A Wake-up Call Over The Anti-Christian Agenda of Public Education

From WorldNetDaily.com

The young man reported on in the above article from WorldNetDaily.com took his own life after receiving pressure from his peers and allegedly a Professor over his Christian beliefs. His Professor challenged him to read Dawkin's book "The God Delusion".

Several of his loved ones mentioned the fact that he liked to debate the issues. While I like debating probably more than the next person, it is not something that should be jumped into lightly. Atheists and non-Christians can get very nasty with their name calling in defending their philosophies of life.

Being a homeschooling mom I take these stories very seriously. But I do hope and pray that this was a rare, isolated occurrence. Although my skeptical head tells me it's not. It may just be that young influential teens don't always take these extreme measures when confronted with similar situations that question their beliefs.

Homeschooling only goes so far though. I can teach them strong values all the way through High School if my husband and I choose to. But once they reach college they may be suddenly exposed to similar discussions in classrooms and with peers at a young and vulnerable age when peer pressure can be overwhelming. I pray that I can establish the roots in my own children today to give them the strength in their faith they will need in a world of tomorrow. This world of tomorrow will no doubt be farther away from the morals of God than we faced in our school years. All the more reason for Christians to be in the world but not of the world.

I hope the anti-Christian agenda of today will start to be seen for what it is, anti, not neutral. Schools should not lean one way or the other. Yet everything they are teaching leans more towards atheism rather than neutrality and equality.

At the same time, our fight in the public school system should not necessarily be one of a pro-Christian agenda, which is arguably unconstitutional, but rather an equal rights agenda. We are not much better than Islamic extremists or the State Church that drove the pilgrims to seek an existence separate from their oppressive views. These establishments said, "My way or the highway". If we try to force our agenda on others they will fight back with their own agenda equally as persistently. By seeking equal rights for all, as our founding fathers intended, we may have a better chance to change things one person at a time.

Celebrating Holidays

My friend Carol posed the question on her blog about what others think of how Christians should celebrate holidays such as Halloween, Easter, Christmas, etc. I thank her because it got me thinking and I am usually better at expressing things on "paper" rather than talking. So this gives me a good opportunity to express my thoughts and be prepared when someone asks why I do what I do.

There is a lot out there as far as evil is concerned on Halloween. My kids look at me when they see something halloween related that is "scary" because they know it's bad and are looking for my reaction to it. I ask them what they think of it, whether it be a blood dripping vampire costume at walmart or a witch, etc. and they say it's not good because God doesn't like it. I take those opportunities to praise them for recognizing that and remind them that there are things in this world that many people will say is ok but that it doesn't make it ok with God and we shouldn't accept it just because everyone else is. I think it is an important lesson for our children in the future because this world is only getting worse. Evil will most likely invade their world in the future even more than it does today until God has had enough and comes back. I want God to say to them "Well done good and faithful servant" because they have stood as a testimony to the world that they will not participate in something just because everyone else is, thereby telling their friends that what they are doing is OK. It provides for a good opportunity to share their faith in Christ when their friends and family ask about it. In the spirit of seeking peace and goodness during Halloween I do like alternative costume, fall parties etc. without the gory stuff and NOT on Oct. 31st so they see that Christians can still have fun and not be the party poopers, yet still glorify God.

As far as Easter and Christmas goes, they are understood today as "Christian" holidays. It is the world that is trying to distract us from our purpose for the holiday in today's society. Long ago the origins of Christmas and Easter were pagan celebrations. History in this case though is irrelevant to many because it was so long ago its origins are not widely known. It is widely known to be Christian in modern society, however. My children know we celebrate those holidays giving glory to God/Jesus and do not include such fantasies as the easter bunny or santa clause to divert their attention from the true meaning we are trying to convey to God, praising him and thanking him.

Yea, you read that right: my kids do not believe in Santa Clause, the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, or other fantasy characters our society likes our children to believe in. We have pleanty of fun and my children are not "deprived" for lacking Santa in their lives.

As a Christian I would be a liar if I expected my kids to believe in Santa. Many people have lost their faith because as children when they found out there was no Santa, tooth fairy, easter bunny etc. they correlated that to there must be no God either. "My parents lied about it all." is what one person told me "Why should I believe there is a God either?" Fortunately, God gave me that opportunity to share my faith with him! My family probably thinks I am a killjoy but when my children's salvation is on the line, I don't mess around.

What do you think?