Christian High School Teachers Teaches That

Allah and God are the same God and that Muslims and Christians are serving the same God who goes by different names.

Of course this has become cutting edge thinking even among some current missiologists. The thinking goes that the word ‘Allah’ is the Arabic word for God and in light of the fact that Muslims believe that God is one there is no reason to think that the Jehovah of the Scriptures is the same as the Allah of Islam. Missiological reasoning also contends that such an approach makes evangelism either. If missionaries can approach Muslims by allowing that Allah and God are different names for the same God then it is supposedly easier to make progress in evangelistic conversations. It is difficult to imagine Raymond Lull, Henry Martyn, or Samuel Zwemer taking this approach but why should we be concerned about that?

The teacher at this ‘Christian High School’ used C. S. Lewis’s ‘Tashlan’ to support her cockeyed theory. The reasoning was that sincere Muslims, because of their noble intent, are really worshiping the God of the Bible when they worship Allah. Lewis was brilliant but on the whole Tashlan thing his boneheadedness is unmatched.

Some of the covenant children in the church I serve related to me this account while I was teaching the worldview class. They said they had protested this understanding with their friend who had embraced this ‘understanding.’ Now what is interesting is that the parent interjected that her child must of misunderstood because the teacher would have never taught that.

Well, my money is on the fact that the teacher did teach that since this idea has become so prevalent in some putatively Christian circles.

Let this be a warning about ‘Christian’ private schools. All because you slap the word ‘Christian’ on a high school doesn’t mean that it is Christian anymore then a wine bottle full of urine is wine just because the label on the bottle says ‘Wine.’

They Just Don’t Get It

“I think it’s reasonable that we know where and if our children are being educated, whether it’s in a public school, private school, or at home,” said (Rep. Joan) Bauer (Dem. – Lansing), who co-sponsored the bill. Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, and Rep. Mike Simpson, D-Liberty Township, are also co-sponsors.”

Quote From The Lansing State Journal

Would someone mind telling Ms. Bauer that the children of clan McAtee are not her children. Please, can someone get through the heads of these people that the children in the state of Michigan to not belong to the state of Michigan and so should not be referenced by state representatives as ‘our children.’

Second, while you are speaking to this woman (Bauer) could you tell her that nobody in government schools are being educated. The purpose of government ‘schooling’ is not to educate but rather to make ‘good’ citizens and to create people with a slave mentality. Since Ms. Bauer desires to know if children are being educated, I can tell her authoritatively, that all children in the government schools, are not being educated.

Third, notice all the co-sponsors are Democrats. Keep in mind that the Democrats are in the pocket of the Michigan Educational Association teachers union.

Fourth, almost everyone across the political spectrum will tell you that government schools are disasters. In light of that reality, what difference does it make if children learn to be ignorant by going to government schools or if they learn to be ignorant by being truant between the ages of 5-18?

These people drive me nuts.

Concerning Michael Farris

“Make sure and contact your state legislator to register your opposition to this proposed legislation to require home school parents to register with the local school district. Be sure to be nice and respectful when you contact them.”

Michael ‘Augustine is in Hell’ Farris
Speaking at a Home school rally in Lansing Michigan

Now, given that Michael Farris has repeatedly disparaged Calvinist theology, I am not a big fan. Ironically enough, what Farris doesn’t likely know is that historically speaking Arminianism has always been prone to support big Government aspirations while Calvinists have historically been on the side of resisting governmental tyranny. If Mike ‘Augustine has to go’ Farris wants a history lesson in this regard he might want to google ‘Arch-Bishop William Laud’ and look at his theology (Arminian) and his politics (Statist).

Second, what reason, beyond sheer ignorance on the part of the fellow who founded Patrick Henry College, motivated a person, who apparently doesn’t like epistemologically self conscious Calvinists, to name his College after one of the fieriest Calvinist colonialist who ever lived?

Just imagine this scene,

Professor being interviewed for position at Patrick Henry College: “I am looking forward to lecturing at a school named after the premier Calvinist in Colonial America.”

President Farris: “We don’t approve of Calvinism at this school.”

Prospective Professor: “You don’t approve of Calvinism at Patrick Henry College? Isn’t that like not approving of pregnancy at a Lamaze class?”

Well, quite apart from that idiosyncrasy there is something else I want to delve into briefly as it pertains to the above Michael Farris quote.

Can anybody tell me why it is essential to go out of my way to be ‘nice and respectful’ to an enemy who is trying to kill me? I don’t get it.

In the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Spielberg has a vicious scene of hand to hand combat between two soldiers who are intent on killing each other. Neither one takes the time to be nice or respectful to one another in the course of their deadly encounter. Both understand that this is about life and death and not about social niceties. Now granted, state legislators are not trying to literally kill anybody when they advance ‘kill home schooling’ legislation but with this anti-home school legislation their ultimate goal is to eliminate the home schoolers way of life, which in turn is an attempt to eliminate (kill) their faith. It’s probably just my personality, but I have no intent to be nice or respectful to somebody who is trying to do that to me. That doesn’t mean I am going to go out of my way to be rude or mean-spirited but it does mean that I am not going to mince words when articulating what I think of their fascistic tendencies to want to control what is none of their damn business to control. If Farris wants to be nice and respectful that is his business. Personally, I would rather these nanny state legislators fear me as opposed to thinking me nice and respectful. If they change their minds, I’ll be glad to be nice and respectful but until they quit trying to kill my influence in my children’s lives and until they quit trying to steal the little lambs I am pastorally responsible for they shouldn’t be surprised if I take their behavior personally and respond with my own shiver in the dark.

An Open Letter To Michigan Legislators

Dear State Congresspersons,

Having grown up in Michigan, I returned to Michigan in 1995 with my wife and three small children. The DeJonge case had recently been ruled on in Michigan which essentially de-Sovietized education in Michigan making homeschooling an achievable goal for my wife and I. We were relieved when we heard of the DeJonge case decision because we knew that if the decision had not gone the way it had we would have never been able to move back to Michigan – so highly did we prize the ability to have the God given inalienable freedom to home school our children.

Our children are grown now, and there is no longer any danger to them that the State can possibly get inside their heads through the brainwashing program that is euphemistically referred to as ‘government schooling.’ The reason I write you therefore is not for my own children who have grown up to be critical thinkers aware of, among other things, the agenda of government schools to enstupidfy children. I write you in order to urge you to realize the limitations of the State when it comes to controlling how parents shape their children through education and so to urge you to either withdraw or withdraw your support of H.B. 5912. The idea that a State, which does not have enough accountability within its own province of State finances, is somehow going to be responsible to make sure that Michigan parents are accountable to raise their children properly is beyond laughable. The idea that a State, whose Foster Care program was such a model of accountability success in the Ricky Holland case is going to take it upon itself to make sure that biological parents are accountable to the infinite abilities of the State is ridiculous. Michigan government education, like the rest of the states of the union, is so bad that it would be difficult for parents to be more inferior at educating their children even if they had malicious intent. In short, my legislative friends, since homeschoolers don’t need government regulation, as seen by the indisputable overall record of its success, I ask of you to give up on your support of the Teachers Unions and retreat from this ill advised H. B. 5912. Having seen what government accountability looks like, which H. B. 5912 attempts to legislate, I always end up wondering who is holding the government accountable.

May I make so bold to ask that instead of H. B. 5912 one of you introduce legislation that requires Michigan School superintendents, teachers, and perhaps even legislators to register with homeschooling parents so that we homeschooling parents can know Superintendents, teachers and legislators by sight so we can keep our children from their baleful influence. Somebody has to hold you government employees accountable.

No doubt if you have read this far you are muttering to yourself about ‘what a rude letter this is.’ And yet you think it not rude at all to try and impinge upon one of the most basic human freedoms that exist – the freedom of parents to raise their own children apart from the watchful eye of Big Brother. Given the state of American schools and the predatory nature of many of its teachers (I can send a link of all the teachers up on charges for sexual malfeasance if you wish) I find this attempted legislation rude at best and malicious at worst.

If you would like some reading in order to bring you up to speed concerning the quality of American Education and America Schools I would be happy to provide a list of books. I am hopeful your support of H. B. 5912 is a reflection of your ignorance of the State of American Education and not a reflection of hatred for the children.

Sincerely Yours,

Bret L. McAtee
Pastor – Charlotte Christian Reformed Church
Charlotte, Michigan

More News From California

In lightning pre-dawn strikes SWAT and ATF teams across California swept in on homeschooling families throughout the State. Just arriving reports suggest that causalities have been low with only a very few home school parents being killed although in one particular case it seems that one of the home school cells had been tipped off in advance with the result that a firefight ensued that ended with all 10 members of the revolutionary band being killed. The good news is though that none of the States brave police women or men have been injured in the pre-dawn raids.

The raids have collected a booty of subversive pamphlets, books, and other assorted literature. Already Police have set up tables identifying this subversive literature for the press corps to examine. There have been countless copies of the US Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Magna Carta seized, as well as such little known works as Vindicae Contra Tyrannos, The Kentucky, & Virginia Resolutions, St. George Tucker’s commentaries on the Constitution, Benjamin Morris’s, ‘The Christian Life and Character Of The Civil Institutions Of The United States,’ George Buchanan’s, ‘De Jure Regni Apud Scotos,’ Johannes Althusius ‘Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata,’ the works of John Knox, Samuel Rutherford, Patrick Henry, and other authors and works that ATF Chief Joseph Steele Bismarck said were, “funny looking and more funny titled, and which when considering their cumulative effect on these strange people are self evidently destroyers of the general will, public harmony and our American way of life.” Later once the full catch is collated Police hope to display other assorted novels, treatises, and political tracts in order to convey to the public the dangers of a wrong kind of reading and education. Chief Bismarck ended our brief interview by saying that “once all the heavy work of tracing the books back to those who criminally sold such books and once the haul is fully cataloged the literature will be burned.”

Those subversives arrested during the morning ‘strike for freedom’ will be fully debriefed by professionals flown in from Langley. Authorities on the site are saying, even if only in whispered tones, that they hope it doesn’t come down to using water boarding techniques to gain information from those who are hurting the children. Officials already have brought in a team of child Psychologists to help with the children who have been traumatized by their home schooling experience. The psychologist professionals are telling this reporter that if the children are young enough and if they can isolate the children in the context of intense counseling and with the aid of psycho-tropic drugs the damage done to these children in most cases is rectifiable.

However the State has decided that once the debriefing sessions are finished, those seized, who will eventually be mainstreamed back into American educational centers, will be required to wear a yellow Cross prominently displayed on their clothing so as to identify them as potential dangers.

It seems that in light of this pre-dawn liberation every segment of society is coming forth to weigh in publicly on this stunning victory for liberty. The spokesman from the ACLU, Marten Boormen has said, “the repression of the civil rights of these children was unconscionable. The ACLU will be filing amicus briefs in favor of the State if any legal action is filed.” Torry Quemada speaking for ‘The Children’s Defense Fund’ said, “Today California revealed that to be ever free a people must be ever vigilant. The California chapter of the CDF, in compassion for its most innocent citizens, supports this necessary work of the State.” Also we have a statements by two Church organizations. First, the Evangelical California Churches stated through their spokesman, Rev. Larry Beria, “today Jesus is smiling in heaven as the State’s children have been set free from those who practice the religion of oppression, hate, and slavery. Our chief prayer is that these people during their restoration will find Jesus.” Westminster West Seminary Spokesman, Rev. Dr. R. Scott Irons said, “The Church cannot speak to this since God’s word doesn’t speak to this though we are encouraged to see Presbyterian Judges like H. Walter Croskey, who signed off on this raid, working in the common realm to implement his vision of the Christian faith.”

There seems to be some debate as to whether or not the trials will be public as some State official are concerned about the possible lynch mobs that such a public trial could create, although officials concede that with the current huge backlog of trials the public energy created by these arrests could be well dissipated by the time these cases are heard.