By Dr. Andy Woods
Sugar Land Bible Church
Should Government Be in Charge of My Child's Education?
(The Word on Politics)—Although we are not currently in a major election year, the election cycle will soon be upon us. Before we are unduly swayed by intense campaign ads, now is the time to develop a biblical philosophy of governance. Now is the proper time to ask the question, "how do I know if the person I am voting for as he or she pursues public office properly represents a biblical worldview?" How do I determine who, among the various competing political candidates, better reflects biblical values?
If you are looking for answers to these questions, this series of articles will be of great benefit to you. For purposes of organization, these issues can be categorized under the following headings: economic issues, social issues, and foreign affairs matters.
In my first article I wrote about the importance of a candidate's philosophy of governance. Articles 2, 3 & 4 surveyed important economic issues. In the last article, I introduced the topic of social issues which will continue in this installment.
With each issue I have included some parenthetical Bible verse references in order to demonstrate to the reader that these preferences are not uniquely mine, but rather are derived from the pages of God's Word. While these issues are often irrelevant to the thinking of modern man, they are extremely important to God.
Social Matters Continued:
Furthermore, because God has entrusted the task of rearing and teaching children to parents as opposed to humanistic government bureaucrats (Deut. 6:6-7; Josh. 4:20-23; Prov. 22:6; Eph. 6:4), does the educational philosophy of the candidate empower the parents or the government educracy and teachers' unions? Parents can be empowered through the implementation of educational choice, vouchers for either public or private or parochial schools, tax credits for private or parochial school education, opt out alternatives from public school courses and presentations deemed offensive and immoral and harmful by parents to their children, and the right to home school one's own children independent of government interference and harassment.
Most importantly, in view of the fact that the Scripture commands believers to preach the Gospel to every creature (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15), will the candidate use the force of government to restrict public expressions of Christianity in public places and schools as well as over the airwaves, on the internet, and on social media? What is his view on America following the pattern of our Canadian northern neighbors and banning certain Judeo-Christian and biblical concepts or ideas from public discourse on the grounds that it is now deemed "hate speech"? In other words, will the candidate resist the ambition of secular fundamentalism to purge all Judeo-Christian truth from the public square in an effort to replace it with the humanistic worldview?
Interestingly, in Luke 22:36, as Christ was sending out His disciples into the hostile world from the Upper Room, He said, "and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one." In so doing, Christ provided not only for the self defense of His disciples but also their right to defend themselves from aggression (see also Esther 8-9). Therefore, a good question for any candidate is whether he believes that individual and private citizens have a right to keep and bear arms in order to protect themselves from both private and governmental hostile aggression? In other words, does he believe that the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees an individual right to bear arms or does he instead believe that the Second Amendment is some sort of nebulous collective right that has nothing to do with personal freedom to retain a firearm? Does the candidate instead support endless regulations, background checks, and licensing requirements upon law abiding gun owners thus paving the way toward the ultimate goal of total governmental gun confiscation?
Because the Bible teaches that all people have equal dignity and worth (Gen. 1:26-27; Acts 17:26; Gal. 3:28), will the candidate enforce all of our laws equally and fairly among all people regardless of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (Exod. 23:1-8; Deut 25:15; Prov. 20:23)? Discrimination against racial minorities should no more be tolerated than reverse discrimination against whites through quotas, timetables, and set asides. White aggression against racial minorities should be punished to the full extent of the law as should Black Panther voter intimidation against Caucasians.
(To Be Continued...)
- War on Religious Freedom • Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly)
- Texas A&M Professor Says We Need to Repeal 'Outdated' Second Amendment • Town Hall
- Supreme Court orders Obama admin to respond on German homeschool case • LifeSiteNews.com
- Walker Seen as GOP's Alternative to Christie in 2016 • Newsmax.com
- America's Forgotten History • SpiritandTruth.org (Andy Woods)
