As Australia and the West grow increasingly darker and more hostile to Christians, it becomes more difficult for believers to simply get through the basics of life, be it buying goods and services, education, or other areas. For example, many businesses and corporations are becoming decidedly unfriendly to faith and family.
Whether it is about pushing all things homosexual and transgender, or pushing creeping sharia and halal products, fewer and fewer options are available for many concerned citizens. I have written elsewhere about how this is becoming a very big problem indeed: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/04/27/godless-corporations-rampant-discrimination-blackmailing-christians/
Education is another area where anti-faith and anti-family values and agendas are being pushed, as a war on religion has been declared. This is especially true in places like the Socialist People’s Republik of Viktoria. The radical Andrews’ government has declared a full frontal assault on all things Christian, while pushing all the usual social activist agendas: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/11/27/victoria-anti-god-and-anti-life/
Consider also this complete shocker: the Andrews’ government has pledged $15 million towards the establishment of Australia’s first Pride Centre! I kid you not.
That is $15 million of our tax dollars to promote the radical and unhealthy lifestyle of this tiny minority group. So when do Christians get their own pride centre? When do heterosexuals get their pride centre? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/victoria-to-be-home-to-australias-first-pride-centre/7343932
The so-called Safe Schools program is another indication of the secular left’s stranglehold in Victoria and elsewhere. Here Chairman Andrews has said he will not implement any of the federal reforms of the program, and will soon have it become mandatory in all Victorian schools. I have written before about this atrociously bad program and how it is nothing more than an exercise in Marxist social engineering, as admitted to by its own developers.
Because it is so bad, concerned parents have had no choice but to pull their kids out of the public school system. I already wrote about one such case earlier this year wherein one concerned mother removed her kids from a Frankston High School because of these wretched programs. I discussed her predicament and her bravery here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/02/10/mothers-speaking-out/ And now some other worried parents have done likewise, even at the same school. As one newspaper report states:
A Victorian father has pulled his daughter out of a state school after the Andrews government’s decision to make the Safe Schools anti-bullying program a mandatory part of the curriculum. Steve Burgen, whose daughter was until last week in Year 10 at Frankston High School in Melbourne’s southeast, said Safe Schools was incompatible with his conservative Christian beliefs. He says his family is being strong-armed out of the state system by the ideologically charged program, which is based on aspects of socially radical queer theory. Mr Burgen said he was being forced to enrol his daughter in a private Catholic school, despite it being beyond his financial means. He would also move his other children, aged 13 and 10, to Catholic schools. “We’ve got three children and, frankly, we can’t really afford to put three children into private school, but we don’t have much choice,” he said. Victoria is the only state where the controversial Safe Schools Coalition program will be compulsory for state schools by 2018. Mr Burgen said he voiced concerns about the program to Frankston High principal John Albiston, who is committed to the resource, although the school does not teach the program in classes. Mr Burgen said his 15-year-old daughter had felt excluded, disrespected and inferior because she was opposed to gay marriage and gender theory…. “We are a Christian family; we have our world view, which doesn’t agree with a lot of this stuff. There were instances where she was marginalised because of her views and ostracised because of them in classroom discussions. If she raises her voice in concern about it she is brushed off by the teachers. She sits in classrooms when these things are discussed and the other students say: ‘It’s only the Christians that are against this. I hate Christians.’ And she is sitting there saying ‘I’m a Christian’.”
I have actually written about the experience of his daughters at this school in a previous article: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/03/13/cultural-marxism-in-schools-let-the-children-speak/ I happen to know this parent (his name is wrongly spelled in the article). Steve Bergen has been kind enough to let me interview him further on this issue. Here is some of what he told me:
What is some of the background of all this? The school claims that they do not teach the Safe Schools programs in class. This may be a half-truth. “Safe Schools” has become a catch-all phrase for all of the gender bending, child-sexualisation material. The point is that teaching is occurring at that school during class time that is promoting this agenda and there is an elective course entitled “Human Sexuality” that explicitly teaches it…. The biggest issue with all of these things, wasn’t necessarily the direct teaching in class. It was more the fact that this was the ‘topic of discussion’ in every class as well as out in the schoolyard. Even when there was no discussion, there was always an LGBTI poster or two of twenty to be seen that promoted it. This meant that no matter where Kathy was during school hours, her beliefs were being criticised both directly and indirectly. It would be reasonable to say that the general attitude of students who Kathy came in contact with was pro “Safe School” and anti-Christian.
So, why did we stick around for so long? I guess you could say that we were being “tolerant”. Kathy was able to make friends at FHS, but as soon as they found out she was a Christian they immediately assumed “You hate Gays!” and without any right of reply they would abandon her. She found it hard to find one or two good friends, who were Christians, and would stick by her. We are grateful for those girls who did show her kindness. Needless to say, this all had a negative effect upon Kathy’s self-esteem and quenched much of her desire to excel and made school a place that was no longer enjoyable.
What was the final straw? Kathy wrote a letter addressed to the principal of FHS regarding academic concerns that she had, including the issues of disruptive students…. The initial verbal response to Kathy from the school was fairly ordinary, but the following morning I received a phone call from the principal. In this call we discussed the academic matters, the issues of classroom disruption and after working through the issues we came to an agreement that the academic matters could be overcome and that this would not be a cause to leave the school. Having the opportunity whilst the principal was on the phone I asked if I could discuss some of the other issues that Kathy had faced during her time at FHS. I explained that we were a Christian family who held to a Christian moral worldview. I explained how classroom situations and teacher/student attitudes towards contentious issues had left Kathy feeling isolated, marginalised and inferior. The principal was quick to say how this was not the case and that if anyone was doing these things he wanted to know about it because FHS was a “Safe School”. I saw my opening and pressed the point that there was clearly an incompatibility between the Christian worldview and the Safe Schools Coalition Australia material that the school was in support of. At the mere mention of the SSCA, the principal’s parting words before he hung up the phone were: ‘I can see that your views are extreme. I hope your daughter enjoys her new school’ (click).
How did your family operate during these trying times, and how are things now? Each morning before school I will sit down with my daughters and pray with them. We talk about how much God loves everyone – even and especially those who number themselves among the LGBTI clique. We pray that God would use our daughters to show His love; to shine their light in the darkness. We read scriptures such as Rom 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We don’t “hate gays”. We love them! As a family, before Church on a Sunday, we have done prayer walks around the school to pray for God to protect the minds of the staff and students and asking God to bless the school. We had hoped that having our children in a public school would help build resilience for life in a secular society. Unfortunately, the environment at FHS was not healthy for Kathy to continue in. It was also clear from our phone call that those in authority could not be reasoned with and we were no longer welcome. Kathy has now commenced back at John Paul College and was warmly welcomed by friends and teachers who had previously been devastated by her departure. She has reconnected with old friends and is looking happier and feeling positive about school again.
Lastly, he mentioned a letter penned by his youngest daughter in Grade 4:
I was at School one day last year and we were watching BTN in class. The stuff about same-sex marriage came on and I started to cry because I didn’t like what I saw. I told my friends that I didn’t like the stuff on BTN because they were wondering why I was crying. Then my friends started to say “People are born gay sometimes, it’s not their choice.” We went out into the playground and they started to tell all the other girls about the stuff that they saw on BTN and they were saying to the other girls that “it was right” and “I think that’s fine.” Then all the other girls, after they were told about the same-sex marriage stuff, then made up this game where you put your head down and one girl had to pick who they would marry out of the girls. I didn’t want to play and I sat a further away from them as I watched what they did. They were like “Put your head down, I don’t want you to see who we like out of the girls.” Then the girls that were chosen started to be like “besties”. I walked off and I was alone, by myself and felt like I was bullied by my friends. After school, I came home and I started to cry about what the girls did to me.
Wow. This is just one Christian family’s experience of being in a hostile state school. Such stories could be multiplied indefinitely. How many families will be forced to move their kids out of school to another one, or to engage in home-schooling? This is clearly a war on faith, on families, and on children. Schools no longer teach the 3 Rs. Now they are indoctrination and propaganda centres for all sorts of radical social activist causes. Things are getting worse by the day. Two things must be done here. One, all parents need to carefully and prayerfully consider what they should do with their own children at such schools. Two, we all need to redouble our efforts to stand against this attack on our children. Getting the word out is the first course of action. Share this article widely, and be willing to speak up when and where possible. If we refuse to speak up, our children will be the ones who suffer.
Victoria has been engaging in such campaigns. I wondering why the talk about the issue of abortion itself from Christians has been quite quiet these few days, with the new law to stop protesters from going near clinics.
“Socialist People’s Republik of Viktoria”
LOL
Obviously, the reason smokers tend to have shorter lives and more health problems is because they get so much hatred from all the fundamentalist Christians who are against it. Poor things, why can’t they smoke if they want to? Better still, we should teach kids that smoking is an identity we are born with. In fact, we should encourage public school students to explore smoking while we pay tobacco company activists to build resources around the whole smoking agenda.
Those activists could come up with a suitable name, like the Fresh Air Schools Program, for instance. After all, smoking is the latest thing seen on TV, and Hollywood is never wrong…
A good Educational alternative is to remove your children from school and undertake the ‘ACE Curriculum’. Very thorough, scripture based and the children teach themselves with adult input. Very successful.
You register with a distance ed school. Go online and do the research http://www.achs.edu.au/curriculum/ . Better for the family for a parent to stay at home rather than working all hours to pay for private school fees. You look after your own children as God intended you to do!
“At the mere mention of the SSCA, the principal’s parting words before he hung up the phone were: ‘I can see that your views are extreme. I hope your daughter enjoys her new school’ ”
How dare this immoral principal treat a parent that way. This is very clear evidence of the corrupt and immoral activists into who’s hands we are supposed to put our children’s care. It is this principal’s views which are extreme and do not stand up to the scientifically proven facts and of course, his closed mind will prevent him from finding that out. In the mean time children, individuals and society will suffer as our children are taught lies and groomed for sexual immorality.
It’s not yet time to head for the hills. It’s time to gather for prayer with one voice. “Sovereign Lord … why did the heathen rage and the peoples utter a vain thing, the kings of the earth set themselves .. against the LORD.” Who knows, God may yet have mercy upon Australia which it appears is yet the land of an unclean spirit… Is there no balm in Gilead? Thank God for those schools that are seeking His Word and His way for the rising generation! The quotes from the Bergen family should move us all to faith in God who gives power to the faint.
Just watch – teaching this atheistic humanist ideology to school kids will become required school certificate curriculum and by not teaching it, children at Christian schools won’t get finishing certificates. Also, private schools which don’t teach it will probably lose government subsidies.
Sadly I believe you are quite right Phil.
Did Mr Bergen raise the issue with the PTA? It is always better to get several people together to raise a stink.
Slightly off topic, but not impressed with the new Victorian number plates stating Victoria – the education state. It certainly has ruffled a few feathers in our household!
So how on Earth are they going to enforce Safe Schools program at say Muslim private schools????
That will be a fascinating by-line
Bill, a new book has just crossed my desk. At least I think it’s new. You could be already aware of it?
The Global Sexual Revolution: Destruction of Freedom In The Name of Freedom.
Gabriele Kuby.
Did you know that if you look up pedophilia on the internet nowadays, you find that there is a growing body of opinion that it’s INTRINSIC to the person as opposed to something that is a delayed reaction to something that happened to the pedophile when he was a child – in other words the same argument that has been used for years about homosexuality. Yet this doesn’t come as part of an argument that pedophilia is not a disorder or that it is not immoral. We can be compassionate about those with disorders without being in denial that they are disorders. To affirm that same-sex relationships are equal to opposite-sex relationships is equivalent to affirming that disorder is equal to wholeness.
Victoria has been engaging in such campaigns. I wondering why the talk about the issue of abortion itself from Christians has been quite quiet these few days, with the new law to stop protesters from going near clinics.
In Britain, there may not even be the option for independent schools soon (a Jewish school is mentioned here but the signs are bad…):
http://anglicanmainstream.org/chasidic-school-loses-appeal-against-ban-on-new-pupils/
“Socialist People’s Republik of Viktoria”
LOL
Obviously, the reason smokers tend to have shorter lives and more health problems is because they get so much hatred from all the fundamentalist Christians who are against it. Poor things, why can’t they smoke if they want to? Better still, we should teach kids that smoking is an identity we are born with. In fact, we should encourage public school students to explore smoking while we pay tobacco company activists to build resources around the whole smoking agenda.
Those activists could come up with a suitable name, like the Fresh Air Schools Program, for instance. After all, smoking is the latest thing seen on TV, and Hollywood is never wrong…
A good Educational alternative is to remove your children from school and undertake the ‘ACE Curriculum’. Very thorough, scripture based and the children teach themselves with adult input. Very successful.
You register with a distance ed school. Go online and do the research http://www.achs.edu.au/curriculum/ . Better for the family for a parent to stay at home rather than working all hours to pay for private school fees. You look after your own children as God intended you to do!
“At the mere mention of the SSCA, the principal’s parting words before he hung up the phone were: ‘I can see that your views are extreme. I hope your daughter enjoys her new school’ ”
How dare this immoral principal treat a parent that way. This is very clear evidence of the corrupt and immoral activists into who’s hands we are supposed to put our children’s care. It is this principal’s views which are extreme and do not stand up to the scientifically proven facts and of course, his closed mind will prevent him from finding that out. In the mean time children, individuals and society will suffer as our children are taught lies and groomed for sexual immorality.
It’s not yet time to head for the hills. It’s time to gather for prayer with one voice. “Sovereign Lord … why did the heathen rage and the peoples utter a vain thing, the kings of the earth set themselves .. against the LORD.” Who knows, God may yet have mercy upon Australia which it appears is yet the land of an unclean spirit… Is there no balm in Gilead? Thank God for those schools that are seeking His Word and His way for the rising generation! The quotes from the Bergen family should move us all to faith in God who gives power to the faint.
Just watch – teaching this atheistic humanist ideology to school kids will become required school certificate curriculum and by not teaching it, children at Christian schools won’t get finishing certificates. Also, private schools which don’t teach it will probably lose government subsidies.
Sadly I believe you are quite right Phil.
Did Mr Bergen raise the issue with the PTA? It is always better to get several people together to raise a stink.
Slightly off topic, but not impressed with the new Victorian number plates stating Victoria – the education state. It certainly has ruffled a few feathers in our household!
So how on Earth are they going to enforce Safe Schools program at say Muslim private schools????
That will be a fascinating by-line
Bill, a new book has just crossed my desk. At least I think it’s new. You could be already aware of it?
The Global Sexual Revolution: Destruction of Freedom In The Name of Freedom.
Gabriele Kuby.
Did you know that if you look up pedophilia on the internet nowadays, you find that there is a growing body of opinion that it’s INTRINSIC to the person as opposed to something that is a delayed reaction to something that happened to the pedophile when he was a child – in other words the same argument that has been used for years about homosexuality. Yet this doesn’t come as part of an argument that pedophilia is not a disorder or that it is not immoral. We can be compassionate about those with disorders without being in denial that they are disorders. To affirm that same-sex relationships are equal to opposite-sex relationships is equivalent to affirming that disorder is equal to wholeness.