Schooling for the Blind

Well, I have been away for awhile trying to drum up employment. Still no success, but I ran across several good articles from others' blogs that touch a nerve. I have quoted them below my initial comments.

For many Christians here in FoggyPitt, it is a perfectly acceptable practice to enlist the government (public) schools to educate their children. Parents use their parental authority (read: autonomy) as their warrant, "It's my decision." Or, worse, "I let my child decide where he wants to go." Or, for those who need additional rationalization, they claim the Scriptures don't say explicitly, "Thall shallt not put your children in the public schools". Or they say that their children need to be "salt and light" in, what they know to be, a tasteless and dark place. Or they argue that attending church on Sunday, sending the kids to youth group, and praying around the dinner table constitutes "bring[ing] up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." To be sure, those things are all part of the process, but Jesus makes a total claim on our lives and our time and our activities and, yes, especially our school choices. Six hours of instruction per day in a secular, pluralisitic, humanistic, naturalistic and anti-Christian environment "exasperates" your children, fathers. Believe me, I know from personal experience. It certainly does not fulfill the mandate to "...love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Now the quotes:
R.C. Sproul, Jr. - 7-1-2005
"This summer as the Baptists gather, some good men are trying again, or at least, they are trying to try. This time the resolution, sponsored by Pastor Voddie Baucham and Mr. Shortt, asks for rather less. It encourages all SBC parents to investigate how much their local school is promoting sodomite lifestyles. (Except, of course, their language is slightly less accurate, and slightly more gracious.) And if they find stuff not to their liking, then they should consider taking their children out.I’m quite confident that both Baucham and Shortt are fine, godly men, who, in this instance, have let their honorable zeal befuddle their goal through their strategy. They want the kids out, which is great. But their current strategy is to show the parents the boogeyman that is no longer in the closet. It is a horrible thing that any school would promote sodomy. But it is the natural result of previous and more grievous error, a school that will not affirm the Lordship of Christ over all things. Why are we worried about men kissing each other, when we ought to be worried that the entire system refuses to kiss the Son?To paraphrase myself, any parent who would remove a child from a school because of sodomite propaganda, but would not remove their child from a school that will not name the name of Christ, worships the god of middle class morality. And that god cannot save. This is what ought to turn our stomachs, 'Jesus doesn’t matter here.'”

R.C. Sproul, Jr. - 7-8-2005
"When God gives us an order, because He is the very God of order, we can rest assured that it does not contradict any other of His orders. Which brings us back to our first two suppositions. Which is more important, raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, or being salt and light? Christian homeschoolers are tempted to choose the former, while Christians who send their children into the government’s schools are tempted to choose the latter. What do you think?I hope you think that neither of these two commands is more important. We are to obey all of God’s law, and we can never justify breaking part b on the grounds that it was necessary to keep part a. Not that I haven’t tried. When I was a teenager I would often drive home at reckless and illegal speeds, so as not to break my curfew. When Christians of different theological persuasions get together, it isn’t uncommon for them to play what I call 'dueling verses.' The Calvinist drops his verse, 'Ephesians 2:1' and the Arminian retaliates with 'John 3:16.' The two start flinging verses at each other, somehow believing that whomever can muster the most verses wins. But of course to get at the truth we have to understand and incorporate all the verses, because God’s truth is one. And so we do the same in our education wars. No homeschooler can justify indifference and inaction toward the lost on the grounds that they are busy raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And no government schooler can justify their children being discipled in a place where the Lord cannot be mentioned on the grounds of 'witnessing.' What we need is to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, while seeking the lost. As I stated in my book When You Rise Up, 'Do I care about the lost? Of course I do. Do my children care about the lost? Enough that they can pray for them at school, out loud, every day. I am homeschooling precisely so my children will be able to know, recognize and love the enemy, all while not becoming the enemy….The greatest thing our children can do for the lost is to so let their light shine before men that they glorify their Father in heaven.'”

George Grant - 7-11-2005
"Leadership must be prayed for, planned for, and prepared for—it doesn’t just happen. I know, I know, that is hardly earth shattering news. But I had finally come to the realization that in order to bring about reconciliation, restoration, and reformation in our culture we would have to commit ourselves to the multigenerational agenda of covenantal faithfulness—just as it had always been; just as it always would be.The Scriptures speak eloquently of our responsibilities to effectively train up the next generation of leaders. The responsibilities therein rehearsed have been part of the confession of faith of God’s people from the earliest days—indeed they constitute a primary application of the first and great commandment (Deut. 6: 4-5; Matt. 22: 37-38). They constitute a central element in what it means for those who are saved to keep covenant with God: 'And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently unto your children.'”