By Andrew McColl, 12/7/2022
It is the teaching of the Bible and of sound Political ethics that the education of children belongs to the sphere of the family and is the duty of parents. The theory that the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of the Commonwealth is a pagan one, derived from heathen Sparta and Plato’s heathen republic, and connected by regular, logical sequence with legalized prostitution and the dissolution of the conjugal tie.[1]
The idea of the family began in God’s mind, as we read in the Bible. Genesis shows us that God created a man and a woman, and they had children. Of course, all families have problems, but the true institution of human history for procreation, education and inheritance has been the family.
The family’s potential for education, influence, social power and prosperity in the community hasn’t gone unnoticed. The great rival for the family historically has been the State, which has very commonly resented the power of the family, and sought to control and misuse it, for the State’s own ends.
Does this mean that the State Biblically, is somehow illegitimate? No, it is not. The Bible speaks much of the legitimacy of government. But the great problem the family and the Church has faced historically, has been the tendency of ruthless governments around the world to usurp the role of the family, even to the point of viewing the family as a threat, and trying to destroy it.
The Biblical evidence of this is clear. When Pharoah had Israel in bondage, he viewed the high procreation rate of the Israelites as a serious threat. So he said to the Hebrew midwives, “when you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live” (Ex.1:16). North comments,
The more progressive modern socialist ideology appears, the more satanically backward it becomes. The spirit of Pharaoh still lives. The anti-dominion defensive spirit of modern socialism has its roots deep in the past, as well as deep in hell.[2]
1,500 years later, Herod’s attitude was similar. Unlike Pharoah, he was not threatened numerically by the birth of the baby Jesus, but he wanted Him killed, nonetheless. When the wise men displeased him by not reporting back to him where Jesus was, he “…became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all in its vicinity, from two years old and under…” (Mat.2:16).
These instances should warn the Christian family: do not expect evil, socialist rulers who hate God to be sympathetic to your cause, or your well being. Evil rulers attempt to control and manipulate the family, and these attempts have been most ably illustrated in the field of education. Again, North comments that
No institution has been more effective in stamping out conservatism in the United States and everywhere else than the tax-funded school system. If I were given the choice of which to get rid of, the income tax or the public schools, I would not hesitate for a moment. I do not care if the federal government taxes my income, so long as local governments do not tax my income in order to fund the public schools. The battlefield for the hearts, minds, and souls of Americans has been fought in the public schools more than in any other arena.[3]
In Australia we have seen this plainly. The Victorian Minister of Education in 1984, Joan Kirner stated that “Education has to be about overthrowing the capitalist system, and making it socialist,” whilst only two years later, the NSW Minister for Education, Rod Cavalier, claimed in Parliament that “children belong to the State.” Not much has changed since then.
Thus the world’s second oldest religion still survives, and one of its clearest manifestations is through socialist, deceptive governments, which in their hostility to the family consciously set out to control and manipulate education.
The challenge in this is not so much that it happens, which is bad enough. What is worse, is that the majority of Christian families don’t seem to know, or if they do, they (unlike Joseph and Mary) are reluctant to do anything to protect their children from the ravages of an evil government, which through the arm of Education Departments sets about to ideologically kidnap them.
May God have mercy on these parents in their day of accountability.
[1] Robert Dabney, “Discussions,” 4:194, quoted in Gary Demar, “God and Government,” Vol.3, p.272.
[2] Gary North, “Moses and Pharoah,” 1986, p.27.
[3] Gary North, “The Greatest Single Failure of the Conservative Movement,” (his website), 19/6/2012.
Hebron Homeschoolers 