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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

HOTEL INDUSTRY USING GOVERNMENT TO CRUSH "AIRBNB" PRIVATE RENTAL AGENCY

"Besides, it’s easier and cheaper to lobby government to get rid of competitors than it is to do the hard work of innovating and cutting costs to compete in the marketplace."
 https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Airbnb-logo.jpg
HOTEL INDUSTRY USING GOVERNMENT 
TO CRUSH "AIRBNB" 
BY MICHAEL TENNANT
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Whenever an entrepreneur enters the marketplace, one can be certain that established firms in the same industry will try to use the power of the state to crush their upstart competitor, particularly if he begins taking market share from them. Such is the case with Airbnb, which has seen a significant increase in opposition from all levels of government thanks to a concerted effort on the part of the hotel industry, reports the New York Times.
The Times obtained copies of documents recently presented to the board of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a trade group that includes such juggernauts as Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide. “In the documents,” writes the paper, “the group sketched out the progress it had already made against Airbnb, and described how it planned to rein in the start-up in the future.” The November board meeting’s minutes said the plan was a “multipronged, national campaign approach at the local, state and federal level.”
That the industry would want to put Airbnb out of business is quite understandable. According to Hospitality Net, a hotel-industry website, a report commissioned by the Hotel Association estimated that Airbnb costs hotels about $450 million in direct revenue per year, with additional losses in the form of lost food and beverage sales and other service fees. The Times says Airbnb, which enables people to rent out unused living space on a short-term basis, “has raised more than $3 billion and secured a $1 billion line of credit” and is valued at about $30 billion. In addition, the increase in the supply of lodging has naturally depressed its price, even during peak periods such as holidays, which has also cut into hotels’ bottom lines.

Government, meanwhile, resents the fact that Airbnb isn’t subject to the onerous taxes it levies on hotel rooms. Hospitality Net reports that local, state, and federal governments miss out on (i.e., are unable to confiscate) $226 million in tax revenues per year from the reduction in hotel stays in New York City alone.
Thus, it isn’t hard to see why the hotel industry and politicians would join forces to take down Airbnb.
Indeed, the documents obtained by the Times list one of the Hotel Association’s objectives: “Build on the success of 2016 efforts to ensure comprehensive legislation in key markets around the country and create a receptive environment to launch a wave of strong bills at the state level while advancing a national narrative that furthers the focus on reining in commercial operators and the need for commonsense regulations on short-term rentals.”
In other words, use government to cripple, if not destroy, Airbnb.
The group’s efforts have already borne fruit. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed legislation in October imposing fines of up to $7,500 on New York City apartment dwellers merely for listing their apartments on Airbnb or similar websites. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — like Cuomo, members of the party that supposedly defends the little guy from big corporations — sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in July “raising concerns about the short-term rental industry,” according to the documents.
Furthermore, writes the Times:
The association also met with legislators and attorneys general in dozens of other states to discuss how Airbnb hosts often do not comply with rules imposed on hotels, like anti-discrimination legislation, local tax collection laws, and safety and fire inspection standards. In some markets, the group said, Airbnb is dodging payment of local lodging taxes. In other places, it encouraged officials not to collect taxes from Airbnb hosts so as not to legitimize short-term rentals.
The association claimed legal and regulatory victories last year in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as in states like Virginia, Tennessee and Utah, where laws were being passed to restrict Airbnb activity. The organization also funded research conducted by a professor at Pennsylvania State University to show that many Airbnb hosts were breaking the law….
This year, the association plans to fund more anti-Airbnb research and roll out a testimonial campaign of people hurt by home sharing, “to provide a counterweight to Airbnb’s strategy of presenting a unified, working-class face,” according to the group’s documents.
In short, as Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas told the newspaper, “The hotel cartel is intent on short-sheeting the middle class so they can keep price-gouging consumers.”
The industry, of course, denies that its efforts have anything at all to do with declining profits. “Airbnb is operating a lodging industry, but it is not playing by the same rules,” Troy Flanagan, the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s vice president for state and local government affairs, told the Times.
But if the problem is that there are too many rules unfairly burdening hotel operators, why not lobby to relax those rules rather than to impose them — and more — on Airbnb? Probably because, as with most regulations, the ones governing the hotel industry exist primarily to suppress competition. Large, existing firms can afford the cost of complying with the regulations, while smaller competitors cannot. Besides, it’s easier and cheaper to lobby government to get rid of competitors than it is to do the hard work of innovating and cutting costs to compete in the marketplace.

TRUMP DEPLOYS TWO MORE STRIKE GROUPS TO NORTH KOREA

 Alert: Trump Deploys Two More Strike Groups to NKorea
TRUMP DEPLOYS TWO MORE STRIKE GROUPS 
TO NORTH KOREA
 Now there's three aircraft carriers off the coast of North Korea
 President Trump is sending two more aircraft carriers to North Korea after Russia and China sent in their own ships to monitor the situation:

Mike Pence fires fresh warning to North Korea

 Published on Apr 19, 2017

Mike Pence fires fresh warning to North Korea

Mike Pence, the US vice president, has said that the US will counter any North Korean attack with an "overwhelming and effective American response".

Pence sent the warning in a strong speech in Japan's capital of Tokyo as he continues his tour of Asia.

Meanwhile, the US is backtracking on claims made last week that a naval strike group was heading to waters near North Korea as a show of strength.


BORDER AGENTS SHOCKED AT "UN-PATROL" ORDER: 40 MILES LEFT WIDE OPEN BY OBAMA LEANING BORDER ADMINISTRATION

BORDER AGENTS SHOCKED AT "UN-PATROL" ORDER: 40 MILES LEFT WIDE OPEN BY OBAMA LEANING BORDER ADMINISTRATION
 Published on Apr 19, 2017
U.S. Border Patrol agents are once again sounding the alarm about miles of border being left wide open and unsecured. When Breitbart Texas asked multiple Border Patrol agents about motives for the manager leaving such a vast swath of border unpatrolled, the agents felt that it was twofold; they blamed previous Obama-era policies and they also believed that widespread corruption exists within upper-management.
 

BILL WOULD NULLIFY OBAMA PLOT TO "DIVERSIFY" YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

BILL WOULD NULLIFY OBAMA PLOT TO 
"DIVERSIFY" YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD 
BY ALEX NEWMAN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Legislation has been introduced in Congress to defund and overturn a controversial Obama administration decree from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to transform and “diversify” American neighborhoods under the direction of Big Brother. The new bill would also reverse the attempted unconstitutional usurpation of power over local zoning decisions by the federal government and the unelected regional authorities charged with managing the transformation. And the measure would end a “geospatial database” mandated under the scheme to track the racial and income composition of each area, a key element of the scheme to redistribute people based on their melanin content and earnings.
The Obama administration's race-obsessed decree, known as the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule, became a lightning rod for criticism by conservatives and constitutionalists last year. A coalition of Republican lawmakers, facing outrage among their constituents, tried to defund the unconstitutional scheme while Obama was still in office. However, establishment Republicans quietly worked behind the scenes to betray conservatives by supporting Obama's radical power grab and handing even more tax money to Obama's HUD. With those establishment lawmakers still in power, passage of the new bill remains far from assured, even with Trump in the White House, Ben Carson at HUD, and the GOP in control of both houses of Congress. But prospects are better than before, analysts say.
The bill to overturn the AFFH decree is known as the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017.” In the House of Representatives, where it was introduced by Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), the legislation is known as H.R. 482. In the Senate, the companion bill, S. 103. was introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Both Representative Gosar and Senator Lee led the way last year in the unsuccessful attempt to defund and defang the AFFH scheme. Supporters of the effort, though, hope this year the chances for success will be better considering the new political dynamics — at least if the American people continue to speak out.  
The description of the six-page bill reads: “To nullify certain regulations and notices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and for other purposes.” In particular, the bill targets Obama's AFFH scheme, adopted by Obama's HUD in July of 2015, as well as any substantially similar regulation that may be published in the future. Under the legislation, the AFFH “shall have no force or effect.” The department is also prohibited from using any funds to implement the scheme, or to build the associated federal database containing “geospatial information” on the racial and income composition of American communities. 
Senator Lee was bold in slamming the scheme last year, saying it turns HUD into a “National Zoning Board.” Indeed, the explicit purpose of AFFH was “to empower federal bureaucrats to dictate where a community’s low-income residents will live,” he said. Lee also outlined how the Obama HUD edict would purport to empower D.C. bureaucrats to run roughshod over local communities and their elected officials. “If any aspect of a community’s housing and demographic patterns fails to meet HUD bureaucrats’ expansive definition of ‘fair housing,’ the local government must submit a plan to reorganize the community’s housing practices according to the preferences and priorities of the bureaucrats,” he explained.  
The New American was among the earliest voices to expose the Obama administration's AFFH scheme. In fact, this magazine warned as far back as 2013 — years before the regulation was formally approved — that Obama was plotting precisely such a scheme as part of his stated goal of “fundamentally transforming” America. And if it goes forward, the AFFH would indeed fundamentally transform America, down to the most minute local decisions. And of course, by redistributing people across America using federal funds, and hijacking control over local zoning decisions, the Obama scheme would also fundamentally transform politics by diluting the conservative vote in communities across the country. Similar schemes are being pushed at the global level by the United Nations.
Under the expansive regulations, cities and towns that accept federal money from the HUD would be required to submit to vast federal controls over their policy decisions. For instance, if a community receives an HUD grant, the AFFH purports to mandate costly demographic analyses at the local and regional level to determine whether there are enough low-income and minority residents living in each neighborhood, as defined by HUD bureaucrats. The giant database would include records on residents including income, race, color, religion, national origin, and much more.
If the HUD determines that not enough welfare recipients live in your neighborhood, for instance, the bureaucracy would declare your community to be “out of balance” and not in compliance with the AFFH. In response, the massive bureaucracy would use taxpayer funds — or borrowed money, considering the $20 trillion and counting in national debt — to file lawsuits against the community and impose its will. That might take the form of building more government-subsidized low-income housing in your neighborhood to attract enough welfare recipients to put your community back in balance. In short, it is social engineering by the federal government on a massive scale.
In fact, HUD has been involved in such scheming for years, with targeted communities going up against the might of Uncle Sam. In Westchester County, New York, for example, the Obama administration went to war with the community and its elected officials because they did not have enough low-income, high-density housing developments to satisfy federal bureaucrats. When local officials and residents fought back, the administration sued them, and even went so far as to seek a gag order against the county executive who was leading the fight against Obama's AFFH.
In an e-mail to members and supporters, the constitutionalist John Birch Society, which publishes this magazine, warned that the Obama scheme was an attack on fundamental American values. “AFFH is dangerous to American property owners and to local government in our communities,” the organization warned last week, calling the scheme “Barack Obama's most radical assault on American private property rights and locally elected governments.” Among other concerns, the JBS, which has chapters active in all 50 states, warned that the AFFH “obliterates personal property rights and destroys property values in whole neighborhoods.”
The Obama scheme also destroys cherished American traditions of local governance. “As HUD demands that the 'imbalance' be corrected by forcing federally subsidized housing into more affluent neighborhoods, property values plummet. Equity in those homes will be lost,” explained Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center. “In addition, as HUD moves to enforce these badly defined rules, its agents begin to dictate to local officials how their communities will develop. Locally elected officials simply become pawns to carry out HUD rules. Home rule in America will die under AFFH.”
The Left and Big Government forces, he said, are gearing up to claim that the bill to nullify AFFH is somehow “damaging” to the poor. But in reality, the AFFH itself is damaging to the poor and everyone else except government cronies — not to mention freedom, the Constitution, and key individual rights. “So AFFH is a threefold threat,” DeWeese concluded. “It destroys property rights and values. It usurps local government control. And it steals homes and dreams from the poor.” As such, property-rights advocates and constitutionalists are urging all Americans to get involved in the fight.
“There is great optimism by the sponsors of the bills that they will pass and that President Trump will sign them into law,” DeWeese noted. “However, there is growing pressure from civil rights groups, developers, and their lobbyists who fully understand the dangers these bills represent to their big government agenda. It is vital that those of us opposed to AFFH and HUD over reach keep up our own pressure by calling our Representatives and Senators to demand they support HR 482 and S.103.” The only caveat he mentioned was that the bills contain language forcing HUD to talk with “regional councils,” language he said he is hoping to have removed.
Cosponsors of the legislation in the House include Brian Babin (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rod Blum (R-Iowa), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Michael Burgess (R-Texas), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), John Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), Dave Brat (R-Va.), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), and Lamar Smith (R-Texas). In the Senate, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is also a cosponsor.
Beyond simply nullifying the Obama administration's illegal rule, Congress should also work to abolish the entire agency. There is no authority contained in the Constitution for federal involvement in either housing or urban development. As such, there is no need for, or authority for, a federal department dealing with those issues. If the electorate feels that government must be involved in housing or urban development — a dubious notion, at best — then the proper sphere of government for that is the state or local level, constitutionally speaking.
But progress limiting government to its constitutional confines at federal level may take a long time. So in the meantime, Americans should also continue to work at the local level to prevent federal meddling in their communities, while educating the electorate on constitutional governance. A good place to start is working to end the unconstitutional flow of federal tax dollars — and the strings they come attached with — to state and local governments. The feds were never meant to control local government or zoning decisions. It is time for that to stop.

Related articles:
Battle Rages as GOP Saves Obama Plot to Diversify Neighborhoods
Obama Seeks to Reshape Neighborhoods With Housing “Diversity”
UN's “New Urban Agenda” to Assault Liberty in a City Near You
Private Property Ownership — the First American Right To Die Under Barack Obama’s Tyranny
CFR Globalist: End U.S. States, Build China-style Regional Gov't
President's New Housing Plan: Another Racist Policy
A New Symbol Has Been Cast: People • Property • Liberty
HUD Seeks to Address "Inequality" in Wealthy Neighborhoods Through Regulations
“Smart Cities” to Spy on You in Ways Orwell Never Imagined
Communist Chinese Regime Forcing Rural Population Into Cities

“EU LEADERS TERRIFIED" TURKEY WILL SOON SEND THREE MILLION MUSLIM MIGRANTS TO EUROPE

 
“EU LEADERS TERRIFIED" TURKEY WILL SOON SEND THREE MILLION MUSLIM MIGRANTS TO EUROPE
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
EUROPE is preparing for another migrant crisis over fears Turkey’s newly empowered President Erdogan will turn his back on the nation’s long-awaited EU membership.
In such an event, Europe will be stuck with 3 million more migrants, which is highly likely, as the agreement Erdogan made to take them in “during the height of the migrant crisis” is looking increasingly like a dead letter. Back in November, Erdogan threatened to “open the gates for migrants to enter Europe” if the EU “blocked membership talks.”
Erdogan’s aspirations to rule the Islamic world have taken Turkey down an anti-democratic, anti-secularist path toward rapid Islamization. Erdogan has even been appealing to the next generation by launching “a Sunni-Islamist revival in Turkish schools,” even though he has declared that he is above such sectarian concerns, stating: “My religion is not that of the Sunnis, of Shiites. My religion is Islam.”
Many Turks already fear growing authoritarianism in their country, where tens of thousands of people have been arrested, and at least 100,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs, since a coup attempt last July.
Now with Europe in its miserable state, Erdogan presents a heightened threat as a regional despot with his newly expanded powers and overt attempts to manipulate the EU. He also recently declared that “Europe is collapsing…Europe will pay for what they have done,” because in his view, Europe has “humiliated and oppressed” the Turks. Never mind that Europe is in chaos because of its wide open immigration policy regarding Muslim migrants.
Erdogan has also accused the EU of provoking a clash between the “cross and the crescent” for implementing a workplace headscarf ban.
Europe has invited in its own troubles, but there is still some hope that it will stand up to Erdogan. In any case, other Western nations would do well to learn from the EU’s mistakes before it’s too late.

“EU leaders ‘TERRIFIED Turkey could TURN ITS BACK on controversial migrant deal’”, by Vincent Wood, Express, April 18, 2017:
EUROPE is preparing for another migrant crisis over fears Turkey’s newly empowered President Erdogan will turn his back on the nation’s long-awaited EU membership.
Officials across the continent are expecting Erdogan to square up to Brussels, reinstating the death penalty and demanding visa-free travel within the EU’s Schengen area.
The increasingly authoritarian Turkish president, who narrowly won a referendum granting him more control over key areas of the government, made an agreement with the EU to home some three million migrants during the height of the migrant crisis.
But Erdogan’s willingness to square up to the bloc’s “red line” opposition to capital punishment has led to fears they may allow their migrant population to move into Europe.
It follows last week’s stern warning from Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who claimed Turkey would throw away the EU’s migrant deal if free movement was not granted.
The Italian leader of the socialists in the European Parliament Gianni Pittella said MEP’s were concerned about building closer ties with the Islamic republic ahead of a vote on visa-free travel next week.
He said: “We’ve always been very reluctant to ensure a visa-free regime to Turkey as, in our opinion, Ankara does not match the democratic criteria.
“Now after the referendum our concerns are even bigger.”
Meanwhile the Greek military is preparing to act on emergency plans in the event of another migrant crisis.
A senior Greek official told The Times: “There was a lot of steamy, bellicose rhetoric made by Erdogan ahead of the referendum.
“If he continues with belligerent policies then Greece will be the first to face the fallout.
“The fear is real but the question is whether Erdogan will risk turning into a regional pariah.”
Omer Celik, Turkey’s minister for EU affairs, claimed Ankara will push ahead with their visa-free travel plan and tell the EU to drop calls for reform to their hardline anti-terror legislation – or face the consequences.
Mr Celik said: “While legislation is being aggravated and strengthened in the face of terrorist threats across Europe, it is unrealistic to expect that Turkey should weaken its legislation.”…
 

MARINE LE PEN: "GIVE US FRANCE BACK, FOR GOD'S SAKE"

 
MARINE LE PEN: "GIVE US FRANCE BACK, 
FOR GOD'S SAKE" 
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Marine Le Pen said:
The choice on Sunday is simple: It is a choice between a France that is rising again and a France that is sinking.
She is right. Far too many Westerners are still licking old (now gangrenous) wounds from eons ago. Europeans and white people are deemed inherently or inveterately evil because of colonialism and racism, and so deserve to be punished, no matter how the global situation has changed since colonial days. This punishment, moreover, is without limitations.
Buzzwords such as “globalization,” “diversity,” and “tolerance,” which may once have had relatively benign meanings, have been warped and manipulated as part of the larger endeavor to destroy Western civilization from within. Unscrupulous Islamic supremacist warriors play the victimhood ploy with proficiency. They would have us all turn a blind eye to the history of Islamic jihad conquest prior to the era of colonialism, as well as to present-day slavery in some Muslim countries, the general Islamic intolerance and abuse of religious minorities and infidels, and the sickening treatment of women that is sanctioned by Sharia law.
Le Pen also said:
Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it’s a tragedy for France…Give us France back, for God’s sake.

“Front National’s Marine Le Pen attacks the ’savage globalisation’ of rivals”, by Jon Rogers , Express, April 17, 2017:
FRONT National presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has told a rally in Paris that French voters have a choice between the “savage globalisation” promoted by her rivals and her patriotism.
She said: “The choice on Sunday is simple: It is a choice between a France that is rising again and a France that is sinking.“
In an attack on her rivals such as Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Melenchon she said they advocated “savage globalisation” compared to her “camp of patriots”.
She added: “Give us France back, for God’s sake,” which sparked the 5,000 supporters who had filled the Zenith concert hall in the French capital to chant: “This is our home.”
Ms Le Pen also played on her familiar topics of the party being anti-European Union and anti-immigration.
She said: “I will protect you. My first measure as president will be to reinstate France’s borders.
“Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it’s a tragedy for France,” she said, adding that she would immediately impose a moratorium on immigration.”
She continued: ”We can’t decide who is allowed to come here any more. The French sometimes have fewer rights than foreigners – even illegal ones.”
Scuffles with police erupted outside the Zenith concert hall in north-east Paris earlier this evening with around 60-80 anti-Front National protestors taking to the streets of the French capital for the second night running.
Police fired teargas at the protesters, some of whom threw chunks of wood. The protesters then left, followed by a small group of police.
The French presidential contest is seen as being very close and none of the candidates can be assured of making it through to the second round with the polls being volatile and too close to call with certainty.
All the main candidates are making a concerted effort as the campaign enters the final week for the first round of voting which takes place on Sunday.
According to the latest poll, the centrist Emmanuel Macron is marginally in the lead and is expected to gain 23 percent in the first round of France’s presidential election.
Ms Le Pen is only just behind on 22.5 percent with Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Melenchon on an equal footing, both on 19.5 percent.
Mr Macron would bet Ms Le Pen in the second round by 60 percent to 40 percent, according to the Fop-Fiducial poll.
A separate daily Opinionway poll showed on Monday that Macron was tied with Le Pen in the first round of voting at 22 percent, with Fillon at their heals on 21 percent followed by Melenchon on 18 percent.
Mr Macron was seen beating Ms Le Pen in the runoff by 64 percent to 36.
There are a total of 11 contenders for the presidency but only four are seen as serious contenders.
There was chaos on the streets of Paris yesterday as activists took the streets with flares as they protested about the rise of Ms Le Pen.
Protestors shouted: “This is Paris! Paris is antifascist.”
Eye witnesses said that around 400 people had taken part in a march. Most protestors were peaceful but a small group were said to have formed an angry mob, throwing flares…..
_________________________________________________________

 

FBI INVESTIGATING JIHADIS IN ALL 50 STATES; JIHADIS PLOTTING TO STRIKE IN U.S. "EVERY SINGLE DAY"

 
FBI INVESTIGATING JIHADIS IN ALL 50 STATES; JIHADIS PLOTTING TO STRIKE IN U.S. 
"EVERY SINGLE DAY"
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Yet the refusal to confront and assess their motivating ideology, and the misapprehension of what they’re all about, continues, despite President Trump’s repeated castigating of Obama and Hillary for refusing to name the enemy. Kelly says: “We are under attack from terrorists both within and outside of our borders. They are without conscience, and they operate without rules. They despise the United States, because we are a nation of rights, laws, and freedoms. They have a single mission, and that is our destruction.”
That’s not actually true. They have a conscience, but it is formed by Islam and its doctrine of jihad. They operate within the rules of Sharia. They do indeed despise the United States, but not because we are a nation of rights, laws, and freedoms, but because we are not ruled by Islamic law and are mostly not Muslims. The Islamic State explained this last August: “This is a divinely-warranted war between the Muslim nation and the nations of disbelief….Indeed, waging jihad – spreading the rule of Allah by the sword – is an obligation found in the Quran, the word of our Lord. The blood of the disbelievers is obligatory to spill by default. The command is clear. Kill the disbelievers, as Allah said, ‘Then kill the polytheists wherever you find them.’…The gist of the matter is that there is indeed a rhyme to our terrorism, warfare, ruthlessness, and brutality…The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah [tax for infidels] and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.”
No mainstream Western analysts took that seriously, and that’s why their analyses continue to be wrong on all counts.

“FBI Investigating Radical Terrorists in All 50 States as Threats Hit Peak,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, April 18, 2017:
Federal authorities have open investigations into radical Islamic terrorists in all 50 states, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which is warning that the threat of terrorism in the United States has reached an all time high with radicalized individuals in the country plotting to strike “each and every single day.”
The FBI has “open terrorist investigations in all 50 states,” according to DHS Secretary John Kelly, who disclosed on Tuesday that there have been at least 37 “ISIS-linked plots to attack our country” since 2013, a number that shows no signs of diminishing.
Kelly, in his first wide-ranging public address on the threat of terrorism in America since taking office, warned that America’s borders remain wide-open and that there is evidence terror-linked individuals are exploiting these national security weaknesses and entering the United States.
“We don’t know their intentions,” Kelly said during an address at George Washington University. “We don’t know why they’re here or why they’re coming. We are completely blind to what they’re capable of.”
Terrorist also continues to sprout inside American communities across the country, according to Kelly, who said that in just the past year, there have been “36 homegrown terrorist cases in 18 states.”
“We’ve seen an unprecedented spike in homegrown terrorism,” Kelly disclosed. “These are the cases we know about—homegrown terrorism is notoriously difficult to predict and control.”
Terrorists in the United States are plotting attacks “every single day,” according to Kelly.
“I tell you, without exaggeration, they try to carry out this mission each and every single day and no one can tell you how to stop it. No one,” he said.
The United States, he continued, is “under attack” from a wide variety of bad actors, including “failed states, cyber-terrorists, vicious smugglers, and sadistic radicals.”
“And we are under attack every single day,” he said. “The threats are relentless.”
Those who slip over the border undetected, including criminals and potential radicalized terrorists, pose an unparalleled threat to the country.
“We don’t get to vet them,” Kelly said. “We don’t know their intentions. We don’t know they’re here. They slip into our country unnoticed, living among us, and we are completely blind as to what they are capable of.”
These threats just scrape the surface of the danger posed to America by terrorists inside and outside of the country, Kelly said.
“This is all bad news, but it gets much worse,” he explained. “Experts estimate that perhaps 10,000 citizens of Europe have joined the caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Thousands more are from nations in Asia, Africa and the Western Hemisphere. They have learned how to make IEDs, employ drones to drop ordnance, and acquired experience on the battlefield that by all reports they are bringing back home.”…
“Many are citizens of countries in our Visa Waiver Program, they can more easily travel to the United States which makes us a prime target for their exported violence,” he said.
The threat to America “has metastasized and decentralized, and the risk is as threatening today as it was that September morning almost 16 years ago,” Kelly warned.
“We are under attack from terrorists both within and outside of our borders,” he said. “They are without conscience, and they operate without rules. They despise the United States, because we are a nation of rights, laws, and freedoms. They have a single mission, and that is our destruction.”
_______________________________________________________
 FBI Launches Terrorist Probes in All 50 States
SEE ALSO:
 FBI Launches Terrorist Probes in All 50 States

Jihadists exploited Obama’s national security weaknesses

SEE: https://www.infowars.com/fbi-launches-terrorist-probes-in-all-50-states/

 

AN EDUCATION ACCEPTABLE TO GOD~HINT: IT'S NOT IN A STATIST, COMMUNIST PUBLIC SCHOOL

AN EDUCATION ACCEPTABLE TO GOD

by Pastor Ralph Ovadal

SEE: http://www.pccmonroe.org/an-education-acceptable-to-god.html; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 Hello, everyone; welcome to The Heart of the Matter.
 Today I am returning to a subject which I have addressed many times in 
sermons, broadcasts, and other ways over the past several decades. I 
have spoken very plainly on this matter because it is one of those 
issues which demands plain speaking.

I am going to begin today by making a statement; and then I am going to go on to provide the evidence for that statement which is this: It is absolutely contrary to the will of God for Christians to place their children in the public, or state, school system. By children, I mean those underage children yet in the care of the parents. Now I realize there are custody situations in which a Christian parent may not have a choice in this matter. I also realize there are hardship cases, for instance, where there is only one parent; and I will address that second situation later as we go along. 

It is absolutely contrary to the will of God for Christians to place their children in the public, or state, school system.
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Also, since this broadcast is listened to in many different countries, and I have no knowledge of the laws and situations in some of those countries, I am here speaking to Christians in the USA and then also to those in other nations where there is the same freedom, which we have here in the United States, to educate their children by homeschooling or in Christian schools which, here in America, are able to be entirely independent of government interference and influence and finances; and that’s the way it should be.

Now, I do not believe it is the will of the Lord for the civil power to educate children at all, let alone educate children after the utterly ungodly fashion of the public school system today. I do want to say that I understand there are situations where parents in a totalitarian state, with no constitutional protections to even appeal to, are forced at the point of the gun to enroll their children in a government educational system. That was the way it was in the old Soviet Union, for instance. I am not going to speak to such a situation where the choice is have your children just stolen away by the state or have them attend the state’s grade school and high school. We’re not getting into that. I will say that I have read many stories of Christian parents who, under those circumstances, still bravely refused to allow their children to be inducted into the youth organizations of the particular Communist state or totalitarian state in question or to take part in various school activities. They openly identified as Christians, forced into that system; and they refused to co-operate beyond the basic academic requirements.

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As I said, I do not believe that it is scriptural for the civil power to educate children—at all—but I am not going to speak to that specific issue—that is, the sphere of authority with regard to the civil power and the education of children. But the context of my remarks today is the sad, I must say, sordid spectacle of Christians freely, willingly placing their children in the moral cesspool and educational wasteland called public education—the public education system, the government school system. It bears mentioning that that system in America today promotes immorality and is a more openly immoral atmosphere than even the Communist schools ever were or are today. What a shame it is that Christian parents in this country are FREELY, WILLINGLY giving their children over to the ungodly, corrupt-in-every-way state school system.

The control of the education of the children is fundamental and essential to the firm establishment of tyranny. I challenge any listener to provide me one example where home or truly independent Christian school education has been allowed under a totalitarian government. On May 1, 1937, Adolf Hitler said, “This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” He also declared, “Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state.”

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Plank 10 of The Communist Manifesto is “Free education for all children in PUBLIC schools.” There is also this statement in The Communist Manifesto: “Abolition of the family! . . . Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty. But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we replace home education by social.” The manifesto goes on to show that is just the intention, to replace home education by state education and to destroy the most hallowed of relations—that is, the parental relationship with the children. That is the intention of the statist educators today who are now trying to mandate state school education beginning pre-kindergarten.

By the way, I have a report here on this past November’s Midwest Marxist Conference hosted by the Chicago chapter of the International Socialist Organization and held at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Large numbers of public school (that is, government school) teachers attended that conference. The schedule for the event included sessions such as “The Meaning of Marxism”; “Socialists & Trade Unions” (that includes, of course, the school teacher unions); “Lenin’s Theory of the Revolutionary Party”; and “Marxism & Women’s Liberation.”

Now listen to this excerpt from an editorial I ran across in my files. It is taken from a magazine popular with the government educators, the Humanist magazine, January/February, 1983: 

I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith . . . These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool, day care center, or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism . . . It will undoubtedly be a long, arduous, painful struggle, replete with much sorrow and many tears, but humanism will emerge triumphant. It must if the family of humankind is to survive.
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That is from the Humanist magazine again; it is a magazine which has been very, very popular with government school teachers as a group.

What are you Christian parents thinking, turning your children over to the statists and willingly playing your part in advancing not only wickedness but also tyranny at the ultimate price of not only morality, of course, but also our blood-bought civil and religious liberties—not to mention the harm you are placing your children in by placing them into the hands of the government educators?

Now I know I sound harsh to some of you, but we must speak plainly. I speak as to a spiritual people concerning a vital matter in an extreme situation and in a time when Christian education is very well established. We have to speak plainly. This is an emergency situation.

I have long been deeply convicted—in fact, for many, many years, deeply convicted—that the public or state or government, if you will, school system is no place for children and certainly no place for the children of Christian parents. I strongly believe that the Scriptures--and this is the most important thing really, and we’ll get to the Scriptures in just a bit here--make clear that it is absolutely contrary to the will of God for Christians to willingly place their children in the state school system. I believe this issue of the education of children is a crucial, fundamental issue and ought to be treated as such by the ministers of the Lord.

We know—we know for a fact—that the homosexuals, the humanists, the fascists, the socialists, the communists, the atheists—oh, we could go on: the pro-aborts, pornographers, modernists, apostates of all kinds, and we’ll stop there and sum it up—the devil himself want the children of Christian parents in the state school system. There is no denying that, and I challenge any Christian parent to refute the reality that the devil wants his or her children in the state school system rather than in a good, faithful, and godly Christian school or homeschooled. The parent who thinks he can refute that truth needs to come to grips with the reality that he “savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

“There’s just certain kids we should have 24/7 to really create a safe environment and give them a chance to be successful.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan
May 12, 2015
By the way, I mentioned that apostates are government education supporters. Last fall, emerging church leader Tony Jones came out with an article titled “Death to Homeschooling.” Let me repeat that: “Death to Homeschooling,” and he really meant it. In other words, he wants to see the death of homeschooling. So those of you with your children in the government school system are in some unsavory, ungodly company.

It is beyond me why any Christian would want his children in the state school system. One of the biggest hypocrites around is the Christian parent who expresses great concern and outrage concerning the way the public school system is propagandizing and morally corrupting the children in that system where he has freely, willingly placed his own child or children. With each new, more extreme outrage, those parents grumble; in some cases, rage; in a few cases, protest. And, of course, the state school cabal just weathers the storm and presses ever forward in their corrupt, immoral agenda.

What a tragic, destructive, God-dishonoring situation; and I think for those brethren who have been shown the truth from the Scriptures, it is a sinful situation that Christian young people are being turned over to government educators five days a week every week—for what, nine months each year?
Now, in the time we have here, I want to present my case as to why I hold that it is absolutely contrary to the will of God for Christians to place their children in the public or state school system. The evidence is such—both as to the word of God and also the nature, content, and environment of public education and that whole system—that I could spend a number of hours on this topic. I would think most listeners have a fairly good knowledge concerning what a wretched, filthy cesspool the government schools are; and certainly, there is much information available concerning the propagandizing nature of that system, of those schools. So, I mostly want to set before you some Scriptures today, and I say in advance that I pity those Christians who will respond to what the word of God clearly establishes concerning the education of their children by falling back on empty, subjective arguments and inane excuses such as, “Well, we Christians are in the world but not of it,” or, “My children are missionaries in the government school system.” With regard to that latter excuse, I have noticed that Christians who use it rarely take part, if ever, in public evangelism, including where school-age children can be easily reached. I say the gospel can be shared with them, such as on the public sidewalk in front of schools or at high school or middle school sporting events. And of course, the excuse is illegitimate on its face. The missionary excuse begs the question, Are all the children of Christian parents sent into the public school system saved? Since when do we send out unsaved, unregenerate missionaries and even children without their parents? I was also under the impression that missionaries are sent out to be teachers, not students.
But let’s let the Bible speak to this topic before us, the education of the children of Christian parents. That is, let’s consider with godly reverence the will of God revealed in His word. Psalm 127:3 says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD”: that is, given to the parents by the Lord to be raised up for His glory. “. . . and the fruit of the womb is his reward”: now reward here does not mean a recompense for any good work; but this speaks of a very great blessing according to the free grace of God. Reward is used in the same sense here as in Genesis 15:1: “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”


“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Psalm 127:3
Children are given to Christian parents as a heritage, for the glory of the Lord; and they are not a burden but a very great blessing of God’s grace. It ought to go without saying that having children—living souls--entrusted into one’s care as a parent is not only an exceedingly great blessing but also one which carries with it a very great and holy duty. As the minister of Christ will be called upon to give an account of his stewardship of the flock of Christ put into his care, that portion of that flock, most surely parents will also be called to give account of their stewardship of the children given them—an account of the nurture, care, and protection of the souls and bodies, minds and morals of those children.


“Train up a child
in the way he should go . . .”
Proverbs 22:6


Now, parents have the holy privilege and duty to “Train up a child in the way he should go,” Proverbs 22:6. This includes thoroughly, consistently, and continually teaching the Scriptures and catechizing the child in the glorious truths of the Christian religion by the word of God. This is by far the first and most important training of all. But parents also have the holy privilege and duty to educate the child with the knowledge of things pertaining even to this life, things which are proper and necessary to this life and which are to be undertaken in such a way as to please the Lord and glorify the Lord and, when done in a godly way by the regenerated child of God, also be to some extent a witness of the transforming power and reality of the new birth.
As we see godly Christian parents educating their children with regard to spiritual things and then also things having to do only with this life, when we see such parents undertaking that for the glory of God, I say, this is also to some extent a witness of the transforming power and reality of the new birth in the parents’ lives.
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Most surely, the education of our children would also fall under this commandment which has an application to all of us in all that we do and certainly when it comes to something so absolutely vital as the overall education and nurture of our children: Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” And then there is 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Further, parents have a grave and holy responsibility to protect their underage children from sinful, immoral, corrupting, and God-dishonoring influences of all kinds. Briefly put, parents are responsible to train up their children spiritually, morally, intellectually, and practically, all for the glory of God; the good of the child; the good of Christ’s body, the church; and even by extension, to do this in pursuit of the salvation of souls. This is all included in the training up a child in the way he should go. I am not saying that children are saved by Christian education per se; but when we permeate our children’s education with the Scriptures, this tends to the good of their souls. And of course, as we send such children out into the world then, if they themselves have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, they are also used as soul winners. “And he that winneth souls is wise,” the Scriptures say.

2 Peter 1:3: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” Now you parents, both fathers and mothers, have a duty to train your child in all things which pertain to life—life here and life hereafter—and, of course, godliness—that is, the way of holiness and a Christian character pleasing to the Lord. God has given “us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” And there is an application then as to how we educate our children, isn’t there? We have what we need. If we are spiritual men and women, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, the Teacher. We have, of course, the Scriptures and can discern spiritual things. We have a duty now to educate our children. God has given us all we need to properly educate our children. Of course, I am speaking of properly educating them certainly spiritually, religiously—so very important—but then also academically and practically.

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” Deuteronomy 6:6-9
I might mention right here that it is wonderful to contemplate the various curriculums that are available now that didn’t used to be available and the various helps and other things that are available for homeschoolers. There are even situations where you can have teachers on DVD and so on and so forth, but we go on.

The Lord expects the education of our children to be permeated with the truth of His word and the praise of His glory—for instance, Deuteronomy 6:6-9: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” Any parent who thinks it is acceptable and pleasing to the Lord for him to turn his child over to an ungodly education system all day long, day after day, so long as the child gets some Bible teaching nights and on the Lord’s Day is deceiving himself. The whole education of the child is to be predicated upon and permeated through and through with the wisdom, witness, and glory of God.
Mothers, you have your responsibility in this; but fathers, as head of the family, you are going to be held the most responsible in this matter. Ephesians 6:4 commands, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath”: that is, discipline them consistently, with equity; discipline them scripturally, with strength and love, rather than acting like a petulant child yourself, disciplining with demeaning scorn, pettiness, and inconsistency, thus provoking your children to confusion, frustration, resentment, and bitterness. And going on in our text: “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”: that is, bring them up rightly and righteously nourished—spiritually and morally, of course. Bring them up that way in the nurture of the Lord, according to the word of God. And, of course, bring them up in the admonition of the Lord by way of disciplining them and admonishing them rightly and righteously with love according to the word of God and teaching them a right reverence for proper parental authority, which, of course, they are not going to learn in the government school system, are they? But parents must also nurture their children intellectually and academically, and in both cases, properly, even if that Scripture I just quoted does not deal directly with that.
Christian father, can you say with a straight face, let alone a clear conscience before God, that turning your children over to the state school system, to its educators and education, to its influence and environment is then consistent with bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? I fail to see how the fear of the Lord and the conviction of the Christian conscience would allow you to say that.
“And, ye fathers, provoke not
your children to wrath:
but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:4
The issue before us is the education of children, specifically the children of Christian parents being educated in the state school system. Those parents are accountable to God for the persons into whose care they give their children to be educated. Are there some decent, sincere, perhaps in some cases, increasingly rare cases, Christian teachers in the state school system? No doubt there are some, but they are greatly in the minority. But what if they were in the majority? Is the parent justified in putting his children under the authority, influence, and teaching of other teachers who are, put bluntly, ungodly fools? Now am I harsh to call such teachers ungodly fools? No, I am speaking true to the word of God. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1. There are plenty of outright atheists teaching in the government school system; and there are many more who are practical atheists, even if they profess to believe in God. And what sort of god do evolutionists, sodomites, feminists, fornicators, universalists believe in anyway? They believe in a god of their own making, certainly not the one true God.

Christian fathers, Christian mothers, it is unfaithful and sinful, it is a sin against your Lord and your children to put those children under the care, authority, teaching, and influence of ungodly fools. Proverbs 26:6: “He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage.” Simply put, if you are going to send an important message by the hand of a fool, you may as well send it by a man with no feet; the probable end is damage to the good you were hoping to accomplish—in fact, great damage, which is implied by the phrase “drinketh damage.” What does this say then about the parents who employ fools to communicate knowledge to their children? There will be, to one extent or another, with some children more than others, damage incurred. Proverbs 16:22 says, “Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.”
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The word of God commands in Proverbs 14:7: “Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.” And will you, Christian parent, justify putting your children in the state school system under the authority, the influence, and the instruction of the ungodly, in some cases, grossly immoral fools—in truth, even fools such as those described in Romans 1:22, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” and Psalm 92:5-6 in which the Psalmist declares by the Spirit of the Lord, “O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man [that is then, a stupid man; that’s the meaning of brutish here] knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this”? What is this then, that Christians put their children under the instruction of men and women described as, plainly put, stupid fools?

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Proverbs 14:9: “Fools make a mock at sin.” Does that not describe those public school teachers who hold in contempt the law of God concerning such sins as homosexuality and fornication, just to name two? How many times must a Christian parent knowingly put his child into the care and training of such a teacher before it is sin? I would maintain once.

Now someone is going to protest: Well, I know a moral, decent, honorable government school teacher. Well, no doubt you might; but such men, such women are very much in a shrinking, small minority. Those of you who don’t believe that ought to spend some time researching the National Education Association. The NEA is a socialist, pro-feminist, pro-sodomite, pro-abortion, anti-homeschooling, anti-parental rights organization; and we could go on with the various stands and resolutions and goals of the NEA.

Let me just insert here an excerpt from a news report on the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on several cases dealing with so-called gay marriage, rulings handed down this past summer, specifically in June of 2013:

(CNSNews.com) The nation’s two top public school teachers unions expressed their support for the dual U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Wednesday advancing recognition of homosexual “marriage.”

“What we have witnessed today is a major milestone in American history -- a monumental decision and a huge step forward for civil rights,” said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest school teachers’ union with about 3 million members.

“As an educator, I cannot help but be moved by the thought of all of the children and students we serve whose families will now be made whole,” Van Roekel said. “I am reminded of the struggle, and I think of how far we, as a society, have come to let love overcome hate and bigotry.”

Van Roekl [sic] further said, “The fight for social justice goes on, and because of what we do and who we serve, we will always be on the frontline of this battlefield.”
Should I read that again in the context of sodomite so-called marriage and the advancing of the sodomite agenda? I will read it again from the president of the NEA: “The fight for social justice goes on, and because of what we do and who we serve, we will always be on the frontline of this battlefield.”
Now going on:
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten called the decisions “a giant leap forward in the march for equality and justice for all.”

“The Supreme Court ruled definitively that DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause in our Constitution and that loving married same-sex couples deserve the same rights and benefits as all other married couples,” Weingarten said in a statement. “The court’s decision on Prop 8, which leaves intact a district judge’s ruling invalidating that measure, ensures that, at least for now, gay and lesbian couples have the freedom to marry in California.”
“Today the Supreme Court has taken a monumental step forward in our national journey toward a more perfect union by making marriage equality the law in every state of our great nation. On behalf of our members—and the students they serve—we applaud the court’s historic decision, which will end discrimination against same sex couples, place them on equal footing with other families and safeguard all of our children.” —NEA press release in response to the U.S. Supreme Court “legalizing” sodomite “marriage” June 26, 2015
How can you Christian parents with children in the government school system justify putting your children into the care, nurture, and training of such people? The harder you labor to justify such unfaithfulness and the longer you leave your children in that government school system, the more you justify in the eyes of many the wickedness of such people who are teaching them, as represented by those who were quoted in this article. Proverbs 17:15: “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” I understand this has first to do with judges and magistrates; but there most certainly is here a principle, a law of action to which we ought to take heed, certainly with regard to the issue at hand. Christians ought to take care not to justify the wicked in the minds of the wicked or in the minds of others. Those Christians who give their own beloved children over to the state educators and that system five days a week are declaring loudly and clearly to the state educators and to the whole world their judgment that those educators and that system are worthy of such a sacred trust and holy duty. That is the end impression of the whole thing. That is the message at the end of it all. How can any Christian in good conscience deny the truth of that reality?

What did the prophet Jehu say when he rebuked King Jehoshaphat for his alliance with Ahab? 2 Chronicles 19:2: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.” That’s the practical reality of putting your children in the government school system. You are helping the ungodly and, in that, loving them that hate the Lord and helping them advance their wickedness. There is a truth then to take to heart with regard to this issue we are considering. If you give your children into the arms of ungodly educators, are you not helping them in their desire to propagandize and corrupt your children—and in truth, all the children of this nation by extension—with their wicked lies, with their corrupt morality, and with their vain philosophy?
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So much for the state educators. What about the education a child receives in the state education system? Briefly put, that education is spiritually, morally, and intellectually destructive. Take first the academic education which is taught in the government schools. The history taught is just plain perverted to begin with. It is not even accurate; and very importantly, it ignores, utterly ignores, the wonderful, sovereign workings and providences of God, not to mention ignoring totally or perverting the history of God’s people; and as I said, it perverts other history as well. There is an agenda that is being served, of course. The sciences taught certainly do not glorify the eternal, almighty, omnipotent, all-wise Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all creation—quite the contrary. The state school science curriculum is rooted and grounded in the God-mocking, blasphemous lie of evolution, which means the young people are being taught the wicked science of fools. It is outrageous that children of Christian parents would be taught the science curriculum in the government school system because it not only ignores God but it also promotes that which is a blasphemous lie. The economics and civics and so forth are humanistic and communistic in nature, rather than being rooted in and grounded on what the Scriptures teach. Health classes, of course, teach an ethical and moral system suited to brute beasts, the naked ape philosophy; and we could go on with that, but we do not want to talk about it. We do not have time, and it is so bad we cannot even talk about it in mixed company. We could go on with other things being taught in the state schools, but none of this is done in secret. It is out in the open. I am sure all you listeners are well—shall we say educated?—on it.

Summed up, the whole state educational curriculum, grade school through high school, is an academically corrupt, wicked denial and blasphemous mockery of God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a dark, evil system which is morally and spiritually corrupted and corrupting and increasingly bankrupt from even just a purely academic standpoint.

Christian parents who put their children into the state school system are declaring before the whole world that that very educational system is not evil but good, not dark but light. After all, would Christians put their children into an educational system that was evil and dark and corrupt? No, no. Of course not! The world can point to that and say, “Look how many Christians even put their children into this educational system. It can’t be evil; it must be good. It can’t be dark; it must be light.” Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Is that not what you are doing, Christian parent, when you put your children into the government school system? By your actions, you are calling evil good and good evil; darkness you are calling light, and you are calling bitter sweet. And what of 1 Samuel 2:30: “. . . for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”?

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
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All the hemming and hawing, all the subjective reasoning and pitiful excuses in the world cannot justify Christian parents supporting the wickedness of the public school system and subjecting their own children to it by placing those children in that system. Remember, our topic is the education and training up and nurturing of underage children by Christian parents. We are not talking here about grown-up young people, by necessity and with preparation, then going out into the world to earn a living, perhaps in some cases first going on to technical school or college. Now that is another issue, although with regard to higher education, Christian schools should always be preferred when possible--true Christian schools which are quite rare these days and getting rarer. For instance, though, if a Christian adult feels led to be a doctor, I don’t believe there are any Christian medical schools.

Now, I have spoken very briefly of the educators and more briefly still of the education of the government school system. I want to turn now, for just a short while, to the moral atmosphere which the young people are plunged into when they are enrolled in the state school system. Of course, I have already alluded to this and more than alluded to it, I suppose. That perverse, sensual, obviously extremely worldly, ungodly atmosphere is reason enough to reach the conclusion that it is absolutely grossly contrary to the will of God for Christians to plunge their children into it five days a week, seven or eight hours a day. The filthy, explicit talk among the young people; the immodest, in some cases, grossly immodest dress; the pornography (including pornography being made now by students themselves and shown to others, we will not get into that; you know what I am talking about); and the practice and even celebration of fornication of every stripe—these are all commonplace now in the government school system.

This is all well known. We somewhat know it first-hand by having conducted ministry in front of a great number of public high schools, and it all starts long before high school even. On the many occasions in the past when we have given out our tract What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality—for instance on the so-called Day of Silence (and it has been quite awhile since we have done that, and things have gotten much worse)—we have been beset upon by good numbers of students throwing fruit and, in the winter, snowballs; wielding sticks—yes, swinging good-sized, sturdy sticks even; we’ve had that happen--cursing; swearing; shoving; pushing; threatening; speaking and doing lewd things—both boys and girls. We have also been the targets of angry, mocking teachers and administrators.

We have also spent thousands of hours witnessing to high school students and, in some cases, junior high students in front of Planned Parenthood. In fact, we spent nineteen years in front of just the Planned Parenthood in our town alone until finally, by the grace of God, they left town. Again, many times, we heard the most graphic, explicit, filthy talk come out of the mouths of young girls and young boys.

You Christian parents with your children in the state school system are not ignorant of the situation. You know the depths of sexual immorality to which a portion of the young of this nation have tragically plunged. You know about the dress; you know about the talk that assaults the ears of your children; you know about the pornography and even the activity of various sorts which takes place daily in the local state school system. You know about this.

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The places and events where we regularly do open-air gospel ministry to this very day, of course, include events such as the state high school boys wrestling, basketball, and football tournaments. The fans at such events are predominantly students, with the greatest number being high school students. We certainly meet many who are decent and sincere young people. But again, the dress is very immodest, even with many of them; and there is always that percentage of young women whose dress—and sometimes countenance—is tragically that of an open harlot; and I mean in the extreme sense of the word. Of course, we also meet young men who are of the same sort of mind and heart. Now, all of this is so very grievous, and we feel a concern for these poor young people and a love for their souls; so we count ourselves blessed to be able to share Christ with them. But these are two different issues--the evangelism of the young of this culture in a biblical, Christ-honoring way as opposed to the education and training up of the young of the church.

You parents have a holy duty to protect the developing minds, the morals, the young hearts of your children from such sensual, sordid influence as what is typical in the government school system. 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” Evil communications—that means regular interaction and even companionship—corrupt good manners—that is, moral character. You can make all the excuses you want, Christian parent, for putting your impressionable child into the moral cesspool of the local government school; but it is reckless; and it is disobedient to this warning: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”

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What are you making your child out to be anyway that you would put him or her into such a sensual, sexualized, perverse atmosphere day after day? Do you believe your children have no sin nature? Do you believe they are beyond being affected by such filth day after day, the filth you are desensitizing them to in some degree, more or less, by putting them into that system? Are you content to gamble with your child, hoping that, in the end, things will just work out? Does the word of God take second place then—to what? Your comfort? Your goals? Your desires? Perhaps even your pocketbook? I do not know. Search your own conscience. Do you not realize that it is a sin to immerse your child day after day in corruption and temptation?

For instance, in the context of the dawning era of the New Testament Church, Paul says this concerning the duty of Christians with regard to the troubled consciences of weaker brethren concerning certain meats, Romans 14:13: “. . . that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” Would not the same rule apply with regard to putting impressionable young people into the moral cesspool which is the local government school? Are you not obviously putting an occasion to stumble, to fall right in your impressionable child’s way day after day after day?

Our Lord Jesus warned, Matthew 18:7, “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come”: that is, the fallen world is filled with temptations. That is to be expected of a fallen world, and offences will come. But then Christ went on to say this: “but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Yes, woe to the man who puts temptation in front of others. Yes, woe to him; and what then of parents who voluntarily put their own precious children, a heritage and reward of the Lord, into the temptation-saturated environment of the government school system five days a week, seven hours or more per day?

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Some parents protest that their children are born-again, as if that somehow makes it acceptable to cast them into the moral sewer every day. Did not Christ Jesus say, Matthew 18:6, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me”—that is, tempt with sin the youngest believer, certainly believing children—“it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea”?

Now, I have to wrap this up, and I want to do so by urging pastors to play the faithful man and protect the lambs of Christ’s flock. Pastors ought to preach and teach and press home the plain truth concerning the issue we have taken up today.

Churches need to come up with ways and strategies to help those parents who truly need help to homeschool their children or place them in a faithful, solid Christian school. Galatians 6:10: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” And I want to again stress with regard to Christian schools, they need to be truly faithful and solid. It will not do to place your children into a Christian school that teaches, in reality, disregard of the Scriptures, that has, practically speaking, a low view of the Scriptures.

Parents need to be willing to sacrifice much to be faithful in this matter, but there are real hardship situations; and churches ought to be willing to do what is necessary to get those children out of the state school system and to ensure that they are rightly and thoroughly schooled spiritually, morally, academically. There are many innovative combinations which can be employed to make that happen, but that is beyond the scope of this message; and I need to bring things to a close—in truth, to bring this heartfelt plea on behalf of the glory and honor of our Lord, the good of His church, and most certainly the well-being of the children of that church to a close.  
“I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place their child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.”
Martin Luther
There is so much more which could be said; but I want to, in closing, share this quote from Martin Luther: “I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place their child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.”

Christian parents, the Scriptures are clear—clear as can be—with regard to the education of children. James 4:17 declares, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” God forbid that you would any longer send your dear children, day after day, through those gates of hell Martin Luther so rightly warned against. If your children are in the government school system, a.k.a. the public school system, get them out. You will never regret it. Get them out! But if you refuse to obey the Lord and remove them for a proper, Christian schooling, I tell you, I warn you, there will be, to some extent or another, a sorrowful reaping for what you sinfully continued to sow. Galatians 6:7: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”