State approved children?

In a previous posting, we saw an example of a modern, Western, democratic state which not only banned homeschooling, but also banned a private Christian school, removed the rights of parents to control their children's education, and jailed one Baptist couple for not sending their children to a school play (which they considered blasphemous).

If you are a Christian parent, serious about training up your children, you can surely sympathize with the difficulties experienced by these German parents. I'm not saying that you must homeschool to be a good Christian parent, but we must have the ability to limit the amount of darkness that our children are exposed to. As shepherds of our children, we need to have some control over the fold and some ability to fight the wolves.

There seems to be a trend in some Western nations (including my own: Canada) to expand the role of the state is the shaping of children. It was the excellent LifeSite news organization that reported on the following:

UK Proposes Mandatory Preschool from Birth
By Terry Vanderheyden
LONDON, November 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A proposed law to mandate that all children enter preschool from birth is being debated by UK lawmakers.

Introducing the bill, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said that the program would provide "integrated care and education from birth. We want to establish a coherent framework that defines progression for young children from nought to five." .....

A "coherent framework". But whose framework? Not a biblical framework. Not a God-honoring framework. As a state-sponsored institution, it is not likely to be one that is receptive to the exclusive claims of Christ.

The Bible is filled with commands to train up our children (Deut 6:7, Eph 6:4), including many references to our grandchildren and even great-granchildren (Deut 4:9-10, Ps 78;4-6). As Christians, as the Church, we must keep our focus not only on our own kids but two or three generations into the future. How are we preparing our kids now to train their children and grandchildren?

Certainly part of that responsibility includes maintaining a context in which our children are even allowed to train their children. If it's getting more difficult now, what will the future be like when, God willing, our children want to pass on their values and their faith to their own kids?

Beware, our British brothers and sisters! The wolves are much too close already to the cradle! We will pray for and with you!

Next time: So you don't think this can happen in Canada, eh?

technorati tags: Christian, education, preschool, homeschool, UK