King Solomon Blog, Blaine Folly of Religious Bigotry to End? — Reblogged

Posted on November 27, 2019 by

It is about protecting children.

One of the things most Americans have forgotten is the extent to which religious bigotry has been used to protect the public school monopoly. Therefore, if you have never heard of “Blaine Amendments”, you will find it worthwhile to read King Solomon Blog, Blaine Folly of Religious Bigotry to End? In particular, check out the articles that scatterwisdom links to. Well worth your time to read. So-called Liberals/Progressives may claim to be defending religious freedom, but history and a review of the issues readily suggests otherwise.

Will the Supreme Court finally rule to end all religious inequity based on anti-Catholic bigotry and politician’s hypocrisy in the USA?

The Supreme Court agreed to rule on the issue of the Constitutionality of the Blaine Amendments.

The Purpose of This Post

Is to inform interested readers of the origin of the Blaine amendment and the inequity of making parents pay two tuitions if they choose to send their children to a private or religious school.

Or why do the majority of government politicians support public schools, yet send their children to private schools?

King Solomon,

It is wrong to punish the godly for being good or to flog leaders for being honest. (proverb 17:26 NLT)

(continued here)

How can Liberals/Progressives rationalize being Pro-Choice yet still oppose School Choice? Do they want everyone to have the freedom to make their own choice, or do they want everyone to conform with their choice?

Posted in Citizen Responsibilities, Constitutional Government, religion, School Choice | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE DREAMS OR JUST PLAIN NIGHTMARES

Posted on November 24, 2019 by

To support and promote the values inherent in the concept of family, the Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance focuses on issues related to these five topics:

How is the concept of the family under assault with respect to these issues?

Life

How do we define human life? When is a human being entitled to the protection of the government? Consider this February 2019 post, DOES THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING GOV. RALPH NORTHAM MAKE SENSE TO YOU? Consider what Governor Ralph Northam said.

The procedures, Northam said in the WTOP interview, are “done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s not viable. So in this particular example, if a mother’s in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” (from here)

Northam plainly indicated he has no issues with infanticide. When in Governor Northam’s mind does the right of a child to live supercede the rights of woman to control her own body? Well, the fact that child has been born apparently does not have anything to do with it.

Marriage

Consider what the Constitution of Virginia says about marriage.

Article I. Bill of Rights
Section 15-A. Marriage
That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.

(The amendment ratified November 7, 2006, and effective January 1, 2007—Added a new section (15-A).)

Virginia’s marriage amendment is no longer law. The Supreme Court of the United States overturned our state’s definition of marriage by judicial fiat (see Same-Sex Marriage (christianitytoday.com)). What does this mean in practice? Government force will be increasingly used to pressure those who believe in Biblical marriage to support same-sex sex and same-sex “marriage”.

Religious Freedom

Consider this article, YOUR RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (aclu.org). Effectively, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wants to exclude religious belief from public life. The Constitution does not require that.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (from here)

The Constitution restricts the government, not us. When the Supreme Court cited Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists (loc.gov) and outlawed school prayer (50 Years Without Official School Prayer (christianpost.com) and School Prayer (allabouthistory.org)) they went too far. Jefferson obviously wanted the Danbury Baptists to understand he would not abuse his power to force his beliefs on them.

Groups like the ACLU want to use government power secularized our society. Just because they pretend that their secularism does not reflect a religious belief does not mean they are not interfering with the free exercise of religious belief.

Parental Authority

Everett Piper’s column in The Washington Times today, What today’s educational ruling class gets wrong (washingtontimes.com), begins with this quote.

“I believe that raising a child is the responsibility of the community and that parents should not have the final say. Let’s be honest; some of you don’t know what is best for your kids. Parents believe they should be able to storm the school in the name of political and religious beliefs if something happens in the school that they are morally opposed to.

“They forget that we make a promise to prepare their children to live in a diverse world. We are not required to protect the misguided, bigoted views of their parents. If you want your children educated with your values, find a private school that will do it. The public education system is not here to serve your archaic beliefs.”
— Anthony Lane, English Teacher, Willis High School, Will Texas. Oct. 18, 2019 (from here (washingtontimes.com))

Who is Anthony Lane? Well, this article, Report: Teacher Defends Drag Queen at School, Condemns ‘Bigoted’ Parents (breitbart.com) and this article Parents ‘Don’t Know What’s Best’ for Their Children: Texas Teacher Defends Drag Queen Event (faithwire.com), provide some context. If you read Piper’s column and then the Breitbart and Faithwire articles, if you are a parent you will probably be fairly angry. At least, you should be.

Constitutional Government

What does a constitution do? Do you know? If the answer is no, why not?

What does a constitution do? It restrains the powers of the government. A constitution describes critical processes that government officials must follow. In addition, a constitution describes specific things the government and government officials cannot do, and it specifically states what the government must do and can do. For example, most of The United States Constitution describes processes that the Federal Government is supposed to follow. Article I is devoted to Congress, but just one section of Article I,  Section 8, is devoted to listing the powers of Congress.

Do you know if Congress has assumed more powers than Section 8 gives it? Do you think the politicians who run our schools are interested in teaching you or your children?

Why does a constitution work? Why does a constitution restrain government officials?Strange question? No. Until the last couple of centuries, constitutional republics have been quite rare. Most of history is a history of monarchies and tyrannies. These types of government are based primarily on the proposition that might makes right. Kings and tyrants rule because it is death to oppose them.

Without such terror, how do constitutional republics manage to command obedience? Constitutional republics still command military and police force, but the primary reason citizens obey their government is that the citizens of a constitutional republic honor the words of their constitution. That is, the citizens of a constitutional republic insist their leaders obey their constitution because they understand their constitution protects the rights of their family, friends and neighbors.

Have you and your children learned the importance of honoring your constitution?

Are our government officials obeying The United States Constitution? How would you know for certain? The Federalist Papers (gutenberg.org) should be assigned reading in high school, but few Americans have read them. When the 13 colonies debated the ratification of the The United States Constitution, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton wrote articles advocating its ratification. Later generations compiled these articles into The Federalist Papers. Thus, we know how the writers of the Constitution expected it to work.

Have you and your children studied The Federalist Papers?

What Comes Next?

Note again that section above on Constitutional Government. Do you have a good civics education? Are your children learning about reading, writing, mathematics, and constitutional government, or are they learning how to put a condom on a banana and how to apply makeup like a drag queen? To help you become a good citizen and an advocate for your children, we will focus here on the operation of Prince William County Schools (PWCS), Family Life Education (FLE) in particular.

Posted in Citizen Responsibilities | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

WHY WOULD YOU WANT THESE PEOPLE RUNNING OUR LIVES?

Posted on November 20, 2019 by

Theodore R. Davis’s illustration of President Johnson’s impeachment trial in the Senate, published in Harper’s Weekly. (from here)

As the picture above reminds us, we have been through this before. After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson proved to be a disappointing replacement. So Republicans, solidly in the majority, contrived charges against Johnson so they could replace him.

What about now? Here (speaker.gov) is a copy of a memo Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent her caucus. It includes these words:

The facts are uncontested: that the President abused his power for his own personal, political benefit, at the expense of our national security interests.

The weak response to these hearings has been, “Let the election decide.”  That dangerous position only adds to the urgency of our action, because the President is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections. (from here (speaker.gov))

President Donald Trump responded to Pelosi, and he did what he usually does when he is attacked. He tweeted:

Of course, the usual suspects called Trump a liar, again. This article, Nancy Pelosi Is Already Attacking the Legitimacy of the 2020 Election (nationalreview.com), refutes that silliness and focuses on the real issue.

What is just as relevant as Pelosi’s memo is how  Hillary Clinton responded after her last debate with Trump.

Buoyant after wrapping up the third and final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton stepped onto her campaign plane late Wednesday night and continued to hammer Donald Trump for suggesting he might not accept the result of November’s election.

“It was horrifying what he said,” Clinton told reporters, referring to her Republican opponent’s remark that he would keep the American public “in suspense” about whether he would question the outcome of a race that he says is rigged. “we are a country based on laws. And we’ve had hot, contested elections going back to the very beginning, but one of our hallmarks has always been that we accept the outcomes of our elections.” (from here (time.com))

Have Democrats accepted the election of President Donald Trump as president? No? Do Democrats have good reasons for trying to overturn the results? Well, Republicans don’t think so. Why has determining who runs our “government” become a frustrating source of unending contention? Look at the power we now give our government.

  • Look at our paychecks. What is our biggest expense? Taxes, and the government starts getting its cut before we even see our check.
  • Look at who educates our children? Don’t civil servants spend hours every day with our children? Don’t elected officials choose our children’s curriculum and teachers? Is it farfetched to say that the government has a wildly disproportionate say in what our children believe and value?
  • Look at who imposes their beliefs and values upon whom. Do we the People still impose our beliefs and values on our government, or is it the other way around?
  • Look at our Constitution. Are our leaders only doing what the Constitution says that they can do, or are they doing whatever they can get away with?
  • Look at us. Do we know how to participate in our constitutional republic? Are we being good and responsible citizens? Are we voting that way?

We get the government we deserve. When our government becomes a dangerous embarrassment, ripped apart by factional politics, we need to consider our own performance first. Our leaders work for us. If our leaders are doing a rotten job, we did a rotten job of choosing them.

Are you a Christian? The Bible has much to say about government. Did Jesus set up some kind of theocracy for us? No, but He did tell us to love each other, not to lord over each other. Hence, when our nation’s founders designed a new government, they designed a limited government with the goal of protecting each other’s God given rights. As Christians, we have an obligation to protect the God given rights of our fellow citizens. Have we been doing that? No? Then we need to get to it while we still can.

Posted in Citizen Responsibilities