A Victory For Home Schooling

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and comments being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the Home School Legal Defense Association website, August 11, 2008, with a headline:“A Great Victory For California Home Schoolers,” the following are excerpts:In an unanimous decision the California Court of Appeal for the 2^nd Appellate District ruled that California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education.Today’s decision stands in stark contrast to the opinion the same three-judge panel issued in February which would have made California the only state in the union to outlaw home education had it remained in effect.It is unusual for an appellate court to grant a petition for a rehearing as this court did in March, said H. S. L. D. A chairman Mike Ferris, but it is truly remarkable for a court to completely reverse its own earlier opinion.We thank you for your prayers and give God the glory for this great victory.When the court vacated its earlier decision on March 25, 2008, it invited interested organizations to file friend of the court briefs.I have never seen such an impressive array of people and organizations coming to the defense of home schooling, said Ferris, who was one of the attorneys who argued the case on rehearing along with Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jeff Schaffer.Numerous other private organizations came to the defense of home education as did California’s governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction.

Tom:

Dave, this is an exciting piece of news, and it’s great that we can, in our news alerts, come up with some good news, but the battle goes on.I saw the other day that California, whether it was one of the California college systems, whether it’s Cal State, I’m not sure which one, but they are making it a condition for acceptance, or they are rejecting home schoolers because of their beliefs.They are saying that they are not going to be able to handle the college program.Now this is absurd.You just look at the statistics; home schoolers have been able to outshine many of those from public education by leaps and bounds, so that’s a problem.The other thing—again it’s California.You and I lived there, you were born in California, so we love the state but some of the things that are going on there are just shocking.They have a—well, this particular victory where the courts reversed themselves, and when a court takes over, you never know what to expect.Proposition 8 is going to appear in the November ballot in California, and that’s because a court, the Supreme Court decided that gay marriage was a constitutional right for gays and lesbians, for homosexuals and lesbians.So now they are going to take it back to the people, and I’m hopeful that there will be another victory here.

Dave:

Well, Tom, this is remarkable, of course, for a court to reverse itself.What is behind this?What are they going to get?If they cannot be home schooled and they complain about and they come out with wrong beliefs—see, this is atheistically controlled, sadly.I mean, the whole space program is atheistically controlled.I was reading an article in U.S. News and World Report about the cutting edge of science.Wait a minute, I get angry, and I shouldn’t get angry, but I do.Science? Just follow that word through that article; they are talking about atheistic science.They are talking about a science that will not allow any place for God, but oh this is science, this is U.S. News and World Report.I have a lot of respect for them in many ways but this is what is being presented to the public, being presented in our schools, in our universities and so forth.Science?Oh, science says—well science, no scientist believes in creation and so forth.Not true!I don’t know whether we have ever mentioned it on this program, Tom, and I can’t give the web site, but anybody could get it by googling, but there is a website where those scientists, you’ve got to be a scientist to sign up on this, sign your name, and they are signing up by the hundreds saying that we reject evolution, it is not scientifically valid.We’ve been deceiving the public long enough.But the impression you get—oh, science says—yeah, of course, and just follow that article—I don’t know whether you saw it, Tom, but follow it and see.What does science say?Well, this is science, this is science, always it’s atheistic.

Tom:

Well, its scientism, which is a belief system, it has nothing to do with science.We believe in science, okay, the laws of science and so on.This is a belief system, this is not true, it’s not valid.

Dave:

You have to take it by faith, it is a religion, Tom, and it’s being forced upon us.

Tom:

And Dave, it’s amazing, you know, you talk about those in charge, but the courts, it’s just staggering what the court can do.As I mentioned, California, its coming right up, Proposition 22, said that marriage is between a man and a woman, okay?The courts overturned that, said it’s not constitutional, that you are denying the rights to the specialized group, okay?So now, the only way to get it back, aright to right the ship is through this vote that’s coming up in November.

Dave:

Well, Tom, it’s not marriage, and we won’t go into all of that, it is anti-God, anti-Biblical, forbidden, God created man, Adam and Eve—this was marriage, He presided over the first marriage.And then suddenly, after thousands of years what has always been known as the crime against nature? A perversion that suddenly we are being forced to accept this as normal—marriage between man and man, woman and woman?No, it’s totally against nature, it’s against common sense, it’s against history, and Tom, this is what is being forced upon us.Some of the people are going to rise up and vote it out, we hope!