Exodus Mandate is a movement created by Chaplain E. Ray Moore, which calls Christian parents to "rescue Christian children from the godless, pagan public schools and
to place them in K-12 private Christian or home schools." Here's the first two of a three part interview done by Moltov Mitchell.
Thanks! I wouldn't have any idea of just how crazy the fringe christianist right really is if it weren't for you. Here's another idea for the good reverend: If America is so terrible, why don't you just leave – take all your wacko christianist nutjobs and just leave the country for good.
Maybe we could give 'em Alaska (they already have one of their own as governor). Good riddance.
>> LOUIS: Thanks! I wouldn't have any idea of just how crazy the fringe christianist right really is if it weren't for you.
No problem. Though I don't entirely agree with these guys, and that Chaplain seems a little too much like the caricature of a bible thumper from the backwoods, his arguments are interesting.
Just plain testing data show, however, that private and homeschooling is superior to the industrial, assembly line public education system.
And with the further erosion of morality, with the de-facto promotion of abortion, promiscuity and homosexuality in schools, I too am skeptical about public schooling.
Not only that, kids from secular homes are increasingly profane in talk, sexualized, violent, and branded by the crap media their parents allow them to watch at home, and they can rub off on impressionable youth.
All parents know that, though they can't isolate their kids from the world, neither do they let them play in traffic. There is a place for giving your child the best chance at succeeding, and increasingly, public schools are unsafe and slovenly, physically, morally, intellectually, and spiritually.
At a certain point, it seems logical that smart parents would pull their kids out of a sinking ship. Now, not all public schools are like this, but there is a reason why people move to places with better schools, and why most rich liberals put their kids in private school while trying to take more of our money to pay for public schools.
I won't argue with you about the quality of public schools (at least some of them), but I do object to this dismissive view that "secular" kids are somehow bad and getting badder. Of course, to the loons on the christianist right, I suppose anyone who isn't brainwashed by their extreme religious views will be somehow inferior. As I said, they should do us all a favor and just get the hell out.
While people remain good and bad, I think our secular, unreligious culture is getting worse in many ways, influenced by and reflected in the consumerized, sexualized, violent and liberalized media.
It has nothing to do with people being inferior, but rather, some value systems and outlooks ARE inferior, supporting and producing out of wedlock sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and homosexuality. This most certainly has increased in our culture, just check the stats on average age for pregnancy, abortion, drug use, and the like.
There are certainly good teachers and good kids out in the 'secular' school system. But the atmosphere is not what it used to be, morally speaking.
As bad as it may be, I'll take it over the alternative you moralistas offer. For all its imperfections, I prefer the freedom we enjoy over what religious fundamentalists, with their absolutist views, would impose on us. Just look at the terrors Iran and the old Afghanistan and Cromwell's protestant Puritanism inflicted on their people. Freedom is messy and, sometimes, superficial and ugly (witness "Octomom" and reality tv), however, it is infinitely more desirable to religious absolutism and the destruction of individual and political liberty it would impose in the name of God. Let's call it for what it is: tyranny.
>> LOUIS: For all its imperfections, I prefer the freedom we enjoy over what religious fundamentalists, with their absolutist views, would impose on us. Just look at the terrors Iran and the old Afghanistan and Cromwell's protestant Puritanism inflicted on their people.
Wow, nice ideological jump – those who take issue with the failed morals and ethics of modern culture are like muslim terrorists.
I'm sure you want to send your kids (if nature hadn't 'conspired against you' to not be able to produce them) into a moral cesspool, the equivalent of allowing them to play in traffic. Be sure to tell them that the alternative is merely narrow, blind, cruel fundamentalism, rather than freedom with morality.
No one is arguing against freedom, just FOR protecting our children from freedom without virtue, which is the characteristic of a nation departed from God.
"Muslim terrorists"?! Where did I mention them? I merely remarked upon how religious fundamentalist regimes put absolutist ideology over freedom. Like you. Suck it up.
I know I'm embarrassed by the Exodus people, I can't imagine how those that are not Christians feel about them. I suppose Louis' thoughts are par for the course.
I agree with Mark Driscoll's idea that there is a difference between innocent and naive. Removing kids from "godless public schools" and the rest of culture, more often makes them naive, but not innocent.
Personally I do not have my kids on public schools because I enjoy having them around. They are pretty nice people. And I am quite as capable as any teacher in the public school, degree or none. TYVM.
I hope I always have the FREEDOM to choose what is best for my own offspring. I hope my kids will have the same freedom. I admit, I worry that this freedom will be taken away from me. The rules and laws about homeschooling/education border on dictatorial.
I should be allowed to teach my kids whatever I feel necessary to their lives. It should have nothing to do with the government. It is a real shame the gov't got so involved with education, imo.
People who want to learn will learn. There will always be slackers, in the public school and in the other types of schooling. I don't think it should be dictated to me what my kids learn, and they should not be labeled slackers if their education isn't "state approved"…. which is exactly what they do when they force you to test your kids on *their* subjects in *their* order. That is hogwash. It is a cookie cutter world out there, unfortunately.
Personally I do not have my kids on public schools because I enjoy having them around.
I hope you didn't take upon yourself their instruction in correct preposition use.
I don't always use the most perfect grammar when I am typing Louis. I notice you don't always either. But I am too nice to point it out to you every time you make a grammatical mistake. (Or maybe I don't have that much time on my hands… either way…)
My kids learn their grammar from Books, similar to the books you might find in the ps. And I bet lots of ps teachers (lots of them) make grammatical errors when they speak, type, whatever.
Maybe you should go on a grammar crusade and correct them all. ;)
I usually don't point out grammar mistakes either, I just found it ironic that you, a teacher of English, would make such a dumb mistake. It was kind of funny, in fact. You sounded like a foreigner.
I'm not against home-schooling in principle. It's obvious that it can be done well. I just think certain standards, overseen by professionals, must be maintained, if only for the child's sake. But when you say something like,
I should be allowed to teach my kids whatever I feel necessary to their lives. It should have nothing to do with the government.
I think you're being idiotic. Anything you feel necessary? Anything (or nothing) at all? You might not have noticed, but your kids aren't your kids to do with at you please. You are a citizen of America (as are they) and, as such, have certain obligations and responsibilities you must fulfill just as the state has obligation to you . You aren't a totally autonomous individual who may do as she pleases regardless of the greater good – the greater good from which you benefit every day. You aren't omniscient either. How do you know, for certain, what is necessary for your kids' lives? What if you think that reading is the Devil's tool to mislead kids and fill their heads with "worldly" ideas? Should you, then, be allowed to refuse to teach them to read? And when you release these illiterates on the rest of us, are we then responsible for them?
Come on!
>> LOUIS: I just found it ironic that you, a teacher of English, would make such a dumb mistake. It was kind of funny, in fact. You sounded like a foreigner.
Yep, that was funny and ironic. But of course, typos often make us sound stupid, and after a couple minutes, you can't go back and correct them. Doh!
>> LOUIS: I'm not against home-schooling in principle. It's obvious that it can be done well. I just think certain standards, overseen by professionals, must be maintained, if only for the child's sake.
I think passing regular standardized testing is enough, don't you?
I usually don't point out grammar mistakes either, I just found it ironic that you, a teacher of English, would make such a dumb mistake. It was kind of funny, in fact. You sounded like a foreigner.
You are just too lazy to find all the teachers in public schools and point out their mistakes. It's ok, I understand. ;) That would be a considerable job, since they are human. And there are tons of them who obviously will make mistakes while typing…
And anyhow, maybe I am just quirky with my uses of the English language? ;) haha I am a hick…. lol
You might not have noticed, but your kids aren't your kids to do with at you please.
They aren't the state's. They don't belong to the government. They are mine. My responsibility. My obligation. My life.
You are a citizen of America (as are they) and, as such, have certain obligations and responsibilities you must fulfill just as the state has obligation to you .
I agree with that. I am not trying to say that I should be allowed to do or teach anything immoral or unethical to my children. I actually somewhat agree that we should have standards. Its just I don't approve of the standards, sometimes. Mostly I do.
But I don't approve of my children being forced out of the home at the age of 5 for 40 hours a week to spend that time with someone else.
Unless ~~ I ~~ want them to do so. Cuz, I am their mom. I think I should have that right. Besides – My kids were reading before they went to school, and could do third grade math in K. I think it should always be my right to say they can stay home and learn instead of going to the state/county school.
You aren't a totally autonomous individual who may do as she pleases regardless of the greater good – the greater good from which you benefit every day.
Ummmmmmm….. Freedom anyone?
You aren't omniscient either.
The state is?????
How do you know, for certain, what is necessary for your kids' lives?
The state does????
My kids seem to be thriving. I must know quite a bit.
What if you think that reading is the Devil's tool to mislead kids and fill their heads with "worldly" ideas? Should you, then, be allowed to refuse to teach them to read?
I guess that's where those standards come in. Like I said. I agree there should be standards.
And when you release these illiterates on the rest of us, are we then responsible for them?
I'm sorry to tell you, but the public school seems to do a pretty good job there…
'm not against home-schooling in principle. It's obvious that it can be done well. I just think certain standards, overseen by professionals, must be maintained, if only for the child's sake.
I'm not against public schools in principle. It's obvious that it can be done well. (I was public schooled.) ;)
I just think the standards that are overseen by the professional teachers should be the more basic primary school things like Reading, Writing, Arithmetic… And not anything further really. I can teach my kids my own standards of Science, higher math, history, languages, etc.
I am a firm believer that a person who *wants* to learn WILL LEARN. And if you give them those basic tools, they can learn the rest by themselves. But that is just one of my ideals… It obviously doesn't work in real life… Since everyone has to be told what to do by the government…
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I think passing regular standardized testing is enough, don't you?
See, I am a little ticked off about this.
Because they are thinking of taking away our "portfolio option" here.
Why can't the standards be met by a certified, board approved teacher grading the homeschooled child's portfolio of work????
I don't understand that.
I hate standardized testing. I mean, my kids always pass them with honors, but what about those children who freeze up during tests???
Should they not have the same opportunity as public schooled children to show the state (since we must) that they are not stupid, by having someone grade their work?
I think so!!!