Homeschool News & Views
Issue 78, July 19, 2008
From Homeschool Helpers
In association with Pass It On
Ministries
By Dan L. White
This is a letter that Don
Wildmon of American Family Association recently wrote to 61 Christian leaders
in America, mostly heads of denominations.
“Let me begin this letter by telling you what it is
not. It is not an attempt to raise
money, secure power, promote a political agenda, change anyone’s theological beliefs
or build a powerful organization.
What then is the purpose? The purpose is to see if Christian leaders of
the various denominations can come together to address the very serious issue
of what Pope Benedict XVI called “authentic moral values.” (Incidentally, I am an ordained United
Methodist minister.) We can see the
results of the decline of these values (which some would call traditional
Judeo-Christian values) throughout out society.
This decline has come in spite of there being “a
church on every corner.” We are failing
in our responsibility to be salt and light.
Surely Christian leaders can agree on the Church’s
responsibility to promote and defend these basic “authentic moral values.”
So here is my question. Would you (or a representative) be willing to
meet together with leaders from other denominations to seek answers as to the
best way to address this situation? If
the Church fails in its responsibility, then we will surely see the destruction
of Western Civilization as we have known it.
Two thousand years of influence from the mind of Christ will come to an
end.
If you would be willing to come together to make
plans on how the Church can best address this situation, please respond. If there is enough interest in such a
meeting, I will follow through on my attempt to schedule it. If there is not enough interest, then I will
drop my efforts.
Again, my only motivation in this matter is to pass
on to our children and our grandchildren what those who have gone before passed
on to us.”
To ensure that the letter
was noticed, Wildmon sent it by FedEx overnight.
A month later, four of
those Christian organizations responded saying they would participate. I assume they had to have board meetings and
extensive discussions about their reaction, before deciding to go ahead with
the proposal.
At the same time, two
responded saying they refused to participate.
I assume they had to have board meetings and extensive discussions,
before deciding to refuse to participate.
Fifty-five of these
Christian leaders did not respond to the letter at all.
We have talked about
pusillinamous pastors, who are unwilling to take a stand on anything other than
their pulpit. Apparently this
pusillinamosity goes all the way to the top of the denominations.
In the Bible God did not
set up the rabbi system. He set up the
priesthood, with great details about its organization. That priesthood has presently been superceded
by a higher priest. But God never set up
the rabbi system at all. They set
themselves up. When the Messiah came the
first time, He had to call His followers out of that system. His disciples did not need the rabbis. Christ is the only rabbi.
The one thing that the
rabbi system was most concerned about was their position. They wanted to kill Christ because He was
making a stand, and threatening their position.
Christ did not start
denominations, either. The Corinthians
did.
1Co 1:10
HNV, WEB
(10) Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of
our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, that you all speak the same thing and that there
be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind
and in the same judgment.
1Co
1:11-13
(11) For it has been reported to me concerning
you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are
contentions among you.
(12) Now I mean this, that each one of you says,
"I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow
Cephas," and, "I follow Christ."
(13) Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for
you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
Like the rabbis,
denominations can be very concerned with their position. That leads them to be very hesitant to take a
stand on anything. At this end time,
Christ is calling His followers, those who try to follow Him directly, away
from denominationalism.
For example, the home
school movement was not begun by any denomination, and was opposed by almost
all denominations. Even today, very few
denominations actively support Christian homeschooling. Homeschooling has proven to be one of the
great Christian movements in the history of America, now spreading to the rest
of the world, and most of the Christian denominations will not take a stand
totally supporting it.
On the other hand,
homosexuality is being forced on the nation –
Homosexuality is being
forced on the nation. As Don Wildmon
discovered with his letter, almost none of the Christian churches of America
want to take a stand against that.
I dare say that more
Christian churches have taken a stand for homosexuality than have taken a stand
for homeschooling.
Isn’t that absurd, too
ridiculous to even be rational? Yet
that’s the way it is.
Don Wildmon asked 61
leading Christian organizations to get together to talk about opposing Godless
liberalism. Four said yes, two said no,
and fifty-five did not even have the common decency to give him the courtesy of
a reply. I would like to see a list of
those Christian organizations. I would
consider boycotting their hamburgers.
What is, then, the single
most effective thing that Christians in America can do to address the
situation, as Wildmon phrased it? Had
those Christian organizations gotten together to discuss it, what is the single
most effective thing that Christians in America can do to stop the slide toward
Sodom?
That one thing is to save
the young.
In any crisis the first
thing that is done is to save the children.
What do parents who are
caught in tornadoes do? We have had a
lot of them this year and this has happened:
the first thing that parents caught in a tornado do is to cover their
children, often with their own bodies.
If a fire occurs in a
house, the children are located first.
At the sinking of the
Titanic, the Captain's orders were: "Women and children first!" They used guns to ensure that order was
carried out.
On the Titanic, Mark
Fortune and his son Charles placed Mrs. Fortune and their three daughters onto
a lifeboat and waved good bye.
Some wives refused to go. Mrs. Edgar Meyer did not want to leave her
husband. They were so self-conscious
about arguing about it in public that, while the Titanic was sinking, they went
back down to their cabin and argued there. Finally, in the cabin, they decided that she
should leave on account of their child.
She should take their baby and get on the lifeboat.
But Mrs. Hudson Allison absolutely
could not be persuaded to leave her husband.
She did save their children, though.
She put her baby, Trevor, and 3 year old daughter, Lorraine, into the
boat with the nurse but she stayed on deck with her husband.
When the very last lifeboat
was being loaded, an unmarried lady, Miss Edith Evans, gave up her seat to a Mrs.
Brown: "You go,” she told Mrs. Brown. “You have children waiting at home." Edith Evans went down with the ship, and she
did that for the children.
And at the very end,
survivors testified that the Captain, who stayed on the ship till the last, was
last seen swimming with a small child in tow, after the Titanic had sunk. He was still trying to save the children.
The single most important
and effective thing America can do to face the destructiveness of Sodom is to
save the children. Almost all children from
Christian families who graduate from the public schools become anti-Christian
in their adult lives. They do not
believe God. They do not believe the
Bible is the totally true word of God.
They do not think Christ is their Savior.
The single best thing any
Christian denomination or organization, including AFA, can do is to encourage
Christians to not let their children drown in the anti-Christian education of
the left wing controlled government schools.
Get them out. Put them in the
lifeboat of Christian education. “I am
the way, the truth, and the life,” the Master said.
Christian parents should
not make martyrs out of their children, just letting them go down with the
ship. Save the children. Unlike the analogy with the Titanic, though, where
all the rest drowned while some children were saved, if America rescues her children
from Sodom, she might rescue herself.