"In spiritual matters there really is no 'Third World.' It's all Third World."
- Dallas Willard
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
A 10-year-old homeschool
girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith.
The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view."
The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court.
The ADF confirmed today it has filed motions with the court seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H.
...
In addition to homeschooling, the girl attends supplemental public school classes and has also been involved in a variety of extra-curricular sports activities, the ADF reported.
But during the process of negotiating the terms of the plan, a guardian ad litem appointed to participate concluded the girl "appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith" and that the girl's interests "would be best served by exposure to a public school setting" and "different points of view at a time when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief ... in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs."
I hope this isn't a trend. I can remember a friend of mine being rejected from a PALs (Peer Assistance and Leadership) program in high school because in his interview they found him to be too dogmatic in his religious beliefs. They especially didn't like that it was important to him to convert others to Christianity. (I learned from that, and managed to shape my answers better to avoid that same rejection...I got in.)
Someone who believes they are right in matters of religion seems to be a threat to the multi-cultural secular establishment.
The state is poking its finger to far over the wall of separation.
I think she'll ultimately win this battle though. The free exercise clause of the constitution is just too strong to be overshadowed by the state's interest in a child having a "tolerant" worldview.
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Comments on "Court Orders Christian Child To Get A Secular Education":
2. Bob Sacamento
- 09/02/2009 12:28 pm CDT
Don't multi-cultural secularists dogmatically believe that they are right in matters of religion?.......
Well put, indeed, nhe.
I know a lady who had to take a social worker to court to keep from losing custody of her daughter. The precocious six year old was reading the Bible and the Bible, in the social worker's eyes, just wasn't appropriate reading material for a child of such tender years.
It seems to me -- and maybe it's just me, I don't know -- that I hear more voices than I used to saying that evangelicals should back out of the culture wars. And alot of these voices actually belong to conservative evangelicals. I know there have been excesses, and some of us take this stuff way too personally, and some of us went off the deep end during the Clinton years and never came back, and etc etc. But I just can't understand how someone can read stories like this and still say we just shouldn't be involved at all in the culture wars.
4. enkurio
- 09/02/2009 12:54 pm CDT
Philip, we need all of our children in public schools so they can hear our President next week ;-)
Next week, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, President Obama will be broadcasting an address directly to students in the nation’s public schools.
I'm sure my 2nd grader will be encouraged to stay in school and succeed. I'm expecting her grades to improve because of the President's charisma. Oh, that's right, I homeschool - dream over :-(
Yikes, all this government intervention. Reminds me of a new Tim Hawkins parody.
I can't youtube from work but here is another blog that lists the lyrics and has a link through to the youtube video.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/09/candy-man.html
5. Manders
- 09/02/2009 2:50 pm CDT
This sends up all sorts of red flags for me, but I can't ultimately say I'm surprised. Whatever the result of this is, it's probably time to start bracing ourselves.
6. Topher
- 09/02/2009 2:51 pm CDT
I would like to point out that this is a custody fight between the two parents. The father wants her to go to public school and the mother does not want her to go. And as anyone who has seen or been through this kind of court case knows they are always ugly and very complicated. Now this case might be overturned as the mother has primary custody of the daughter but those who would spin this as some kind of government forcing our children to go to public school are not aware of the facts.
7. Shrode
- 09/02/2009 3:02 pm CDT
Thanks Topher.
I knew from the whole article that there had been custody issues, but I wasn't aware that this was just the court taking the father's side. Is that what it is?
How do you know the facts in this case? All I know is that one article? Are there other news articles that shed more light?
8. Wickle
- 09/02/2009 4:22 pm CDT
Topher's right, there is a bit more to the story. There are competing parental interests, so that it isn't simply a state vs. religion thing. One parent had to win and one had to lose.
(Frankly, having been hit hard by a NH marital master, I'm sort of glad to see a father having a chance!)
On the other hand, the ADF is right on this one. The standard that the MM used can't stand up to scrutiny, because it isn't applied to students in other educational environments. A public school student who vigorously defends his/her position of faith wouldn't be moved to some kind of diversity-school. (And here's hoping that I didn't just make up the next Net-rumor!)
I know a couple which is foster parenting in NH. At first, it was up in the air whether they'd be allowed to, because the wife was homeschooled and the first social worker seemed very down on that. However, they currently have four foster kids, so that obviously wasn't too big a hang-up. I expect something similar in this case. None of the state's real interests -- educational standards, social skills, etc. -- is suffering. No other homeschooled child is put through the test that is being applied here.
9. enkurio
- 09/02/2009 4:30 pm CDT
Found it:
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=5050
The parents of the child divorced in 1999. The mother has home-schooled their daughter since first grade with curriculum that meets all state review standards. In addition to home schooling, the girl attends supplemental public school classes and has also been involved in a variety of extra-curricular sports activities.
In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the guardian ad litem involved in the case concluded, according to the court order, that the girl “appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith” and that the girl’s interests “would be best served by exposure to a public school setting” and “different points of view at a time when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief...in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs.”
It did mention "renegotiating the terms of the parenting plan" so it doesn't seem like a custody battle per se.
I'm not sure how these proceedings work as it sounds like a bunch of negotiating rather than ruling on law. If they have to take the law into account for any of this, then the ruling was an outrage for there is nothing illegal about homeschooling (even in NH) or Christianity.
10. Bob Sacamento
- 09/03/2009 10:02 am CDT
I would like to point out that this is a custody fight between the two parents. ... those who would spin this as some kind of government forcing our children to go to public school are not aware of the facts.
Have to disagree. The custody battle context does limit the scope of this decision, for now, to children of divorced parents. But the MM's reasoning clearly shows a person working in an official government capacity and deciding that "rigidity of religious belief" is 1) bad for the child and 2) something the government can indeed involve itself in. There's nothing in the reasoning about "equal time" for dad, or how homeschooling wasn't part of the original custody agreement (don't know that for a fact -- just an example), or anything like that. In this reasoning, the child of divorced parents is indistinguishable from a child of still-married parents. So, if this passes through the NH courts, it's not clear to me why those courts would not eventually apply the same reasoning to children in intact families.
But we can all hope
this case might be overturned as the mother has primary custody of the daughter
But the process of getting a decision like this overturned is lengthy, emotionally draining, and horribly expensive (unless the ADF is working pro bono, but still, someone has to pay for it). When it gets to the point that a woman and her ten year old daughter have to go through this process in the first place, things have just gone too far already.
11. Brian
- 09/08/2009 11:18 am CDT
This anecdote can be related to the emerging secularist sentiment, promoted especially by fans of Richard Dawkins, that an orthodox Christian upbringing is inherently abusive, and therefore the state should have the ability to intervene to prevent a child from adopting those beliefs.
And here you see it -- in a case where the agent of the state has the authority to make a judgment on those grounds, look what happens.
The limitations on the scope of state authority with regards to family life are what keep this from happening more frequently.
Leave a Comment:
Don't multi-cultural secularists dogmatically believe that they are right in matters of religion?.......and isn't forcing a child into a secular education evidence of that?