Oct 10
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PCA pastor wants more bureaucrats to regulate homeschooling to fix bureaucratic problem
American Vision – October 20, 2010
A Clueless Pastor Wants More State Control of Education
By Bojidar Marinov
If you are a God-fearing member of the Presbyterian Church of America (also see here) and you are not alarmed, you must not be paying attention. If you believed the PCA was safely within the group of Christian denominations considered “theologically conservative,” you are mistaken. An event happened a couple of weeks ago that is challenging the status of the PCA as a “conservative denomination.” If it is left unresolved, it will open a way to the gradual transformation of PCA from conservative to liberal, just like it happened a century and a half ago with the PCUSA. For the first time in the history of PCA – as far as I am aware – a PCA pastor publicly promotes outright statist and socialist policies. For the first time a PCA pastor takes the side of the socialist bureaucrats against other Christians and calls for government intrusion in areas that are outside of the jurisdiction of the state according to the Bible.
I am talking about the article by Tom Stein, the Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Richmond Indiana, “What do we do with home-schoolers?” Pastor Stein believes something must be “done” with homeschoolers. Why? Because, as he explains in the article, school administrators in Indiana cheat about their schools’ drop-out rates by convincing parents to sign a homeschool form. It is government bureaucrats who cheat, note that. And logically, Pastor Stein looks to the source of the problem: homeschoolers. Government bureaucrats wouldn’t cheat, apparently, if homeschooling wasn’t around. Or, to put it in another way so that fewer people get offended, if homeschoolers were under some “reasonable oversight and regulation.”
Oversight and regulation by whom?
By government bureaucrats.
It is in “the interest of the state,” he says, to “keep an eye on all this.” Of course. Who would doubt the government bureaucrats’ genuine interest in the proper education of kids? Who would think government bureaucrats would worry more about their drop-out stats than about education? They did so marvelously well with the government schools, so why not have them regulate homeschoolers some of whom are “lukewarm, negligent and unqualified,” according to Stein. Obviously, that’s why a mom stays home to homeschool: because she is “lukewarm.”
You don’t see the logic? That’s because there is no logic in Stein’s proposal. Maybe we shouldn’t expect it. As Pastor Stein admits about his teaching skills, “My kids surpassed my home-schooling skills somewhere around first grade.” His education at the seminary apparently didn’t qualify him to teach second grade. But he can preach and teach every Sunday at his church. His congregation is on its way to first grade, if we take Stein’s words for what they are.
But his lack of logic is the least of his problems.
His greater problem is theological and moral. Stein’s article doesn’t just describe a problem. As a matter of fact, if we investigate the statistical data, it may well be that there isn’t a problem at all, or that it is negligible. By its title and the bulk of its content, the article is promoting a policy. And since every policy is based on an agenda, Tom Stein is promoting an agenda. And that agenda has specific outcomes in mind – more control over Christian parents by the state.
Stein’s social theory is based on a principle: Whatever the problem is, call the legislators to fix it. That’s why he ends it with, “Hello, legislators. Anybody … home?” Even when the very state has created the problem, Stein calls for more of the same – more state intervention. He doesn’t think government schools shouldn’t exist in the first place because Biblically the state has no business in education. He thinks the problem is that there isn’t enough government intervention in education. This social theory is called Statism. When developed to its logical conclusion, it is called socialism. When applied in practice, it produces communism. Stein is a smart fellow. He certainly knows the logical conclusions of his own social theory.