do you put God’s wishes before your own?

- Who is the master of your life? (Be honest with yourself)

- Do you often thank God for His blessings? (This is hard when things aren’t going well)

- Do you recognize your own wretchedness before God, or do you consider yourself a pretty good person? (Do you recognize why you need Jesus?)

- Does your call as a Christian give your life meaning, or do you secretly with your miserable life would end?

 

 

● Are you a light, or do you just blend in?

● Do you live a double life? Do you worship God in your public life, while attending to your own interests during your private life?

● Do you enjoy your relationship with God?

● Is it important to you?

● Do you genuinely try to do what is right?

 

III. The other side of the coin

● Answer the Mormon views

● True faith will breath good works

● Do not trust your works

● You will sin. Continue to fight it.

● Do not lose courage

● The thief who was crucified next to Christ was not turned down because he had no time to do good works