WELCOME TO THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE!

 

"Doing the Education Research that Illegal Aliens Won't Do

 Since 1997"

 

 

May, Anno Domini 2009

 

 

 

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies." (Groucho Marx)

 

After a brief hiatus, The Continuing Collapse again returns to your mailbox.

This edition will be short, but it is the bearer of some good news.

EVIDENCE THAT THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION IS BEGINNING TO TURN TOWARD CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

 

      A few years ago, The Continuing Collapse, in league with a select group of unindicted co-conspirators, decided to beleaguer the Southern Baptist Convention by pointing out that the SBC has taken an unbiblical approach in its practice and teaching regarding how our children are to be trained up.

Has the SBC been worse than other Christian organizations on this issue? No. But the SBC is the single largest Protestant organization in the country, and The Continuing Collapse knew that raising the education issue within the SBC would attract a great deal of free media that would allow us to go around the leadership of all denominations to reach Christian parents with our message.

 

We also felt that most, if not all, of the leaders within the SBC that we were challenging were sincere Christians who would in time begin to speak publicly about the need for Christian parents to provide their children with a Christian education and the need for churches to help provide alternatives to government schools if they were forced to think about what the Bible has to say about education and what the government schools have become.

 

Not long after we began our "mischief", Dr. Al Mohler, Jr., the president of Southern Theological Seminary, the SBC's oldest and leading seminary, publicly called for the SBC to develop an "exit strategy" from the government schools. Other prominent SBC leaders such as Dr. Rick Scarborough, Dr. Paige Patterson, and Judge Paul Pressler have from time to time  in various ways and to various extents publicly expressed support for expanding k-12 Christian education.

 

Now comes the Executive Director of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Morris Chapman, calling for churches to provide more Christian elementary and secondary schools as alternatives to government schools. After praising the work of Christian colleges and universities in an article that appears in the Baptist Messenger, Dr. Chapman turns to k-12 education:

 

....I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I'm not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect -- the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents...

 

In far too many public schools throughout the country our children are being bombarded with secular reasoning, situational ethics and moral erosion.... I believe the primary responsibility for raising children is charged to parents. However, it is undeniable that the church is charged with training parents and working with them to ensure tender shoots survive when moved from the greenhouse to the harshness of the natural environment.

 

Dr. Chapman also picks up a theme from prior SBC education resolutions; namely, that inner city children are very much in need of an alternative to the monstrously evil government school system:

 

To be sure, there are a number of areas where Kingdom education at this level would be a welcome alternative to public schools. Many of our inner cities are suffering from failed families and failing students. In Baltimore, Md., for example, schools are experiencing dropout rates up to 60 percent; 70 percent of teens are sexually active; and, the city has alarming rates for crimes, sexually transmitted diseases and out-of-wedlock births.

 

In such areas, Kingdom schools would serve as a central ministry among a myriad of ministries that would help families recover from the chaos that now exists and help them establish Christ in the home....

 

Dr. Chapman then expands his vision for growing Kingdom education to suggesting that the churches in every local association should collaborate to start at least one school (BTW, cooperation among churches to create Christian educational alternatives is another idea that has been promoted by the SBC resolutions and The Continuing Collapse):

 

Instead, Kingdom schools, K-12, should be built as an intentional ministry of churches and local associations to aid families with their Kingdom responsibilities for raising children in the admonition of the Lord. Why shouldn't we have at least one Christian school in every association that merges dynamic biblical principles with academic excellence? At minimum, a number of Southern Baptist churches in the same association could band together to create an outstanding Christian school for the area.

 

To be sure, Dr. Chapman does not adopt the entire message of our SBC education resolutions, but it is clear that he is deeply concerned about what is happening in the government schools and is attempting to create a climate of opinion within the SBC that will allow it to develop and implement an "exit strategy", at least for a very large number of Southern Baptist families:

 

The focus should not be to abandon public schools, but to be certain not to abandon our biblical responsibility to come alongside parents in training up a child in the way he should go. Can we ignore the enormity of this need any longer when our children so desperately need to be fortified with strong biblical precepts as well as history, grammar, literature, civics, math and science? In recent days, two questions have weighed heavily on my soul. If Southern Baptists don't do it, who will? If we don't do it now, do we risk forever losing the opportunity to build schools for God's glory and the future of our children, grandchildren and the land we love?

 

While some might be inclined to say that Dr. Chapman is being too timid, The Continuing Collapse would suggest that perhaps Dr. Chapman is being wise. Old habits of thought are not often broken overnight, and spiritual blindness often must be overcome in stages. True leaders realize that sometimes the people who look to them for guidance must be educated in stages about new directions. Dr. Chapman has taken a major step in pointing the SBC in the right direction, and we should be grateful that he has had the vision and the courage to do this.

 

Now, what about leaders in other denominations? The Continuing Collapse suggests, dear reader, that you make Dr. Chapman's position known to your pastor and other leaders and encourage them to speak out in favor of expanding Christian education.

 

AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

(Paul the Bond Slayer Strikes Again)

 

Those of you who have gotten through the last six to 10 editions of The Continuing Collapse know of Paul Dorr's (aka "Paul the Bond Slayer") ministry of consulting with local citizens to defeat school bond levies.

 

Recently, The Continuing Collapse had the privilege of welcoming Paul the Bond Slayer to Texas, where he was tasked with slaying a $120 million bond levy in Nederland.

 

The results are now in. At a time when 75% of bond levies in Texas passed, the taxpayers of Nederland with Paul's leadership beat the education establishment like a rented mule: Over 79% voted against the levy.

 

If you know of a bond levy in your area, please let Paul know. If you are in the media, help get the word out by interviewing him.

Paul Dorr, Copperhead Consulting Services  · P.O. Box 188  · Ocheyedan, IA 51354 

Ph 712-758-3660 | Fx 712-758-3475 | ccs@iowatelecom.net

 

 

FIRST CLASS HOMESCHOOL MINISTRIES IS APPROACHING 50 COOPS!

 

The wonderful coop planting ministry created by Jay and Heidi St. John has been prospering. Not only has First Class received a donation of some excellent office space, but First Class is very near having planted 50 homeschool coops.

 

The Continuing Collapse cannot stress too much the importance of this ministry for growing homeschooling. Not only does First Class greatly simplify both establishing and operating homeschool coops using First Class's very successful coop model, the networking of the coops together is laying the groundwork for what may well serve as 21st century "Committees of Correspondence" for defending home education.

 

The Continuing Collapse strongly recommends:

 

1. Visiting First Class's website ( http://www.firstclasshomeschool.org/pages/ ) and urging others to visit it.

 

2. If you have a ministry or organization, find a way to ally yourself with First Class.

 

3. If you are involved in media, interview Jay and Heidi to help get word out about First Class.

 

 

 

AND THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE....AN ENTIRE EDITION OF THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE DEVOTED TO "POSITIVE" NEWS. (but don't expect it to happen again any time soon ;-)

 

 

REMEMBER:

 

1. Feel free to circulate The Continuing Collapse.

 

2. If you aren't hearing about at least some these government school problems from your pastor, why is he your pastor?

 

3. FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. 

 

“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm – but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”

-T.S. Eliot