Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Goliaths should watch out for these Davids

Jay Ambrose: Goliaths should watch out for these Davids

By JAY AMBROSE, Scripps Howard News Service
December 29, 2004

pictureIt's not the sort of news that many major news outlets would emphasize. But the outcome of a preholiday moot court debate in England has implications for America infinitely larger than the outcome of many contests attracting far more attention. Even the Super Bowl.

The victors were two home-schooled students at Patrick Henry College, a 4-year-old, Christian-based, conservative institution in Purcellville, Va., with just 277 students. Theirs was a David-slays-Goliath upset. Their opponents were students at Oxford University, so pre-eminent in producing intellectually gigantic debaters that a gasp is obligatory whenever anyone at all is so brazen, so dedicated and so smart as to defeat them.

The accomplishment, for starters, would seem further evidence that home-schooling is hardly the mind-diminishing experience some in the education establishment would have you believe. I looked at the issue some years ago after home-schooled students had twice won the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and discovered there are more than anecdotal reasons to conclude this alternative to public schools or expensive private education can produce sterling results.

Statistics illustrate that, on the average, the academic achievements of home-schooled students outstrip those of public school students. Individualized instruction and the intelligent use of community resources by caring parents have a lot to do with making this option work exceptionally well for many of the government-estimated 1.1 million children who take advantage of it.

But there's something even more interesting about this debate story than the attainment of home-schooling. It's the fact that the two students come from a college started by the Home School Legal Defense Association with the intention of molding leaders whose success in government, journalism and such cultural adventures as making movies will give us a different kind of America.

As reported in articles in The National Journal and the Akron Beacon Journal, the association was started by a lawyer, Michael Farris, to provide legal help to parents home-schooling their children, and has since become politically active. Farris knows White House adviser Karl Rove and confers with members of Congress. Volunteers from the organization helped get out the vote in Ohio in the presidential election, particularly among evangelical Christians. Among the group's causes: Populate the courts with judges respectful of the Constitution, ban gay marriage, oppose abortion.

Farris also serves as the president of Patrick Henry College, which may be small in student population, but not in its ambitions, nor in the SAT scores of its students. According to a Washington Times account of the debate, the students' numbers are right up there with students at the nation's most prestigious universities.

Farris, who has sought out the best and brightest conservative Christians from the ranks of the home-schooled, makes sure they get superb training and practical experience. They have had internships at the White House and worked in Washington think tanks and intelligence agencies as part of their educational requirements, it's reported.

To some, these students are something to be concerned about. A professor says as much in the Beacon Journal piece. And if you disagree with them on the issues — I certainly disagree with them in some respects — you may think that the sooner this phenomenon goes away, the better.

In a free society, however, it will occasionally happen that citizens will be citizens. They will fight for what they think is right. And after all, there is nothing devious here, nothing covert — the means and purposes are not being hidden. The means are democratic and hinge on merit. In politics, the students will aim to win elections and votes on policy.

Perhaps they would go further than on some issues than even some fellow conservatives would like, but it is not as if there are no influences taking us too far in the other direction, toward an anything-goes society. In an America that has permitted the horror of partial-birth abortions, how distant are we from the Netherlands, where physicians are now legally killing babies? My sense is that the better the battle is waged on the various sides, the more likely we are to arrive at policies and norms befitting our best human possibilities.

And here is my bet. Just as two students from Patrick Henry College won a debate about a made-up case in England, other Patrick Henry students will eventually make themselves felt on real issues, and America will have reason for gratitude.

(Jay Ambrose, a former editor of newspapers in El Paso and Denver, writes this column for Scripps Howard Newspapers.)


Tuesday, December 14, 2004

WorldNetDaily: City will prosecute Christian protesters

WorldNetDaily: City will prosecute Christian protesters: "City will prosecute
Christian protesters
Federal judge denies emergency appeal by 'Philadelphia 11'"

Monday, December 13, 2004

WorldNetDaily: School distributes satanic, sex calendar

WorldNetDaily: School distributes satanic, sex calendar: "School distributes satanic, sex calendar
Texas parents infuriated by explicit material"

Friday, December 10, 2004

NBC 17 - News - Vandals Decapitate Jesus Statue At Church

NBC 17 - News - Vandals Decapitate Jesus Statue At Church: "Vandals Decapitate Jesus Statue At Church
Act Stuns Churchgoers

POSTED: 8:47 am EST December 9, 2004
UPDATED: 11:56 am EST December 9, 2004
An act of vandalism has shocked the congregation at the Saint Edmonds Roman Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Del. People attending mass Wednesday night were stunned by what they saw.

The congregants were angry because vandals had taken the head off a statue of Jesus with two children at the church.

Father Ray Forester said the vandalism was discovered after Mass on Sunday, but he's not sure when the statue was defaced. The vandal also damaged the faces of two "

Friday, December 03, 2004

News from Agape Press

News from Agape Press: "
Attorney Hopes Texas Court Will Uphold Pastor's Rights

By Allie Martin
December 2, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Texas appeals court has ruled that a pastor can be sued for following biblical mandates in administering church discipline, but a civil rights defender says the United States Constitution is on the minister's side.

Four years ago Pastor Buddy Westbrook of Crossland Community Bible Church in Fort Worth was approached by member Peggy Penley, who needed counseling for marital problems. Eventually Penley left her husband to live with another man. Pastor Westbrook then proceeded to follow the three-step conflict resolution guidelines given in the Bible in the 18th chapter of Matthew. Eventually, the minister went before the church with the matter, sending a letter to the congregation in which he removed Penley from church membership.

Westbrook subsequently found himself having to defend his actions in court. Initially, a district court ruled in the pastor's favor, but an appeals court said Penley had a right to sue her pastor. However, Hiram Sasser of Liberty Legal Institute, the firm that is defending Westbrook, contends that pastors are protected from such lawsuits under the United States Constitution."

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Illinois mayor drops 'Bible week' - (United Press International)

Illinois mayor drops 'Bible week' - (United Press International): "Illinois mayor drops 'Bible week'

Wauconda, IL, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The mayor of Wauconda, Ill., is dropping his decadelong practice of naming the last week in November 'Bible Week' due to a religious discrimination complaint."

WorldNetDaily: Christmastime event is no-Christian zone

WorldNetDaily: Christmastime event is no-Christian zone: "Christmastime event
is no-Christian zone
Santa, 'holy homosexuals' OK for parade, but no floats with direct religious themes
Posted: December 2, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
2004 WorldNetDaily.com


In the latest skirmish over Christmas in America, a Christian group is not allowed to participate in Denver's annual Parade of Lights, because church members sought to sing yuletide hymns and proclaim a 'Merry Christmas' message on their float."

>PEOPLE, WE HAVE TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Rocky Mountain News: Religion

Rocky Mountain News: Religion: "Parade prohibition puzzles preacher

By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
December 1, 2004

If groups celebrating American Indian holy people, German culture and the Chinese New Year can march in the city's Parade of Lights, why can't a Christian group march to celebrate Christmas?

That's just one of the questions bothering prominent Denver-area Pastor George Morrison."

WorldNetDaily: 'Philadelphia 11' fighting back

WorldNetDaily: 'Philadelphia 11' fighting back: "'Philadelphia 11' fighting back
Christians arrested, charged after protesting at homosexual event
Posted: December 1, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern


� 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Attorneys for 11 Philadelphia-area Christians arrested and charged with felonies after protesting at a homosexual event will announce new developments in the case tomorrow and will show a videotape of the controversial arrests.

As WorldNetDaily reported, on October 10, the group was 'preaching God's Word' to the crowd of people attending the outdoor Philadelphia OutFest event and displaying banners with biblical messages."