Note: This is a long post but keep reading. I have questions for you at the end.
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Yesterday afternoon I faced the possibility of going on a talking head cable news show today.
The topics were going to be such sensational, plucked-from-the-headlines stuff as the black guy found hanging in the carport of a “white female friend” in Mississippi (Was it suicide because the girl dumped him, or a racially-motivated lynching, or retaliation from a rival for the girl’s affections?) and a teenaged lesbian who wants to start a homosexual club in her school and take her girlfriend to the prom. The school said no to both. As expected, she’s suing.
Because of Bush’s Iraq speech last night, the cable news show decided to bump the segment in favor of Iraq talk, but I was so intrigued by the “gay club” topic, I wanted to generate a discussion about it here.
As some homosexuals are wont to do, they confuse disapproval of their lifestyle with hostility or intolerance. I don’t hate homosexuals and wouldn’t dream of harassing them; I just don’t like how they’ve chosen to live their lives. But that’s their business and their right. I don’t impose my views on them, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep my mouth shut while they push for special rights and impose their views on me.
Yasmin Gonzalez, a student at a government school in a socially conservative Florida town, wanted to use school grounds to organize a club to promote “dialogue and tolerance” about homosexuality. (Source)
This case is unusual in that the majority of people in the town seem to be Christians or at the very least, opposed to the homosexual lifestyle on moral grounds. According to the article, the school engaged in a bit of deception to keep Gonzalez from forming the club: We don’t allow clubs…wait a minute…yes we do, but there are too many clubs — that sort of thing.
My answer to the cable show host’s questions would have been along these lines: If the school allows other groups to meet on campus after hours, I can see no rational reason for denying the Gay-Straight Alliance. While I’m opposed to the lifestyle, I don’t think a government school can prohibit homosexual clubs for the same reasons I don’t think it should prohibit faith-based clubs.
(In “Incompatible Kerry’s Immaculate Deception,” I briefly discuss the confusion over so-called separation of church and state.)
I strongly advocate Christian parents taking their children out of government schools and homeschooling or sending them to private Christian schools.
I feel for Christians who can’t afford private schools and for whatever reason aren’t equipped to homeschool. I don’t believe in fighting the government for piecemeal concessions like “prayer in schools.” Children don’t need permission to pray. It is a private matter that can be done without formalities and protests, which in my view cheapen and obscure the whole purpose of prayer.
At the same time, I do believe taxpaying parents have a right to complain and seek change in government schools. I just don’t think it’s worth the effort for Christians to get themselves worked up over problems in a corrupted, Democratic party-controlled (teachers unions), monopolized, government propaganda machine like the public school system.
Stephen L. Carter, writing in Christianity Today, has a different view. In “Give Parents a Say,” he seems to be urging Christian parents not to give up on government schools, suggesting that these schools should return to their local roots in serving communities and families, Christian and non-Christian alike. An excerpt:
These schools served local communities and the families of which those communities were composed. To speak of “public values” in those days would have been to speak nonsense. The community chose what to teach, and that was that. Of course, many of the choices were terrible, and some were actually oppressive. Yet the model of schools serving not “the public” but families continues to have a certain resonance.
Perhaps we should not reject this model out of hand. Perhaps, instead of viewing public schools entirely as functions of the larger government, we should see them as joint ventures between the government (and its public values) and the local families it serves (and their local values). Rather than alienating parents unnecessarily, perhaps we can find sensible compromises between the all-or-nothing strict separationism of the federal courts and religious domination.
As someone who’s grown up under “Big Government,” the idea of limited government being a foreign concept, I can’t even comprehend the idea of taxpayer-supported schools serving “local communities and the families of which those communities were composed,” and I grew up in a small southern town!
The idea of “localism” is great in theory, but with teachers unions, an arm of the Democratic party, fighting to maintain domination over government schools, the battle would be bloody and in my view, not worth it. Christians, just take your kids out of government schools and educate them the way they should be.
Questions:
1. In the case of Yasmin Gonzalez, who wants to form a homosexual club and take her girlfriend to the prom, what is your opinion, whether Christian or not?
2. How should Christian parents react if they’re offended by certain curricula or policies in government schools?
3. How relevant are the biblical concepts “render unto Caesar” and “submitting to the authorities” when it comes to Christian parents and children and government schools?
Clarification (11:29 a.m.): Some readers might be misunderstanding #3. I am not implying that Christian parents are biblically required to “render” their children to the government. What’s in view is Christians forking over taxes to pay for government schools. I believe parents who send kids to non-government schools should be exempt from supporting them. I’ll be clearer next time…
Related post and articles:
- I’m A Libertarian On Education
- Liberals and Their Advice
- “Pro-Choice” For D.C.’s Black Students (original title)
- Review of Liberty & Learning: Milton Friedman’s Voucher Idea At Fifty
Links:
