Children at Risk <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
"The fear of the religious right is that the schools of today will be the governments of tomorrow.  And you know, they're right.  If we do our jobs right, we're going to raise a generation of kids who don't believe the claims of the religious right." (Speakers at the 1999 Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) conference.
 
Labor Day has just past and all the back yard barbecues signal that our young children have headed back to start a new school year.  Roughly 48 million children have left their summer memories and with both hope and angst have set out to make this school year a year to remember.  However, with our escalating anti-Christian culture, Christian parents are finding it increasingly difficult to be optimistic that their Christian underpinnings will remain intact especially with 35 hours of anti-Christian education a week.
 
As we head into the new school year, we will likely see some small victories for Christianity.  We will see students allowed to wear T-shirts with their faith, after school Bible clubs being vindicated, and the annual gathering around the flag pole.  Concurrently, we will also see more attacks on intelligent design, less parental rights, an increasing tide of teacher-student sex, and more valedictorians and Christmas carols being censored.
 
Perhaps more frightening and beneath the radar is the slow and steady indoctrination in the homosexual agenda, which is enough to give even the most ardent school reformers pause.  While we are sending our young people off to be salt and light we are increasingly seeing their light being extinguished and their salt losing its savor.  Part of this reason is the escalating rise of homosexual activism and concurrent rise of hostility to Christianity in the public (government schools).
 
How might schools be complicit with indoctrinating your children into homosexuality?
 
The following are examples of ways in which schools can promote the homosexual agenda in your children:
 

• Anti-harassment, anti-bullying or "safe schools" policies that include the category "sexual orientation, " hence equating sexual orientation (mutable) with race (immutable).

• Requirements for teacher/ staff training on "diversity," "tolerance," and "sensitivity."

•  Objectionable material in library books which contain homosexual propaganda.

• Local or state laws: There may be local or state laws that determine or influence what is taught at the school level.  Homosexual curriculum is offered under the guise of safe sex, or anti-bullying programs.

• Lessons on different types of families: "Love Makes a Family" is one video which combines worthy messages of accepting families headed by grandparents, single moms, or multi-racial families, with the unacceptable message of accepting two lesbians or two men as heads of families.

• Pro-homosexual stories/novels on suggested reading lists in literature classes.

• Political Science/ History/Civics classes:  Houghton Mifflin's A History of Western Society, is used in some high school Advanced Placement courses and instructs children that homosexual behavior was acceptable to early Christians.

• A homosexual student club. The most common term is "gay/straight alliance" or GSA. It may also be called a GLBT club (for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered )

• Diversity day, day of silence, "gay" pride celebration day (or week).  Any special day or week set aside to "celebrate" or honor (even through silence) the idea that homosexual behavior is acceptable. (Linda Harvey, Mission America)

 
The numbers show that these methods are being successful.  In 1998, 74.9 percent of the American public thought that sex between two people of the same gender was always wrong.  By 1998, the percentage was 54.6%.
 
A 2001 Zogby Poll of high school seniors found that roughly 2/3rds of the sampled seniors believed that homosexual marriage and adoption should be legal.  Even higher percentages supported "hate crimes" legislation to give special status to homosexuals and effectively silence the church.  Who would want to support hate?
 
This rising tide of homosexual indoctrination has caused major Christian denominations in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />United States to take action.
 
In May and June 2005, over 50 state pro-family groups formed an alliance to encourage the Southern Baptist Convention to use its influence to protect children from school districts that are promoting acceptance of homosexual behavior. As a result, a resolution was passed that encouraged local SBC churches to investigate whether their school district is betraying parents, children, and the community by collaborating with homosexual activists. In cases where the school district was found to be collaborating, the resolution also urged parents to hold the school districts accountable and demand discontinuation of such morally offensive programs and materials.
 
 
Now there is a tool to hold those schools accountable, and it is for everyone, not just Baptists.
 
The "Risk Audit" project was developed by Linda Harvey of the Ohio-based group Mission America following last year's approval of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolution.
 
Harvey says, "Based on my ten years of tracking and researching the growth of homosexual activism in public schools, I know that very few parents are aware that the majority of public school districts are selling our children the dangerous and false notion that homosexuality is a normal and acceptable lifestyle."
 
Steve Crampton is chief counsel at the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (AFA Law Center). He says far too many parents are simply unaware of the radical agenda homosexual activists are pushing on school campuses across the U.S. today.
"The overwhelming majority of Christian parents who even have gone out of their way to become involved and to try to determine what's going on in their local schools will be surprised at how extensive the pro-homosexual agenda is in every government school in the nation," Crampton observes (Agapepress, April 27, 2006)
Dr. Bruce Shortt, founder of Exodus Mandate, said such an audit offers a systematic approach to investigate and measure what's being taught behind school doors.
"As Christian parents, we only have one chance to get our child's education right, there are no do-overs. And it's absolutely imperative that we know what's going on," he said. "If the school district is, in any way, collaborating with homosexual activists, we need to take our children out." (citizenlink.org, April 26, 2006)
Certainly, Most of us want to do what is best for our children.  We would like to think somehow our schools are different. Some of us just might need a little push.
 The "Risk Audit," may be just the push we need.
Click here for a "Risk Audit" for your local school.
 
In Part 2, I will walk you through a Risk Audit of a local school district.
 
Nicholas A. Jackson
 
Nick is Executive Director of Reform America, and Ohio Coordinator for Exodus Mandate. In addition, he spends time as a free-lance writer articulating the Christian viewpoint into our culture. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." Isaiah 58:12
 
Website: www.reformamerica.com Email: [email protected]