When the public school system starts forcing kids to lie to their parents about what they’re being taught, you know it’s time to homeschool.

And when what they’re being taught is homosexual sensitivity training, you have to wonder why they feel they can’t be open and honest about it. Yeah, I know the presumed reason; that parent might object. But if parents are not allowed any say as to their children’s education, it’s no longer public education anymore, is it? It’s state education. (And I really hope this school district doesn’t ever complain about not enough parental involvement.)

Click here for a link to audio from Concerned Women for America, and click here for the WND news story.

Technorati Tags: education, homeschool, homosexuality, Concerned Women for America

Would you believe that here in the United States, someone would suggest that religious freedom and parental right undermine the public school system? It’s happened. A US District Judge has used that as part of his reasoning in a recent ruling.

A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the “gay” agenda taught to Christians who attend a public school in Massachusetts, finding that they need the teachings to be “engaged and productive citizens.”

U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf yesterday dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought by David Parker, ordering that it is reasonable, indeed there is an obligation, for public schools to teach young children to accept and endorse homosexuality.

Wolf essentially adopted the reasoning in a brief submitted by a number of homosexual-advocacy groups, who said “the rights of religious freedom and parental control over the upbringing of children … would undermine teaching and learning…”

This started in 2005 when David Parker objected to the fact that he couldn’t get his kindergarten child opted out of, or even notified of, same-sex household issues when they were brought up. The judge’s ruling gives them three options; private school, home school, or vote in enough School Committee members to get things changed. Fair enough, but can you imagine a court telling a black man that if he doesn’t like being forced into blacks-only restrooms and schools that these are his only choices? It would be unthinkable, but religious freedom, written quite plainly into the Constitution, is being afforded less protection than civil rights laws.

We are losing our constitutional rights at the hands of the judicial branch of government, and few notice, care, or even agree that it’s being eroded. The folks with the latter view are the most blind.

Technorati Tags: education, homeschool, Judge Mark Wolf, David Parker, Massachusetts, Christianity, homosexual

New York State’s Education Department has completed an internal study with results that should disturb parents of any state.

The study found the number of accusations against teachers [of sexual abuse to students] doubled in five years, to nearly one case for every day and a half of the school year. Almost three in four of the “moral conduct” cases involved sex between a teacher and student.

Taken together, the cases show a pattern of a small number of teachers preying on adolescents’ need for attention, then exploiting their insecurities to keep the secret out of fear of ridicule or long-lasting damage.

The misconduct is part of a system in which other teachers can be reluctant to report colleagues, administrators are reluctant to act on claims that could result in bad press and lawsuits, and state hearing officers are not trained to spot and deal with sexual misconduct.

A state investigator called one case “almost like a type of mind control” often reinforced by e-mails and instant messages.

Of course, the study can’t count or document those incidents that don’t get reported, and if colleagues are reluctant to report on each other, there could indeed be a large number under the radar.

Technorati Tags: education, New York, sex abuse

Russ Neglia has created a new pro-life blog under the Townhall.com umbrella. He calls it “Pro-Life Pro-Logic”, and it’s aptly named. Each post is well thought out and logically and dispassionately presented. He doesn’t post every day, but you’ll understand why when you read his articles. These aren’t quick hits on topic, they are essays that take a little time to read. He’s covered topics such as embryonic stem cell research and did a two-parter on how the death penalty relates to abortion. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: Russ Neglia, pro-life, abortion, embryonic stem cells, death penalty

I’ll admit to not knowing my Islamic sects, but Mark Alexander at the Patriot Post distills it down to 1000 well-written words. Definitely worth a read.

And while you’re there, read the rest of today’s digest, which includes news about a push to do and end-run around the Electoral College, notice of a report from UNICEF that says the US and the UK are the two worst places to raise a child, and news of a settlement in a “wrongful birth” case. I suggest you subscribe to their e-mails.

Technorati Tags: Mark Alexander, Patriot Post, Muslim, Islam, Sunni, Shi’ite, Electoral College, UNICEF, United Nations, wrongful birth

Just ask a couple of Gideons. Their answer might surprise you. From the Alliance Defense Fund web site:

PLANTATION KEY, Fla. — Two members of Gideons International arrested for distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk will be represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys. Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson were arrested, booked into jail, and charged with trespassing.

“The First Amendment protects the right to engage in religious speech on a public sidewalk,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. “Members of the Gideons have been highly respected for decades as peaceful providers of free Bibles to those who want them.”

On Jan. 19, Mirto and Simpson began distributing copies of the Bible on a public sidewalk outside Key Largo School. Neither man entered school grounds. After the school’s principal called police, a Monroe County Sheriff’s officer asked the men to leave immediately or face trespassing charges. As the men prepared to leave, the officer decided to arrest both individuals.

No, they haven’t been convicted yet, but handing out Bibles on a public sidewalk isn’t something that should even be a gray area. What about Salvation Army open air meetings, that have been going on (less so recently) for over 100 years? Handing out Bibles is surely less an issue, but what’s different is the culture of today with so little real understanding of freedom of religion. Today, being religious while within earshot of a school is grounds for arrest.

The Left will tell you that God hasn’t been taken out of school; kids can still pray (unobtrusively,silently) if they want. Perhaps, but I have a feeling that if God did show up at a school, He’d be in a holding cell in short order.

Hat tip to WorldNetDaily for the scoop and further details.

Technorati Tags: Gideons, Anthony Mirto, Ernest Simpson, Alliance Defense Fund, First Amendment, bibles, Key Largo School

This would be funny if it weren’t intended to be serious (and frankly, I’m not completely sure that’s the intent). Same-sex proponents in Washington State, in an attempt to get social conservatives “dosed with their own medicine”, have filed an initiative.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – An initiative filed by proponents of same-sex marriage would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else have their marriage annulled.

Initiative 957 was filed by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance. That group was formed last summer after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Under the initiative, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children in order to get a marriage license, and if they did not have children within three years, their marriage would be subject to annulment.

All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized” and people in those marriages would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits.

If they were a child under the care of Super Nanny, they’d be sent to the Naughty Corner. Instead, we have adults who didn’t get their way and are pitching a fit and putting forth an obviously frivolous initiative. And the organizer of this lets us know precisely what his error is (see the bolded word below):

“For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation … The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine,” said WA-DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow in a printed statement. “If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they can not have children together, it follows that all couples who cannot or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage.”

“For many years” this debate has been going on, and he still can’t honestly represent his opposition. The faulty logic here is breathtaking, starting with the straw man constructed in the first sentence. When has any mainstream opponent of same-sex marriage ever used the word “solely” in regards to child-bearing in marriage? Even a quote that says it’s “primarily” for children or that it is the “best” for children does not imply what this initiative would cast into law, that it must.

In an attempt to sort of sound reasonable, they say they just want a dialog.

Opponents say the measure is another attack on traditional marriage, but supporters say the move is needed to have a discussion on the high court ruling.

They can’t talk about it until they get their whining done first. And frankly, the debate was pretty much over in Washington State when the same-sex marriage ban survived the path up to and including the state Supreme Court. This is just the rantings of children who didn’t get their way. If you want to talk about it, then talk, and don’t waste your neighbors’ time and money with ballot initiatives guaranteed to fail.

Technorati Tags: same-sex marriage, homosexuality, Washington state, Initiative 957, Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, Gregory Gadow

People of middle-eastern descent are being increasingly targeted for hate crimes in Britian. After 9/11 here and the London bombings there, it would be understandable, although completely intolerable, that violence against Muslims might increase in reaction. Except that it’s not Muslims that are the targets.

Attacks on Britain’s Jews have risen to the highest level since records began.

A study published today shows the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents has almost tripled in 10 years, with more than half the attacks last year taking place in London.

The findings prompted the report’s authors to warn of a “wave of hatred” against Jews.

The number of incidents increased to 594 last year, up by 31 per cent on the previous year.

Violent assaults soared to 112, up by more than a third on 2005.

Incidents ranged from the unprovoked stabbing of a Jewish man in north London to the sending of hate mail and the vandalism of Jewish cemeteries and synagogues.

Hat tip to the Rev. Sensing, who notes that the numbers in the US, while down slightly in 2006, did hit a 10-year high in 2004. While the Anglosphere bends over backward to be sensitive to Muslims, very little anti-Semitism goes noticed.

Make no mistake, violence against either group on the basis of simply who they are is unacceptable, but one group has the West cowed into not showing cartoons and whose radical suicide bombers target civilians, while the other group can take criticism in a civilized manner and whose radical suicide bombers…well…don’t exist. I’m not saying that we should accord special protection to Jews over Muslims, but we should give at least the same sensitivity to the Jews, dontcha’ think?

Technorati Tags: Judaism, Islam, Jew, Muslim, discrimination, violence, Britian

Agencies run by churches in the UK can no longer practice what they preach.

Roman Catholic adoptions agencies yesterday lost their battle to opt out of new laws banning discrimination against homosexual couples when Tony Blair announced that there would be “no exemptions” for faith-based groups.

The Prime Minister said in a statement that the new rules would not come into force until the end of 2008. Until then there would be a “statutory duty” for religious agencies to refer gay couples to other agencies.

Why can’t that “statutory duty” be good enough? Why is government coercion trumping religious freedom? Predictably, the results of an attempt at “fairness” will chase off the principled.

Last week the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, warned that the agencies would close rather than accept rules that required them to hand over babies to gay couples.

One wonders if, in some quarters, that’s the whole objective. I mean, given a situation where there are choices, and there usually are, why would a gay couple seek out the Catholic Church for an adoption agency when there are others that have no qualms about it. It’s kind of like the standard answer you hear when folks complain about the content of TV programming. “Just change the channel”, the Left dismissively says. But when it comes to their preferences, they won’t “change the channel” themselves–choose a different agency–and instead insist that government sanction their choices and force it upon everyone to accommodate it.

Technorati Tags: England, UK, adoption, Catholic Church, Tony Blair

Another reason to homeschool.

An estimated 5 million students in United States schools have been assaulted sexually by teachers, according to a congressional report. But no one is calling for investigations or law enforcement crackdowns, there have been no campaigns to ban the offenders from schools, and in many states there aren’t even any requirements such predator attacks be reported to education licensing agencies.

“We have approximately 5 million children suffering and no one is calling for an investigation, for any kind of data to be collected to find out why that many children are being hurt by teachers,” said Terri Miller, who runs probably the only organization in the nation that focuses specifically on assaults by educators on students. “This is an epidemic.”

In fact, in many cases, especially where the attacker is a woman and the student a male, such assaults are treated as a joke, with a hand-slap for the teacher, and some ribald locker room humor directed at the student.

WND has documented in recent months an alarming string of dozens of cases of female teacher-on-male student sexual assaults, but those are just part of the overall problem, Miller said.

Her volunteer group, called Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, often feels overwhelmed by the dearth of information, injuries to students, and obstacles posed by opponents such as the National Education Association.

If the government’s going to insist on pubic education, it must insist on safety in its facilities. But clearly that has not been a winning battle, neither regarding weapons & drugs nor sexually & psychologically speaking.