Walking Therein

Cutting and Running Indeed, Dr. Beam

   I really would love to be able to keep up on the current events and even the <> comments from some people about homeschooling and public schools.  Fortunately, we have bloggerfriends like 

I will let you younger readers know that there may be some things in this post that you may want to have your parents read before you go on.

   I was just over at Gena's blog. Boy, is she some opinionated woman or what?  How dare she give such facts about things like "Don't expect your kids at age six to be salt and light to a heavy, evil system. Expect him instead to get a lesson (from his first or third grade teacher) on how to dress a banana in a condom." And, how dare she uncover the truth about many "up-n-coming churches today, that "The popular seeker message is one that comforts the masses, but kills the seriousness of God's word. It produces people who pander to their flesh and their psychology-based philosophies (often taught by the church leaders). "

  In the article, Christians Are Needed In Public Schools, the first thing that Dr.Tony Beam states is that he KNOWS the public school system is PAGAN TO THE CORE!!!  That right there sends a giant red flag up to me as to whether this is the man I want to get my spiritual information and direction from. He said: "While I agree the public school system is in disarray and pagan to the core I must respectfully disagree with my brothers on the best way to bring about change."  

    So, are we parents now supposed to be like David when he sent Uriah into the front of the battle and had the others backoff, all the while, avoiding the battle himself?

    I mean, we are supposed to send a 15 year-old into a culture of other 14-18 year-olds, most of whom are PAGAN TO THE CORE, and my 15 year-old daughter is supposed to endure their pagan beliefs, their pagan language, their lack of faith in the One True God, their pagan immodesty, their pagan ideals about sexuality.... AND she is then, by herself (because they would really think me crazy to want to go into battle with her) supposed to take the ridicule and heckling of a group of pagans, most likely with the 'blessing' of a pagan teacher? Yeah, then she can come home and I can spend the rest of the night re-programming her from the pagan culture she has been immersed in for 8-10 hours each day.  (yeah right - before or after the 4 hours of homework?) 

Sounds like a blast - where do I sign up?

   No, really, the part of this article that I am really tired of hearing about from well-meaning Christians, after 10+ years of homeschooling, is that the reason we should send our children to public school, instead of keeping them at home is "that Jesus called us to be salt and light."  Oh, that gets my hackles up everytime!

Are you serious?

Do you really think Our Jesus who said 'suffer the Little Children'... and 'anyone who offends such a one would be better to have a millstone hung around his neck'... Do you really think He meant that our children were supposed to be sent into the War Zone we call public schools and be Salt and Light???

    We are supposed to send our 5 YEAR OLDS (a lot of times younger) to be the WITNESSES to those in public school? Are you out of your minds? 

    5 year-olds will come in contact with other "children" whose parents and/or older siblings are not your nice, run-of-the-mill sinners.  Some of them will be hard-core drug dealers/users or prostitutes in their home.  Some of them will be allowed to watch all manner of illicit sex in television shows and movies. They will see their parent or older sibling in the act of... well, you get the idea - and it is not pretty. If they are like I was as a child, there will also be physical abuse and a humanistic faith.  And, our children, who are ill-equipped to even hear or see such sin and nastiness, let alone discuss it... THEY are supposed to be the witnesses to these poor children? 

    What answer is your 6 year-old supposed to give her 7 year-old girl-friend about the 10 year-old boy (or girl, these days) who wants a little more than hand-holding in their "relationship"?  Or what about the peer pressure of 'little things' like cheating? And, even a Christian teacher cannot hold your baby's hand or keep watch the entire class.  Even if your child never does these things, he is still exposed to something God does not intend for that child to be involved in at a tender age.

   I would ask the adult public school advocates how interested you would be in going to a high school to witness to ANYONE? Even a teacher.  Any takers?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

    Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump,

so will it be with the consciences of our children

as they are spiritually underminded

and sent to do spiritual battle ill-equipped.

   More from his post (his in green, my responses in blue)

 "Since when is it prudent or scripturally accurate for a Christian to give up ground to the enemy?"

   I believe it was scripturally accurate in 1 Corinthians 5 when the man was sexually involved in a relationship with his stepmother, that the Church was to give him up to satan.  In addition to that, the pss is not a Christian entity.  As much as we hate to admit it, it already is under satan's control.  Have you been in a ps lately? My Sweetie delivers mail to the local hs.  He was appalled.

 

 "The cold hard fact is we as believers in Jesus Christ don't believe our God is big enough to stop and reverse the decay of the public school system."

   Actually, the reason we homeschool is because we KNOW beyond all doubt that our God IS big enough.  We just don't believe it is our responsibility as Christian parents to parent other people's children at the expense of the madate God has given us to train our own.

 

  "We would rather run to the safety of our Christian Schools and Home School organizations where the only discussion we will have is with ourselves when it comes to Christian principles."

   Must I quote scripture that points us to running or resting in the safety or shelter of His wings? 

   Are we so far removed from reality that we believe the public school system is the place where our children will experience a Holy "discussion when it comes to Christian principles" ?    Why do people think that children are supposed to learn good morals or Biblical principles in ps?  It is a pagan entity, because it is run by our gov't and open to ALL forms of beliefs in its structuring.  I believe we as parents are instructed to teach them His ways as we walk with them, sit with them, etc.  It is my responsibility to protect them in these beliefs.  I do not believe I could even do that in a Christian school.  Not everyone who teaches at or attends a Christian school is a Christian. 

 

"Where evil has been allowed to thrive it makes no sense to stem the tide of evil by removing the only counter influence." 

We are living in a world of sin.  Period. Yes, we areHis  salt and light.  Yes, we are to make an impact. Do you really believe it is God's plan to turn around the public school system? Where is that in scripture? I know where it talks of walking in Him and teaching your own children. I know where it talks about the Harvest, but not in relation to the pss. And, it also says that this world is going to get worse.  He does not blame Homeschoolers for that.

 

"If Christians leave the public school system we will be condemning an entire generation of our children to a godless existence where no salt will retard the spread of corruption and no light will be available to roll back the darkness."

 I would really like to know where in the WORD Christians are told to ENTER the pss. He is worried about Christians leaving - where are we instructed to immerse our children into the PAGAN TO THE CORE pss? Maybe that is the flaw. Is that where our witnessing is of no affect? Because we were never instructed to be unequally yoked with a PAGAN TO THE CORE Public School System?- Actually, weren't we instructed not to be?

I agree with you.

10:20 PM, Friday, May 19, 2006 .. Posted by REInvestor

And I really like your example of Uriah and Daivd. I think that this hits the nail on the head in many situations.
Many times though people who are giving this argument of sending the kids in to be salt and light, really just want to justify keeping their kids in ps so they don't have to completely change their lives and homeschool. I have a number of family members who are in this camp, one of them even a pastor and his family. And they are losing their families, which breaks our hearts.

Well said...

10:07 AM, Saturday, May 20, 2006 .. Posted by Buckeyeblog

Excellent post.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

WAY TO GO!!!!

11:10 PM, Saturday, May 20, 2006 .. Posted by quietcajun

This is one of the of the most well written answers to "salt and light" thing that I have ever read!

I believe it was Chuck Swindoll who once said (not an exact quote) that if you drop a glove in the mud the mud does not get glovey!"

Salt and Light

6:49 PM, Sunday, May 21, 2006 .. Posted by Deborah

Thanks for this post. When we were first married, we didn't like the idea of homeschooling for exactly this pastor's reason. We met while being on Young Life Staff -- we were right in the thick of the public school system, and homeschooling looked to us like "hiding out."

As we have matured and listened to God, we have come to see that homeschooling and evangelism are not mutually exclusive, quite the contrary, actually.

If I am truly living out my faith, making disciples as I go, and being a light to the people who cross my paths...it makes sense to have the kids along for the ride. How else will they learn to live for Christ? It simply makes more sense to be a light as a family, with the kids under the wings of Hubby and I, rather than sending them off alone -- in a "religious" school of Humanism -- to fight for something they haven't quite learned and practiced yet. I think of them as our apprentices, and Evangelism should be one of the trades we are teaching them.

Homeschooling is a beautiful thing. I am so glad the Lord led us here.

https://onebeggarsbread.wordpress.com/2006/05/16/ask-the-principal/