French police grab 4 kids on German orders--Homeschool family's children accused of being 'being alone':  On October 6, 2009, Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily reported that four children of a family that fled Germany to avoid further fines for homeschooling have been snatched from their home in France by police and accused of "being alone," according to a report today on the ongoing war against home education across the continent.   The word comes from the Home School Legal Defense Association, which has been involved in a long list of cases of persecution of homeschooling families across Europe, especially in Germany.   The report said two French social workers and two police officers appeared without notice at the home of Dominique Chanal in St. Leonard, France, where Dirk and Angela Wunderlich and their children have lived since July.   "The four officials told a stunned Mrs. Wunderlich that they had come at the request of German authorities and that they had to take the family's four young children because they were 'in grave danger,'" the HSLDA report confirmed.   "A copy of the report justifying immediate seizure of the children was obtained by HSLDA. The reasons given for the seizure were that the children were 'socially isolated, not in school and that there was a 'flight risk,' – none of which appear to be true," the report said.   The family fled Germany because of a series of fines imposed for homeschooling and the concern that German authorities inside Germany would take custody of the children.   After the children were seized by French authorities, the Wunderlichs contacted their lawyers in Germany, and they now are being represented by a local attorney in France.   Armin Eckermann, chief of a German group involved in defending homeschoolers, told the HSLDA that when he contacted Germany authorities, they denied asking French police to get involved.   The children were taken into custody Sept. 28, and it was three days before the parents were allowed to see them again.  "The social workers told us that the reason they took our children was because they 'have no contact with other children, that school education is guaranteed and that you are a risk of escape.' But this is nonsense, as anyone who knows our family can tell," the parents said in a statement.   Michael Donnelly, a staff attorney with the HSDLA who is familiar with a number of egregious persecution cases coming out of Germany, said the development is alarming.   "We are concerned about the increase in negative treatment of homeschoolers in Europe. This apparent trend is counter to all the evidence that shows that homeschooling is effective both academically and socially. Because homeschoolers in Europe are relatively few, it is important that homeschoolers in America encourage and support them," he said.   The HSLDA noted that another family, Uwe and Hannalore Romeike, now has a political asylum request pending in the U.S. because of the potential for persecution should they be forced to return to Germany.   The landlady for the Wunderlich family said she was shocked.   "This is a wonderful family," Chanal told HSLDA. "There are always children coming to the home to play with the children and my daughter. It is like a school in our house.   "These are very good parents who protect their children from dangers. They are better parents than most parents in France, because they do not let the children wander the streets or get involved in other bad behavior," she said.   "I believe that this was an illegal act by the German Youth Welfare Office. We are no longer residents of Germany," Dirk Wunderlich said. "As citizens of the European Union we have the right to free mobility, and we are complying [with] French education laws. The Germans should leave us alone."   Donnelly reported another family, still in Germany, has been assigned a new trial date of Nov. 16. Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek of Archfeldt, Germany, previously were sentenced to 90 days in prison for homeschooling their own children.  The HSLDA warned that the behavior of German authorities is a foreshadowing of what American parents should expect if the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child ever is ratified in the U.S. Its concerns are detailed at Parental Rights.

     Follow up to the previous item:  On October 13, 2009, HSLDA reported under the heading, “German Homeschooled Children Return Home under Court Supervision” that the Wunderlich family were delighted that a local juvenile court decided to return custody of their four children after they were seized in a surprise visit by French social workers on September 28.  Dirk Wunderlich was pleased at the outcome and grateful to those who comforted his family during the crisis.   “All went very well,” he said. “The children are back and we can do homeschooling. Thank you and your members for their prayers and support.”  The French court reviewed testimony from eight people familiar with the family and determined that the children should return home. However, the court retained jurisdiction and ordered that the children should be made available to a court-ordered investigator who would follow up on the home education. The court stated that it would dismiss the case in six months if all was well.  Homeschooling in France is a legitimate form of education ordinarily conducted under “supervision” of local school authorities. An attempt to impose restrictions on French homeschoolers was defeated in the French legislature several years ago.  HSLDA supported the family with legal advice and encouragement during their difficulty. Staff Attorney Michael Donnelly noted the ruling with pleasure.  “This is the right result,” Donnelly said. “The children should never have been taken in the first place, and we continue to be concerned about the possible connection between the French and German authorities in this case. We will continue to support the family, and HSLDA is grateful for the support of its members which allows us to help families like the Wunderlichs.”

     The New Hampshire House Education Subcommittee on surveying superintendents met September 30. Most people, including legislators who attended, presumed that the committee was going to discuss a survey that would be sent to superintendents. It appears that the “survey” consisted of testimony from a carefully selected group of four superintendents who have previously testified in support of increased homeschool regulation. These superintendents from Grantham, Interlakes, Rochester and Dover were invited to address the committee and to share their “anecdotal” experience with “problem homeschools”.  Representative David Bates (Windham), who attended the meeting, expressed incredulity that the committee would approach a survey this way.  “My district of approximately 47,000 people is among the largest in the state,” said Bates. “The two superintendents in this district informed me that no homeschool programs have ever had to be terminated for failure to achieve educational progress. In fact, to their knowledge, there has never even been a need to put a homeschooler on probation. I testified to this and gave letters from the superintendants to the Education Committee earlier this year. It appears to me that the invited superintendents were handpicked in order to support the subcommittee’s conclusion that more regulation is needed.”  Representative Bates indicated that homeschoolers should insist real data be used to support proposed regulation.  “I found that the testimony of these superintendents was anecdotal,” Bates added “All seemed to coalesce around a notion that there were problems with 5 percent of the homeschools in New Hampshire. The problem is that there is no actual evidence to support this idea. Proponents of more regulation continue to insist that there is a need for data. Available data, however, does not support the desired outcome of a number of members on the committee—apparently an increase in state regulation and oversight.”  Mike Faiella, a proponent of homeschooling who has previously served on the Home Education Advisory Council, was surprised by a pronouncement from the Department of Education’s representative, Mary Mayo, at the meeting regarding regulations.  “I am concerned that Ms. Mayo’s comments may possibly indicate that the DOE is doing more than writing rules to deal with the legislative changes that have occurred over the past few years,” said Faiella. “The HEAC is required to advise the Department when asked, but it may be that the Department has gone ahead and created more rules without consulting the advisory board. If so, this would be of grave concern to New Hampshire homeschoolers. It is important for at least a few homeschoolers to try to attend the State Board of Education meeting on October 14 to indicate that we are vigilant in protecting our rights. We also need to follow this whole rulemaking process very carefully, as there will be opportunities for comment and revision.”  HSLDA Staff Attorney Michael Donnelly noted that New Hampshire homeschoolers are prepared to continue to defend their freedom.  “Many groups would perhaps become tired after three years of constant battle to defend their freedom from intrusive state government,” said Donnelly “I’m so pleased to say that New Hampshire homeschoolers appear as ready as ever to guard their freedom. HSLDA is ready to stand with them and provide support and encouragement wherever we can. This attempt at increasing regulation is at odds with available data that show that New Hampshire homeschoolers are doing an outstanding job of educating their children. Furthermore there are many states with laws that provide far less regulation. Why should New Hampshire be seeking more regulation? It just doesn’t make sense.”  New Hampshire homeschoolers should be prepared to rally at the statehouse in January to oppose any increased regulation.  Another meeting of the “survey” subcommittee is scheduled for October 20. The complete House Education Committee is due to report its recommendations on H.B. 368 by December 2. The whole committee will have to meet to discuss this matter, presumably sometime in November. The bill as reported out of the House Education Committee will likely come up for a vote in the full House in early January.  (From HSLDA)

     On 10/17/2009, under the headline “Calif. indoctrinating, lying to school children,” Charlie Butts of OneNewsNow reported that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill authorizing curriculum that teaches children embryonic stem-cell research heals -- when in fact it doesn't.  Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com told OneNewsNow that $3 billion approved in 2004 by voters for the research has produced no effective treatments for diseases and other medical conditions.  "All the trials have shown that human embryonic stem cells cause tumors and cancer in patients and tissue rejection," he says, quickly asking: "Where's the real success? It's in adult and cord blood stem cells. Over 73 effective treatments, and that's the direction to go."  According to Thomasson, the bill signed by the governor perpetuates another falsehood that is being pumped into young minds.  "Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that is teaching school children the lie that embryonic stem-cell research heals people, when it doesn't; [and] that it doesn't harm people and it doesn't kill [them], when it does....[I]t destroys human embryos," he asserts.  Thomasson urges parents to take decisive action on behalf of their children, especially in light of the governor's recent signing of another bill that calls for schools to honor radical homosexual activist Harvey Milk annually. Appropriate parental action, he says, includes taking youngsters out of public school, homeschooling them, or placing them in private institutions of learning.

     A brand new homeschool mom was in the front office of a middle school in Lake County withdrawing her child when the principal overheard what was transpiring. At that point the principal approached the mom telling her that she could not homeschool because “there was a case decision last year declaring homeschooling to be illegal.”  Unfortunately, the principal either had his facts wrong, or he was trying to discourage the mom from attempting to homeschool her child.  His assertion was partially true. It is true that at the end of February 2008, a decision was handed down that would have made homeschooling illegal in California. Most of you remember the furor that decision in In re Rachel L caused in the homeschool community across the country, not just in California. However, that is only the beginning of the story. The same court that originally ruled that parents could not homeschool under the private school exemption reversed itself on August 8, 2008, declaring that it was legal in California for parents to operate a homeschool program as a private school. This is a complete turnaround from their prior position.  This case was covered by the national media and because of that, it is hard to believe school officials are still using intimidation tactics to try to stop families from leaving the public school.  California is a great state for homeschoolers. They have tremendous freedom, and research demonstrates that parents are doing a great job of preparing their children for life and academic success. But the public school establishment continues to view with suspicion parents who choose to home educate.  Our legal staff had a conversation with a SARB Chairperson (school attendance review board) in San Bernardino County that demonstrates this basic distrust of parents.  The question from the SARB representative was this, “So you mean that any parent can just pull their child out of public school and ‘say’ that they are homeschooling. No one can check up on them, no one can check to see if their curriculum is meeting the state requirements, no one can test the child. They could just be keeping the child home to babysit!”  The U.S. Supreme Court trusts parents to do what is best for their children. In Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979) the Court stated that parents are presumed to act in the best interest of their children. Many school officials still do not believe that despite the demonstrated success of homeschooling.  Despite the victory in the Long case, we still face opposition and must remain vigilant to protect homeschool freedom.   (From Home School Legal Defense Association)

     NOTE:  While I do not wish to run this into the ground, I believe that our nation needs to wake up and see what this administration is trying to do to our public school system.  Several more items about Kevin Jennings have come to my attention, so rather than string them out over several days, I will run them all at once.

     And one more:  Recently Rush Limbaugh reported on Kevin Jennings.  He included some remarks that Jennings made.  RUSH: I meant to play this audio sound bite yesterday.  I didn't get it in time. It's nobody's fault. We were just busy.  I have it now. This is 2000 in Iowa at the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.  It's an event there.  It's audio of Obama's safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings.  This is the guy that a 15-year-old kid approached him, "I'm having a problem. An older man is forcing his way on me with sex and so forth," and Jennings said, "That's fine. Are you using a condom?" and urged the 15-year-old to further the relationship and then said, "Later I saw this kid come back to school and every day had a big smile on his face! I knew I'd done a good thing."  That's Obama's safe school czar.  So nine years ago Kevin Jennings is at this Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.  He is criticizing schools for promoting heterosexuality.  This is from a speech Kevin Jennings gave at this event in Iowa.  JENNINGS:  I find it amazing this is on the ballot for a couple reasons.  First of all, we all know what's REALLY promoted in our schools.  Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools.  Every time in our schools.  Every time kids read Romeo & Juliet or they're urged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country, and you know what? It doesn't work.  The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But there's still people out there who believe that myth because, you know what? It's easy to panic people if you make them think that they're after your kids.  RUSH:  So he's gay, obviously, and heterosexuality is being promoted through vehicles like Romeo & Juliet.  We're recruiting. They're recruiting heterosexuals. They're recruiting and promoting heterosexuals in the school, and this guy is now Obama's safe schools czar.  [Editor’s note:  And the Obama administration thinks this guy is good to promote safety in our schools!]

     Will it ever end?:  Now, on October 21, 2009, Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily in an item headlined "Obama's safe-schools boss sponsors radical porn: Harvard event honoring AIDS activists credits Jennings for 'gifts and grants,'" reported that the chief of President Obama's Education Department Office of Safe Schools, homosexual activist Kevin Jennings, is being credited for helping sponsor a Harvard University display honoring the work of the radical homosexual organization Act Up.  WND reported that a YouTube video revealed Jeff Davis, Jennings' "partner," addressing a banquet and saying of Jennings, "He was a member of Act Up. Act Up! So it's like – you know – here's a big gay activist. BIG gay activist!."   The video was pulled down shortly after the WND report appeared.   Now the advertising for the Harvard exhibition: "Act Up New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993," credits Kevin Jennings with others including Fred P. Hockberg and Tom Healy, Open Gate and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation for "gifts and grants" used for the project.   The display included dozens of "politically-charged posters, stickers, and other visual media that emerged during a pivotal moment of AIDS activism in New York City," according to a website promoting the effort.   Among those organizations displaying their work was "Fierce Pussy," which featured a poster of a toddler labeled "Dyke."   "Pairing text and image with penetrating anger and searing wit, ACT UP's art collectives targeted specific individuals and institutions at the local and national level, advocated for safer sex and gay and lesbian rights, and galvanized broadband support for the AIDS activism movement," the promotion states.  "The exhibit includes horrible anti-Catholic bigotry, child pornography, and various descriptions and depictions of sexual perversion. It also includes posters accusing various public officials of murder during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s and a call to terrorize offices of the National Institute of Health," wrote Mass Resistance in its report on the event.   A member of the Mass Resistance group attended the event, which runs into December, when it opened just days before.   "It was extremely disturbing. This exhibit is a 'celebration' of anger, terrorism, religious bigotry, and sexual deviance. It's considered a serious mainstream event by the elite academic and homosexual communities. In many ways it's a window into what the homosexual movement - including many who teach in colleges and high schools across the country - thinks of children, America, religion, society, and you," the report said.   "For any public official to be involved with this and funding it (much less a person in charge of directing the nation's children's 'safety') is beyond offensive. It's every parent's nightmare," the report said.  The group also reported that Jennings' book, "One Teacher in Ten," about homosexual teachers, was published by Alyson Books, which describes itself as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature."   According to the pro-family organization Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, Jennings already was "under fire for praising his hero, early homosexual activist Harry Hay, despite Hay's longtime, dedicated support of NAMBLA – the North American Man/Boy Love Association."   Members of Congress have written to Obama demanding he dismiss Jennings following WND disclosures about his past, including an incident in which he counseled a 15-year-old student to keep quiet about being seduced by an older man.  Messages WND has left with Jennings' office never have been returned.   (I wonder why?????)

     Well, enough is enough!:  In an item headlined "Time for '''Safe and Drug Free Schools' Czar to resign" on October 6, 2009, Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association made the following suggestion.  Kevin Jennings is an open homosexual who is now serving the Department of Education as President Obama's "Safe and Drug Free Schools" czar.   Jennings is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which pushes so-called "anti-bullying" policies which even GLSEN admits are really about promoting "affirmation" of homosexual behavior in the school system.  Jennings is intolerant of the "religious right," 90% of whom enroll their children in public schools, and said in a 2000 speech "I'm trying not to say '[F---] 'em'...I don't care what they think. Drop dead!"  He wants homosexual indoctrination of students at all levels, having written the forward to a book entitled Queering Elementary Education, and saying in 2004, "Ex-gay messages have no place in our nation's public schools...There is no ‘other side' when you're talking about lesbian, gay and bisexual students."  By his own admission he failed his legal duty to report what he believed to be a case of statutory rape when a young student approached him for counsel after the boy had been preyed on by an older adult in a local bus station bathroom. Jennings' main piece of advice: "I hope you know how to use a condom."  He writes in his 2006 memoir without any remorse of frequently getting "drunk and stoned" when he was a teenager.  Kevin Jennings is not qualified under any ethical standard to be entrusted with the safety of our nation's public school children.  Tim suggested that we contact Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urging him to call for Jennings' resignation and ask our Congressmen to also press Duncan for his resignation.  [In addition, Rep. Steve King, R-IA, and 52 other U. S. House of Representative members have also asked for Jennings’s resignation or removal.]

     But it only gets worse!:  In an item headlined: Porn practitioners promoted to children?--Group set up by Obama's safe schools chief recommends 'Gay Pioneers'” on October 27, 2009, WorldNetDaily reported that an organization founded by Kevin Jennings, President Obama's chief of the safe schools office in the Department of Education, has recommended a movie promoting several practitioners of pornography as part of its plans for teaching school children about homosexuality, according to a new report.  A report from Mass Resistance, a pro-family organization that has battled homosexual activists, says Jennings' Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network has included in one of its "lesson plans" for school children a recommendation for the film "Gay Pioneers."  The lesson plan describes "Gay Pioneers" as "a documentary focused on the first public protests for equal rights for gay and lesbian people, staged at governmental offices and historic landmarks in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. between 1965 and 1969, through archival footage and interviews with the participants who are still living."   The report suggests that many parents might be surprised, however, to have their children being given messages of endorsement for the activities of Franklin Kameny, Jack Nichols, Nancy Tucker or Randolfe Wicker.  Kameny, for example, is "founder and president of National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc.," the report said.  "I support NAMBLA's [North American Man-Boy Love Association] right to advocate whatever they wish, including advocacy of changes of law to legalize their preferences," he's quoted saying.  The Mass Resistance report quoted Kameny saying, "Bestiality is not my thing … But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn't mind (and the animal rarely does), I don't mind, and I don't see why anyone else should."  The report also cited the movie's portrayal of Nichols, who edited the pornographic magazine "Screw." The report includes a sample of his writing: "'Screw' was the world's first publisher of newspaper nude frontals, both male and female. It was also the world's first newspaper to publish nude photos of males making love. I was one of those two males…"   Another profile talks about Tucker, who created the "Gay Blade" as well as Wicker, who "wrote a trailblazing article … explaining how best to violate New York state's now-defunct sodomy laws."  Mass Resistance' report said, "Imagine teenagers hearing about these sex-obsessed 'gay pioneers' (who are portrayed as heroic 'civil rights' leaders), then doing a Web search as they answer their homework questions.  These are the 'civil rights' leaders Kevin Jennings and his organization GLSEN hold up to children as worthy of emulation."

     Like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going and going….:  Under the headline, “Porn publisher asked Jennings for help--Result was 1st book for chief of office of safe schools,” on November 1, 2009, Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily reported that apro-family organization is reporting a publisher of "gay erotica" sought out Kevin Jennings, who heads President Obama's office of Safe Schools in the Department of Education, to write a book aimed at encouraging homosexuality in high schools and colleges.   The result was Becoming Visible, which opens with, "Why teach gay and lesbian history? … Indeed, as lesbian and gay studies has emerged as a discipline over the last two decades, its dramatic discoveries have shown it to be one of the most exciting fields in contemporary historical scholarship."   Researchers at Mass Resistance reported Sasha Alyson of Alyson Publications sought out Jennings to do the book.   In Jennings' acknowledgements for the book, he writes, "Writing this part of the book has caused me more anxiety than any other. It simply is not possible to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped make this book possible. ... With apologies to anyone omitted, here we go! The obvious place to begin is with Alyson Publications. First, Sasha Alyson had the vision to conceive of this project, and I had the good luck to be the person he sought out to complete it. I am deeply appreciative of being afforded this opportunity."   The Mass Resistance report said, "If you peruse the collection on the Alyson website, it's mostly porn – 'erotica.' What is fascinating is the categories. Now, publishers only print what sells, so this is a good reflection, one might think, of what sells in the 'gay' community.   "They have very full collections under 'gay erotica' and 'lesbian erotica,' but only a few offerings under 'relationships' and under 'self-help,' we find this: 'Boy Crazy: Why Monogamy is So Hard for Gay Men and What You Can Do About it.'"  The publishing firm, which created "Daddy's Roommate" and "Heather Has Two Mommies," also has promoted "Macho Sluts"; "The Age Taboo," an anthology of arguments for pedophilia; and "Pedophilia: The Radical Case," the report said.   "It's outrageous that the same company that markets books that condition children to accept homosexuality also peddles instructions on how pedophiles can have sex with children without getting caught," said Lambda Report editor Peter LaBarbera, now of Americans For Truth.  When asked by the Lambda Report about the pedophile references, Alyson responded, "I think it's something that is a legitimate area for exploration," the report said.

     NOTE:  As distasteful as all this is, we need to be letting people know what is being done to our nation's public school system in the name of "diversity."  Previous blogs have contained other items about Kevin Jennings, who was chosen by the Obama administrations' U. S. Department of Education to be its "Office of Save Schools" czar.'

     On October 2, 2009, in an item subheaded “Jennings: I was 'inspired' by NAMBLA's Harry Hay,”  Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily reported that a transcript from a 1997 speech shows Office of Safe Schools chief Kevin Jennings in the U.S. Department of Education expressed his admiration for Harry Hay, one of the nation's first homosexual activists who launched the Mattachine Society in 1948, founded the Radical Faeries and was a longtime advocate for the North American Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA. "One of the people that's always inspired me is Harry Hay," the transcript shows Jennings saying, "who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America. In 1948, he tried to get people to join the Mattachine Society. It took him two years to find one other person who would join.   "Well, [in] 1993," Jennings continued, "Harry Hay marched with a million people in Washington, who thought he had a good idea 40 years before."   The comments about Hay are significant because of Hay's extreme positions regarding homosexuality.  For example, according to the website for the North American Man-Boy Love Association, Hay told the organization in a 1983 speech: "I also would like to say at this point that it seems to me that in the gay community the people who should be running interference for NAMBLA are the parents and friends of gays. Because if the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world. And they would be welcoming this, and welcoming the opportunity for young gay kids to have the kind of experience that they would need."   The statements from Jennings are being reported by Americans for Truth, an activist organization that works to expose the actions and statements of the nation's homosexual advocates.  It was just days earlier that a spokesman for President Barack Obama confirmed the president believes Roman Polanski should be held to account for his three decades-old confession to sexually assaulting a teen.   Americans for Truth chief Peter LaBarbera told WND the statements were transcribed from a tape of Jennings' address before a "Looking to the Future" panel at GLSEN's Mid-Atlantic conference Oct. 25, 1997, at Grace Church School in New York.   Jennings describes how "being finished" with his work might "some day mean that most straight people, when they would hear that someone was promoting homosexuality, would say, 'Yeah, who cares?'  Close your eyes for a second and think, 'What would the world look like if we were through with our work? If we were done. If we could close the doors on 27th street [GLSEN's New York City headquarters], and shut down the chapters, and disband the board. What would be happening?'" he questioned.   "This is the only thing that can stop us, is if we believe that our dreams cannot come true," he continued.   Then he praised Hay.   "Everybody thought Harry Hay was crazy in 1948, and they knew something about him which he apparently did not – they were right, he was crazy. You are all crazy. We are all crazy. All of us who are thinking this way are crazy, because you know what? Sane people keep the world the same [blank] old way it is now. It's the people who think, 'No, I can envision a day when straight people say, 'So what if you're promoting homosexuality?'' Or straight kids say, 'Hey, why don't you and your boyfriend come over before you go to the prom and try on your tuxes on at my house?'"   He suggested conference participants "think how much can change in one lifetime if in Harry Hay's one very short life, he saw change from not even one person willing to join him to a million people willing to travel to Washington to join him."   Besides Hay's endorsement of a "relationship" between teens and adult homosexuals, in 1994 he gave another NAMBLA address that cited the "growth and change" in the previous years.   "By far, gays' and lesbians' greatest strides were in the dimensions of gay consciousness and in our breathtaking discoveries in the richness and diversity of gay spirit. It is in the realm of gay spirit where all the groups comprising the gay and lesbian community currently are being challenged to take great leaps, to expand their self-visions and potential horizons," he said. "In this period, my beloved Radical Faeries moved to perceive that our lovely and beautiful sexuality is the gateway to spirit. Perhaps NAMBLA might consider expanding its parameters also."   According to the archives of Concerned Women for America, when Hay died in 2002, no mainstream media outlets reported his advocacy for the pedophile activities of NAMBLA.   Hay also urged that NAMBLA, which advocates for the elimination of any "age of consent" restrictions, be considered mainstream in America.  "NAMBLA's record as a responsible gay organization is well known. NAMBLA was spawned by the gay community and has been in every major gay and lesbian march. … NAMBLA's call for the abolition of age of consent is not the issue. NAMBLA is a bona fide participant in the gay and lesbian movement. NAMBLA deserves strong support in its rights of free speech and association and its members' protection from discrimination and bashing," he said.

     (Taken from the upcoming November, 2009, issue of Biblical Homeschooling, a free e-mail newsletter for Christians who homeschool: biblicalhomeschooling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblicalhomeschooling/ ).

Monthly Meditation

1. "LET ALL THOSE WHO SEEK YOU REJOICE"

by Wayne S. Walker

     "Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation say continually, 'Let God be magnified!'" (Psalm 70:4).  The heading of this Psalm reads, "To the Chief Musician.  A Psalm of David.  To bring to remembrance."  In the first three verses, David asks God to make haste and deliver him from those who seek his life, causing them to be turned back because of their shame.  However, David is not content to pray only for his own needs.  He asks that all who seek God would rejoice and be glad.  Certainly, it should be our desire that all who are in sin would "seek the LORD while He may be found" (Isaiah 55:6).  And we can especially be thankful that He has promised His children, "Seek, and you will find" concerning their prayers (Matthew 6:7, 11).

     Theologians have defined what they call "common grace."  While the Bible does not use the term, it does express the idea in various places.  Jesus said that God "makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).  Paul, speaking to idol-worshipping pagans, said that God "did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17).   The fact is that the more people seek to conform their lives to God's ways, even if they do not fully obey the gospel and receive salvation from sin, the more God will bless them, at least in terms of the things of this life.

     Yes, like Paul, we pray for all who are lost "that they may be saved" (Romans 10:1).  Yet, we also pray "for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (1 Timothy 2:1-2).  And we may pray for friends and others who are not Christians that God will allow them to experience His "common grace" in hopes that His goodness would lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4).  A song that we have often sung asks that God will "Grant that ALL may seek and find Thee a God supremely kind; Heal the sick, the captive free, Let us all rejoice in Thee."  Again, the more people in general seek the Lord's principles of righteousness and morality, the more those who love God's salvation can magnify the Lord.

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     This picture is of a one-room schoolhouse in Adams County, Ohio.  Adams County was established in 1799 and named for John Adams.  This was when Ohio was still part of the Northwest Territory even before it became a state in 1803.  So it was one of the original counties in Ohio.  It is the next county due south and east of Highland County, Ohio, where I grew up, and the seat of Adams County is West Union.  The county is situated on the Ohio River between Brown and Scioto Counties.  The photograph was evidently taken as part of a library project conducted by the Works Project Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression.  Unfortunately, the exact name, location, and current status of the school were not included with the photograph.

        Items in previous blogs told about a fossil nicknamed “Ida” which the popular press declared might prove to be the missing link.  Well, in an item headlined “Primate fossil called only a distant relative,” AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter, on Wed. Oct. 21, wrote the following.  Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and TV documentary? A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction.  In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York.  He and his colleagues compared 360 specific anatomical features of 117 living and extinct primate species to draw up a family tree. They report the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.  Ida is a skeleton of a 47 million-year-old cat-sized creature found in Germany. It starred in a book, "The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor."  Ida represents a previously unknown primate species called Darwinius. The scientists who formally announced the finding said they weren't claiming Darwinius was a direct ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. But they did argue that it belongs in the same major evolutionary grouping, and that it showed what an actual ancestor of that era might have looked like.  The new analysis says Darwinius does not belong in the same primate category as monkeys, apes and humans. Instead, the analysis concluded, it falls into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs.  Experts agreed.  (And so did creationists!)  Just goes to show that you can't believe everything that you read hyped up in the media.

     John Clayton of Does God Exist? reported the following.  “Pigs, chickens and fish have more signs of consciousness and rationality—and, consequently, a greater claim to rights—than do fetuses, newborn infants, and people with mental disabilities….The calf, pig, and the much derided chicken come out well ahead of the fetus at any stage of pregnancy.”  This statement by Peter Singer is typical of atheists minimizing the value of human life.  Singer builds on the work of the atheist philosopher [Friedrich] Nietzsche who coined the phrase “transvaluation of values.”  The argument is that we are not creations of God, but rather mere Darwinian primates.  Singer says, “We must remove Homo sapiens from his privileged position and restore the natural order.”  Singer would protect apes but allow unwanted children, people with mental disabilities, and noncontributing elderly to be euthanized.  Atheists will not like to see Singer’s atheist views presented as what all atheists believe, but in reality, if God is removed from the picture it is difficult to avoid the conclusion.  Dinesh D’Souza has more on this in his article “Staring into the Abyss” available online at www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/22.60.html .  [Shades of Nazi Germany!  WSW.]

     Barb Frank of The Imperfect Homeschooler recently wrote, “We've always been happy to teach our son with Down syndrome at home because if he were in school and someone abused him, he might not be able to tell us what happened. It never occurred to us that the school nurse might steal his medications and replace them with vitamins, which happened to at least one special needs child at this school!”  She then cited an item headlined “School nurse accused of stealing student's pills” by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. for WCNC-TV in Charlotte, NC, on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, which reported that Teresa Sue Kennedy, 52, was arrested the previous Friday and charged with obtaining a controlled substance by fraud or forgery and embezzlement by an employee. She had been employed by the district for 15 years and worked at the Metro School, which serves cognitively disabled students.  The victim is a 19-year-old handicapped student who attends Metro School. Kennedy was his school nurse, and was supposed to administer and keep track of his Adderall, a drug used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder.  Police said another nurse in the school noticed the medication didn't resemble the pills the student should have been taking.  SBI agents and police worked on the case for months before charging Kennedy last Friday. The nursing board pulled her license in March.  (The Imperfect Homeschooler e-newsletter is published by Cardamom Publishers, PO Box 2146, Janesville, WI 53547. To learn more about homeschooling, or for homeschool encouragement, visit http://barbarafrankonline.com .)

      On September 24, 2009, New York Magazine implicated WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Rep. Michele Bachmann in the murder of a Census worker in Kentucky. "Twelve days ago, in a Kentucky cemetery, a the (sic) body of a census worker was found hanging from a tree," the magazine reported. "Scrawled across his chest was the word 'fed.' Though it's too early to conclude that the man, 51-year-old Bill Sparkman, was targeted in an act of anti-government violence, that is an angle that authorities are currently looking into. And if that turns out to be the case, it wouldn't be all that surprising, considering the sheer volume of vitriol directed at the federal government and the Obama administration these days by conservative media personalities, websites, and even members of Congress." Bachmann's pointed comment that she would not participate in what she views as an overly intrusive Census this year is what landed her on the suspect list. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently agrees with the indictment.   "In addition to this specific case of [Bachman's] census-related fearmongering, you can add in the conspiracy theories about FEMA internment camps, long a mainstay of the Internet but recently stoked anew by the likes of conservative website World Net Daily and radio host Michael Savage," the New York Magazine article continued. "Then throw in everyone comparing Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and health-care reform to Hitler and Nazi Germany – like Rush Limbaugh, to take but one example. And death panels, and socialism, and birth certificates, and 'trampling on the Constitution.' It's this toxic stew of fear and anger and paranoia that Nancy Pelosi recently worried could compel someone to lash out. 'I saw this myself in the late seventies in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric was very frightening and it gave — it created a climate in which violence took place,' she warned."   My question is, do these people not remember (or do they just choose to forget) all the rhetoric from the left that George W. Bush was a liar, a fascist, a Nazi, worse than Hitler, etc., etc., etc., etc.?

      Government sponsored health plan and homeschooling:  On Thursday, October 15, 2009, someone on the Homeschool-Illinois e-mail group provided the following information. It is from the Concerned Christians Newsletter by Robert Vanden Bosch, who is a "Christian" lobbyist here in IL and he has been giving updates on what different parts of the fine print says in the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009."   This thing is a very long bill and he is taking it item by item.  Here are a few that could be of concern to homeschoolers by the way they are written. These are quotes from his newsletter.  "The bill provides for optional 'nurse home visitation services' without specifying who has power to exercise the option. Among the various purposes listed are 'increasing birth intervals between pregnancies' (this reminds us of China's policies to reduce childbirth by married couples), reducing 'child abuse, neglect, and injury' and promoting school readiness" (will homeschooling be scorned?).   This was from page 768 of the bill. "The Senate bill's official summary also authorizes 'home visits' to improve immunization coverage."  (Will Americans tolerate a knock on the door from a government agent demanding that we and our children receive all government-ordered vaccines?)  The above was taken from Phyllis Schlafly Report Vol 43, No 2 September 2009. The newsletter says you can click on this link and read the info for yourself. http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2009/july09/09-07-31.html .  Many of you may be familiar with Phyllis as she has many homeschool articles on her site and has spoken at home schooling conventions in the past.  Bosch's website is www.concernedchristianamericans.com .

     More Good Reading:  The July/Aug., 2009, issue of Practical Homeschooling ( www.home-school.com ), which next year will go to a publication schedule of five issues a year, has an interview with Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis about his new book Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do to Stop It, an editorial by Mary Pride “Patriarchy, Meet Matriarchy,” Sam Blumenfeld’s always interesting column “Tomorrow’s Leaders” on “Banking on Panic,” and other helpful information.

     A longtime champion of homeschooling rights around the globe, Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel and Director of State and International Relations Christopher J. Klicka passed away on October 12, 2009, at age 48, following a 15-year battle with multiple sclerosis.   The very first representative of HSLDA whom we heard after we made the decision to begin formal homeschooling was Klicka at the 1997 Ohio Home Educators Conference in Columbus, OH, sponsored by Christian Home Educators of Ohio.  An attorney, spokesman, lobbyist, and homeschooling husband and father, Chris is survived by his wife, Tracy, their seven children (ages 11-21), and his parents, Ardath and George Klicka. An integral part of Home School Legal Defense Association's staff for 24 years, Chris was HSLDA's first full-time employee, first executive director, and first full-time attorney. He believed passionately that homeschooling was the best educational method for children and demonstrated that passion in every area of his life. 

     His wife Tracy wrote, "I know to try and describe our sadness--the longing and aching in our hearts right now--would be impossible, so I won't try. I will share a picture the Lord gave within minutes after Chris' departure.  I saw him with his old western boots and jeans on (like he used to wear at Grove City College when he would run over to see me at my dorm--he was a senior and I was a freshman when we met there), running at top speed in Heaven. I pictured a huge smile (the one I love best) on his face and fellow saints yelling out greetings of welcome to him, some even asking him to stop and visit with them, and heard his reply, 'I've got to run for the Lord up here. I'm making up for lost time down on Earth. I'm praising God and have to use my legs to do it. Stop me in about 100 years, and we'll sit down and have a nice long visit!'" 

     HSLDA President J. Michael Smith said, “Chris was both a people person and a goal person. He cared deeply about people, but was also driven to always do more!  He was the most determined person I ever met in my life. Even with all the things he accomplished every day at HSLDA, he continually wanted to tackle new challenges and serve homeschoolers in more and better ways. He was so focused on the homeschooling world, but he was also very much focused on his family and dedicated to raising his children.” 

     And Dr. John A. Sparks, Dean of the Calderwood School of Arts & Letters, at Grove City College in Grove City, PA, made the following remarks.  "A young dark-haired student, Chris Klicka, sat in my U.S. Constitutional History class at Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania around 1980. He was an excellent student with a particularly keen interest in questions about religious liberty and how that liberty might be protected. What I did not know at the time was that he would become the untiring legal defender of fathers and mothers across this nation, many of them Christians, who wanted to school their children at home. His death is an immeasurable loss to that alternative schooling movement which has grown wider and deeper than he ever expected.   Chris Klicka studied law after his Grove City College years at O.W. Coburn School of Law in Oklahoma and was hired in 1985 as the first executive director of an organization that had been formed by another tenacious fighter for educational and religious freedom, Mr. Michael Farris. His new position was with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). The organization charged a reasonable annual fee to parents who were home schooling. The pooled fees were used to provide a legal defense fund for those who located in states in which laws and courts were hostile to the efforts of parents whose only 'transgression' was that they had chosen to home-educate their children....In the early 1980s, Pennsylvania was called by HSLDA one of the 'worst states' in the country for home schoolers. Many of the threatened moms and dads in Western Pennsylvania were clients of mine. Consequently, though we had not planned it, Chris Klicka and I had the 'pleasure' of working together with Mike Farris on a number of cases here on behalf of HSLDA families, where school districts, through their superintendents, sought to criminally prosecute parents who were home schooling....All this, I add, he accomplished while fighting an individual battle with Multiple Sclerosis. In these last years that disease sapped his physical strength and challenged his endurance. Nevertheless, his indomitable spirit, which was clearly Christ working through him, made him a warrior for freedom to the end. His gentle demeanor, disarming smile, and courageous heart were combined in a winsome way with his unyielding stance for scriptural principles. He died with the gratifying knowledge that parents across the land could instruct their children without fearing the heavy hand of state intervention. Now he rests peacefully in the bosom of the Lord he served so well."

      Pete Chagnon of OneNewsNow reported on 9/23/2009 that a recent British report calls for the government takeover of home schooling.  The report was released in June 2009 by Graham Badman, who was commissioned to conduct the report by the Children's Secretary of Britain -- England's version of the U.S. Department of Education. Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), says the report is bad news for Britain.  "It would require all home schoolers to have to register with the equivalent of the federal government here [in the U.S.]," he says. "Secondly, they would have to be available for home visits...from government officials to separate them and ask them questions about their home schooling, whether they like it, etc."  Smith is even more troubled by another aspect of the report: all home-school curriculum would be controlled by the state. "In other words, homeschoolers would not be able to choose their own curriculum," he explains. "These are some of the recommendations that have the home schoolers in Great Britain and around the world concerned."  Smith says Badman used Articles 12 and 29 from the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child Treaty to justify the report.  HSLDA founder Mike Farris is concerned that the same U.N. treaty could be used to the same ends in the United States. Another group Farris started, ParentalRights.org, is calling for concerned parents and individuals to contact their senators and urge them to support a recently introduced parental rights bill.