Emile smiled - and prayed. And he was thankful for the passion of young men - but sad for the excesses it sometime brought. He was indeed thankful for the freedom he enjoyed - and chose to end the discussion.
Abolition . . . You seem to be a rather sad and angry individual - a little uptight. Perhaps you should lighten up a bit - give yourself a break. I know I sometimes need to chill - perhaps it is your turn today. :-)
"Thou Shalt Not Steal' ??? And therein lies the short-sightedness of trying to turn a call/wisdom matter into a right/wrong issue. I defend your right to make that choice in submition to God but point out how unfortunately you have confused personal preference with timeless truth. To equate public schooling with breaking the commandment 'Thou Shalt not steal' (an accusation you boldy and, I dare say, unfortunately lay at the feet of millions of Chrisitans who send their children to public schools - to say nothing of the poor Christians in countries where government schools are the only option) may well be motivated by prejudiced misinformation at best or even pseudo-spiritual arrogance that hurts the Body of Christ at worst. It appears to me that the assumption here is that one particular exclusive perspective, for which there is neither biblical injunction nor motivation, is touted as the only right way for true or serious believers - and then typically biblical backing is 'isogesised' into the arguement for floundering support - blindly breaks many more commandments than the one it incorrectly seeks to upholds, gives rise to many of the judgments Jesus passed on the hypocrits of His day, and flies in the face of Jesus prayer that the Father would make us one.
Renai - thank you for your comments - I think one of the values in this neck of the woods is the high number of Christians in all segments of society. The principal of this particular school is a Christian and a number of teachers are Christian - have the 10 commandments up in the classroom and show Chrisitan films during school time - and pray very hard that God will give them the opportunity to keep doing so. It really is dependant upon the context - and we feel privileged to be in this one. I have had the thrill of speaking at a number of schools in the area and have shared the gospel at each opportunity. Perhaps if the context was different we may have chosen something other than public schools. God has given me a heart to touch the lost world with His love - and the public school has been a wonderful avenue of this for us. As a matter of fact, we even have a young lady from this school now living with us - and have the joy of now watching her grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ too. To God be the glory for the things He has done.
I spent a little more time reading through some of the comments on this interesting topics and would like to add a caution if I may. We get easily distracted when we start to imagine that one particular style of schooling is more biblical than another, or that it is 'the' Chrisitan thing to do 'if we are saved and love Jesus and our children.' Home Schoolers can easily be tempted into thinking these are principles and not simply wise choices for them. God parents make godly choices in line with their godly calling all the time in this area - and come up with different answers - and that's all right. None of the options are about right and wrong, or principles - they are about what parents believe God would have them do as they faithfully raise their children in a fallen and corrupt world. For us, as Christians who love Jesus and our children with all our hearts - we 'public school' our kids - and thank God for the privilege of touching a fallen world with the power of the gospel - and we thank God for those that homeschool - and pray God's richest blessing on them and their children.
While I recognize and even defend the right of parents to homeschool their children, we have chosen to send our children to public school with the intention of engaging the world with the light of Christ's truth and the warmth of His love. We have had the joy of seeing at least one come to know the Lord this year and I currently have the thrill of leading a prayer meeting at the school every Friday morning - we have between 8 and 12 attending each week. I thank God for the public schools, for the teachers and principals and especially those who are Christian and have determined to make a difference.
6/29/07 11:16 AM
