Homeschool News & Views

Issue 27, June 22, 2007

From Homeschool Helpers

In association with Pass It On Ministries

Greetings. This is Dan White with Homeschool Helpers.

John Ashcroft was governor of Missouri from 1985 until 1993. Later he was a United States Senator and the US Attorney General. He had been president of Evangel College, an Assembly of God institution, and is known for being a very fine, considerate man. As I recall, when Ashcroft became governor he did not fire all the Democrats who were working in the state government political spoils system. The way the system works is that when a governor is elected, a certain number of jobs goes with that election, and the governor awards those jobs to members of his party. Ashcroft was trying to be considerate of those Democrats who held those jobs which were customarily switched every time the ruling party switched, and he did not fire the Democrats. Mel Carnahan was later elected to succeed Ashcroft as governor. He was a Democrat, and he fired all the Republicans who held those political spoils jobs.

I think that is somewhat typical of the two political parties. When the conservative Republicans are elected, they may try to be nice, to whatever degree. When the Democrats are elected, they just try to get rid of the Republicans.

In the most recent Congressional election, the Democrats barely won a majority in both houses of Congress. Actually, Democrats hold 49 Senate seats and the Republicans hold 49, but 2 independents caucus with the Democrats, giving them control. One Democrat Senator had a dangerous brain hemorrhage. He is recovering from that. Had he died, that would have given control of the Senate back to the Republicans, and the Democrats would not be able to pass the radical bills they are passing. That’s how closely divided the Congress is.

There is a great lesson to be learned by noting the Democrats’ actions when they took control of Congress.

The very first bill that the Democrats brought up for a vote in the Democrat controlled Senate was S 1, or Senate Bill 1, called the “lobbying reform bill.” It contained an amendment that required any leader of a non-profit organization to report to the Senate every time he or she talked about or with a political leader.

Oddly enough, when the Republicans controlled Congress they had passed a bill of similar intent. That effort was led by John McCain, and the bill was signed into law by President Bush. It was upheld by the Supreme Court, so it is law. This law decrees that non-profit organizations can’t even mention the names of politicians running for office within three months of an election.

Of course, many non-profit organizations are Christian, and some of these are waging a war of words and ideas and values against the liberals. What this law does is prevent them from saying anything about the liberal anti-Christian politicians at election time.

Labor unions, on the other hand, are mostly under liberal control. Their members may not be all liberal Democrats, but the unions are mostly controlled by far left wingers, and they are often very corrupt. In effect the union members have lost control of their unions. The National Education Association is a good example of that. Somehow the union and its leadership wound up far to the left of most of its members. So when we come up to an election, non-profits like Focus on the Family or the American Family Association cannot comment on any politicians, while the NEA can continuously slime the conservatives.

Why did the Republicans allow that to become law when they had the power? Maybe they were bending over backwards trying to be fair. The liberals don’t play that way, though. That law has the practical effect of letting the liberals talk while shutting up the conservatives.

With the recent “lobbying reform bill,” the liberals attempted to extend that control of speech. Because of conservative organizations raising an alarm, S 1 was defeated in the Senate. Now it is said that the Democrats in the House of Representatives are going to reintroduce that legislation in the House, and they plan to ram it through so quickly that conservatives will not have time to rally a defense.

Usually independent ministries will get their 501(c)3 designation from the IRS. 501(c)3 refers to the section of the IRS code. That means that people who donate to such ministries can deduct that donation from their taxes, if they itemize on their individual returns. I have read that 70% of tax filers do not itemize, so the tax deductibility is not an issue with them. A local home school group here is registered 501(c)3 so they can apply for grants from foundations. These foundations never give grants to non-profits who are not so registered with the IRS. But now this local homeschool group has put itself in the dubious position of not being able to comment on matters which might outlaw homeschooling itself.

Imagine what such a law as the “lobbying reform bill” would mean. Homeschool Helpers could register as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. That law would mean that every time I mentioned Hilary Clinton in Homeschool News & Views, I would have to report that mention to the United States Senate. Failure to do so could mean a fine of $200,000 and ten years in prison.

It is called the “lobbying reform bill” but who am I lobbying? I am just commenting on the news and the people in it. This law would stop that.

We have not registered as a 501(c)3 non-profit, and the bill is not yet law, so I am going to go ahead and say it while I can: Hilary, Hilary, Hilary!

Further, under the Clinton administration the Democrats tried to get a law which outlawed conservative radio shows like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. This was called the “Fairness Doctrine.” It would have required radio stations which air conservative talk shows to provide free time to liberals to present the other side. That’s not doable. Radio stations have to make money, so instead of giving away free time they just won’t have conservative radio talk shows any more. And that is the liberals’ purpose.

Of course, that Fairness Doctrine would not apply to a TV program where the Dixie Chicks or Michael Moore insult the president of the United States, or apply to a thousand liberal TV shows, or the whole of the far left wing movie business. Only to conservative talk radio.

The Democrats were not able to get that law passed under Clinton. Now it is said that the Democrats plan to again aggressively pursue making the Fairness Doctrine the law of the United States.

In addition, the liberals are working on the Hate Crimes bill, which would have the ultimate effect of criminalizing teaching the Bible and even reading the Bible publicly.

Look at what they are trying to do. They are trying to keep all Christian tax exempt organizations from saying anything against the liberals. They are trying to force the conservative radio talk shows off the air. They are trying to criminalize Bible teaching as hate speech. In past elections, liberals have sent spies into the churches to make sure that the speakers are not commenting on the elections. If the speakers do, then the liberals get the IRS after the churches to take away their tax exempt status. This will be particularly effective if a liberal president is over the IRS.

These Socialists don't fight for freedom. They fight for power. They want bigger government, and they want to run it. And the ultimate purpose of their power and their big government is to run everything Christian out of America. What they are doing is so brazen and so breathtaking that most conservatives won’t notice it and won’t believe it. They’ll be more like John Ashcroft was as governor, trying to be nice and thinking the other side is willing to be nice, too.

There is a great lesson to be learned by Christians in noting the Democrats’ actions when they took control of Congress. Liberals are rabid religionists. They promote their religion throughout the media and the education system. They plan to use the government to force their religion on everyone.

What will the country be like when Hilary gets elected, and she has a liberal majority in the House and Senate? What will they do?

Did you know that in Canada the Christian schools have to teach evolution? Isn’t that totally outrageous? Christianity is based on the Bible, which says that God created everything. Evolution is based on the premise that life came from nothing. Yet the socialist nation of Canada requires the Christian schools there, which are established to teach God, to teach ungodly evolution. One Christian school in Canada was recently investigated because it was accused of not teaching evolution. The school said they were teaching evolution, along with teaching intelligent design. I think I know which teaching they emphasized more, and that’s why they’re being persecuted.

The socialists in the United Kingdom have just enacted a new law which has the effect of requiring Christian organizations to hire homosexuals to work for them.

At some point it seems certain that the liberals in the US will go after the homeschoolers. The angle they will probably use is that the homeschoolers are not being adequately socialized. That simply means that homeschoolers are not being taught to be godless socialists. The liberals will attempt to “socialize” the Christian homeschoolers.

If you hear Christians who support the public schools talk about Christian homeschoolers not being well socialized, understand that they are helping the other side. Make no mistake about it. If you hear people saying that Christian homeschoolers are not well socialized, they are helping the other side. They are supporting public school left wing indoctrination.

At some point the left wing will try to prohibit all teaching of Biblical principles, not only in the schools, but in the churches and in the homes. Teaching and applying Bible teachings will be called child abuse and will be forbidden and prosecuted.

Since about 1980, the US has had good economic times. That is the general period in which homeschooling has boomed, along with a booming economy. However, economies go in cycles, up and down. We are due for a down cycle, it seems to be starting now, and in times of economic hardship, people usually want bigger government.

We have talked before about how most Christians in the US are not very Christ-like. We mentioned how 3 out of 5 Christians in their twenties and thirties think that living together without marriage is right – that Christ approves such adultery. Those who call themselves Christian have the same divorce rate as those who don’t call themselves Christian. George Barna, the Christian pollster, finally got tired of polling Christians because he could find little difference between Christians and non-Christians. So he has now gone to writing books telling Christians to be Christ-like.

God lets Satan rule this world to refine the people of God. The Christians of America have tried the power of politics. It has not worked. The country continually gets worse. As George Barna’s polls continually show, what the Christians have not tried is the power of God.

Homeschooling is really about taking time for God and family. Public school families as a whole don’t do that. We have said that Christian homeschool families make the deliberate decision to spend less time keeping up with the Jones and more time keeping up with Jesus. Homeschool families, take advantage of the lifestyle you have chosen. As we face more pressures from the Godless left, most of all make sure that you and your family are not Godless. Do what the public school Christians don’t do. Spend time with God. Have family devotions regularly and continuously. Teach your children to study the Bible and pray daily. Show them the example of regular fasting. Put God first in your family. Then whatever the anti-Christians may do is ultimately for your refining and spiritual benefit, as God intends.