Tag: Government

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2015-04-20.

We are to be subject to one another and therefore subject to the governing authorities. Nowhere are we instructed to be enslaved to those who are to serve.

Everything ultimately becomes political. Although we all try to keep our specific allegiances private, we do have a corporate responsibility to keep our politicians and bureaucrats honest. We need to be politically active for our sakes, for our children’s sakes and our grandchildren’s future. This blog is to encourage you to do just that.

Bible Reference: Luke 16:13

Problems are often disguised as something else. Often problems remain obscured, and unresolved, when we mistakenly focus on the symptom rather than the cause. A classic example of this is what often happens in the health industry, where pills are often prescribed that tend to deal more with the pain than what is causing the pain in the first place. A cynical person may see this as the industry’s way of perpetuating the problem in order to extend the option of cashing in on the continuation of the symptoms.

A major problem within the education industry has been at work for quite some time now. You will notice that I used the word “industry” as opposed to “ministry” as ministry implies a service to benefit another, such as in ministering to someone else’s need. The problem is that those who are on the receiving end of this problem are focussing on the symptom which has the unwitting effect of validating the questionable claims being made and empowering those who should instead be called to account. Let me explain.

To begin, we need to understand that government is made up of two components, one that is elected by the people to make the rules required to keep our society running smoothly, and a secondary group, appointed by the first to administer the provisions of the rules passed by them, as a service to the people. This second group is known as the civil service. In Alberta, we are now in the process of electing, or re-electing, representatives to our Legislature who will be, supposedly, representing the wishes of the majority of their constituents to the governing body called the Legislature. From this elected body of representatives, certain individuals will be appointed to administer different parts of the government. The head of this elected body is referred to as the Prime (or first) Minister (Premier in Alberta), while the rest are referred to as Ministers of a ministry of some sort. Of particular interest to us as home educators, is who will be the Minister of the Ministry of Education. This Ministry of Education is made up of a very large number of people, collectively referred to as civil servants that make up a bureaucracy of stacked bosses in a hierarchy of greater importance, culminating at the ministerial level or with The Minister of Education.

It is important to understand that all the words used to describe the government, indicate that it is there to serve us. Words and terms like representative, minister, ministry, civil service and civil servants come with the understanding that they work for us, not the other way around. Also, it is imperative that the Minister ascertain that the ministry’s civil servants answer to him, otherwise the ministry takes on a life of its own and the “inmates start running the asylum” so to speak.

Of particular concern to us is that our provincial Education Ministry has become such an “asylum” and rather than serving the people, the people are now being forced to serve the government. The Ministry of Education has become bloated, top heavy and dictatorial and its workers or bureaucrats are becoming more like condescending, confrontational, heavy handed “bullies” that unilaterally reinterpret the rules and then, applying them retroactively, penalize its citizens who had no idea that they were violating rules they did not know had changed. Bureaucrats making decisions that negatively affect the electorate, or portions thereof, is not the intent of a democratic government elected to serve the people.

More specifically, the Apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy (2 Tim 4:14) stated that “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works.”. Home education has inherited its own version of “Alexander” in the form of a Private School Analyst of the Department’s Financial Reporting and Accountability branch who, whether by her own initiative or through directives from a superior, has targeted private schools and home education to not only cause us much harm but to declare home educated students as second-class citizens who are to be denied the same opportunities made available to public school students. To be sure, home educating families determine to make themselves different by choosing to home educate, but that is no reason to reclassify home educated students as specific targets rather than equal citizens.

One more thing. Although our system is not a perfect system of governance, it is the best system available when it is conducted in keeping with the idea of being by the people and for the people. Ideally, what used to be is what should be, but that won’t be again until Jesus returns and takes his place as King of Kings who in His wisdom, mercy and compassion will have nothing but our best interests in mind! In the meantime, we are under the “authority” of the government and it’s bureaucracy. However, we do need to understand that these people supposedly work for us and although we are instructed to be subject to these authorities (Rom. 13:1-7) as citizens, we are not instructed to be in submission to them as slaves. We can only serve or be in submission to one master. Will it be God or government. It cannot be both.

More on this next week. Keep your eye on our web site.

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2015-02-02.

Accreditation, while often necessary at the post-secondary level is not necessary at the secondary (high school) level.

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

Bible Reference: Romans 6:16

Sometimes we get so convinced that something is true, we simply don’t even think about questioning it. Adolf Hitler once stated that if you tell a big enough lie, loud enough and often enough it becomes the “de facto” truth. That certainly was the case in Nazi Germany, as we are well aware, but do we know it is also often the case in our own society and specifically within our home educating community?

When we first started on our home education journey, things were much different from what they are today. The biggest difference being that we were united in purpose and in deed. There were no separations along the “who are you registered with” lines and no one would even suggest following government programming. Programming we knew was secular, humanistic, unbiblical, unGodly and in lots of ways not only un-Christian, but at times anti-Christian in its message, was the very thing we were trying to escape. Over twenty-five years later, the public programming has most certainly not become less opposed to the Christian faith, yet today the majority of those choosing to teach their children at home bring the public programming home also. Why? What happened?

The reason is quite simple. Most parents have entrusted their God-given responsibility for the education of their children to professionals, hired by the government to deliver their program. Government is willing to pay to make sure that this mindset continues. Add to that the fact that greater amounts of money follow greater amounts of public programming, and you have the perfect formula to have home education providers, self-servingly, perpetuate the unquestioned assumption that government programming, with the accompanying accreditation, is necessary to advance to the post-secondary level.

If we are exposed to only one possibility regarding any issue, we adopt that one thing as truth, having nothing else to challenge that assumption. Since the majority of parents have been to some version of government education (remember that a “Christian” version of public education is still a public education), most know nothing other than what they have experienced. If it is the only thing we know, government programming becomes “normalized”, “Christianized” and then made to “harmonize” with the Bible, when it is in fact a program that discredits its teachings. When the institutional church seeks permission to exist from government, it tacitly acknowledges and validates the government’s claims to authority, including in education. We have been exposed to a lie often enough, and loud enough to unquestioningly believe that it is true.

Scripture tells us that we become the slave of whom we obey. We know that we become slaves unto righteousness when following Jesus, so what kind of slave do we become when following government? When we consider, once again, that the government is not representative of the truth, but God is, and that God creates us free, the point of government “programming” should become a little clearer. It is in keeping with the government’s agenda, which is not to lead its citizens to God but to itself, as god.

Who says home educated students need to follow government programming? Actually, it is not government that insists on it, nor is it colleges that absolutely require it, but home education providers whose bottom line is improved by advancing it. In short, the government has an agenda that providers are willing to advance, as long as the government is willing to pay for it. Therefore parents are not generally being told that they have better options.

Part of the series Who says…
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-10-27.

Those that would send us to school, directly or indirectly, are serving man rather than God.

Building on a foundation that God is, that He created the universe and that He ultimately is responsible for our children’s being, should provide ample substance upon which to build our faith. This lengthy series will identify the secular thinking that has eroded that faith.

Bible Reference: Col. 2:8

Going to school has become as commonplace as going to work, it is just a different job description. But it was not always this way. One hundred and fifty years ago, there was no such thing as public school. Mandatory public education was originally created by the Prussians (Germans) with the objective of creating a compliant military. American industrial capitalists, who were having a difficult time convincing workers to leave the farm and family to work in factories, brought the idea of compulsory education to the United States, with the objective of creating a compliant work force.

When first brought to America, children were made to attend school against much parental opposition, even being marched off to school at gunpoint! By the beginning of the twentieth century, compulsory school programs were becoming rather common, with few bothering to question the authority, or how education had come to be a government responsibility. Over the next hundred years, government continued to play a key role in the education of it’s citizens, which originally must have been with the objective of providing opportunity for learning, eventually devolving to the creating of a compliant citizenry. Today, every time some issue is presented, we hear calls for “educating the public”, which essentially means “program them to think in a certain way”.

How many times have we heard… but I don’t want to go to school! Why would they say that? Because school is fun? Because school is somehow connected to the reality of a child’s life? You would think that reality would be the reason for sending children to school, but who’s reality is it? Certainly not that of most children and not that of parents, unless, of course, we are in need of a baby sitting service! It is the government’s reality, which makes no attempt to acknowledge God, the Bible or the Christian faith. In fact, under the banner of tolerance for all other beliefs and lifestyles, public schools have become Godless, unbiblical and anti-Christian. Why? Because God has never appointed government to teach the children and if He has not appointed government, government is free to advance its reality rather than God’s truth.

Who says we have to go to school? Government, under the pretense of wanting it’s citizens to have a good foundation of training, but in actuality desiring to program children to think like the government wants them to think and not to question anything, especially the government’s claim to authority which has never been authorized by God.