Homeschool News & Views

Issue 71, June 1, 2008

From Homeschool Helpers

In association with Pass It On Ministries

By Dan L. White

Listen to this article.

There is an economic squeeze going on. It is squeezing homeschool families.

In the Bible, Israel was to have a jubile cycle. Actually the word was not jubile, but yubile, referring to the trumpet that was blown. Every fiftieth year all the property in the Holy Land went back to the original family to which God gave the land. If you were a real estate tycoon and bought a lot of property, you could only keep that land until the jubile or yubile year, when it reverted without cost to the original family. That caused a substantial wealth realignment.

That system was not followed very long. The men in charge ended it, “for the good of the poor.”

Similar realignments seem to happen in free economies, averaging about fifty years between booms and busts. A Russian economist named Kontradieff traced the boom-bust cycle in England all the way back to the 1200’s.

In the recent past the US has had a lot of would-be real estate tycoons. Now it is seeing a wealth realignment, with housing foreclosures and price drops. Economic excess leads to economic contraction. We’ve had the excess. Now we’re contracting.

The US dollar has lost much of its value, making everything we buy with dollars more expensive. The cost of gasoline has doubled twice in the last few years, and everything that is either made or carried with oil is affected. Anyone who bought a house in the last few years probably will owe more on the mortgage than the house will sell for. The employment contraction has yet to hit. That will really put the squeeze on families.

We were talking with a homeschool mother recently who said that she is going to have to go back to work and stop homeschooling.

A one income family is at a big disadvantage in this economy. Today’s pattern is that both mom and dad work away from home, and the teens work part time after school. A homeschool family which does not follow that pattern has it tough trying to keep up with all the big earners and big spenders, because they drive the cost of everything up.

James Dobson of Focus on the Family calls the work, work, work pattern the “routine panic” lifestyle. After working with families for decades, he has said that he believes the routine panic lifestyle, more than anything else, is responsible for the destruction of the American family.

The multi-income family destroys itself, some totally, some partially. If your homeschool family gives in and adopts the routine panic lifestyle, your family will be damaged, too. It doesn’t matter if you know better or not. If you follow that lifestyle, you will get the results of that lifestyle.

The economic squeeze is on now, making it even more challenging for Christian homeschool families. However, look at what’s going on in the country.

Ten states -- Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah -- are urging the California Supreme Court to delay its ruling commanding same sex marriage. Those states say they want to study whether or not they will recognize it when homosexuals from their states get “married” in California and then go back home. The California attorney general is urging the court not to delay the ruling.

Inevitably a certain number of states will recognize these California man/man and woman/woman marriages, thereby legalizing it in those states. The vote of one liberal Republican chief justice judge in California may change marriage in the whole country, even though few people in the country want that.

In Colorado the governor just signed a law that adds transgenders to the state’s non-discrimination law. Christians who own businesses can now be forced to hire transgenders, regardless of their own religious beliefs of such behavior. They have no personal religious freedom. They have to hire the homos and womos.

This law will allow a man to go into a woman’s restroom, because that person cannot be discriminated against with respect to restrooms. He can use whichever restroom he feels more comfortable with at any given time.

James Dobson, whose ministry of Focus on the Family is in Colorado, said, “The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars. Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence.”

The most interesting thing about this law, passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, is that they added a provision that prohibits a public referendum or petition drive to reverse the law. Those liberals know that most of the people don’t want this law, and they are forcing it on the people, whether or not they like it. Such is the socialist way. They know best. They are the moral authority.

This law just gives perverts permission to perve.

Meanwhile, here in the Ozarks we held our third annual Homeschool English Country Spring Formal Dance. Even though gasoline is nearly four dollars a gallon now, the dance was attended by more people than ever. There were nearly two hundred people there, not so many from distant states and more locally.

See this in your mind. There was a whole hall full of young folks: Christian homeschool grads and teens. However, many moms and dads were there, too – some of them even dancing! Can you imagine a public school prom where the parents actually went to the dance with their teens? How totally uncool!

Furthermore, since homeschool families average double the usual number of kids, and since the teens are there and the parents are there – guess who else is at the dance? That’s right. Little brothers and sisters. How anti-awesome is that?

At this Christian homeschool dance, everything was uplifting and edifying, from the opening prayer, to the Cincinnati Reel, to the prayer for healing for a homeschool dad, to the lingering goodbyes after it was over. The behavior of these young adults and teens was exemplary. No drugs, no drunks, no fights, no sexual gyrations. Just young Christian women and men being ladies and gentlemen. The parents did all right, too.

What a total difference that is from a filthy public school dance. There is a spiritual law. Christian homeschoolers show the results of that law.

The economic squeeze is on, making homeschooling more challenging than ever. Don’t give in and give up. When Israel was in the wilderness and they ran out of water, they murmured. When they ran out of food, they grumbled. What they should have done was just to ask God to fill their needs.

Homeschooling is not just education. It is about a family committing to make Christ the center of their life’s journey. Homeschooling is needed now more than ever, by your family and by this nation. Christ will help you on your journey through this wilderness. Don’t turn back to Egypt.