"Addictions of every sort plaque man in his fallen condition."

It's not an addiction. That's Dobson/Arterburn/Oprah talk.

It's called COVETOUSNESS. It's wanting more than God has provided you. No one wants to discuss it and when was the last time you heard a preacher preach on it?

There are probably 8 Walmarts within a 20 mile radius of me and all of them are always nice, clean & well maintained. I shop at Walmart all the time but if I found one like Neil describes I'd probably not go there much either.

The face of homeschooling has changed dramatically over the years. When we first started in the 1980's, most of the moms at the homeschool gatherings and curriculum fairs were the jumper or dress wearing types with their long hair in a bun. Most of the dads were nerdy types. Now you see every type of mom imaginable from the conservative Christians to some that dress like hoochie mamas (and everything in between).

I've been a daily runner for 30 years so was able to eat anything I wanted for years with no ill effects or weight gain. When I turned 40 (1996), my metabolism slowed down dramatically. I kept running but also kept eating anything and everything I wanted. In ten years I went from 170 pounds to 225 pounds. I was a real pig but didn't realize it because I'm pretty tall.

I woke up one night right after I turned age 50 (2006) with a nosebleed that would not stop. I went to the hospital and my BP was 190/100 & my cholesterol was 300.

The doctor immediately prescribed three BP pills and a cholesterol medicine. He told me I had to take them for as long as I live. Period. He told me if the vessel had burst in my head rather than my nose I would have died.

I immediately quit eating meat and sweets, kept running and lost 50 pounds. Six months later the same doctor told me I no longer needed the pills and that the change was remarkable. Praise God!

Emily wrote:

"If anything i've found that home-schooled children are more vulnerable and fragile when they are finally thrust into the world.
I think govt school provides a natural stepping stone into the world for our young children."

I've never been to Australia so I have no idea what the gov't schools or homeschools are like there.

I am very familiar with the gov't schools in the U.S. and the U.K. and their fruit. They do indeed produce worldly children with a humanist worldview. That's their goal. Good little Godless statists.

I also know MANY homeschooled kids in the U.S. and I assure you that none of them I meet are 'vulnerable' or 'fragile'. All of them are confident, quick learners (colleges here actively recruit them) and able to interact with folks of every age because they haven't been locked away in a room full of kids their own age all day for 12+ years.

Nobody I know who cares enough to homeschool their kids 'thrusts' them into 'the world'. I want my kids to be shocked by the world's sin and wickedness as they grow and learn, no matter what age. Shouldn't that be a Christian parent's goal?

"You've probably heard this before but....
15 "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

Do you really think Jesus was talking about raising kids here? So we should apply this verse to our young children? Send them into a Godless, government run institution for their life training as Christians?

You have got to be kidding me.

Dinwood also wrote:

"Keeping the kids away from flesh and blood does not protect them from rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness etc."

Yes it does. That's the whole idea. You have an obligation to protect them from the wrong influences and expose them to the right ones until they are old enough & preplared to handle it for themselves.

How exactly is sitting isolated in a classroom all day with peers of the same age, background, etc. for years 'living in the world'? Sounds rather Hutterite to me.

My kids spent their days living life, out and about with all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds learning how to function and thrive in the world. And they do! And if you consider the classroom a 'mission field', just what other mission field would you send your 8 or 10 year old into alone? Africa? Downtown Detroit?

Why on earth would you want to send your kids somewhere all day where you have to spend time 're-educating' them after they get home? Think about the absolute absurdity of that. Is that really the wisest way to educate your children?

"Its not me that considers it essential to remove my kids from school because they will become atheists if they go there. Thus implying that the Lord is prevented from applying the grace of saving faith to the children of Christians."

Where did I say that kids will be atheists if they are sent to government schools? They may, they may not. I have, however, seen the results of what the government school produces -even in some Christian families- and it ain't pretty. Children from Christian families should not be instructed in a Godless educational system.

Where did I say that God cannot or will not save someone because they attend a government school? God saves who He will, when He will. I was entrusted with the responsibility of raising my children to follow the Lord and I had no intention of battling a Godless, humanistic school system to accomplish that. My children are too important to me for me to send them into an educational sewer system every day for 12 years.

BTW-I never 'removed' any of my kids from the government schools because they never went to one. We taught all 3 at home all of the way thru and the last one finishes next May.

"Apparently your god will be defeated by school."

That may be the stupidest statement I have ever read on these threads and I've been reading them here for years. Dinwood sounds like a government school "educator".

God gave me (and gives others) children. He gives me strong, clear guidance on how they should be raised in His Word. I have a responsibility to God and to my children to raise them 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord'. I do not send them into crack houses, pool halls, bars or brothels and I certainly don't send them into a government run institution that indoctrinates them all day, every day in the worst of what this world has to offer. They have gun detectors at the entrances with good reason. They drug their victims into submission. They hand them condoms and encourage them to fornicate. They drill a distorted, fallacious view of life and history into them and worst of all they now teach them that sodomy is natural and that sodomites are to be accepted.

I love my children WAY to much to send them anywhere with gun detectors at the door (without me) and I can assure you that the first person that ever handed one of my daughters a condom would have eaten it.

"In previous centuries schools of any description were few and far between, yet God's witness flourished and grew. Praise be to GOD alone for that! - Not the perfect education system!"

In years past children in America were educated in schools within churches or taught at home. The federal government school system is a relatively new concept.

You may believe that there is no 'perfect education system' but it is ridiculous to believe that you can send a child from a Christian home into a classroom for 8 or 10 (sometimes more) hours a day where they are immersed and instructed in the worst of worldly, humanistic philosophy imaginable and expect them to come out unscathed.

The government schools are not just neutral to the things of God, they are outright hostile to them. A government school is no place for a child who's being raised in the ways of the Lord.

"I think that some people are born homosexual."

The fact that you and so many others have been convinced of this lie is the reason the wrong side is winning this war.

The truth is that some people are born with more of a propensity to commit sodomy than others. Because someone is born with a propensity to kill and they CHOOSE to act on it, does that mean they were 'born that way'? That's just crazy. Yet that's what the sodomites & their advocates would have us believe.

Society's (and now the church's) acceptance of this vile behavior is causing more and more of these folks who act on their devilish desires and even to flaunt it. Their particular sin is so filthy and disgusting that God turns those who CHOOSE to engage in it over to their own (and satan's) devices. They actually CHOOSE to identify their entire existence by the fact that they CHOOSE to amuse themselves with other men's digestive tracts. I see them all the time. They have parades and glory in their perversity. They form groups and clubs with other perverts to try and change the rules. They get people fired from their jobs for simply asking that they not be subjected to the details of their disease infested activities.

As a citizen of the country that he's about to be president of, I would like to see legal evidence of his birth on U.S soil. I know for a fact that there are many others who feel the same way.

Being the first black man elected president of the United States does not mean that he is above the Constitution. There is ample reason to question his place of birth. It's not foolishness to ask him to produce proof of it.