E'08: Social Programs

On the surface, helping those who cannot help themselves sounds like a good idea and something in which government should be involved, but like an idea in the head of most teenagers, this one is seldom thought through.

In his recent column "Liberty Versus Socialism," economist Walter Williams* exposes what's wrong with government handling social programs and not individuals (be that individual people, individual corporations, individual churches, etc) dealing with our societies ills.

The problem, in a nutshell, is coercive force versus personal responsibility (flip-flopped from the article title). Please take a read..."Liberty Versus Socialism"

*Dr. Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University

Homeschooling Illegal? Part 2

You won't find it on CNN's site. Fox's either. Here's a link to a San Francisco site (of all places) I found on Drudge's web that reports on the academic typhoon ginning up in California. Here are a couple of quotes from the article. The first is from the ruling judge:

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."

Umm...isn't that anthem of most fascist nations? Do I want my child loyal to state and nation if they have become like Germany circa 1930-1945? Saudi Arabia today? Stalinist Russia? France (at any time)?

Here's another beauty. This'un comes not suprisingly from a spokesindividual for the California Teacher's Association (CTA):

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the CTA board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

Who determines the appropriate credentials? Oh, we're back to the state, again. Credentialing is not a bad thing. The problem with credentialing is that somebody has to determine what those credentials are, and when there are no checks and balances for the parents whose children are being taught against the credentialers, parents are at the mercy of a school system that is increasingly out of touch with the heartland.

The most abhorrent quote is saved for last from the lips of the executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles.

(Leslie) Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

That sounds like the definition of a home to me.

If home schooled children filled the prisons, outlaw the practice. When they continue to surpass the national averages in all academic disciplines and when the majority seem far more "adjusted" than the average sullen, baggy-trou'ed teenager, you might want to rethink outlawing something that seems to be benefitting society.

Mature argumentation

Daily Savings Time (which wreaks havoc upon us once again this weekend) is stupid!! There. I feel much better.

Homeschooling Illegal?

Recently, the California Supreme Court handed down a decision based upon two 1950 rulings that ultimately makes homeschooling illegal in California unless the parent is a certified teacher. We could get into the why's and wherefore's as to why that's a problem (please drop me a line if you'd like to chat about it), but I share that so we might be in prayer for home school families in California and that the decision be overturned.

If you'd like further information on the ruling, you can stay up to date at www.hslda.org.

Conviction

Last week I had the honor to join my pastor, Lukus Counterman, and to other men from my church, Mark Deboe and Josh Longoria, in attending a superb Christian leadership conference at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. We heard some exceptional teaching from the Bible on the theme "Trusted with the Truth."

On Thursday night, Dr. Mark Minnick used a poem by Amy Carmichael to illustrate how easy life is for most Christians. The few words from the poem he shared pierced my soul. Here is the verse in its entirety from a woman who spent 55 years in India ministering the good news of Jesus Christ:

NO SCAR?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

A funny thing happened...

Yesterday was a particularly goofy Sunday.

I had returned from a week long trip this past Friday so by the time our worship service concluded, I was pretty well spent. My Sunday afternoon crossword had its usual hypnotic affect on me and soon I was chasing Morpheus around the block.

My boys had returned from a weekend Christian youth conference at a local church, and since they had been up to the wee hours, they were all dragging, too. One combated the fatigue by playing disc golf. Another decided to nap before work. He received that nasty adrenaline spike you get when you fade back into consciousness and realize it's later than it should be. He was ten minutes late for work. Austin, number three, busied himself with some computer stuff and then strolled back to his room.

My bride enjoyed an afternoon out shopping while the girls napped. When she returned from the mall, we began to roust the girls and get them ready for our evening worship service, and soon Drew returned from disc golf. We piled into the 'burb and headed off to church.

About half way there, I looked in the back seat and asked, "Where's Austin?"

You hear about it but you never think it could really happen. We had actually driven off without one of our kids. All heads swung around knowing full-well he wasn't present, but the dismay required confirmation. We burst into embarrassed laughter. Our thirteen-year old son was in a coma on his bed as we headed off to church.

The comedy continued when we returned home. When we drove up, the house was still dark. As we entered the house, Austin came bleary-eyed down the hall. He saw 7:30 and thought that his nap had lapped the clock! If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have had him get himself ready for school.

The moral to this story: Your kids are never too old to do a nose count!

"And the winner is..."

...not the American people. Considering I know only one person who has seen any (ANY!) of the nominated films (and that person, my mom, has seen only one of them), our nation's most prestigious movie award lost touch with the heartland (or purposefully divorced itself).

Considering the output of the mainstream media and most television producers, the Oscar contenders are no surprise.

E'08: Life, Part I - Abortion

Trundling the news across the Internet this afternoon, I came across a couple of stark articles in the British web-paper, the Telegraph.

The first is a horrifying account of a young artist who hung herself the day before her 31st birthday because she aborted her twins. It's a tragic tale.

The second is a commentary regarding Great Britain's Abortion Act, a bit of legislation that was meant to limit the confusion if it appeared a woman's life was jeopardized by her pregnancy. Ultimately what it did was to open the British floodgates for abortion on demand. The author states that 1 in 3 pregnancies in Europe now end in abortion.

As we turn into the homestretch for election 2008, America will be deciding what it believes regarding innocent life. If you think it's only about the baby, let me encourage you to click the link to the first article. This tragedy affects both mother and child. It drives us to the point where we must determine whether we will recognize mankind as and treat it with humanity or whether we will regard it as mere material treat it with no more value than a scrap of paper.

Choice and freedom are vital in our nation, but law has always guarded and protected the rights of the weakest citizens. Will we continue to wicker the law to satisfy our whims? Or will we guard our most vulnerable citizens from inhuman, barbaric treatment?

Your vote matters. Your voice matters. Just ask William Wilberforce.

E'08: Economics

Driving into work this morning, I heard a paid political advertisement that went something like this: "CEO's in America make more in one hour (or was it one day?) than the average worker makes in a year." My initial reaction was, "So?"

This kind of advertising is called propaganda because it distorts to make you think a particular way. It's not using reason and argument to make its point. It's trying to persuade through emotion and misdirection. Here are some thoughts:

1. What's wrong with a CEO making so much money? Doesn't he run the company?
2. Notice that what the average worker makes is nowhere addressed. Is the average worker unhappy? Impoverished? Then find another job or get training to better your position and your income.
3. Notice, too, that the CEO is contrasted with the "worker"and not an "employee." What impression does that leave? You're catching on! The CEO is obviously not a "worker." He doesn't do anything but sit in his posh office and soak his feet in $100 bills.

There was more to the radio spot, most of it not much better. Stuff like this is purposefully meant to set up a class warfare between those who are rich and those who are not. Congrats to the rich! They've probably earned it, and they'll pay more in taxes than I'll make in ten years!

When politicians start talking rich/poor, sniff the wind for a socialistic stench. And grab hold of your wallet!

False Pretenses

When I google-searched "Jordan" (the country), the only news source I found that spoke of the arrest and eviction of 8 Americans caught evangelizing was the Jerusalem Post.

I could talk about the irony that only a Jewish newspaper (none American that I know of as yet) would report about the treatment of American Christians in Islamic lands. I could also discuss the non-stop repression of faith outside nations founded upon Christian principles (Israel's only a fair shade better than liberal Islamic lands). But I'm not going in either of those directions.

The thing that caught my eye in the Jerusalem Post article was this quote:

(The Jordanian foreign minister) said the preachers came to Jordan under the "pretext of charitable and voluntary activities, but they have violated the law by undertaking preaching activities and were expelled."

Here's the rub: When did Christians stop ministering to the needy for the needy's sake? Jesus said that when we do it to the least of these we do it unto Him. Is there any better witness? Will not they know we are Christians by our love? Will that not open the door to spiritual ministry as well as physical ministry? BUT...can we let the physical ministry be an end in itself or do I only do it as a means to the end of presenting the Gospel?

It's interesting but the gospels tell of Jesus healing with no other message. Sometimes He did. Sometimes He didn't. It seemed on occasion that the physical healing was enough at that moment.

I cannot say what happened in Jordan. This may be an example of Islamic repression. Or it could have played out as the Jordanian foreign minister stated it did. He believes and conveyed it to the press that these Christians lied to gain entrance into his country.

We are called to let our yes be yes and our no be no. When we pull the "bait and switch" to evangelize, we become no better than deceitful used-car salesmen (or pre-owned vehicles). If you are called to minister, then minister, and be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you. If you are called to preach, then preach, and be prepared to give a cup of cold water to any who are thirsty.

If we're to be arrested, let it be for the good news and our good works, but not because we are crooks (1 Peter 4:14-16).