ex-preacher

And other news from religious right's view:


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Christian Families Urged to Evacuate Humanistic Public Schools
August 26, 2002

(AgapePress) - A new ministry is urging pastors and Christian leaders to take part in a joint effort to remove born-again Christian children from the clutches of government schools.

In March, pro-family leader Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family minced no words when he advised California parents to get their kids out of that state's public schools because of a seemingly unending string of laws requiring public school teachers to promote homosexuality as normal. In July, he extended that advice to include several other states, including Massachusetts, Washington, and Vermont, where "safe schools" legislation legitimizes homosexuality.

Now, in his new book Let My Children Go, former Army chaplain Ray Moore is encouraging families to leave what he calls "Pharaoh's school system." The director of the group Exodus Mandate says God gave education to the family with assistance from the church, and individual states have no God-ordained authority to educate children at the K-12 level.

According to Moore, states are usurping the authority of the family and church. He says it is a futile effort to try to reform schools at the state or federal level -- and that Christians need to give up their "silly" attempts to put prayer and Bible-reading back in the schools.

"It's not going to happen," Moore says, "and we're wasting a lot of good time when we could be starting our own schools and home-schooling our children. While we dilly-dally around trying to fix these schools, the humanists are taking our children's minds and hearts captive and leading them astray."

Moore says parents should not be sending their children to public schools based on the fact that they are "salt and light" in the culture. He argues that salt-and-light theology is valid -- but misapplied in the area of education.

"Education is a religious activity, [and] these public government schools are religious schools," he says. "They're just as religious as the local Baptist or Pentecostal Sunday school is, but they are humanistic or neo-pagan in design and practice."

Moore says when Christians use salt-and-light theology to justify placing their child in public schools, they are putting their children in harm's way and sending them to schools that teach false doctrine, which the Bible condemns in passages like II Corinthians 6:14-17 and Colossians 2:8.

Moore says his group has received a great deal of support from Southern Baptist leaders, and has been endorsed by Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries.


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Games for Church Youth
If schools are teaching false doctrines to kids, one might assume the safest place for children to learn -- apart from the home -- would be the church. But a Christian magazine has taken a look at what some churches are teaching young people these days, and the assessment is far from flattering.

The World magazine article (August 24, 2002, p. 11) takes specific aim at the games some youth leaders are introducing under the guise of following what it calls "the church growth principle of giving people what they like as a way to entice them into the Kingdom."

As an example, the article refers to the popularity of games that involved eating or drinking gross things, or games such as "Kiss the Wench" that seem to be designed to appeal to adolescent hormones. In another game called "Sanctuary Softball," players whack a nerf ball around the church auditorium with home plate being the altar.

The magazine suggests that instead of offering kids Bible knowledge and lessons about the cost of discipleship, the games do nothing more than encourage worldly values and disrespect for Christianity. The article concludes that teenagers already get enough entertainment, psychology, and hedonism from their culture -- they do not need it from their church.


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Bedroom Evangelism
Perhaps because they were "entertained" while at church instead of taught biblical morality, a growing number of Christian women are "missionary cohabiting."

Church people call it "missionary dating" when a believer dates an unbeliever, thinking they can "save" their partner. But according to The Dallas Morning News, an increasing number of female believers have graduated from "missionary dating" to "missionary cohabiting."

A study conducted by the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver found that women who describe themselves as "deeply religious" are just as likely to live with men before marriage as are women who are not religious. Meanwhile, the research indicated that men with strong religious beliefs were much less likely to cohabit before marriage than were non-religious men.

SynchroKnight

Concerning the public school evacuation:

Do you think these opinions indicate a change is occuring in right-wing christianity's attitude towards public education?

Will they simply allow the schools to "go to Hell" while the true believers keep to themselves? No more school board battles on school prayer, evolution/creationism etc.?

I wonder what the reaction will be among the activists in their movement? It almost seems they're ending a war on an entire front. That might make some of their numbers very unhappy.

(edit for typos)

[ August 26, 2002: Message edited by: SynchroKnight ]</p>

MadMordigan

Meanwhile, the research indicated that men with strong religious beliefs were much less likely to cohabit before marriage than were non-religious men.

That's cause they are still living with their moms.

ex-preacher

My reaction after reading this was: "Damn, I was in the wrong youth group!"

Veil of Fire

Good riddance. Get 'em out, give them a crappy education, and let them starve in the streets while the people who actually USE their brains go out anf make the country a better place.

Gregg

Yep, it's working out really well in Pakistan.

Gregg

case

I don't even want to think of the implications of that statement...

Ab_Normal

I'm concerned that a public school "evacuation" would be accompanied by a tax revolt, where folks who pulled their children out of public school then object to paying taxes to support them. It would have a serious affect on the public school system.

Corwin

Then they can go to jail for evasion.

I strongly object to my taxes being used to subsidize churches.... but do I pay them anyway? Yup.

Mageth

You owe me a coke and a keyboard.