Stones Cry Out

I disagree with the use of the term 'often'.

"Those who have made the legitimate choices of Christian schools and homeschooling OFTEN unfairly criticize those who make the choice to sent their children to public schools."

That's not true. The homeschoolers I know all make a conscience effort not to mention homeschooling or say anything critical around public school parents. I sure there are some exceptions. However, the homeschoolers I know are the salt of the earth, and go out of their way to help others and not offend anyone. The portrayal you propagate is and inaccurate one.

"Well-grounded Christian children who received proper training and care at home can thrive in public school settings. And they can be salt and light in school."

Huh? Are you saying that four years of Christian training is enough for equipping a 5 yr old to confront the humanism, feminism, and tolerance teaching of the public schools? And a 30 minute Sunday School lesson and cursory prayers at bedtime will have more weight than the 30 hours in their godless classroom? You are deluding yourselves.

As a parent, I am responsible before God to give my child a Christian education. That cannot be accomplished when I leave the bulk of the teaching to be done in the public schools by individuals who do not worship the true and living God.

There are a few Christian students in public schools who attempt to be salt and light. But they are largely ineffective because they don't have the tools-knowledge of scripture, logic skills, and biblical worldview- to engage the culture in battle. All too often I see the young people imbibe the poison that is daily being fed to them, and the result is boys and girls who dress, act, talk, and look just like their heathen classmates. Their salt has lost its savor; their light is dim.

May God put it on the hearts of more pastors to warn their congregations of the dangers of sending Christian children to anti-Christian schools.

As the original entry states, "Well-grounded Christian children who received proper training and care at home can thrive in public school settings." Are there many "well-grounded Christian" kindergarteners in your church who are savvy enough to see through the deliberate attempt to secularize their lives and to relegate their God to a place among all of the other gods in our new American Pantheon? Perhaps by third grade they're ready to challenge the establishment? Or maybe your 12 and 13 year olds who are entering public middle school are astute enough to resist the anti-God emphasis (both covert and overt) in the curriculum and to resist the overwhelming peer pressure that drowns so many in this artificially created social environment?

The author stated, "It was proposed by a Tennessee minister who does not believe any subject can be taught separate from a intentional Christian worldview." Should it be inferred from this statement that a proper view of history, science, math, life is possible through a lens other than God's Word? If so then, what is the purpose of education? What does God say is essential if we are to gain true knowledge? Whom does God charge with the primary responsibility of training a child? What is the church's role in this process?

Would we consider sending our children to train in Muslim or Mormon or Jehovah's Witness schools / meetings to be salt and light? Why not? Is there no truth mixed in with their doctrine? Do they not also need a Christian witness? When God calls someone to preach, do we send him to receive his training in a Buddhist monastery?

Yes, we are called to engage our culture and to be God's agents for expanding His kingdom, and that is precisely why our children must be well-grounded and intentionally fit for battle before they are thrust onto the battlefield.

If we as a church believe that it is preferable or even necessary to send our immature, unwise, unwary children as footsoldiers to do battle in an establishment that is officially agnostic (at best) and deliberately designed to make them melt indistinguishably into a pluralistic society--at a time when these children are most impressionable and still forming their basic understanding of life--rather than to do everything within our power to provide them with a solid foundation, consistent with God's truth, God help us.

Mike:
Mandi, you were fairly visible on your public high school campus, both as a varsity cheerleader and as an unashamed Christian. What kind of reaction did you receive from teachers and students when you stood up for your beliefs?
Mandi:
Well it wasn’t a very positive reaction, when my classes discussed certain controversial issues, such as abortion and evolution, I would always give my opinions on the topic according to what the Bible teaches. Teachers always explained to everyone that you must respect everybody’s opinion no matter what. And that all sounds nice, but when it came to my turn to share how I felt, nobody would listen to what I had to say, not even the teachers. They often rolled their eyes and said that I had nothing substantial to base anything I said on implying that the Bible wasn’t substantial at all. The rules concerning class discussions always applied unless you disagreed with majority of liberal views.
Mike:
Mandi, I commend you for standing strong in the face of harrassment. But I understand you reached a point where you could no longer remain in school.
Well I prayed about it with my parents, and we talked about it. And I was getting so much harassment, and I would come home from school every day almost in tears. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was when my high school sponsored an HIV positive homosexual to speak with my sociology class about living with AIDS. The basic idea of this lecture was to accept homosexuality as a normal lifestyle—instead of telling us that the reason he was dying of AIDS was because he was gay, and warning us of the dangers of his lifestyle.
Mike:
Mandi, what about those who say that leaving high school was giving up the fight?
Mandi:
I would say to them, “No, it’s not.” In Matthew 10:14, Jesus tells us, “if someone will not listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet and leave.” I felt it was time for me to do just that.
Mike:
Mandi, this December you left public school after many years of strongly defending your beliefs in a hostile environment. Many Christian parents send their kids to the public school so they can be “salt and light” in the world. What would you tell these parents?
Mandi:
The main thing I’d tell them is, “the Scripture gives us some very good advice on being the salt and light to world, but I found that in public school my light was not allowed to shine because they tried to hide it under a bushel.” The majority of Christian students learn that the only way to get along in public school is to keep their mouth shut. At some point you become a mockery for Jesus. And I know that sounds harsh, but you do. When someone joins the military, they’re not immediately sent to the battlefield without training and knowledge and told “Well, you’ll learn how to fight as you go along.” No, not at all. They spend months in training before they’re allowed to fight. Why should parents send their children who are immature in their faith to public schools to fight spiritual battles? Most of all, I would encourage parents to please pray with their children and seek what the Lord would have you do.
Popular ideas of humanism taught in public schools today include:
1. Anything the mind can conceive and believe you can achieve. But the Bible tells us the story of Babylon. The people conceived an idea, believed they could do it, worked hard at it, and were prevented by the intervention of God.

2. Keep your eye on the goal.
The Bible says, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith.. We must see the goal given us by God, and we must keep it in the focus of God.

3. Keep your dreams first and foremost before you.
Scripture teaches us to see all things by the light of Christ, ... Who is blind as my servant or deaf as my servant? Who sees not by the seeing of the eyes but by the Spirit of the Lord? Who judges not by the appearance of things, but by the Spirit of God?

4. Only pay attention to the visible things that can be measured and calculated.
Scripture says the visible things shall pass away, but the invisible abides forever.

5. Discover your strongest desires. Fulfill yourself. Be yourself. Find your own life and live it to the full.
Scripture teaches , If any man would save his life, he shall lose it. Deny yourself and follow Me. If any man take not up his cross and follow Me, he is not worthy of Me.
7. Man evolved from the slime and ooze of the primodial sea, first as a single celled organism, then a group of cells, then maybe a fish of some kind, then some reptile on land, then an ape, then a pre-man, then a man. Scripture says God created man in his own image.
*Please remember that if the children are not being taught to keep God in all their thoughts, to understand all things by the light of Christ, then they are being trained to ignore God, to understand all things by their own reasoning. And the school officials say we shouldn't use the schools to endoctrinate children with the myths of Jesus Christ. Have you ever realized that your child is learning every minute of the day? Either to keep God in all his thoughts or to ignore God. The school is being used to feed poisonous ideas contrary to Christianity. The Bible was not just taken out of school, it was replaced with another religion called Humanism. Why don't more parents know this?
You are responsible for whom you give authority to train your child.