The author may have legitimate concern when the philosophy of the
Good News Club differs from her own, that is, if she encourages
sheltering her children. But she equates the Supreme Court ruling
about the clubs with slavery, discrimination and even
Japanese-American internment camps. This is a rhetorical punch that
can be made on both sides of the argument. In the polis, the law is
what we go by in civil action. Her attacks in this regard should be
toward her own Supreme Court, not faulting the Good News Clubs.
The author is also concerned about the Good News Clubs
proselytizing young people. But where are the parents in all of this?
If parents don't want their children in the clubs, then they should
say keep them out. In addition, aren't parents supposed to be talking
with their children about the things they learn each day? If children
are impressionable to the Good News Club, they are even more
impressionable to their own parents who are supposed to be spending
time with their kids.
My hunch is that the Good News Club sounds much better than
allowing the television to baby-sit our kids in the afternoons which
too often happens. Many parents send their kids to Good News Clubs
because it is one of the few places left in our society where
children can actually receive moral teaching, especially for families
that cannot afford private education. Many parents are grateful for
this, Christian or otherwise.
In addition, the author is concerned that the public school is a
new location to recruit children. But the school has already become
an arena to recruit children in the ideas of an atheistic secularism
in their classroom. Anyone with an amateur understanding in
philosophy would know that it is so. There is no neutral ground; and
let's not pretend there is. Besides, isn't it a virtue today to be
open-minded? Why do we want to shelter our children from a wider view
of knowledge?
With the oncoming force of postmodernism and spirituality in our
culture, I think it is healthy for parents to move into the 21st
Century and discover that it is good for our children to be exposed
to spiritual things. Our children may actually grow up more adjusted.
Don't forget, it was Ted Bundy who claimed that he murdered 40 women
because he couldn't justify the value of human life based on his
secular education.
I think none of us should underestimate the power of ideas. We
cannot avoid them. What we should be doing is allowing our children
to learn to think by exposing them to different ideas and engaging
