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Let My Children Go! – E.
Ray Moore’s Exodus Mandate
By Theresa Fritz Camoriano
 The most exciting project I saw at the Freedom 21 Conference was
Rev. Moore’s Exodus Mandate project, in which he is encouraging Christians to
remove their children from “Pharaoh’s schools”. E. Ray Moore, Jr. has been a
pastor, a Director of a Christian ministry, and a U.S. Army Reserve Chaplain
(Lt. Colonel). He is a veteran of the Gulf War. He and his wife were the first
home schooling family in Indiana in 1977, and they successfully home schooled
all their children. Moore says Christians should recognize that they have lost
the culture war when it comes to government schools, and they should not attempt
to take control of Pharaoh’s schools, which will always be dominated by the
government. Instead, in order to fulfill their responsibility to educate their
children, Christian parents must remove their children from Pharoah’s godless
institutions and educate them in an environment that is based on a Christian
worldview.
Many leaders agree with Moore. For example, Dr. Dobson and Dr. Laura Schlesinger
have called for parents to remove their children from the government schools.
Joseph Farrah of World Net Daily has also recommended removing children from the
government schools as being an important step for “taking back America”.
Marshall Fritz, founder of the Separation of School and State Alliance, has been
promoting the same agenda, but coming from a Catholic and libertarian point of
view rather than from an evangelical Christian perspective.
In his book, Let My Children go: Why Parents Must Remove Their Children From
Public Schools NOW, Moore makes his case very clearly. He explains that, when
our country was founded, the education of children was the responsibility of
parents, with the help and support of the church, and this model functioned very
well and was in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. He also explains how
Horace Mann, a Unitarian (not a Trinitarian), began the movement toward
government schools. “The state simply started funding the Christian schools and
shortly thereafter took over their administration as well.” Mann’s plan included
three parts:
1. Compulsory attendance
2. Teacher certification by the state
3. Schools to be owned and operated by the state.
As I was talking with Col. Moore, he noted that he often tells people that the
Unitarian church has now become the largest denomination in the country, thanks
to the government school system! Moore says that Christians are wrong to try to
reform the government schools or to take control of them. Those efforts can only
fail. The only real prospect for Christian parents to carry out their
responsibility of raising and educating their children is to get them out of
Pharoah’s schools and into home schools or Christian schools, where parents have
control. Moore says that atheists, secular humanists, and others with various
world views that are destructive to Christian beliefs can continue to educate
their children in the government schools, which they control, or they can create
their own schools to teach their beliefs, but Christian parents should stop
giving them control over Christian children.
Moore points out that all education involves teaching a world view or religion.
It is not possible to segregate education into secular and religious parts,
because true education always involves questions such as: “Who am I?” “How did I
come to be?” “Does my life have a purpose?” Today’s schools give the secular
humanist answer: “I am a being exclusively of flesh and blood, the product… of a
naturalistic evolutionary process, who exists in the present to service the
global economy – and I have no soul with an eternal destiny.” Therefore,
Moore
contends that state-run schools are religious, albeit not Christian. So much for
the separation of church and state!
Not only does Moore have the task of convincing Christians to remove their
children from Pharaoh’s schools, but he also tries to help them avoid the
“minefields” along the way. These minefields include tax-funded vouchers,
charter schools, government certification of Christian teachers, and character
education. Moore says all these options involve Christians making concessions to
the secular humanist worldview. Moore also responds to the various objections he
has faced. For example, many Christians say they should send their children to
the government schools to be “salt and light for the world.” Moore responds that
children are not yet strong enough to advocate for Christ and have not yet
learned enough to be put in the position of advocates. Instead, they are
essentially being thrown to the wolves. Many parents say it is too expensive to
educate children outside of the “free” government schools, but we appreciate
most the things we have to work for, and we can conserve in other areas if
education is a priority for us. Also, other family members, such as grandparents
and aunts and uncles can help. Pastors should make their facilities available
for education and perhaps can help create scholarship funds. Also, businesses
can help provide funding for good education. Many people are concerned about the
socialization of home schooled children, but they turn out to be the best
socialized, learning to be self-starters, independent thinkers, and to work with
people of all ages. There is also concern about privately educating children
from poor families. Moore says that Christian families and churches will need to
work to meet the needs of children from poor families. He also notes that
Catholic churches have been very successful at providing education to poor
children in their parish schools.
Moore’s book is well worth reading and can be ordered from his website.
There is
also a video that can be ordered and shown to interested groups. If you are
interested in helping Col. Moore’s effort, he has suggestions on his website of
ways that you can help. Anyone who is concerned about raising children with
values, and anyone who believes there should be a separation between church and
state should take Col. Moore’s project very seriously.
See also:
Let my children go – the Exodus Project
http://www.lewrockwell.com/yates/yates35.html
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