Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
An Army of Moms
Last night I had the privilege of speaking to a group of homeschooling moms. No matter how many times I am in situations like that, I am taken back by the determined, dedicated look in their eyes. These women want to fulfill their callings as wives and mothers and are hungry for good guidance and direction. As I normally do, I encouraged them to become excellent students of God’s Word and its application to all areas of life and thought. I directed them to a study of Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law and the Chalcedon Teacher Training Institute as ways to make them the best teachers for their children.
I always come back very excited from these meetings. My husband commented how energizing the law of God is when applied to specific needs and circumstances. Merely reading God’s law as background material is like learning a foreign language for a country you will never visit; learning how to apply the law of God to all areas of life and thought is like becoming fluent and conversant in all situations.
By God’s grace, I met thirty new women who carry a vision for furthering the Kingdom of God as they train their children. They, as heirs of the victory Christ obtained on Calvary, value their inheritance and are eager to make the most of it.
In my second book, The Homeschool Life, I included a 2007 essay, “The Mother’s War”, by Vox Day* that summed up the importance of mothers. It bears repeating:
Mother's Day is, to be honest, somewhat of an annoyance. It's manifestly one of those tedious Hallmark holidays wherein everyone is supposed to run out and support the revenue stream of cardboard manufacturers in the name of expressing gratitude to mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else to whom we might be related.
I imagine it won't be long until Sept. 18 is declared Anonymous Sperm Donor's Day, which will probably be celebrated by giving matching card sets to one's two mommies and lighting a candle for dear old anonymous sperm donor, whoever he might be.
Mothers are not only important, they are absolutely vital due to their position as front-line shock troops in the ongoing, centuries-long struggle for the survival of Western civilization. Despite the fact that their maternal instinct has been harassed, criticized, mocked, belittled and subjected to a 40-year effort to indoctrinate it out of existence, our mothers stubbornly continue doing the only thing we actually need women to do in order for our civilization to survive, bearing and raising children.
We don't need female doctors. We don't need female scientists. We don't need female entrepreneurs. We don't need female producers of PowerPoint presentations. And we really don't need female politicians.
While we can argue about whether such luxuries are beneficial or detrimental to society, there is no arguing the empirical evidence which proves that civilization has survived without them before and could easily do so again.
But without mothers, there is no civilization. Without mothers, there is no future for the civilized.
Europe is in the process of discovering what a world without mothers is like. It is an ugly picture, a brutal picture. It is a probable future that promises to be much worse than the most exaggerated images of past patriarchal oppression ever painted by Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinhem.
Without mothers, there is only barbarism and the choice between the brothel and the burqa.
Motherhood is a sacrifice. It may mean putting off a college education and a career, or even giving them up entirely. It may mean sacrificing a flawless figure. It may mean sacrificing dreams. It definitely means putting two, three, four or more lives ahead of your own. But motherhood is also an expression of hope. Motherhood is a vote of confidence in the future of mankind. Motherhood is the brave voice of a woman saying, "I will not live life for today. I will create life for many tomorrows."
Cards, gifts and flowers are no adequate expressions of gratitude for this living statement of faith.
In the ongoing war against Christian civilization, it is the mothers who matter most. The sterile secularists don't fear Christian intellectuals or Christian pastors, they regard the former as petty annoyances and there's little need to worry about one weekly hour of Christian teaching on Sundays overcoming 40 hours of secular reprogramming from Monday to Friday. But they fear our mothers who can create children faster than they can manage to indoctrinate them. And they are downright terrified of our homeschooling mothers who rob them of their primary means of creating a new generation of secular barbarians.
Every time a woman says "I do," every time a wife turns to her husband and says "let's have another baby," every time a mother hugs her child and says "how would you like me to be your teacher?" she is striking a powerful blow in defense of her faith, her family, her church and God. We should celebrate these bold decisions, these audacious acts, as victories, not just for the family and the faith, but for civilization and mankind.
It is not enough to thank our mothers. We owe them a debt that cannot be repaid. But we can, and we must, love them, honor them, support them and sustain them as they faithfully continue to wage their mother's war.
* used with permission
I always come back very excited from these meetings. My husband commented how energizing the law of God is when applied to specific needs and circumstances. Merely reading God’s law as background material is like learning a foreign language for a country you will never visit; learning how to apply the law of God to all areas of life and thought is like becoming fluent and conversant in all situations.
By God’s grace, I met thirty new women who carry a vision for furthering the Kingdom of God as they train their children. They, as heirs of the victory Christ obtained on Calvary, value their inheritance and are eager to make the most of it.
In my second book, The Homeschool Life, I included a 2007 essay, “The Mother’s War”, by Vox Day* that summed up the importance of mothers. It bears repeating:
Mother's Day is, to be honest, somewhat of an annoyance. It's manifestly one of those tedious Hallmark holidays wherein everyone is supposed to run out and support the revenue stream of cardboard manufacturers in the name of expressing gratitude to mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else to whom we might be related.
I imagine it won't be long until Sept. 18 is declared Anonymous Sperm Donor's Day, which will probably be celebrated by giving matching card sets to one's two mommies and lighting a candle for dear old anonymous sperm donor, whoever he might be.
Mothers are not only important, they are absolutely vital due to their position as front-line shock troops in the ongoing, centuries-long struggle for the survival of Western civilization. Despite the fact that their maternal instinct has been harassed, criticized, mocked, belittled and subjected to a 40-year effort to indoctrinate it out of existence, our mothers stubbornly continue doing the only thing we actually need women to do in order for our civilization to survive, bearing and raising children.
We don't need female doctors. We don't need female scientists. We don't need female entrepreneurs. We don't need female producers of PowerPoint presentations. And we really don't need female politicians.
While we can argue about whether such luxuries are beneficial or detrimental to society, there is no arguing the empirical evidence which proves that civilization has survived without them before and could easily do so again.
But without mothers, there is no civilization. Without mothers, there is no future for the civilized.
Europe is in the process of discovering what a world without mothers is like. It is an ugly picture, a brutal picture. It is a probable future that promises to be much worse than the most exaggerated images of past patriarchal oppression ever painted by Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinhem.
Without mothers, there is only barbarism and the choice between the brothel and the burqa.
Motherhood is a sacrifice. It may mean putting off a college education and a career, or even giving them up entirely. It may mean sacrificing a flawless figure. It may mean sacrificing dreams. It definitely means putting two, three, four or more lives ahead of your own. But motherhood is also an expression of hope. Motherhood is a vote of confidence in the future of mankind. Motherhood is the brave voice of a woman saying, "I will not live life for today. I will create life for many tomorrows."
Cards, gifts and flowers are no adequate expressions of gratitude for this living statement of faith.
In the ongoing war against Christian civilization, it is the mothers who matter most. The sterile secularists don't fear Christian intellectuals or Christian pastors, they regard the former as petty annoyances and there's little need to worry about one weekly hour of Christian teaching on Sundays overcoming 40 hours of secular reprogramming from Monday to Friday. But they fear our mothers who can create children faster than they can manage to indoctrinate them. And they are downright terrified of our homeschooling mothers who rob them of their primary means of creating a new generation of secular barbarians.
Every time a woman says "I do," every time a wife turns to her husband and says "let's have another baby," every time a mother hugs her child and says "how would you like me to be your teacher?" she is striking a powerful blow in defense of her faith, her family, her church and God. We should celebrate these bold decisions, these audacious acts, as victories, not just for the family and the faith, but for civilization and mankind.
It is not enough to thank our mothers. We owe them a debt that cannot be repaid. But we can, and we must, love them, honor them, support them and sustain them as they faithfully continue to wage their mother's war.
* used with permission
Monday, November 9, 2009
Not All "Christian" Education is Created Equal
The following is an account from a teacher in the U.K.
I had an experience today I thought I'd share with you as yet another reason to homeschool. I know neither of us need convincing but I like having a bank of reasons to give people when they ask me why I want to homeschool my children.
Today the year 9 students (14 year olds) were asked to create presentations on the invention that teenagers cannot live without. Some of the projects were very good, with the winning team (from my class) claiming braces are vital.
What was shocking is that one class did a presentation to the whole of year 9 that condoms are the invention that teenagers such as themselves can not live without. They claimed this to be the greatest invention. Some students in my class also had asked if they could use this for their presentation, and I had a conversation with them that this was completely inappropriate and wrong. I emphasized that as a Catholic school we would not be promoting premarital sex and that contraception is against the Catholic faith.
It is shocking that students wanted to choose this for their "greatest invention," yet even more so that they were allowed to present this in a formal assembly to the whole of year 9 with no teacher stopping the presentation midway and no reprimand given. I found myself in the unusual place of being grateful someone in my class had asked about this earlier so that I could address it before they saw this presentation.
So even in a so called Catholic School, children will learn that they cannot live without condoms. As for me - I'll be homeschooling my own children!
Angela.S.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Irony of It All
...[I]f anything like HR 3200 were to become law, ... “Many people who aborted their babies, years ago, will find themselves being pressured to die before their natural time.”
Ironic, isn’t it, that if the approximately fifty million babies aborted in America since Roe v. Wade had been allowed to live, millions of them now would be working and generating wealth in a country supposedly concerned with becoming unable to pay for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care?
(This is an excerpt from Are the “Death Panels” for Real? by Lee Duigon)
Friday, November 6, 2009
Doug Wilson Talks About His Film Collision
The documentary COLLISION pits leading atheist, political journalist and author Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) against fellow author and evangelical theologian Pastor Douglas Wilson on a debate tour arguing the topic “Is Religion Good For The World?”. Lives and worldviews collide as Hitchens and Wilson wittily and passionately argue the timeless question, proving to be perfectly matched intellectual, philosophical, and cinematic rivals.
"Collision" available from American Vision
“(Christianity) is a wicked cult, and it’s high time we left it behind.” - CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
"There are two tenets of atheism. One, there is no God. Two, I hate him." - PASTOR DOUGLAS WILSON
"Collision" available from American Vision
Monday, November 2, 2009
Cry Babies
When making the case that abortion is murder, many faithful believers know all the appropriate verses to quote from the Scriptures. They correctly quote Psalm 127:3 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Yet, in day-to-day life, they are less likely to practically embrace the fifth verse of the psalm, “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them…” You see, part of a full quiver is young “arrows” that are noisy, smelly, and often a handful. Not all “pro-lifers” are as “pro” the life of children when a sermon, a plane ride, or a wait in a bank line involve little ones who show in public that they are fallen sinners.
This was made very clear recently as I discussed with fellow Christians a news headline. The mother of a two year old was escorted off a flight from Texas to San Jose, CA because the child was “unruly” and “wouldn’t calm down.” My fellow Christians immediately told me about “the flights from hell” that they had been on and if the child referenced in the story was anything like the one on their flight, he should have been ejected.
Well, I have a story from the other end of the nightmare, as a mom who was travelling with a 16-month-old daughter who did not understand why she was not allowed to walk up and down the aisles of a plane flying from California to New York. I am sure many on my flight were annoyed at the constant, high-pitched scream that resounded through most of the flight. I am sure many had their derisive impressions of that mother who could not control her child. No one but my husband and seven-year-old son (who found another seat on the other side of the plane) knew that I had gone to our pediatrician and requested a prescription that would make my daughter calm on the flight. You see, I did prepare for what I thought was likely to happen. The problem was that the medicine didn’t work–not one little bit.
I remember all too vividly how the flight attendant screamed across the big 747, “Please, do something with that child.” I am certain that more people opted for the in-flight movie that day just to silence the noise. I did get a respite during the movie when she fell asleep for about fifty minutes. Unfortunately, it came just when they delivered my food and I couldn’t reach it because I was afraid moving might wake her up! By the time we got to New York, I felt like I needed the Red Cross!
If I had been in a position to administer corporal punishment, the situation would have been somewhat relieved, but even back then (1986) parents had to be on guard when spanking a child. The very people who are philosophically against spanking are the same who find children annoying and bothersome. To many, I suppose I was “guilty” of one of three things: travelling with a child, failing to keep her from disturbing them, or having had her in the first place! I am sorry to report that since my experience, our culture has only gotten more intolerant of children.
The woman in the news report was categorized as “a stay-at-home mom.” I am not sure why that was an important detail, except to indicate that this child might be better off in daycare, or, possibly, to prove the feminist point that a woman without a “career” is incompetent and stupid. In any case, my gripe is with fellow believers who are ready and eager to proclaim the sanctity of life while embracing much of the world’s negative views about young children.
How quickly we forget. We all started out as children!
This was made very clear recently as I discussed with fellow Christians a news headline. The mother of a two year old was escorted off a flight from Texas to San Jose, CA because the child was “unruly” and “wouldn’t calm down.” My fellow Christians immediately told me about “the flights from hell” that they had been on and if the child referenced in the story was anything like the one on their flight, he should have been ejected.
Well, I have a story from the other end of the nightmare, as a mom who was travelling with a 16-month-old daughter who did not understand why she was not allowed to walk up and down the aisles of a plane flying from California to New York. I am sure many on my flight were annoyed at the constant, high-pitched scream that resounded through most of the flight. I am sure many had their derisive impressions of that mother who could not control her child. No one but my husband and seven-year-old son (who found another seat on the other side of the plane) knew that I had gone to our pediatrician and requested a prescription that would make my daughter calm on the flight. You see, I did prepare for what I thought was likely to happen. The problem was that the medicine didn’t work–not one little bit.
I remember all too vividly how the flight attendant screamed across the big 747, “Please, do something with that child.” I am certain that more people opted for the in-flight movie that day just to silence the noise. I did get a respite during the movie when she fell asleep for about fifty minutes. Unfortunately, it came just when they delivered my food and I couldn’t reach it because I was afraid moving might wake her up! By the time we got to New York, I felt like I needed the Red Cross!
If I had been in a position to administer corporal punishment, the situation would have been somewhat relieved, but even back then (1986) parents had to be on guard when spanking a child. The very people who are philosophically against spanking are the same who find children annoying and bothersome. To many, I suppose I was “guilty” of one of three things: travelling with a child, failing to keep her from disturbing them, or having had her in the first place! I am sorry to report that since my experience, our culture has only gotten more intolerant of children.
The woman in the news report was categorized as “a stay-at-home mom.” I am not sure why that was an important detail, except to indicate that this child might be better off in daycare, or, possibly, to prove the feminist point that a woman without a “career” is incompetent and stupid. In any case, my gripe is with fellow believers who are ready and eager to proclaim the sanctity of life while embracing much of the world’s negative views about young children.
How quickly we forget. We all started out as children!
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