Whoever controls the children owns the future. Hitler knew it, the humanists know it and the modern left extremists know it.

My homeschooling friend, Liz E., sent me a link to a very interesting article and video at WorldNetDaily. It was in reference to a website called www.ExodusMandate.com and to a call that is being put out to Christians to pull their children out of government run schools. The video especially was very interesting. Voddie Baucham, a minister and author of the book, "Family Driven Faith" mentioned that children spend 14000 seat hours in school from K-12. Fourteen thousand hours! He said, "Whoever controls those 14,000 hours controls our childrens' worldview." That is pretty powerful. Baucham also quoted Charles Potter, a signer of "The Humanist Manifesto: "What can theistic Sunday School, meeting for an hour each week, do to stem the tide of a five day program of humanistic teaching?" Not much. That is what the humanistic, atheistic popular culture pushers are counting on.

And MAKE NO MISTAKE folks. The public schools are absolutely in the business of humanistic teaching. There are still those who want to keep their heads in the sand and think that their school is okay or that their children will follow their example no matter how many hours they are exposed to a pervasive culture of humanistic views and condemnation and ridicule of Christian views and teachings. An adult would have a hard time maintaining their beliefs if surrounded day in and day out, all day long by authority figures who communicate with everything they say and do that their beliefs were naive and somehow ridiculous, oh and hateful, Christian beliefs are hateful too doncha know. It would be extremely difficult for an adult to do and yet we expect it of little children from the age of 5! No, wait... we put them into headstart and 4 year old Kindergarten nowadays so make that from the age of 3. We are, hopefully and prayerfully, training them up in the way they should go but they are NOT TRAINED YET. They are so teachable in those early years. It is a beautiful thing how teachable a little child is... until you consider what they are being taught.

This video, "The Call to Dunkirke" was a very straight-forward, pull-no-punches challenge to Christian parents. Let's face it, the public schools are very tolerant places... to everyone except Christians. The mention of Jesus is taboo, kids can't say a prayer over their lunch, they sure to heck can't read their Bible in study hall. Nowadays, they can't even make signs that say, Merry Christmas or sing Silent Night in the "Holiday" program. The songs relating to Santa and lots of gifts are fine, I'm sure.

I about choked and then cried out aloud "Amen!" when Minister Baucham said, "...the first place we need to march is right out the front door of those Christ dishonoring, academically inferior, soul-killing government indoctrination centers!" Wow. The days of homeschooler apologetics is over folks. It's time to put it plainly and truthfully. Public schools are not doing the job they spend millions and millions of dollars to purportedly do. The only thing they are really efficient at is indoctrinating the children in the mores and morals (or lack thereof) of popular culture. I am very proud to say that my 2 youngest girls never stepped foot into a government run classroom and as long as America is still the land of the free, they never will.

Reflecting on all of this has made me aware of how thankful I am for the relaxed days of learning and teaching and growing with my girls. Those 14,000 hours are spent in an atmosphere of love and faith and learning. I've thought before about how people are losing more and more of their children's time to the government nannies. I watched a video about the "two million minutes" kids spend in high school and got to thinking that if my kids were in public school, I would be in their company for maybe 3 or 4 hours a day M-F. And honestly, those are some of the busiest hours of the day in most households. The hour or so getting everyone around to go to school and work in the morning and the hours from 5 or 6 pm to bedtime getting supper made and eaten and baths and everything ready for the next day. How much of that time is spent conveying our deeply held beliefs about God and country?

In comparison, the breakfast hour is very relaxed around here and yes, we absolutely do talk about things like freedom and faith every single day. The dinner hour to bedtime is pretty busy around here too, but that's okay because there were preceded by several hours of reading and writing and discussing things at our leisure. Mr Potter was correct folks. Like it or not, a few hours a week of our good example is not going to compete with 40 or more hours a week of being completely submerged in a humanist atmosphere. It just is not. There are some blessed families who will pull their kids through the fire with diligence and faith but I'm not up for playing russian roulette with my childrens' futures. How about you?

I just finished a book called "The Flowers" by Dagoberto Gilb. I didn't particularly like it but it did get me to thinking. (Uh oh.) The book was sort of a rambling, pointless exploration of the life of a latino kid in Los Angeles. It takes place immediately before and during the Rodney King fiasco. It is apparently supposed to explore race relations in the area/time and the affects of prejudice and so forth but what kept striking me is that if most of the inner city kids have no more of a moral compass than this kid then we are all in a world of hurt. And the really horrible part is that I have a feeling that it was probably a pretty true rendering of the heart and head of a basically decent but lost kid.

This kid wants to be a good person but has literally not been taught how. He has been raised in the age of no absolute truth therefore no absolute right or wrong. A hot older girl comes onto you, of course you make out with her. Her husband isn't going to be home until much later. A man you don't like leaves money laying around (in his home) of course you take it - he deserves it and besides you have a right to some of the nicer things in life too! Someone offers you a beer.... You get the idea.

How many kids, latino, white, black, grey or green are being brought up exactly like this kid. They're told to be a good boy but they aren't told exactly what that means. If we say, "Ricky isn't a good person because he uses drugs" the world tells us that Ricky isn't "wrong" or "bad", he is a victim of ___ fill in the blank. (And that's just the part of the world that isn't just telling us that Ricky is cool or Ricky is just exercising his right to choose his own "truth".) Hillary's "village" has tried desperately to make us feel guilty for daring to do what parents, and specifically American parents have done for centuries; teach our children our own beliefs and world view. Yes, I want my children to think for themselves when they are grown but they have to have solid roots and a solid foundation to start with. Asking an adult to untangle the complicated mess of philosophy, politics and religion is one thing. Expecting a child to do so is ridiculous.

People, wake up. There is right and there is wrong. There is truth and there are lies. Teach these to your children. Teach them to make decisions about the things that are not absolute based on the things that are. When they are older, they will figure out that others have different ideas of what those consist of and as adults with a strong sense of who they are and what they are, they can make decisions as to their own views. The key is that they can make those judgement calls and lifestyle decisions as adults. Adults who know that it is important to stand for something. And that some things are true always and some things are wrong... always.

Okay, here is rant number one. We'll call it a mini-rant since it will be pretty short and sweet. Ummm, well short anyway.

I recently got behind a very expensive sports car in traffic here in Tulsa USA. It sported a bumper sticker that I am proud that the little blond driver has the right to sport. It said, "Feeling blue in a red state." Yes, Oklahoma was one of the very few (I believe Alaska was the only other) 100%, every county, RED state in the election. (I knew I liked Alaska8O)

I am also very proud to know that in this great country (so far anyway) I will also have a perfect right to sport my new bumper sticker once I can get some printed. It will say,

"Feeling blue in this red state??? Feel free to MOVE."

I LOVE OKLAHOMA!!!

Some big things have happened since I last abandoned my blogging post...

Bonni is engaged! She will be marrying a really awesome man named Gerome on March 1!!! They are crazy in love and so right for each other. So she is right in the throes of wedding planning, family blending (he has a really sweet little boy of 6 named Caleb... so now we have 3 boys!), and home remodeling. Yup, right in the middle of wedding planning she took on a complete overhaul of her bathroom and that was after redoing all the hardwood floors in her home! YUP she is certifiable... or she soon will be. Enjoy the pics!