[BuddhaRoadkill]

Report: More Kids Being Home-Churched

September 14, 2005 | Issue 41•37 | T.O.

BIRMINGHAM, AL—A new trend in the religious upbringing of children has recently emerged in the heart of the Bible Belt. "Home-churching," the individual, family-based worship of Jesus Christ, is steadily gaining in popularity, as more parents seek an alternative to what they consider the overly humanist content of organized worship.
Enlarge ImageReport: More Kids Being Home-Churched

Biloxi, MS's Lori Williams home-churches her four children.

Norville Tucker, who moved his family to the woods outside Shelby, AL in 1998 to "escape the damaging cultural influences of urban Mobile," is widely credited with pioneering the home-churching movement. Tucker said he was inspired to home-church when his 10-year-old son Macon returned from Sunday school singing a lighthearted song about Zacchaeus, a tax collector befriended by Christ, and then later recited the parable of the Good Samaritan.

"I couldn't believe that the liberal elite had infiltrated even the study of our Holy Scriptures," Tucker said. "It was bad enough that my youngsters were being taught evolution in public schools, but when I discovered they were learning to embrace foreigners and Big Government in Sunday school, I drew the line."

Home-churchers create their own services, emphasizing close readings of Old Testament books led by a parent, and sermons that often exceed two hours. Proponents of home-churching argue that, when handed down by family members, biblical teachings take on a more direct, personal meaning. Additionally, they say home-churching reinforces familial bonds.

"When I open the Good Book and begin to preach, my kids associate all the things they learn about—the floods, the plagues, the impalings, the threat of eternal hellfire—with their daddy," Tucker said.

Many home-churchers say they chose to worship at home because they objected to "licentiousness" within the church social structure.

Chattanooga, TN's Judith May MacAuliffe, who home-churches her family of five, said her frequent complaints about modern church music and coed potluck dinners fell on deaf ears for years. It was only after she discovered that the evangelical summer day camp in which she enrolled her eldest daughters emphasized Frisbee and horseback riding that she made the move to private worship.

"We don't need these born-again evangelists watering down God's fearsome judgment," MacAuliffe said. "It sickened me to think that young Christian boys and girls were sharing canoes, watching occult videos of bewitched talking vegetables, and arranging pieces of macaroni into suggestive patterns in a so-called 'wholesome' setting."

MacAuliffe added: "By separating my children from sinful elements, I can finally teach the lessons of Leviticus in peace, without all this 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone' nonsense."

Critics of the home-churching movement argue that its practitioners deprive children of a well-rounded religious education.

"An untrained theologian is not equipped to address the thornier questions of morality," said Rev. Lawrence Case of Grace Methodist Church in Homestead, FL. "Home-churchers often make their own interpretations of complicated biblical instruction such as 'knowing' daughters, or whether eating a rock-badger is as sinful as eating a regular one."

Home-churchers like Pottsville, AR's Othniel Beebe say that in an increasingly secularized world, "Home worship is the only safe worship."

"My kids don't have to understand everything in the Bible—I don't claim to," Beebe said. "But it ain't my place to question God's will. As long as my Caleb grows up understanding pestilence, sin, massacres, and to eternally fear the wrath of our Lord—and not this warm and fuzzy 'universal brotherhood' crap—then I've done right by Jesus."

 

[valve bouncer]

The Onion? Nice one.

 

[Andyman_1970]

This has got to be a joke..................

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

Norville Tucker, who moved his family to the woods outside Shelby, AL in 1998 to "escape the damaging cultural influences of urban Mobile,"

bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... "urban" Mobile, Alabama????
bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[Changleen]

This has got to be a joke..................

C'est un oignon. Unfortunatly for us it wouldn't be funny if it didn't reflect reality to some degree.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

C'est un oignon. Unfortunatly for us it wouldn't be funny if it didn't reflect reality to some degree.

le sud des etats unis est tres bizarre..... et d´un peruvien, cela est beaucoup.

 

[Andyman_1970]

I struggle with responding to this, because things like this just tend to make me angry and VERY discouraged about the state of Christianity in the US. But what the heck, it’s Friday here goes………….

Also, I know I’m “preaching to the choir” as it were with this audience, but as a Christian when I see obvious false teachings, I feel it a responsibility to correct them, especially to a largely non-Christian audience.

Report: More Kids Being Home-Churched

September 14, 2005 | Issue 41•37 | T.O.

BIRMINGHAM, AL—A new trend in the religious upbringing of children has recently emerged in the heart of the Bible Belt. "Home-churching," the individual, family-based worship of Jesus Christ, is steadily gaining in popularity, as more parents seek an alternative to what they consider the overly humanist content of organized worship.
Enlarge ImageReport: More Kids Being Home-Churched

One note before I tear into my dissection / rant on this: the home church movement has been around for a while, which typically is made up of several families forming a “church’ – most are quite “normal” in their faith, so please understand this article is about a fringe group.

Biloxi, MS's Lori Williams home-churches her four children.

Norville Tucker, who moved his family to the woods outside Shelby, AL in 1998 to "escape the damaging cultural influences of urban Mobile," is widely credited with pioneering the home-churching movement. Tucker said he was inspired to home-church when his 10-year-old son Macon returned from Sunday school singing a lighthearted song about Zacchaeus, a tax collector befriended by Christ, and then later recited the parable of the Good Samaritan.

"I couldn't believe that the liberal elite had infiltrated even the study of our Holy Scriptures," Tucker said. "It was bad enough that my youngsters were being taught evolution in public schools, but when I discovered they were learning to embrace foreigners and Big Government in Sunday school, I drew the line."

Huh, Jesus embraced foreigners, He even ate (which in the 1st century was considered to be a very intimate process, and thus one would not eat with just anyone) with unclean tax collectors, whores, in addition to various rabbi’s of the Pharisee sect – maybe their translation of the Bible doesn’t have those passages in it????

Home-churchers create their own services, emphasizing close readings of Old Testament books led by a parent, and sermons that often exceed two hours. Proponents of home-churching argue that, when handed down by family members, biblical teachings take on a more direct, personal meaning. Additionally, they say home-churching reinforces familial bonds.

"When I open the Good Book and begin to preach, my kids associate all the things they learn about—the floods, the plagues, the impalings, the threat of eternal hellfire—with their daddy," Tucker said.

Many home-churchers say they chose to worship at home because they objected to "licentiousness" within the church social structure.

Yeah churches are just modern whore houses…………….

Chattanooga, TN's Judith May MacAuliffe, who home-churches her family of five, said her frequent complaints about modern church music and coed potluck dinners fell on deaf ears for years. It was only after she discovered that the evangelical summer day camp in which she enrolled her eldest daughters emphasized Frisbee and horseback riding that she made the move to private worship.

Co-ed potluck dinners, at church, I cannot even fathom how an event like that would get Biblically out of control………..it’s not like it’s a rave or anything……..

"We don't need these born-again evangelists watering down God's fearsome judgment," MacAuliffe said. "It sickened me to think that young Christian boys and girls were sharing canoes, watching occult videos of bewitched talking vegetables, and arranging pieces of macaroni into suggestive patterns in a so-called 'wholesome' setting."

God’s fearsome judgment is simultaneously balanced out with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Technically Jesus when speaking about judgment is specifically referring to the religious crowd that should have known the right thing to do (taking care of the poor is one example) but chose not too…………..interesting implication here.

MacAuliffe added: "By separating my children from sinful elements, I can finally teach the lessons of Leviticus in peace, without all this 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone' nonsense."

That’s funny Jesus didn’t separate Himself from sinful elements, nor did the Apostles.

Leviticus…………….rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiigggggggggggghhhhhhhhttttttttttt

Critics of the home-churching movement argue that its practitioners deprive children of a well-rounded religious education.

"An untrained theologian is not equipped to address the thornier questions of morality," said Rev. Lawrence Case of Grace Methodist Church in Homestead, FL. "Home-churchers often make their own interpretations of complicated biblical instruction such as 'knowing' daughters, or whether eating a rock-badger is as sinful as eating a regular one."

Home-churchers like Pottsville, AR's Othniel Beebe say that in an increasingly secularized world, "Home worship is the only safe worship."

"My kids don't have to understand everything in the Bible—I don't claim to," Beebe said. "But it ain't my place to question God's will. As long as my Caleb grows up understanding pestilence, sin, massacres, and to eternally fear the wrath of our Lord—and not this warm and fuzzy 'universal brotherhood' crap—then I've done right by Jesus."

This kind of stuff greatly concerns me as a Christian, especially those who openly teach the Bible but yet revel in their support of anti-intellectualism and the context in which the Bible was written and this is my major reason why.

When the Bible are divorced of the historical, cultural and linguistic context in which they were written a dangerous "space" of understanding is created for people to remake Jesus into whatever they decide He should be.

This happened in the 20’s and 30’s in Germany. The German theologians at the time were so “gun shy” of perusing the historical aspect of Jesus because of the likes of Albert Schweitzer and such that they totally denied the historical aspect of Jesus and the Bible. Instead they formed their understanding on ideas and docrtrines like Karl Barth’s church Dogmatics and Rudolf Bultman’s existential theology. This denial of the historical aspect of Jesus and the Bible resulted in this “space” of understanding for the Nazi ideology to take hold in which they remade Jesus to fit their Arian mold – so much so that they declared Jesus was not particularly Jewish so much so they taught He was anti-Jewish – according to Ernst Käsemann's speech in 1953.

 

[narlus]

andy, it was from theonion.com; it's a spoof.

 

[H8R]

I struggle with responding to this, because things like this just tend to make me angry and VERY discouraged about the state of Christianity in the US. But what the heck, it’s Friday here goes………….

Also, I know I’m “preaching to the choir” as it were with this audience, but as a Christian when I see obvious false teachings, I feel it a responsibility to correct them, especially to a largely non-Christian audience.



One note before I tear into my dissection / rant on this: the home church movement has been around for a while, which typically is made up of several families forming a “church’ – most are quite “normal” in their faith, so please understand this article is about a fringe group.



Huh, Jesus embraced foreigners, He even ate (which in the 1st century was considered to be a very intimate process, and thus one would not eat with just anyone) with unclean tax collectors, whores, in addition to various rabbi’s of the Pharisee sect – maybe their translation of the Bible doesn’t have those passages in it????



Yeah churches are just modern whore houses…………….



Co-ed potluck dinners, at church, I cannot even fathom how an event like that would get Biblically out of control………..it’s not like it’s a rave or anything……..



God’s fearsome judgment is simultaneously balanced out with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Technically Jesus when speaking about judgment is specifically referring to the religious crowd that should have known the right thing to do (taking care of the poor is one example) but chose not too…………..interesting implication here.



That’s funny Jesus didn’t separate Himself from sinful elements, nor did the Apostles.

Leviticus…………….rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiigggggggggggghhhhhhhhttttttttttt



This kind of stuff greatly concerns me as a Christian, especially those who openly teach the Bible but yet revel in their support of anti-intellectualism and the context in which the Bible was written and this is my major reason why.

When the Bible are divorced of the historical, cultural and linguistic context in which they were written a dangerous "space" of understanding is created for people to remake Jesus into whatever they decide He should be.

This happened in the 20’s and 30’s in Germany. The German theologians at the time were so “gun shy” of perusing the historical aspect of Jesus because of the likes of Albert Schweitzer and such that they totally denied the historical aspect of Jesus and the Bible. Instead they formed their understanding on ideas and docrtrines like Karl Barth’s church Dogmatics and Rudolf Bultman’s existential theology. This denial of the historical aspect of Jesus and the Bible resulted in this “space” of understanding for the Nazi ideology to take hold in which they remade Jesus to fit their Arian mold – so much so that they declared Jesus was not particularly Jewish so much so they taught He was anti-Jewish – according to Ernst Käsemann's speech in 1953.

Dude.

 

[Andyman_1970]

andy, it was from theonion.com; it's a spoof.

:

Anyway, you fellas have a good Friday (as I back slowly out of the room and close the door quietly..........)

 

[narlus]

then again, the onion did an editorial (F it, we're going to 5 blades) about gillette one-up'ing schick. total piss-take, adn very funny.

and now life imitates The Onion.

 

[Ciaran]

The onion's great. They once ran a story about the medieval recreation group I am in...

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29464

Society For Creative Anachronism Seizes Control Of Russia

May 26, 1999 | Issue 35?20

MOSCOW?Official reports from the Kremlin Tuesday confirmed that the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of medieval-wargames hobbyists, seized control of Russia in a bloodless coup over the weekend.

SCA members guard the recently seized St. Basil's Cathedral.

"Weakened by food shortages, political instability and widespread economic chaos, our military's combined forces proved no match for the enemy's rattan-and-duct-tape broadswords and homemade weaponry," said deposed Russian president Boris Yeltsin during a national radio address in which he relinquished rulership to the "Principality Of The Mists," one of several dozen SCA "kingdoms."

"I can't tell you how humiliating this is," he added.

The SCA, founded in 1966 by a group of Berkeley science-fiction and fantasy fans, is a non-profit organization dedicated to fun and learning through such medieval activities as metalwork, calligraphy, lute-playing and brewing. Boasting more than 20,000 dues-paying members in 14 countries, the club is also known for holding elaborately staged mock battles, followed by feasting and merrymaking amid the revelry of troubadours and jesters.

The seizure of over 70% of Russia's land mass marks the first time the SCA has ventured into the arena of international politics.

"I can't believe how easy it was to claim Kiev for the Kingdom Of Ealdormere," said Royal Peer Gawain Falconsfyre, a 44-year-old tech-support assistant from a suburb of Toronto. "It was a piece of cake. Haven't any of these Russians ever heard of a moving-shield-wall offense?"

Falconsfire and an SCA faction armed only with rubber maces successfully captured two Russian tank divisions outside Moscow Saturday when fuel shortages immobilized the armored vehicles.

Due to the disarray of communications within Russia, information regarding the actual invasion is sketchy. It was confirmed, however, that St. Petersburg was taken without a shot being fired late Saturday morning, after thousands of Russian soldiers deserted their posts, joining approximately 70 SCA knights advancing on the city in hopes of being issued new boots and coats.

The SCA also overtook vast areas at the borders of former Russian republics Ukraine and Belarus simply by trading several sacks of potatoes for enemy guns.

Former president Boris Yeltsin transferring control of Russia to Grand Seneschal Ulf Silverhawk.

"Forsooth, mine legions of brave warmakers hath conquered the Lands West O' the Urals! Let there be great rejoicing in our noble victory!" exclaimed Cedric, Bard of the House of Æthelmearc, 36, hoisting a flagon of ale. "What, ho! Bring on the serving wenches!"

Cedric, known as Harold Freed when among non-SCA members, is credited with capturing two military air bases and a string of missile installations throughout the north Caucasus region along the Georgian border?an area rendered vulnerable by ethnic infighting, corruption and military anarchy.

SCA leaders, who have called the weekend's campaign "a really good time," were said to be especially pleased with the invasion's early wrap-up, as it left the remainder of the weekend free for social recreation in the form of mead-drinking, archery contests, and the singing of bawdy madrigals.

Even captured Russian soldiers were invited to join in the fun and campfire dancing. Such "good sportsmanship" has some analysts arguing that the SCA's power base in Russia may even benefit the troubled land in the long run.

"Though civilian rioting and widespread starvation still rock the major population centers, Russia is actually more stable right now than it has been for the last 18 months," Harvard political science professor F. Horace Gunderson said. "Candle-dipping seminars are addressing the problems posed by energy shortages, and the booths selling roasted turkey legs represent, in many regions, the first source of food in weeks."

"This could be the best thing to happen to Russia in years," agreed State Department foreign-affairs analyst Howard Plum. "The sale of jewelry, driftwood art and other medieval handcrafting at concession tables throughout Russia has boosted local economies, and SCA presence has even created new jobs in the custodial and campground-rental fields."

The U.N. security council is drafting a proposal urging SCA forces to remain in Russia, at least until a more viable interim government can be structured.

"Under the current political system, the Russian people face Mafia domination of the black market and a deteriorating national infrastructure," U.N. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering said. "With an elaborately networked consortium of amateur gamers in charge, however, there will at least be some semblance of order."

Members of SCA nobility, however, say the group has no interest in running Russia for any great length of time, especially with the members' need to prepare for their next major event, this summer's Pennsic War between the East and Middle Kingdoms, to be held in Pennsylvania. Insiders expect the occupying forces to return power to the Russian government "on the honor system" and return to their day jobs by the end of the week.

"We're doing this for fun, not the vulgar acquisition of personal political power," said insurance actuary and Arizona native Willownook Pendragon, of the Kingdom of Atenveldt. "We're here to celebrate our mutual interest in the ways and customs of pre-1600 feudal Europe, and to bedeck ourselves in the heraldic regalia of our fictional medieval personas, not to get mixed up in politics."

Pendragon added that "anyone who wants to have a fun time and make new friends" should check out the SCA home page or contact the group's California headquarters directly at its toll-free number for more information on an SCA chapter in their area.

"We're really just friendly folks who welcome outsiders," Pendragon said. "Plus, now is a great time to get involved, because there's lots of super events coming up this summer, and you'll want time to prepare the correct blazon for your heraldry."