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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Coming Persecution?

At this time of year there are always those fights going on between those who say Merry Christmas and those who don’t; or rather those who forbid it. For years we’ve wrestled with the Christian celebration vs. the Secular. School districts have disallowed Christmas parties in favor of Winter Festivals, etc.

I’ve never gotten overly excited about that. It’s ridiculous in a land built on the ideas of free speech and religious freedom for Christian expressions to be so blatantly banned, but what do you expect out of an un-redeemed populace. They are entitled to their opinions and beliefs as well, I suppose.

In fact, although I find it repulsive, even this atheist billboard has a legal right to exist. However, this land of “tolerance” is becoming increasingly less so. Not to other faiths, or to secular humanism, or to atheism in general. Only to Christians. Think of that billboard… can you imagine the outcry if our church put up a billboard saying that Mohammed was a liar and Islam was a lie? Hmmm….

Mike Farris from the Home School Legal Defense Association recently presented a speech that was then printed in their periodical magazine. Being radical wacko conservative homeschoolers, our family is of course a member of the HSLDA and regularly reads their magazine. This latest one truly scares me.

I know this is addressed to homeschoolers. And in one sense, it doesn’t surprise or bother me. We’ve fought battles for years, as Farris points out, over a variety of issues brought up by those who oppose homeschooling. The liberal establishment has made no secret about their desire to control our lives and particularly the lives and education of our children. They know that the way to usher in their worldview is to teach that worldview to our children early and often.

However, the things said by those educators and legal “professionals” which Farris quotes in this article ought to send chills down the spine of every parent in America, and every Christian as well. Stop and consider the implications of statements like this:

“If a parent subscribes to an absolutist belief system premised on the notion that it was handed down by a creator, that it (like the Ten Commandments) is etched in stone and that all other systems are wrong, the essential lessons of a civic education (i.e., tolerance and mutual respect) often seem deeply challenging and suspect. If the core principle in a parent’s belief system is that there is only one immutable truth that cannot be questioned, many educational topics will be off limits. Such “private truths” have no place in the public arena, including the public schools.” ~Catherine Ross, a law professor from George Washington Law School

Do you get the meaning here? Again, her arguments are directed against homeschoolers who teach moral and biblical truth to their children, but do you understand the implication. Anyone who believes in absolute truth, such as…I don’t know…salvation is Christ alone…should not have the right to share those truths with their children, or even have them shared in the “public arena.”

She goes on to say that teaching such truths leads to intolerant attitudes and threatens the society at large. She says, “there are limits to tolerance. In order for the norm of tolerance to survive across generations, society need not and should not tolerate the inculcation of absolutist views that undermine toleration of difference.” In other words, we should only tolerate those who are open minded and will accept the post-modern idiocy of multiple truths all being true, not those who teach that one truth is actually true. (Interesting that she targets Christian homeschoolers and not those wonderfully tolerant Muslims who are slowly gaining control of the nation!)

Again, do you see the implications? This isn’t just about homeschooling. This is about Christianity in general. It’s about the freedom to declare the truth of Scripture. It’s about free speech for everyone except Christians. We must tolerate them, but they don’t have to tolerate us. This is scary.

Even for those who aren’t Christian, this should be frightening. It’s an attitude that suggests that parents don’t know what’s best for their own children. The state should decide what’s best. This is socialism at its finest, the end result of the “it takes a village to raise a child” mentality. And lest you think I’m overstating it, listen to this from Kimberly A. Yuracko, a professor from Northwestern University School of Law.

“Parental control over children’s basic education flows from the state (rather than vice versa). States delegate power over children’s basic education to parents.”

Do you see that? The state gives us the right to raise and educate our children? Really? How did they get the right and power over our children to begin with, in order to delegate that right then to us? This is frightening logic, but is becoming increasingly common and accepted.

I’m not an alarmist (for the most part!). But Christians everywhere need to wake up and start paying attention. Our freedoms may be on the line here. At the very least we need to get informed about issues like these and be vigilant.

Parents, I encourage you to read the HSLDA article in full. Get informed about the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the threat it poses to parents worldwide. Furthermore, get informed about the proposed Parental Rights Amendment and urge your legislative representatives to support it.

And, Christians. Pay attention. Again, this isn’t an alarmist sort of thing. Not yet, anyway. But stay awake. Take notice. We’ve been blessed in this nation to the point of being spoiled. And if we’re not careful, those days may be on the way out. Persecution may come to this great land.

And if you are afraid to take a stand now, how will you stand when things really get difficult?

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