Homeschool News & Views

Issue 22

May 18, 2007

From Homeschool Helpers

In association with Pass It On Ministries

Greetings. This is Dan White with Homeschool News & Views from Homeschool Helpers, issue 22, for May 18, 2007.

The Democrats in Congress have moved with amazing audacity in pushing their liberal way of life.

First of all, they just barely gained control of Congress in the last election. They don’t actually have a majority in the Senate, but the independents there caucus with the Democrats, which apparently gives them control. One Democratic Senator had a dangerous brain homorrage in December, and if that had been fatal the Democrats would have lost control of the Senate.

However, in spite of their tenuous position, the Democrats have not been bashful at all in trying to radically alter the direction of the country. They are trying to pass the biggest tax increase in the history of the country. That’s what socialists do. They want bigger government running more of the people’s business, and they want the people to pay them to do it. The Democrats also immediately set about working on embryonic stem cell legislation, which involves the same principle as abortion, killing very young people. And they passed in the House of Representatives a hate crimes bill, which will legalize anti-Bible persecution. When hate crimes laws are enacted in socialist countries, this inevitably leads to prosecution of Christians for preaching against sodomy or for even citing Bible verses about sodomy.

Even though the Democrats just barely gained control of Congress, they are pushing ahead with their radical way of life as if the whole country supports them in this. Socialists are like that. They are so full of themselves that they just know they are right, even if nobody else thinks so. When the leftists lost the last presidential election in Mexico, they took to the streets in violent protests. Recently when a conservative won election as president of France, the socialists again took to the streets in violent protests. Socialists don’t care that much about elections or the will of the people. They know better, even if the majority doesn’t.

Cesar Chavez has turned his original election in Venezuela in 1998 into a dictatorship. He failed at a military coup attempt in 1992, but managed to do the same thing through an election. After his first election, the subsequent elections are guaranteed to have him as the winner, because he controls the power to determine who wins. Adolf Hitler of the National Socialists was elected to power in Germany, and later in Austria. He didn’t just take over. He was voted in. Only after he was elected did he assume dictatorial power. These people get in power by promising more to those who have less, which is almost everyone. Let the government run your life, and the government will reward you.

The public schools operate on that same principle. The government will pay for your child’s education; will pick up that child at your door, perhaps feed him breakfast and lunch, and raise him or her for you for about 14 years. So the socialists give your child a free education, and the socialists get power over your child.

People always tend to make that bad deal. They’ll take a little in the short term which costs them a lot in the long term. Eve and Adam made that trade.

On the other hand, there are the folks who homeschool and who run the Christian schools. They are willing to pay a price in the short term for a gain in the long term. They refuse the government handouts and avoid government control.

Of course, the socialists have a response to that. Their first step is enticement, the government handout. Their next step is enforcement. If they can’t get what they want by bribing you, then they will force you to comply. But to get from the first step to the next step, they have to entice enough people to support them to give them the power of enforcement. It seems that we are getting close to that time in the United States.

The prime element in letting the socialists move from enticement to enforcement is the education system. The biggest factor in allowing the socialists to control the education system is all the Christians who support the socialist public schools. If the Christians got out of the public schools, the liberals would lose their power base.

A growing number of Christians are realizing this. The homeschool movement is estimated to involve two million children. Utah passed a law allowing parents to use school tax money to pay for any school of their choice. And the Southern Baptists have put forward a plan to start their own school system, with tuition paid for all who can’t afford to pay it themselves.

The Baptists definitely seem to be moving away from the socialist schools. If they do that, can the Assemblies of God and other conservative denominations be far behind? Surely others will follow their lead. These are big steps we are talking about, a whole flanking movement of the troops in this spiritual war.

But the liberals are launching a full scale attack now by forcibly inserting sodomy into all the public schools.

We spoke earlier of a decision in Boyd County, Kentucky by one federal judge, which forced the school to allow a homosexual club in their schools, and forced all staff and students to undergo training to accept sodomy as a life view. It was noted how that one decision would affect not just one county, but every public school in the country, as they looked to that legal precedent for guidance.

On May 14, a judge in Okeechobee, Florida decreed that the school there had to allow a Gay Straight Alliance club. The school had tried to keep that out, saying that they have an abstinence only sex policy, and a GSA Club is a sex club, which violates their school policy. The judge ruled that a GSA club is not a sex based club. The lawyer for the ACLU said, "This decision sends a clear message to other schools that they face a similar fate in federal court if they choose to discriminate by deliberately misrepresenting GSAs as something they're not.”

The ACLU has also recently won judicial control of schools in Madera, California and White County, Georgia. In addition to that, the ACLU sends letters to school districts threatening such action, thereby gaining control of the local schools and forcing them to submit to sodomy.

So the Southern Baptists are finally getting tired of that, -- finally! -- and are moving toward establishing their own schools. How does that affect homeschoolers?

There is a certain synergism between Christian schools and Christian homeschools. They can work to each other’s benefit. As each of those grows at the expense of the public schools, that tends to help the other.

First of all, Christian schools are not opposed to homeschools and homeschools are not opposed to Christian schools. The public school people as a whole are opposed to both of these, and the National Education Association would like to see both eliminated.

Second, Christian schools and homeschoolers can work together in what they are doing for the mutual benefit of both. Both movements are small and greatly outnumbered and can use all the help they can get. I encourage Christian schools to work with local Christian homeschoolers for the mutual benefit of both. The biggest difficulty homeschool parents face is having enough social activities for their children. To be sure, America is over socialized and under spiritualized, but young Christian children need to be around others of like mind. Even if they live in a neighborhood where there are a lot of other kids around, they are usually public school kids, with the inevitable culture and attitudes that they hold. If your kids are not into drugs, sex, and cussing then the local public school kids are not a good option for uplifting social activities.

If a Christian school is flexible enough to allow homeschoolers to participate on a part time basis, either in classes or in activities, that should be a blessing to those homeschool families. A Christian school should not exist just to promote itself. A Christian school should exist to promote Christ in the lives of young people. If a Christian school can be a blessing to Christian homeschoolers as well as full time students, then they should do that.

On a personal example, for a number of years we worked with sports and music for small Christian schools. We were involved with these schools one or two days a week. Our kids got the benefit of having activities and friends at the school, and that was much enjoyed and appreciated by our kids. The schools got the benefit of having extra workers volunteer to help them. These schools are often understaffed and under funded, and such help is really good for them and appreciated by their students. I conducted basketball sessions for one school, and I divided the boys into an older group and a younger group. After the older boys had played, then it was basketball time for the little boys, or the young squirts as I called them. Since it was the young squirts who were playing basketball, we naturally called their game Squirtball. It was really funny to show up at the school and be surrounded by a horde of little boys hollering, “Let’s go play Squirtball!” Nobody else knew what we were talking about.

You can see how Margie and I working with the Christian school helped them and us. That relationship continued for about a decade. Both the homeschoolers and the Christian school was benefited.

In another personal example, one year we wondered if one of our girls might benefit by the experience of actually attending a school. We always homeschooled all five of our children, so we raised the possibility that they might like to be in a school environment part of the time. So another Christian school allowed us to enroll one girl in their school a couple of days a week. That worked fine. Our daughter learned that she did not like the school environment as well as she did homeschooling, but it was an interesting experience for her. Our homeschool family benefited by having the classes available, and the small school benefited by having a very good student and by being able to get more funds.

If you are a Christian homeschool family, I say again that I think your biggest challenge is not academics but in finding uplifting activities for your children. In my opinion homeschool parents, who are older and much less energetic than their children, often do not realize how much young folks enjoy and need these frequent social times. There are many homeschool activity groups around the country now, but if you are in an area where you don’t have a lot available, you might consider working with a local Christian school as we did. I wouldn’t worry too much about denominational lines. If you go to a church where most of the families are public school people, you will have more in common with people who support Christian education, whatever denomination they are.

As I mentioned, there is a huge difference in the attitudes of Christian homeschool students and public school students, as the homeschool students are discipled individually by their parents. There is also as a whole a difference in attitude between homeschool students and Christian school students, also reflecting a lack of individual parental attention to the Christian school students. But the Christian school attitude is far better than the public school attitude, because the Christian school attempts to establish a Christian culture.

A surprising number of homeschool parents were formerly public school teachers. We just heard of a case where a family was introduced to homeschooling by their public school principle. The principle was himself disgusted with the direction that the public schools were taking and was resigning his position. He told this family to get out of the public schools and homeschool. They did and their daughter graduated from homeschool eighth grade last night.

Obviously any public school employee who is willing to make such a stand is dedicated to more than self. I know that homeschool parents already have a big load, but the old saying is that if you want something done, give it to a busy person. Perhaps some of these former public school teachers and other homeschool parents can reach out and help these small Christian schools, as this movement also gains momentum. A homeschool parent may be able to work part time for a Christian school, giving the school an excellent teacher and giving the homeschool family some extra needed income.

A local Christian university here just declared gay marriage on their campus; that is, they will grant marital benefits to homosexuals and lesbians working for them. A local Baptist pastor was complaining to me last night that nobody is making a stand against that stuff. The Southern Baptists are talking about making a big, nationwide stand against public schools and sodomy. God help them in that. As the Baptists move forward in rescuing their children and setting up Christian schools, that has to be positive for Christian homeschoolers.

This is Dan White with Homeschool Helpers. God bless the Christian homeschoolers.