On My Soapbox!
The 3 Foot Genius turns five this year, and I am in the process of making some decisions concerning her future in the area of formal education. Five thousand years ago when I was a kid, there was no decision to be made concerning formal education. You sent your kids off to kindergarten when they turned five and that was that. Now, however, we have more options:
- Public School – where your child will be indoctrinated according to the Godless agendas of atheists and homosexuals; or
- Private School – where your child will get a quality education and better advantages that will help them get into the best colleges; or
- Home School – where parents (okay, let’s be honest – the mother) can firmly and lovingly instill into their children a rich education consisting of both academic and spiritual pursuits.
At least, those are the options from the slant of the gung-ho private school/home school advocates. This outline of options is usually followed by irrefutable facts and statistics why private school/home school is best for all children. Sometimes, those of us who would rather send our children to public school are shamed into giving reasons that sound like nothing more than petty justification in the face of such seemingly ironclad reasoning. Clearly, it’s a hot-button issue among parents today, especially Christian parents.
(Thankfully, my excuse for not home schooling/private schooling my daughter is watertight – I’m a single mom who can’t afford the luxury – and make no mistake, they are luxuries to me – of those options, one of the admittedly few advantages of being a broke single mom!)
Although I have no concrete statistics (I’m too lazy to look them up), judging by the number of couples I meet quite frequently who’ve withdrawn their children from public schools (or never enrolled them), I think it's safe to say that the number of private or home schooled Christian children has skyrocketed in the past decade or so.
The Degeneration of Public Schooling
It’s easy to see why – public schools are the target of everyone who has an agenda to promote, and most of those agendas are decidedly anti-Christian. After all, if you want to indoctrinate a nation to the benefit of your cause, there’s no better place to begin than the classroom. The atheists, the homosexual activists, the Eastern Religions – all of them realize this basic fact and have inundated the schools with their sweet-sounding videos and innocent-looking curriculum. They’ve basically taken advantage of a Godless America to promote a Godless classroom. As they’ve achieved that with stunning success, it’s no wonder Christian parents have withdrawn their children to safer pastures.
Nightclubs and Public Schools Have a Lot in Common
Y’know, there are many places in America one can go and be almost guaranteed not to meet a Christian, especially here in the Bible (thumpin’ fundamentalist) Belt. Those places are bars, nightclubs, strip joints, etc. As an A/P, I was raised to believe that if I entered any one of those dens of iniquity, I’d have to leave my Holy Ghost at the door. Christians shun the places, so the devil gets to have a heyday inside. (Sinners have their bars, Christians have their churches, and never the twain shall meet.) Places like that have flourished because – IMHO – Christians haven’t turned them into spiritual war zones. Although we’re assured that the gates of hell won’t prevail against the church, it’s a rare Christian who’s willing to storm the gates of hell in the first place! Better just to avoid them altogether, or so they say.
"Good Riddance," Says Satan
So, um, what do bars have to do with public schools? Well, I’m getting to that: as public schooling becomes more wicked and Christians continue to leave, public schools could become like bars in that not one Christian can be found there! They could become just one more locale where the devil has free reign to influence and manipulate young, impressionable minds any way he likes!
Where there is a Spirit-filled Christian, there is also a devil quivering in fear. So why is it that we Christians who are given the power through Christ to tear down strongholds shun them instead? Aren’t we doing exactly what the devil wants us to? The devil doesn’t want us to invade his turf – he wants us to leave! And we Christians are leaving public schools in droves.
Schoolchildren – Missionaries for the 21st Century?
Let me back up for a minute and say that I can understand Christian parents don’t want make “spiritual martyrs” their children. I understand that Christian parents don’t want to have to de-program their children every time they come home from school concerning the things they’ve learned that day. I can understand the value of a good education that kids aren’t really getting in public schools.
However, I don’t think we’re seeing public schools for the mission field it really is. What if we began viewing our children as missionaries? What if we began spiritually equipping and training them to fight a holy war in their schoolyards? What if we sent them to school with tracts, or taught them how to pray for a friend? What if we taught them how to respectfully question the concepts being taught and do research independent of the classroom to find the real truth? What if we encouraged our teens to read and do book reports over books about chastity or self-control? Instead of acting as if the trials at school are just something to be endured until the end, what if we gave our children a vision that they could be catalysts for sweeping reformations on their campuses? What if we viewed the academic education of our children as secondary to their formation into warriors for Christ?
What’s the Answer? I Don’t Know.
I’m an idealistic dreamer, I know, but I’m also a fighter. I don’t like the idea of giving up on our schools and our nation’s youth, the future of our nation. My intent is not to criticize any parent for making the best decision for their child, but to ask if perhaps we should take a step back and look at the big picture, the long-term ramifications of today’s decisions. Your child is going to have to live under the rulers of tomorrow. We Christians will decide if those rulers have a Godly influence in their lives or not.
Of course, this is just a theory I’m throwing out there – a radical one that begs practical application. Maybe it’s not even a good idea or a realistic solution. However, I can’t shake the feeling that giving up and walking out on public schools is a bad idea. One day, when our children are living under a government created by people who were raised in Godless classrooms, I can’t help but think maybe they’ll regret the decisions we made for them. If taking prayer out of public schools has created a society as bad as it is today, think how much worse things could get if we took all the Christians out as well.
Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail me! I reserve the right to quote you unless you ask otherwise.
Another True Test of an Apostolic
From Anne in Texas:
You might be Apostolic if:
- You go to Wal-Mart to see your friends and look at the new fashion trends.
- You have ever been accused of wearing “fair” (fake hair) on a bad hair day.
- You go to a theme park in an ankle length denim skirt and a ¾” t-shirt and then complain when people stare at you like you’re nuts.
- Your youth group thinks the only way you can raise money is through a car wash or selling some sort of food – ie: peanut brittle.
- You have more hair accessories than most stores.
- You have as many dressy pairs of sandals as you can so you don’t have to wear hose.
- The amount of money you spend on hairspray exceeds your gas bill.
- The musicians at your church can tear it up, but none of them can read sheet music.
- You're considered an old maid if you're not married by age 18.
- You consider Bible college "higher education."
- When shopping for shirts, you always run it through the "Praise The Lord" test. This consists of raising your arms as high as you can, and if no belly shows, you’re good to go.
- Sunday and Wednesday mean no cooking or dishes.
- You can pronounce "Habakkuk."
- Mondays and Thursdays are the hardest days to wake up in the morning.
- Your “day of rest” includes 2 church services, choir practice, and Golden Corral.
- Your 2-year-old runs through Wal-Mart shouting, "Praise the Lord! Eb shamma dabba yamma yabba dooba! *clap, clap* Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Thank You, Jesus! Hallelujah!!"
- Growing up you baptized your cousins and siblings several times in the swimming pool.
Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail me! I reserve the right to quote you unless you ask otherwise.
London Tragedy
Please continue to pray for the families of those killed and injured by the bombings in London yesterday.
You know, I just really don’t understand terrorists sometimes. Don’t they realize what acts of terrorism like this do to us British and American people?
Acts of terrorism help us find our backbone, our voice and our courage. Instead of causing us to cower in fear, they make us want to stand and fight even harder. They make us even more determined to root out evil wherever it is and eliminate it. I think terrorists have been given a clear warning today:
Make no mistake about it, you cowards, we will find you, we will fight you and we will shut you down. One small victory for you today will result in a thousand victories for us tomorrow. You'd better hide, you dogs, because we are coming for you!
Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail me! I reserve the right to quote you unless you ask otherwise.
The True Test of an Apostolic
On my jaunts around the blogosphere yesterday, I discovered that some of the bigger bloggers are calling all Christian bloggers come up with some sort of test to see how well one fits within a respective religion. (Link thanks to Disert Paths.) To help out with my religion of expertise, I drew upon years of intensive field research and formulated the scientific list below to determine one's Apostolic standing. I'd advise you to check yourself against it in order to seek out your own salvation with fear and trembling.You might be Apostolic if . . . - You and all the girls you know own thirteen pairs of black shoes, eight black skirts, and five denim skirts.
- Everything in your bathroom is coated in hair and hairspray.
- You can quote your pastor better than you can quote scripture.
- You suspect that Sis. Bessie who sits on the pew in front of you dyes her hair.
- You’ve ever told a non-Apostolic Christian that you were praying for God to lead him/her into all truth.
- It’s just not a good service if you didn’t run the aisles at least once or twice.
- You’ve been told that your sideburns are too long.
- Someone's testimony made you blush.
- You can remember a time when poofs and bows were in style -- and the bigger the better!
- The Apostolic church across town is either “too strict” or “too liberal,” but yours is just right.
- You're a Democrat and most of your church people think you need to pray through over that.
- The service lasts shorter than the time you took to fix your hair for it.
- You speak in tongues on a roller coaster.
- Your pastor wears a shirt and tie to the church picnic.
- Your skirt length and hair length are the same.
Think you can do better? Of course you can! Send me your own checklist, and I'll be happy to post it in a future entry!
Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail me! I reserve the right to quote you unless you ask otherwise.
