Case for Homeschooling - Exhibit 4

Time for another example of why my wife and I will be homeschooling our children. This one is about proponents of homosexuality pushing their agenda on to kindergarten children (yes, 5 year old children). This example comes from California (surprise, surprise!). I quote this article from the WorldNetDaily:

School holds surprise 'Gay' Day for kindergartners
Parents outraged at public elementary's secretive 'coming out' event
Posted: October 22, 2008 @ 9:34 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Some parents are shocked to find their children are learning to be homosexual allies and will participate in "Coming Out Day" at a public elementary school tomorrow – and they claim the school failed to notify parents.

One mother of a kindergartner who attends Faith Ringgold School of Art and Science, a K-8 charter school in Hayward, Calif., said she asked her 5-year-old daughter what she was learning at school.

The little girl replied, "We're learning to be allies."

The mother also said a Gay Straight Alliance club regularly meets in the kindergarten classroom during lunch.

According to a Pacific Justice Institute report, Faith Ringgold opted not to inform the parents of its pro-homosexual activities beforehand. The school is celebrating "Gay and Lesbian History Month" and is in the process of observing "Ally Week," a pro-"gay" occasion usually geared toward high school students.

The school is scheduled to host discussions about families and has posted fliers on school grounds portraying only homosexuals. According to the report, a "TransAction Gender-Bender Read-Aloud" will take place Nov. 20. Students will listen to traditional stories with "gay" or transgender twists, to include "Jane and the Beanstalk."

Some parents only recently noticed posters promoting the school's "Coming Out Day" tomorrow – celebrated 12 days after the national "Coming Out Day" usually observed on Oct. 11. When WND contacted the school to confirm the event, a female representative replied, "Yes, it is scheduled on our calendar."

When asked if the school made any efforts to inform parents, she refused to answer and said Hayward Unified School District would have to respond to additional questions. However, the district did not answer its phones or e-mails, and a voicemail recording would not take messages. "Coming Out Day" is not listed on the district's online school calendar.

Some of the parents contacted Pacific Justice Institute for representation when they learned the school was pushing pro-"gay" events for young children without warning.

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said opponents of California's proposed ban on same-sex marriage, or Proposition 8, often say the measure would not have an effect on public schools – but this is one of many recent developments that prove otherwise.

"Do we need any further proof that gay activists will target children as early as possible?" he asked. "Opponents of traditional marriage keep telling us that Prop. 8 has nothing to do with education. In reality, they want to push the gay lifestyle on kindergartners, and we can only imagine how much worse it will be if Prop. 8 is defeated. This is not a scenario most Californians want replayed in their elementary schools."

Concerned individuals may contact Faith Ringgold School of Art and Science by e-mailing Principal Diana Levy or calling (510) 889-7399. The Hayward Unified School District can be reached at (510)784-2600 or by filling out the district contact form.

Don't think for a moment that this sort of this couldn't happen at your school! Let me throw this question out to you, considering how many of the proponents of the homosexual agenda seek to keep parents in the dark, how do you know it's not already taking place in your local government school!?!?

Christmas Greetings from Father Corapi

A message from Father John Corapi:

A Christmas Greeting
The blessed and joyous time of Christmas is here again. So, I’ll just take the opportunity to thank all of our viewing and listening family for allowing us into your homes. I don’t take that for granted. I am honestly grateful to you for allowing us to serve you in that way.

As I look out the windows of my home in Montana it sure is “beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” We have about a foot of snow and it’s been below zero for about ten days. Two of my dogs are under my desk with their heads resting on my feet--looking like those big fuzzy slippers that little kids sometimes wear.

Christmas is, of course, the best time to recall that Jesus, the Son of God, in fact was born in a poor stable or cave on a cold night—“for us men, and for our salvation.” Amidst the escalating uncertainty and chaos of the modern world we must sit still for a moment and remember what really matters.

In recent years major corporations have been vaporized in the twinkling of an eye. It’s a sign of the times, but recall that what really matters is that it was the twinkling of a star that led shepherds and wise men to the One who is the Light of the world.

In recent years the biggest accounting firm in the world ceased to be over night. They don’t account for anything today, but it honestly doesn’t matter. What really matters is that on a cold night two millennia ago the God who loves us was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger by the Mother who loves Him.

In recent years the unthinkable has happened--major banks and financial institutions have ceased to be. That doesn’t matter either because the truly unthinkable happened on the first Christmas Eve long ago when the God who always was and will never cease to be came to show us the depth and breadth of His love.

In recent years I have been accused of being a “prophet of doom, and a pessimist.” I can understand this criticism, but it really isn’t true. I am a realist, and as a priest and Catholic/Christian of necessity must share in the prophetic dimension of Christ. The United States, and the entire world for the most part, is in many ways precipitating its own demise. That matters, and we must do all we can to “fight the good fight,” but what truly matters is the state of your soul and mine because in the end that will determine how we live forever, and compared to that nothing else really matters.

Things may go from bad to worse. It may well go from uncomfortable to dangerous to live your Catholic/Christian faith in a world unraveling rapidly due to one bad moral choice after the other. Remember that it will not be the first time if Christians are persecuted, even imprisoned and executed. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” The Western world is too fat and lazy, in the secular order and even in the religious. Perhaps a jolly good persecution may be what it takes for people to decide to live their faith, rather than go along with what they know to be a sick society.

In any event, don’t let it get you down. Whatever happens, stay close to Jesus and Mary. Remember that our God is not against you. He is for you, and He will be with you through all of the ups and downs of life. He will be with you in sickness and in health; in good times and in bad; and when death comes knocking at your door He will be there to comfort you and lead you safely home. Having fought the good fight and run the race to the finish line, you will surely hear those beautiful words:

“WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT! NOW AT LAST ENTER INTO THE JOY OF YOUR MASTER’S HOUSE.”

A most blessed and merry Christmas and a holy, happy, and healthy New Year to each and all of you!

Fr. John Corapi

See also Fr. John Corapi's Television Schedule.

The Intentions of Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for December 2008

General Prayer Intention:

"That, faced with the expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and missionary activities."

Missionary Prayer Intention:

"That, especially in mission countries, Christians may show through gestures of kindness that the Child born in Bethlehem is the Hope of the world."

REFLECTIONS ON POPE BENEDICT XVI'S
MONTHLY INTENTIONS

December 2008

The Apostleship of Prayer receives monthly prayer intentions from Pope Benedict XVI and urges Christians throughout the world to unite in prayer for those intentions. The reflections below seek to illuminate the Holy Father's concerns.


General Intention:

Culture of Life. That, faced with the expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and missionary activities.

Pope Benedict XVI asks us to pray for the culture of life - specifically, that the Church may effectively promote life through its activities. Prayer for the culture of life is urgent because the culture of violence and death is growing.

The culture of death is based on the idea that humans are something less than beings in the image of God, unique creatures so loved by their Creator that he took flesh and died to restore us to friendship with himself. When a society loses this belief in the inestimable value of each person, the culture of death creeps in.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in its discussion of the fifth commandment, "You shall not kill," specifically condemns murder, abortion, euthanasia, genocide, wars that are not necessary for defense, slavery, racism, sexism, torture, abuse, suicide, and all other acts that degrade or victimize people (2258-2317).

Although its moral vision has sharpened throughout history, the Church has always condemned the practices of the culture of death. The truth we uphold is that God is Love and Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Jesus both affirmed and reversed the negative "thou shalt not" of the fifth commandment by giving us the positive commandment to love others and do good to them, even to the least of them, even to our enemies. We are to love, protect, and serve all who are vulnerable, including the unborn, young, old, ill, handicapped, weak, hurting, outcast, and oppressed.

This month we pray that the whole Church may promote the culture of life and be a true light to our darkening world.

Reflection:
Because we are sinners, we all have done things or have attitudes that are opposed to the culture of life. How do you think God wants to change you?.

Reading:
Matthew 5:21-22 - You have heard that it was said to the men of old, "You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment." But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."


Mission Intention:

Fraternal Witness. That, especially in mission countries, Christians may show through gestures of kindness that the Child born in Bethlehem is the Hope of the world.

This month the Pope offers us a Christmas intention that emphasizes again that Christians ought to be doers and not just hearers of the Word of God. We are to pray that all Christians will show by actions as well as words that the Child born in Bethlehem is the true Hope of the world.

What actions? "Gestures of kindness," says the Holy Father. What is the message? That God became a human being, a fragile child born into a world torn by sin and strife. God was never indifferent to our plight, but chose in one person at one time and in one place to manifest his Love. Previously God spoke through the prophets; this time he spoke through a gesture, his own appearance in the flesh.

In so doing, he unites himself with every person. Jesus was like us in all things, except sin. He walked among us and spoke God's own words. But then in another incomprehensible gesture of kindness toward us, he offered himself as an innocent sacrifice for our eternal life. Now "each one of us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God 'loved me and gave himself up for me' (Galatians 2:20)" (Gaudiem et Spes, 26).

Gaudiem et Spes (Joy and Hope) was approved by the bishops at the end of the great Church council of the 1960s. The document speaks eloquently about the Hope that extends from Bethlehem to our own world today. "By suffering for us he not only provided us with an example for our imitation, he blazed a trail, and if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on new meaning" (27).

"Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from his gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by his death; he lavished life upon us so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit: Abba, Father" (33, 34).

By the power of that same Spirit of Christ, may Christians everywhere reflect their great Hope by "gestures of kindness," gestures small and large, expressing genuine love for others, forgetful of ourselves.

Reflection:
Through what gesture of kindness will you express your faith that the Child born in Bethlehem is the Hope of the world?

Reading:
Mark 9:36-37 - Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me."


Prayer of the Month

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life.
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.

--concluding prayer of Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life)