Mimi Rothschild - The Southern Baptist Academy Homeschooling Blog

By Mimi Rothschild

That seems to be the question on the minds of Southern Baptist leaders over the course of the last few decades. After all, how pastors answer this question determines very important policy decisions public and personal.

Take a look at a recent article in the Shenandoah Valley News Leader. While citing a family of Muslims who have chosen to deal with the pork-serving ways of their local school, many Christian families are leaning more towards the “withdraw” side of the continuum.

National leaders in the Southern Baptist denomination, citing a climate no longer compatible with the Christian faith, have wrestled internally with the idea of completely abandoning the public school system.

It seems to me that the crux of this issue is not whether we are called to engage the world positively. Christ calls us to go out into the darkest parts of the world, just as he did regularly in the New Testament. This is a moot point. However, are children equipped to cope with the dangers of an enviroment that is diametrically opposed to what they believe? Remember that Jesus did not start his ministry until he was well into his thirties. He spent the majority of his life training and growing with his family.

We need to remove the negative connotation from the word “sheltered”. As a parent, there are things out there that I’d like to shelter my kids from. We need to make sure we are not smothering our children, but sheltering can be a good thing!

I came across a saddening article today in the BP News. Tucked away amongst articles that some would consider to be more relevant, the homeschooling movement suffered a terrific blow in paragraph three.

“Addressing the decision not to consider the resolution, John Sullivan said while he serves as executive director–treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention, “I would never lead our staff or the state board of missions to develop an exit strategy from the public schools.”

With no offense to my brothers and sisters in Christ who are currently employed by the public school system, there will come a time when Southern Baptist leaders will realize that the public school has gone too far.

Hopefully that time will come sooner rather than later. Church leaders need to understand that today’s public school is not the halcyon place they remember in their youth. It cannot be reformed, it is too far gone. Attempting to redeem the public school would not be like redeeming the Republican party for Christ. It would not even be like redeeming the Democratic party for Christ. In truth, it would be analagous to a vain attempt at reforming the German Nazi party into a bunch of Bible-thumping evangelicals.

Now, I’m not saying that public school administrators and teachers are Nazis. Most of them are good people. Many of them are Christians. All I’m saying is that the system is too corrupt, too rooted in humanist thought, and too closely tied to secular forces who would rather die than give up control of the minds of our youth. I’m merely drawing a similarity between the chances we have at reform.

By Mimi Rothschild

Mohler hits the nail on the head. He labels Dawkins as an evangelist for atheism. He is saying what atheists should believe but are too lazy or afraid to say in the public sphere. For instance, he says that evolution must lead to atheism.

I must say I respect folks like Dawkins for their honesty. I’d much prefer to have a discussion with Dawkins than politicians who proclaim their faith and regularly darken the doors of churches around the country on the campaign trail and then support agendas that oppose Christian values. At least we can have a meaningful, real discussion.

I’ve often thought that if I were an atheist, I would take full advantage of the hedonism and godlessness that comes with the territory. Why wouldn’t you? If you don’t believe in heaven or hell, what’s the point in even trying to have moral standards? At least guys like Dawkins aren’t toying around. You have to respect that, at least more than the false prophets. Dawkins seems to agree. He respects orthodox Christians who actually practice what they preach more than the wishy-washy agnostics.

This trend makes the study of intelligent design all the more pertinent. I don’t think that Christians will ever be able to convince Dawkins that God is real, outside of a supernatural change of heart, that is. However, we are waging a cultural war. This war needs to have scientists fighting for the cause of Christianity. As atheism grows more militant, Christianity must respond in kind.

By Mimi Rothschild 

Albert Mohler’s most recent blog post is quite harrowing. In it he details a recent Wired cover story about the New Atheism movement spearheaded by such atheist luminaries as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, and Sam Harris.

What’s so disconcerting about so-called “New Atheism” is not its opposition to Christian values.

At the beginning of his article, he gets right to the point: “The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there’s no excuse for shirking.”

Think about that. He’s not saying that religious people are stupid or whackos. He’s saying that we are evil. Essentially, he’s throwing freedom of religion out the window. This is a huge statement, and one that threatens the very freedoms that make this country such a unique place. The Pilgrims and Separatists who came to America did so to achieve freedom of religion, not squelch it.

I think we’re in the same position the gay movement was in a few decades ago. There was a need for people to come out. The more people who came out, the more people who had the courage to come out.

Wrong. No one is persecuting atheists. Atheists don’t have to hide their atheism to prevent the risk of getting dragged behind a truck. This analogy is ridiculous.

By Mimi Rothschild
Yet another news story has crossed my path regarding Walmart’s recent partnership with the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. This one comes from the Birmingham Business Journal.

Sidenote: Why do gays and lesbians need to have their own chamber of commerce? Thoughts?

Anyway, Alabama Southern Baptists did not call for a boycott, but rather a call to pray for Walmart.

All of this makes me wonder what exactly a partnership with the gay organization would entail. Obviously this means they are going to look for ways to specifically market to gays. Gays and lesbians have long been suspicious of Walmart’s status as a “family-friendly” company.

Prayer should be an afterthought. Is anyone out there planning on launching a personal boycott?

By Mimi Rothschild

Janet Baird was fed-up.

But no more. The Ohio woman, after hearing the shocking confirmation directly from the mega-corporation’s international headquarters that the company is, in fact, contributing to the financial and moral agenda of the nation’s “gay” chamber of commerce, she quit. And she’s not a bit worried.

“I got God backing me. That’s where I stand on it,” she told WND in an interview.

The Enemy likes to change society gradually so we don’t notice. Take the public schools for instance. Each year, more religious freedoms are lost. Not all at once, of course. Satan knows better than to use an all-or-nothing strategy. He realizes that humans will go along with gradual degeneration of morality. It moves like a glacier. To the naked eye, glaciers are solid blocks of ice, standing firmly in place. Over time, however, glaciers gradually wreak havoc by slowly crushing anything in their path. This is how Satan works. Think about how things were 100 years ago. Our country’s moral clime was much different then.

“Sam Walton was such a moral man, he wouldn’t even allow music to be sold in his stores if it had bad language,” Baird said. “When it comes to moral values, first of all they started selling smutty magazines, then they brought in nasty music and videos, even ones others refused to sell, like ‘Brokeback Mountain.’”

And yet, the dramatic change has taken place over such a long period of time that we barely notice that anything has gone wrong. Every once in a while, when a particularly dramatic shift in values occurs, some brave souls stand up for what they believe in. Janet Baird is one of those people. Unfortunately, they are few and far between.

The Southern Baptist Convention comprises 16 million American men and women. Do you think Walmart would change their tune if they lost that kind of business? Is a good deal on potato chips worth the cost of compromising our faith?

Congratulations to Mrs. Baird for standing strong in her faith. Our prayers are with you.

You can read more about Janet Baird’s battle at World Net Daily.

By Mimi Rothschild

Ok, this is the last post on the New Scientist article. I promise!

The article goes on to cite E. Ray Moore of the Exodus Mandate, one of this generation’s greatest proponents of homeschooling as a tool for evangelism.

“If we could get up to 30 percent of public-school students into home-schooling and private schools, the system would start to unravel and at some point implode and collapse,” he says. “The government would be forced to get the states out of the education business altogether. It would go back to the churches and the families. It’s a strategy for the renewal of society.”

Amen to that! What an inspirational strategy. Imagine how this shift would strengthen the moral fabric of our nation. Moore relates his strategy in which each homeschool family persuades one other family to embrace homeschooling. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this would double the homeschool community with each passing generation.

I pray every day for such a societal shift. In all honesty, I would love to see the public school collapse. The church would be able to educate the poor and disadvantaged charitably, as is its call. It doesn’t stop there. A mass movement of this magnitude would also overturn many policy decisions that are supposedly set in stone. Who knows, with thousands of PHC graduates filtering throughout the country, we might see some serious political and judicial change take place in the near future.

By Mimi Rothschild 

I’d like to post yet once more regarding Last week’s New Scientist fascinating article regarding the threat that homeschoolers pose to the secular science establishment.

The final part of the article deals with homeschoolers’ newfound ability to effect social change through political means. Consider the following statistics:

“By 2004, PHC students held seven out of 100 internships in the White House, a number even more striking when one considers that only 240 students were enrolled in the entire college. Last year, two PHC graduates worked in the White House, six worked for members of Congress and eight for federal agencies, including two for the FBI.”

These incredible numbers are no doubt a strong testament to the worth of homeschooling. The statistics continue:

“For the past two years, the college has won the moot court national championship, in which students prepare legal briefs and deliver oral arguments to a hypothetical court, and has twice defeated the UK’s University of Oxford in debating competitions.”

Again, wow. Homeschoolers are often pegged as a bunch of socially-inept weirdos. And yet, they were able to trump one of the most prestigious colleges in the entire world twice. This from a tiny little Christian college, only a few years old.

By Mimi Rothschild

Last week’s post from Pharyngula linked to a New Scientist article about Patrick Henry College, the HSLDA-led college in Virginia. Notoriously supportive of homeschooling, PHC and its students are a great example of how homeschoolers can enact widespread social change. Although quite a bit less biased than the aforementioned blog post, the article still portrays the ideals of evangelical homeschoolers as a threat to the scientific establishment, which isn’t necessarily untrue.

“New Scientist investigated how home-schooling, with its considerable legal support, is quietly transforming the landscape of science education in the US, subverting and possibly threatening the public school system that has fought hard against imposing a Christian viewpoint on science teaching.”

It appears that secular science is beginning to shift its stance on homeschooling from worthy of a good jab and a laugh to something that needs to be watched closely or even feared. New Scientist goes on to explain how the progressive liberal roots of homeschooling in the 1960’s gradually shifted into the evangelical Christian realm. This change can be correlated to an inverse shift in academia away from traditional Christian values.

The article continues with an analysis of Christian science curricula:

“One such textbook is Science of the Physical Creation from A Beka Book, a leading retailer of home-schooling books based in Pensacola, Florida. It argues: “Evolution is a concept that attempts to free man from God and his responsibility to his Creator.” Alters worries for the students who learn from such texts (see “Book learnin’”). “If they go on to secular university, home-schoolers are in for some major surprises when they get into an introductory biology class.”

Does this scientist honestly believe that being exposed to secular science will be a rude awakening for homeschool graduates? What an arrogant statement. Our culture is saturated with their version of scientific truth. Most homeschoolers that I’ve come across can explain the fundamentals of both secular science and intelligent design theories with equal authority on both, often putting public school students to shame. To think that homeschoolers are entirely unaware of what academia believes is pure naivety.

“Poll after poll shows that approximately one out of two people in America reject evolution. They think the scientists, teachers and textbooks are wrong,” he says. An even higher proportion of home-schooling parents may reject evolution, Alters thinks. “And they’re going to be teaching science?”

Wow. Think about that statement. If 50% of our country rejects evolution, wouldn’t it make sense that about 50% of our nation’s science curriculum should be devoted to alternatives to evolution? He’s basically calling out half of our country and labeling them “the great unwashed.” It’s astounding that he even admits this.

By Mimi Rothschild

A friend pointed out today’s post at Pharyngula to me this morning. Man, it really burns me when atheists like this professor try position themselves as open-minded.

His solution to the evangelical “problem” is to ban homeschooling. Sounds awfully fascist to me. And yet, isn’t that the term so often thrown at right-wingers?

Here’s what it boils down to, folks. Today’s homeschoolers have got the left terrified. They can’t stand the audacity of the church to provide an alternative to children. Imagine, more than one set of ideas or values being taught in a country! This guy finds it positively distasteful and a little bit scary.

“Their ‘advantage’ and ‘success’ is completely artificial, the product of years of gutting standards so they can cultivate these little, self-satisfied, ignorant homeschooled kids in a hothouse of ignorance…and then they need to set up special colleges to maintain the illusion that they know anything.”

Try standardized test scores that would make Stephen Hawking blush! In all seriousness, homeschoolers have consistently proven over the years to perform 15-20% better on SAT’s and ACT’s.

“At my department, we just got the requirements for state licensure of education students, and we’ve been given the task of making sure our course content delivers what future teachers will need. It’s not trivial getting licensed to teach; but any idiot can declare themselves to be a teacher for purposes of homeschooling, and apparently many idiots do.”

If your teachers are so special, explain the perpetually flagging test scores, and the inability of the public school system to keep up with homeschooling teachers who have no teaching education? These are just regular moms and dads who are putting your certified teachers to shame!

“I’m serious. We need to stop this. I think any politician who professed to be concerned about educating the children of this country, by supporting the NCLB, for instance, ought to be required to support increasing the qualifications and standards for homeschooling…and if a district doesn’t have the resources to monitor the competence of homeschool teachers, they ought to simply refuse to allow the kids to be pulled out of school.”

What Meyers fails to realize is that the academic standards of homeschooling are too high, not too low. Banning homeschooling would be an incredible infringement of personal freedoms. Giving parents an alternative to the moral decay and academic rot of the public school system has been a hard-won battle. It is a progressive move towards a freer society.