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Sometimes, don’t you just wish you could go back to simpler times?
If I could go back to when I was eight-years-old, that would be cool. My biggest concerns were collecting baseball cards, inventing new ways to build bicycle jumps out of lumber scraps, and pleading with my parents to get one of those new “Happy Meals” from McDonalds for lunch. My friends and I roamed around our neighborhood singing pop songs at the top of our lungs with one overarching rule: be home before the streetlights came on.
But, as Billy Joel sang, maybe the good old days weren’t always so good.
You see, when I was eight-years-old, we were in the midst of the 1979 energy crisis, causing anger filled lines wrapped around the block just to get a half-tank of leaded; and Iran was holding 52 Americans captive and tensions were high as negotiations deliberated for over a year.
My have things changed.
Or have they?
Today, instead of gas costing 85-cents-per-gallon, I just paid over four dollars. Instead of negotiating with Iran over hostages, our leaders are negotiating with them over their nuclear future. Instead of McDonald’s being applauded for providing child-sized options, they are lambasted for deceptively manipulating kids into obesity. And, instead of kids like me spending their days imagining daring adventures around town, parents are forced to keep their kids within arm’s length, for fear that police and Child Protective Services will swoop in and take them away.
Back then, we were just called “adventurous”. Today, kids like me and my friends are labeled “free range”. Both sets of kids know to stay on sidewalks, know not to take candy from strangers, know to look both ways before crossing a road, and know their way from home to the park and back.
But the parents? My parents were applauded for allowing me and my friends room to grow, explore and learn. Today’s parents are threatened with legal action.
Then, there’s the parent’s role in education.
My parents, and several others who gleaned from James Dobson, weren’t fond of the “Free To Be You And Me” social studies curriculum. While they agreed that boys could be nurses and girls could be lawyers, they didn’t go so far to ignore the importance of a nuclear family, and the importance of children being raised by a mother and a father. As an extension, they also considered the logical conclusions that the social studies lessons taught my generation: don’t ever let anything ever stop you from being whatever you want to be.
Even if that means denying the sovereign authority of God and transform yourself from a boy to a girl.
So, my parents were able to work with our Principal and find a similar but different social studies curriculum for me and my friends.
Can you believe it? In a public school, my Christian parents were allowed input and worked out a win-win solution with my teacher and administration?!
Today, Christian parents will soon have this choice when it comes to gender identity and their kids: either uncompromisingly and publicly stand firm in your convictions or lay low.
If you choose the former, you run the risk of Child Protective Services knocking at your door. There will very likely be a day when your child makes a remark at school that his parents have taught him the same lessons learned in the movie Kindergarten Cop: boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a separate restroom for transgendered, nor should boys be allowed in the girl’s restroom. That’s when CPS is called. You get investigated for teaching your child hate-filled doctrine, and even if you eventually have your children returned to you, the turmoil will unsettle your household for years to come.
And that’s if you do what’s good and righteous in accordance to Scripture.
So, you may opt to lay low. Teach your kids what the Bible says, but also tell them not to make any waves about it at school. Tell them the “important stuff” in the Bible, but don’t put any emphasis on the stuff that says anything discriminatory or separatist.
Do this, and you may steer clear of CPS. You’ll also end up with a generation of people who read of uncompromising faith in action, but never actually see it in action, which inevitably will turn into a generation of young adults who only hold onto the principles of Christianity that are convenient for them.
But hey, you avoided CPS.
I guess there’s a third option. You could go completely off the grid. Live a life where you don’t disturb anyone, teaching your kids at home, using the Good Book as your guide to all things in life, living off the land in wide open spaces. Just like the Naugler family in Kentucky.
Haven’t heard of the Nauglers? Here’s what’s new in their household:
Several officers entered the Naugler’s residence without a warrant or probable cause. Nicole Naugler was pulled over by a deputy just outside the property. Officers took their two oldest boys from Nicole, with no documentation to support their actions. Nicole was taken into custody for disorderly conduct (for pleading with the Sheriff to not take her boys) and resisting arrest (verbally, not physically). Joe Naugler arrived, but the sheriff ordered Joe back into the car, to turn their other children over by 10:00 a.m., and threatened him with felony charges if he does not comply.
All of this happened because of an unfounded anonymous complaint filed with CPS.
According to published documents, Child Protective Services wrote that they “do not feel like the children are safe at this time.” So, they took the kids away. According to Kentucky’s CHFS, the Naugler “Children are not living in appropriate conditions and are no enrolled in school or registered with the school board. The parents refuse to cooperate with the investigation.”
(that’s not a typo on my behalf, the CHFS staff member actually documented that the children “are no enrolled in school”. Looks like someone else’s parents should be prosecuted as well)
That’s just an isolated case, right? They must have done something to deserve such treatment!
No. And No.
Here’s another similar story:
A mom recently came home in the middle of the day to find CPS and five police officers surrounding her home, prohibiting her from entering her home.
No warrant.
No documentation.
And her kids were taken away. Her 11-year-old son was at school. His class was having a debate about medical marijuana, and he had argued in favor of marijuana at an anti-drug presentation. The school then decided that they should call the state child protection agency.
No criminal charges have been filed, but the kids have been removed.
She recorded the whole scene outside her home where CPS and the officers gave her the run around, prevented her to enter her own home and insisted that the reason her son was safe was because he was at school at not at home.
No warrant.
No documentation.
Just a call from her kid’s school to CPS and somebody’s opinion of her home and ability to be a loving mom.
You see, today, if you choose to raise your kids to believe that the Bible is true. If you instill in them uncompromising faith, steadfast integrity and sound understanding of God’s will, according to the Scriptures, you very well may find yourself in the same position as these families.
You will be reported as an unfit parent, establishing an environment filled with hate doctrine that doesn’t honor the legitimacy of transexuality. You honor people like Louis Zamperini, William Wilberforce, and Jackie Robinson as heroes instead of Caitlyn Jenner, Michael Sam, and Jason Collins. And what’s worse, you preach this ancient way of thinking to your impressionable kids.
It’s not 1979 anymore. And in many ways, I love where we are today. The internet, global transportation, even Netflix and fatter clubheads on today’s golf clubs make things much more enjoyable than they were back then.
But when it comes to our culture and the direction we are headed in regarding individual liberties, it seems like it’s going to take yet another “fundamental transformation” in our nation to right this ship.
You see, I just want to do what’s right for my kids. I want to raise them to be full of uncompromising character and values. I want them to love God and love others with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I want the authorities to keep their hands off my kids!