In light of the newest viral video, the question we should be asking is: Are parents wrong to worry about what their children are being taught in schools?

Is it really valid to accuse parents who home school of "child abuse" for not wanting them exposed to outside influences?

Is it unreasonable to state that teachers have a high potential of passing on their own ideologies to their students?

... DO PEOPLE REALLY THINK ALL'S WELL IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS, that the problems with our public schools can be fixed merely with more funding? Why do Democrats oppose conservatives' expectations for teachers to teach only fundamental academics in public schools?

And why aren't we honest enough to admit the answers, even to ourselves?

I thought my week from Hell was over LAST week, but apparently, since I had a long weekend, it decided to carry over into this one.

So, last week, I found out that the battery in my phone occasionally comes off the connection. How did I find this out? When my alarm failed to go off and I overslept, coming into work late on a VERY busy day.

Next day: throughout the morning, I'd had minor bleeding, ended up going to labor and delivery to make sure Liam was still okay. By the time I got there, not only had the bleeding stopped (it had been going on for over 5 hours by that point), but there wasn't even any EVIDENCE of it. So I looked like a total tool just trying to get out of work early, despite the fact that I hate medical and usually don't go unless I'm directly ordered to.

Then today, I headed out the door 15 minutes early... and my car wouldn't start. So I had to take our second car, which -- besides missing the knob on the gearshift, being badly out of alignment and having a broken gas gauge -- didn't have the proper tags to get on base. Then, since it was raining, the commute that normally takes 45 minutes took over 2 hours. Getting a temporary tag for the car took another half hour. I finally got to work three hours late only to realize... I WAS IN THE WRONG UNIFORM. Also, I'd left my PT gear in MY car, so I had to stay two hours late.

Seriously. Please just let me get through this week without any more trouble.

Well, Obama's speech to American church leaders couldn't have been at a more fortunate time for the purposes of this post.

In my last entry I hope I made a decent effort to outline some of the mandates Christians have over their practical lives. Some people may bristle at the idea that a relationship with God would include anything that might fit the language of a "mandate," but Jesus' words make it clear that God expects certain things of us -- He does not expect us to do them alone, but He does expect us to do them. And since I believe in a rational God, in One who does not ask of us or arbitrary demands, I believe He gives us the answer when we ask WHY we must do such things.

For one thing, He asks us to help others because it humbles us. Anyone who has ever washed the feet of a stranger, offered Communion at church, fed dinner to the homeless, or visited the sick or imprisoned, knows what a humbling experience it is. It reminds us in a very immediate, visceral way that our blessings come by no action of our own.

Secondly, He asks us to do them because they remind us of His nature. We were poor, and He made us rich; hungry, and He fed us; naked, and were clothed; sick, and were healed. God is ever seeking for the very best for His children, even when we have done much to deserve the worst, just as He asks us to bring about the best in a fallen world, to show others in some small way how He loves them.

Thirdly, He asks us to do them to strengthen His church. There are few relationships as strong, as enduring, as equal as that between two missionaries who have together attended those in need. I have the very great pleasure of knowing a woman called to lifelong missionary work in Papua New Guinea; the love she has for the Guinnean people is matched only by the love she has for her compatriots. They labor together, get sick together, go hungry together, rejoice together, as a model for others to see of the mutual and perfect love of Christ.

The very last, and most minor thing God asks of us is to better society. Why do I say the last? Because God knows who the wealthy and the poor are, that they are made by Him, and that their needs are neither better nor worse than the other; merely different. In fact, if Jesus' teachings are to be followed, we are to conclude that the rich are often worse off than the poor in the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells us, "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me." He knew that poverty is the permanent state of the fallen world which we occupy; that the poor will always exist, regardless of our attempts to eradicate poverty.

And things brings me to my point. Obama and Christian Democrats would like us to believe that our responsibility to the poor begins and ends with making them no longer poor; that our mandate to be "our brother's keeper" extends only insofar as keeping his bank accounts. This is simply not the case. And while it is true that we are mandated to meet our brothers' physical needs when we can, we must do so in ways that address him as a whole person -- a spirit, a soul and a body, each with needs particular to who he is as an individual. In this is the love of Christ.

Tell me, what government program is going to do that?

We miss the point when we simply shuffle off our responsibilities onto the government -- and disaster is often the result. We missed the point on poverty and welfare came about; we now have more impoverished among us than before. We missed the point on helping the elderly; now, social security is leaving them bankrupt and death taxes are leaving their families in even greater mourning. We missed the point on the orphans and social services leave thousands of children in spiritually impoverished families where they are left hopeless. Will we miss the point on the sick, too? What will become of Christian ministry to the sick if we simply say, "Let the government do it"? What will become of Catholic and Christian hospitals, many of which operate on charity? What will become of physicians offering services for free as part of their Christian duties?

Is government going to offer ministry at a bedside table to a terminal patient -- or will his "end-of-life" counselor be there? Is government going to be a personal face to the ill to say, "I am here for you"? Or is this simply another excuse for Christians to say, "I gave at the office" and slip further and further from Christ's example in our lives?