education

SFL Back To School Day 1: Recruits For The Lord’s Army

112 Comments

The mission of any fundamentalist school is clearly to mold and shape young, impressionable minds into being the next generation of fundamentalists. Of course this is expressed in phrases like “building servant-leaders” or “preparing the next generation to win the world” but in reality the motto is always the same: “trying desperately to keep our separatist sect alive.” And so on the first day of school, a fresh new band of recruits heads into Mrs. Miller’s K-5 Class to begin basic training as soldier’s in the Lord’s Army.

The lessons taught in fundy kindergarten are not all that different from those taught in kindergartens anywhere else except that while doing their math and Phonics-based reading curriculum the little girls wear dresses, the little boys wear clip-on ties, and the threat of corporal punishment (whether at school or back at home) always lingers in the air. There are also daily prayers, lessons on the great evils of selfishness and sloth, and Bible verse memorization.

That last one gives, perhaps, one of the greatest insights that into the priorities of both fundy schools and fundamentalism in general. For rather than memorizing verses that are full of the Gospel, most fundy schools instead for a steady diet of law and moralism for their youngsters. “Get them guilty and keep them that way” could be the theme for just about any class.

“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

“Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.”

“Be sure your sin will find you out.”

“Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.”

Somehow we never got time to memorize this one:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…”

By the time a child graduates from a fundamentalist K-5 they are well on their way to establishing a cycle of inadequacy and performance-based spirituality that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their fundy lives.

112 thoughts on “SFL Back To School Day 1: Recruits For The Lord’s Army”

  6. Darrell – Maybe this will be covered later in the week, but when do the lessons about the evils of liberals, the internet and democrats start? :mrgreen:

    1. For me that would have been about 9th grade (although the internet had yet to debut), but it was all hinted about in jr. high.

      I really wish I was joking.

      1. Natalie, the Internet was around when you were in 9th grade (roughly 1989?). I can easily believe that most Fundies didn’t know about it yet at that time, though.

        1. I did think of that when I wrote the comment, GARY… but I was HOPING people would KNOW that I meant in MY world.

          Now, are you DONE picking on me, or do I need to go ahead and take your butt cushion back?

          :mrgreen: 😉 😛

          (tee hee)

  7. Butt cushions for all first, second, and third timers today along with gold stars!

    Now, to comment on the post today: AMEN, AMEN and more AMEN! That was my life as a kindergartener. Even though it was forever ago, I do remember it.

    Although, my teacher was cool, because she let us all sign her cast when she broke her leg and you just don’t get any cooler than that for a 5 year old.

    1. And, BTW, along with the butt cushions today will be Trapper Keepers.

      Because all the cool kids carried Trapper Keepers. :mrgreen:

      1. For some unfathomable reason Trapper Keepers are not allowed at my kids fundy school, they must be EVIL and WORLDLY, I just for the life of me can’t figure out why… 🙄

        1. Hahaha! That’s right! No Trapper Keepers allowed at my Christian school. I think the given reason was that they encourage sloth and disorderliness (because you could just shove papers in and then velcro it shut).

        2. It’s probably because the Trapper Keeper (do they even sell TK’s any more?) makes it easier to hide evil comic books and rock and roll CD’s. Not that I would know anything about that 😀

  8. Boy, Mr. and Mrs. Miller sure have been busy to have that many children to fill their homeschool. The lack of electricity is a nice touch, though.

  9. Although I was homeschooled in a fundy-lite atmosphere, I still got my share of verse memory opportunities in Sunday School. The point about all, or in my case, most of the verses being law-based is excellent. There was lots of “children obey your parents…” with an occasional dose of “for God so loved the world…” to cover those who weren’t saved yet.

  10. While I did not attend a literal school other than my home school, we did learn the alphabet along with verses for each one: A = For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God; B = Be sure your sin will find you out; C = Children, obey your parents; D = Do all things decently and in order.

    I remember all the verses and they have really helped when I was tempted to sit down and rest or to harbor rebellious thoughts as a kindergartener! I am working on memorizing the book of Romans. We had a preacher at a conference recently who said that when you don’t memorize Bible verses you grow old prematurely and your brain will shrivel. He had pictures of brain scans and everything!!! I was floored.
    Titus has said we will probably not homeschool. If there is a Christian school at the church where he gets a job, we will enroll them there. I will be able to be a SAHM (Stay-At-Home Mother) and help Titus and be a volunteer at the school, too.

    1. CampMeetingGirl, I know what you mean. It’s really tragic how the Devil will try to make a kindergartener want to color and play instead of memorizing the KJV and sitting quiet to focus on Sunday and Wednesday’s sermons. Next, the Devil will lead them to use their imagination to draw pictures and make up games.

      Then comes the absolute worst… the child then becomes an INDIVIDUAL who thinks for himself!

      I tell you, it can become a tragedy.

    2. Okay, first, I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not. Sorry, I’m not trying to be rude if you aren’t.

      If you are NOT kidding, then I wanna say I agree about the value of memorizing Scripture. It’s definitely not the worst of the trappings from the Christian School movement. Your reference to the evangelist with the “brain scans,” however, doesn’t strike me as the product of a man with a degree in biology. Again, I’m not trying to be rude, but memory projects in general can be beneficial to brain development (I’m citing no sources whatsoever, you’ll notice…), but the subject matter is less relevant than the exercise itself. To say not memorizing the Bible makes your brain shrivel is a lovely example of why Christian “education” centers are often not taken seriously. I might add here that refusing accreditation only _sounds_ like a school is taking a stand against the man… really, it seems to function more as a way to offer sub-par education and keep costs down. ACE curriculum may be an inexpensive way to put your kids through school in the company of people you know and trust, but it has embarassing side effects like evangelists telling congregations that their brains will shrivel if they don’t memorize the Bible.

      If you ARE kidding… then just ignore this.

      1. Maybe I should add that I am a Christian school teacher; in fact I’m surfing the internet right now instead of decorating my classroom… I don’t think we should totally flush the movement, or I wouldn’t work here, but there are definitely flaws in the system.

        1. okay, seriously i did not even know that.
          that makes me feel a lot better toward this person…

          i mean, i was really wondering. how can this girl be so serious and not even realize what she sounds like!?

          yeah… so i’m a little thick… ok then. yeah. at least there’s a little more balance back in the universe.

      3. I think that whenever CMG gets responses like this from noobs (or all of us early on), it’s gotta be incredibly flattering to know how well she’s doing the satire! 🙂

  11. My husband and I lived in the one room school house that used to service our area of TN back in the ’30’s. The Horseshoe Bend below Wilbur Dam.

  12. Evangelizing Souls, Educating Students, Equipping Servants…for time and eternity

    Our mission is simple: EVANGELIZE the SOUL…EDUCATE the STUDENT…EQUIP them to SERVE GOD.
    We daily endeavor to ensure that each student comes to (or has already experienced) a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The responsibility of educating our students is taken very seriously. We can only do this by providing quality, Bible-based instruction. Finally, our success is measured by each student being fully equipped to serve God in whatever capacity He may lead them.

    http://wbcseagles.org/

    ’nuff said

  13. Religious Moralism must proceed the Gospel. Otherwise how else will we be able to produce enough guilt in children to get them down the aisle to the altar?

  14. I watched this sort of thing come to the Christian school I went to. Thankfully it happened after I graduated, but it wasn’t long before the new principal (from PCC) started firing some teachers who had been there for years and replacing them with suitable fresh meat from fundy colleges. Other teachers and staff fed up with the situations (heavy-handed pay cuts and attempts to get students to lie about other students for the principal) quit or retired. – remember once when my brother and his best friend had “silent lunch” and I came in the lunch room before work to deliver some Bojangles…talked to the two guys for a few minutes (while they were supposed to be facing the wall quietly) and the teachers who didn’t know me were glaring daggers the whole time. It was great.

      1. Gary, PLEASE tell me you’ve heard of Bojangles.

        It’s only the mecca for breakfast, especially here in NC. One must needs have a chicken biscuit with honey mustard.

        1. Oh yeah and you can get lunch and dinner there too… but I usually stick with breakfast. I think that’s what they do best.

      2. HEATHEN! Bojangles is a fried chicken joint found in various places in the south that provides you with succulent spicy fried chicken and all the calories, sodium and cholesterol you need for the week in one convenient meal. (“Quarter white with fries and a sweet tea, please.”)

        1. “Ah! It must be a Popeye’s wannabe.”

          HAHAHAHAHA…..HAHAHAHAHAHA….

          Oh, how you jest, making us wonder if you’ve truly gone apostate.

          Silly rabbit. :mrgreen:

        2. I knew a man Bojangles and he’d dance for you
          In worn out shoes
          With silver hair, ragged shirt, and baggy pants
          The old soft shoe 😆

      4. I had my first Bojangles in the Charlotte airport a few months ago. The food was fine, but I made the mistake of ordering sweet tea. Blech! 90% sugar, 9% water and 1% tea. We like unsweet tea out here in California.

        2. Many southerners love “sweet tea.” I’m not one of them. I think if you put sugar in tea, you ruin it.

      2. I didn’t go to fundy school, I didn’t become fundy til after I was married and since we didn’t have kids I never had to send one to the fundy school attached to the church. But I was there for different reasons during the day so I saw silent lunch. The younger kids have to eat lunch in silence, they are not allowed to talk. The teens were allowed to talk during lunch. I never could understand why the little ones were required to be silent during lunch time, it seemed barbaric to me. I think they did away with that eventually though and let the little ones talk though. Why would they ever not be allowed to talk unless they were being punished? 😥

        1. Gracious answer: they’re concerned that the children are TALKING instead of eating, so the lunchtime is ending and the students have missed the nutrition they need. If they can’t play or talk, they’ll HAVE to eat.

          Cynical answer: They aren’t in control of the topics of conversation so they won’t allow talking. Or they just don’t really CARE what the kids would enjoy and chose what is most convenient for THEM: having quiet, compliant little robots.

  15. Best line “Somehow we never got time to memorize this one: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…'”

    Plenty of indoctrination in my little fundy school in the basement of the church. One of my vivid memories of that school took place when I was 5 years old. I had an early morning dentist appointment and had gotten excused to miss the first hour of school. After the dentist, my mom dropped me off at school and drove off to go home. I went up to the door to go in, but couldn’t open the door. It was too heavy for a five year old to open. I went around and knocked on windows and tried the other door, but no one ever came to let me in to school. Not until the lady who lived across the street from the school called the pastor/principal to let him know that there was a little boy trying to get in the door. Anyway, once inside I was told by the pastor/principal that I would be getting demerits for being late to school because it had taken longer than my excused hour to get to class. I told him I physically couldn’t get the door open. He told me that was not an excuse and that I would be punished for not being on time. And thus began the routine of performance based man centered religion.

    3. Christian schools that practice hard-nosed “no exception” legalism ought to take to heart the scriptural admonition to fathers to not provoke children to wrath.

      Where is mercy? Where is compassion?

    4. That is an example of their idiotic unwillingness to acknowledge that there are at times extenuating circumstances. That kind of needless harshness in enforcing their sacred man-made rules makes me want to be unspiritual, let’s just leave it at that. Poor little boy! They scarred you for life with their unchristlikeness in the name of christian education!

  16. My vague recollection about kindergarten (aside from getting sent to the principal’s office twice in the first week) was that we had some set of “Dr. Bob Jones Catechisms” that we had to learn each week. I don’t remember the specifics (yes, I found the k5 pdf of it via google), other than there was this small black and white picture of this really old guy that didn’t look really happy. A picture paints 1000 words, right?

    2. Was it the “who made me?” “God made me.” catechisms? I remember those…

      1. What else did God make? God made all things!!

        Extra brownie points if the little tune is now stuck in your head.

  17. Somewhat applies to fundie school/

    “In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
    I got my knuckles brusied by a lady in black
    And I held my toungue as she told me
    “Son fear is the heart of love”
    So I never went back”

    DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
    I Will Follow You Into The Dark

  19. Oh, phonics. I’m sure it works for some kids, but the only one in our family who learned to read that way was my sister, and she still struggles with spelling, despite being an avid reader… and an elementary school teacher!

    I’m going to be the outcast here and say that while I went to public school in kindergarten (my entire life, actually, for which I’m grateful to my parents!), I kinda wish I’d been homeschooled that year. At the time, we lived in a nice neighborhood, but the school was… not a very nice one. I don’t remember this, but my mom says I was picking up things like bad language even in kindergarten.

    We ended up moving that summer (not really because of the school situation, although that may have been part of the reason) and I went the rest of my school career to a nicer public school in the country with no (better make that “fewer”) problems, but my first year was kind of the complete opposite of the fundy education!

    2. @ Annie Moose

      Could you please elaborate why phonics would lead to being a bad speller? I went to an IFB school from k5-12 and still struggle with spelling.

        1. Which is at least understandable… I was surprised to learn English is not a phonetic language due to our practice of having one letter or letter combination which can be pronounced more than one way. Even the “long” and “short” pronunciations of a letter would not be found in a truly phonetic language. So you can teach English with phonics, but a lot of what you teach is the exceptions.

          I learned by phonics, so I can’t say too much on any other system of learning to read. I’ve never had major issues with my spelling, although I have learned that the phonetic pronunciation is not always the correct way to say the word in English! I personally am of the opinion that some kids just don’t do well with spelling, regardless of how they’re taught. You can find good and bad spellers in both camps.

        2. I have to disagree with you, Gary, at least somewhat. I don’t believe someone well versed in phonics would write that way. Phonics is simply associating the sounds of a language with the way it is written. In English we have forty something sounds and only 26 letters, so there is definitely not a one-to-one correspondence (what people who “write phonetically” as you demonstrated are expecting there to be?). And to make it more confusing some sounds are written more than one way and some letter combinations have more than one pronunciation. For example, the sound “a” as in “ate” or “neighbor” can be written at least 8 different ways and the letters “ed” at the end of a word can be pronounced three different ways. I don’t see English phonics as a set of rules with a bunch of exceptions, but rather a set of letter combinations that represent different sounds with some overlaps. Learning phonics teaches children how to sound out words (a word attack strategy for decoding unfamiliar words) and helps them learn to spell. Of course not everyone is going to be equally good at these tasks, no matter what kind of instruction they received as a child.

          Sorry for the long aside, but the teacher in me (I’m an early childhood and elementary teacher) couldn’t let it pass without comment. 🙂 I also know this is a long-standing debate among educators.

  20. I was recently considered to be the principal of a Christian school. The pastor of the church that owned the school wanted it to be a place where the children of the community “regardless of their faith or background” could receive a great education and see the gospel modeled in the lives of the teachers and community. I thought the idea was great.

    The current principal disagreed. Although she wanted little to do with the church itself, she was swayed by a contingent of teachers and parents to make the school a island of Christian refuge, free from the evils of the public schools.

    When the local Catholic school closed a few years ago, leaving only this Christian school and the Publics, the pastor thought it would be great to welcome the children and their families into his church’s school, so that they could still get a quality education that doesn’t omit the spiritual aspect of the self. Again the principal fought back. Now there is division in the church, a school trying to break away from its (more moderate) church, and declining numbers in the school that may eventually force its closure.

    I guess that is the problem with fundy education, they become so narrow that they rid themselves of all relevance to all but the select few.

    1. “I guess that is the problem with fundy education, they become so narrow that they rid themselves of all relevance to all but the select few.”

      Indeed. The education they receive leaves them less able to interact with the wider community, and the spiral starts downhill.

  21. My K5 to 12th grade education included two Christian schools. One in OH (LCCA) and one in IL, Belvidere Baptist. The latter is now closed due to the fact that they hired a moron for a principal. The attitude was “The Lord will provide” which is great if you partner it with “Let’s get somebody in here that knows how to run a business.” They didn’t, so it’s closed. Think LCCA is still open, not sure how it’s doing. If nothing else, I wish the Christian schools were more proactive about informing their students about potential scholarships to real colleges, instead of just being direct funnels to BJU/PCC/HAC, etc.

  22. Regarding verse memorization, in my school not only did we have to memorize the little “character” verses in our ACE books, we also had to learn 8-12 verse chunks in glorious KJV. So even if we did get to some of the grace-laden parts of the Bible, we rarely managed to understand it.

    1. You used the good old ACE curriculum too!?!? I got several detentions for “mis-scoring”. 🙄

      1. I have pretty good short term memory so I was able to look at the correct answers on the score sheet, go back to my desk and fix mine. Or I’d write very lightly with the red pen and write dark in pencil over my answer.

        I did get suspended once, but that was for talking about evil rock music with a friend, but not something specifically ACE-related.

      1. Oh my gosh that’s hilarious! Bang-on description of Ronny and poor Pudge. Wish they’d write more so they can deal with the girls in those books.

      3. That story gave me a flashback to the 1 1/2 years I spent in an ACE school. *shudder* (my mom took me out because she didn’t think the teachers were good & that they were disorganized… which they were lol)

    3. Oh my Lord, my fellow ACE refugees. Oh dear Heavens. How I hated those blasted comics. What kind of jerk calls the slightly overweight kid “Pudge”?!? Also, when they had Ace’s aunt, uncle, and cousin killed off by the ‘savages’ (ala Jim Elliot) they went to be missionaries to, I was both traumatised and incredibly annoyed.
      My grandma taught my kindergarten class, which consisted of exactly two students.
      I hated memorising the verses. It was upsetting, because I have a very good memory for facts, but am poor at memorisation. And you couldn’t get on honour roll unless you memorised those 10-verse chunks.
      Did any of you guys go to an ACE Student Convention? I switched to homeschooling with ACE around grade 7, but me and two other kids from my area (who also did ACE homeschooling) were a Bible Bowl team at the International Student Convention – we won 😎
      So, I’ll give ACE that, anyway. It may have given me a lifelong hatred of kilt-style skirts and blouses of all descriptions, but it also gave me a free computer for winning Bible Bowl.

  23. In my fundy school in the basement of my church, I remember being reprimanded in second or third grade for my hot pink nail polish. Now, mind you, it was right after Christmas where my (equally fundy) grandparents had bought me a dress up kit complete with the kid’s nail polish that pealed off. I will never forget the look of disdain from my “teacher” for conforming to such worldly standard. Oh, that reminds me, I also got in trouble for wearing a baindaid that had cartoon characters on it. I was told, “We don’t wear stickers.” 🙁 Shame shame shame.

    1. One of my kids’ favorite things to do is wear stickers…character bandaids or actual stickers. *sigh Why can’t children be children especially in something so innocent…

  24. I remember as a child finding it strange to recite, “When I was a child I thought as a child… but when I became a man I put away childish things.”

  25. The church school kids at my former fundy church have to turn in their Facebook passwords or close their accounts before the semester If given the password, the administration spies on their account. No unmonitored accounts are allowed. Someone outside fundyland could be sharing personal data with a student, not realizing their conversation in a PM is not private.

    This is just so wrong on so many levels.

    If you tell a loyal student this policy is wrong, the party line is “I don’t have anything to hide!”.

    SFL: Fearing “big brother” in their secular government, but utterly embracing him in their church.

    1. Wow…that is disturbing.

      I think my old school used to do that (after I graduated) with MySpace. According to my brother, mysterious kids who were going to “come to Wilson Christian” next year would try to chat the WCA kids up and stuff. They always knew way too much about WCA to not be students or staff.

      It was generally assumed that the principal was possibly impersonating a student to gather information.

      1. There are ways around such a policy, and I am (cough, cough) quite certain some students have figured this out. :mrgreen:

        This church has no respect for the authority of the parents over their own home. Really, how is it the church/school’s business to monitor their children’s internet accounts while they are away from the church/school? This is not about prohibiting bullying or other illegal behavior, but their restrictions on the student’s first amendment rights to free speech during their off campus lives.

        (Yeah, I know…poor fundy kids have no rights… 🙄 )

        The church school parents have been blinded by the Kool-Aid. I just want to scream, “Wake up, people!”

    2. SFL: Denigrating “Big Brother” in their secular government; emulating him in their “ministry”!

  26. “The mission of any fundamentalist school is clearly to mold and shape young, impressionable minds into being the next generation of fundamentalists.”

    The mission of a school is to educate students.

  27. As a teenager, I worked as a kitchen staffer at Word of Life Island camp in the Adirondack mountains. We had to learn Bible verses each week, and were quizzed on them before being given a boat pass for our one day off. First week 3 verses, and another 3 each week so that by by the end of the summer, we had to know 30 verses. Raised in a good old Baptist church, I did not have trouble with the memorization, but every year they had to send the speed boat out after the AWOL staffer who didn’t qualify for the boat pass, yet was desperate for escape and would try to swim a mile to the shoreline.

  29. …And of course, no s-e-x education, whatsoever. And to some girls, getting their first period is traumatic, because they were never told about it. Was that the way it was for you, CampMeetingGirl? (I myself didn’t grow up Fundy, and was a public school brat.)

    1. I’m not CMG, but YES. I thought I had some horrible medical affliction.
      At my ACE school we did have sex education! The principal’s/pastor’s wife (who totally ran the school, but gosh, we couldn’t let her be the principal, I mean, she was a woman) took us “big girls”, who were 13 and older, into the kitchen. Then, visibly squirming in discomfort and embarrassment, she asked us, “You know that it’s wrong to . . . um . . . that it’s . . .” – which we interrupted with a horrified, “Yes!”
      She continued, “So, you know, you won’t -” “No!”
      She let us go. That was it. Sex ed. Tada!
      (Loved the lady, though. One of the sweetest people ever)

  30. This is kind of off-topic but it just occurred to me that my old church has a basement school of sorts. It’s new (just started last year or so) and I don’t know if they plan to give out a degree. I asked one of the students in the class when the class/school would be over, and he didn’t even know. But you do get graded with assignments, midterms, lectures, and final projects/finals. It’s taught by a rotating cycle of lay leaders and WCBC alum leaders. I’m not even sure what the point of the school is, except to further your knowledge in case you want to go into full-time ministry or to be a better leader in our church.

  31. I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery
    I may never zoom over the enemy, I’m in the Lord’s army. :mrgreen:

    1. The memories that the song brings back…

      Oh, the pain! the pain!

      **shudder**

      **twitch!*#!

    2. That song brings back memories of my (overweight) principal bouncing around during chapel as he acts it all out. 😀

  32. I went to a Baptist school–elementary through high school. It was really lenient though. The teachers didn’t have to be a part of the church, or even a part of a Baptist church. My former history teacher is Presbyterian, and was highly influential in my life, and he’s probably the reason why I’m gratefully Presby today ^_^ My education in humanities was excellent at this school–just goes to show not all Baptist schools are intellectual wastelands with moralistic rules!

    There was a fundy Baptist church/school just down the road from our school. The motto on their sign reads *fundamental, separated, evangelistic*, and I’m pretty sure they are KJV only. And you have to be a member there to even be a substitute teacher. We were *really* liberal compared to them! But they only had like 6 kids to a class, and we had up to 50, so we beat them! lol.

  33. My Independent Fundamental School was run my BJU grads. We had an unwritten interracial dating rule. Is that true for most fundy schools? Did anyone else have orientation camp before the school year started?

    1. Nope, my bap-o-tist school pretty much made up rules that they saw fit for the moment as the year progressed. Funny thing was they never told you of a new rule until you broke it.
      Some things that stand out in my mind was:
      1. If you drove your car to school, you HAD to turn your keys into the office so they could search your car and do radio checks at random
      2. No motorcycles ever–compliments of me riding to school one day on a Harley Davidson 250cc Rapido
      3. No dating ever.
      4. No shorts in the summer
      5. No mixed swimming ever. (hard when your parents owned a boat)
      6. No socializing with public school kids, not even cousins or other relatives without permission.
      7. No dining at any places that served booze.

      I could go on and on, but it brings back too many bad memories of the idiots that ran the place and it would make me want to puke.

    2. My school also had the unwritten interracial dating rule. We were in Minneapolis, which is otherwise a bastion of respect for diversity. I was late to the game and didn’t come from a fundamentalist family and didn’t come to the school until almost the middle of the 11th grade. I was unaware of the rule (since there were very few minorities at the school, it really wasn’t something that was brought up) and violated it with a girl of Asian descent.

      Suffered the rest of my time there. Glad I dated her, though. She was a wonderful person and afterward I never felt any concern over what race any of my girlfriends were.

        1. Stuart, if you’re signed up for the forum, I’ll send you a PM. If not, sign up and send me one.

  34. BTW, my dad is now officially retired (from a factory job after getting getting a Theology undergrad degree and starting (but not finishing) a masters degree at Tennessee Temple, but getting back to my point, at retirement age he is now more convinced than ever that the Good News is that God hates sinners & their sin, and has a white hot rage against them & their behavior.

    It’s a thing of beauty.

    1. The George is strong with this one. . . 😳 😳

      Umm, this was supposed to send a while back, and was supposed to be @After Glow. Oh well. 🙄 Computers. What can you say. . . 😉

  37. I went to a baptist ace school from 3rd through 5th grade. I remember wearing dress pants, a oxford shirt, and a red white and blue clip on tie. one day I chsnged into shorts during phys ed. No one told me it was against the rules. The principal used a large wooden paddle on me. That really hurt through the thin shorts. I have a great disdain for fundamentalism and the cookie cutter mold it uses. I went to a more liberal Christian school from 6th-9th. Then finally an inter city african american school 10th-12th. I may have been one of 15 white people in the whole school, but i felt more at home at this school than any Christian School. Christian education as it is now and was then serves to dull the academic potential. These schools favor dogma over science, and faith over facts. I have made it a priority to teach my children to think for themselves. I chart no path for them to follow, because they can find their own road.

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