When I was a teenager, I was very involved in my (Methodist) youth group. It was a wonderful time in my spiritual life, and I am very thankful for all the things I learned during that time. I think there are many Christian adults today who can look back at their time in high school youth group as a time of spiritual growth and advancement. Yet I have to admit that I have for a long time had an uneasy feeling about the culture of youth ministry within the church.

My concerns revolve around two common aspects of many youth groups: the lack of parental involvement and the “consumer” mentality of many of these groups. The fault for the first problem often does not lie with the youth ministers, but with the parents, who consider the parish’s youth group a means to “outsource” their duties to raise their kids Catholic. I’ve known many youth ministers who practically beg parents to get involved to no avail.

But the origin of the other problem – the “consumer” mentality of youth ministry – I think falls more closely to the nature of modern youth ministry itself. I recently ran across an article (entitled “I think I’m doing youth ministry all wrong“) by Tim Schmoyer, a youth minister who articulates my concerns quite nicely (emphasis added):

Despite knowing otherwise in my head, the way I actually lead my church’s youth ministry is mostly from the mentality that our youth ministry is a program or service we provide to families. It’s almost like I’m unintentionally feeding the consumeristic perspective by sometimes using language like, “We offer small groups…” and, “We provide connection points for your teens…” Since when was ministry ever supposed to be about what a paid staff member and a couple adult volunteers are expected to spiritually provide for teens and families?

Youth ministry should not be about how the church can serve the youth or even how we can provide programs that help them grow spiritually. That’s the parents’ responsibility. In fact, I don’t think youth ministry should even accidentally enable parents to outsource their God-given responsibility to us, something I know my ministry is all too guilty of. Support parents, yes, but enable them to outsource? No.

The Greek word for “church” is literally “ekklesia,” a community of believers who are “called out” to serve and edify each other and the people around them.

Instead of fueling the consumerism mentality of what a church “offers” or “provides” and which church in town does it best, youth ministry should probably be about helping teens use their God-given gifts to serve the body. It should teach families that youth ministry isn’t just about what the church does for them, but that they are “called out” to think beyond themselves with a servant’s heart. I bet teen church drop-outs would decrease if they actually served as a valuable and essential part of the local body of Christ.

Note the first section I highlighted: it is the parents’ responsibility to help their children grow spiritually. This cannot be out-sourced. A youth program’s purpose is to simply assist the parents in this task. But it is not the job of the youth program to “sell church” to teenagers. It is to give teens an outlet for practicing the faith that has already been imparted by the parents to them.

I recognize of course that in the real world many, many parents are not doing this job, and many youth ministers are heroically trying to fill that gap as best they can. But no matter what, the focus of youth ministry should be less about making the Church conform to the desires of teenagers as it is making teenagers conform to the demands of the Church.

Another German reader takes issue with my support for asylum for a German homeschooling family. He writes:

In Germany we do not tolerate any kind of extremists – neither left nor right nor religious ones. As traditional christian schools seem to actually not be christian enough for this family, my only guess is that they want to indoctrinate their children with stong xenophobic values.

I am happy that our judges forbade this. We don’t allow fundamentlistic muslims to indoctrinate their children either so why should we allow Christians? Parallel societies never led to anything good in our history – so why should we help those who want to start them? If it was only about Christian values then I must say it is something the parents could have taught their children after the normal school as well (which ends at around noon in the first grades).

And just because the law was written when the Nazis were ruling our country (which it was) it doesn’t mean that the law itself may not make sense. Nobody is arguing whether it makes sense to have motorways either despite them having been built mostly to enable the war machinery to go quickly from east to west.

It seems clear to me that Germans have a much different view of extremism, schooling and freedom than (most) Americans do. A few specific points:

Why assume these people are “extremists”? He seems to define them as extremists simply because they want to homeschool. That makes millions of American families and countless other families throughout the world through the ages “extremists”. Extremism as a descriptive term is completely subjective: it simply means someone who significantly disagrees with you. Perhaps they think you are an extremist: should they be able to tell you how to raise your children?

Our German friend further states that because this family wants to homeschool “my only guess is that they want to indoctrinate their children with stong xenophobic values”. That is quite an illogical leap. Many, many people in this country who are non-religious (or, as he would say, “non-extremist”) choose to homeschool simply because they find it is a superior educational method to institutional schools. One may disagree with this assessment (although many studies would support it), but one cannot dismiss it outright, considering homeschooling has been with us since the beginning of time and has produced some of the world’s greatest intellects. Assuming homeschooling=indoctrination is simply a coded way of saying that you don’t agree with what these parents believe and you want to prevent them from teaching it to their children. This is one very small step from just taking children away from their parents who don’t support the beliefs of the majority mob.

Finally, a point about freedom. In a truly free society, you must allow a wide multitude of beliefs and practices. Some you may find distasteful, but that is the cost of freedom. Unless they are advocating a truly criminal behavior (such as assassination or other types of violence), they should be allowed. And yes, this means practicing Christians, Muslims and other religious people. But perhaps that is too “extreme” for modern Germany.

The German homeschooling family I blogged about has been granted political asylum!

However, at least one of my German readers would be perfectly happy with restricting the freedom of those he doesn’t agree with.

Many people don’t know that homeschooling is illegal in Germany. It seems absurd that a developed, democratic nation would ban homeschooling outright, yet it is true. The draconian Deutschland laws actually date back to the Nazi era when the government wanted complete control in how children were educated indoctrinated (thus making this a case in which Godwin’s Law doesn’t apply).

A German couple who wanted to homeschool found out the hard way that Germany still intends to enforce this law. Persecuted by German authorities, they fled the country for America back in 2008. Now it looks like they might be granted political asylum:

In what could be a major international embarrassment for Germany a federal immigration judge in Memphis Tennessee is expected to rule this Wednesday on the political asylum case of the Romeike family who fled persecution by German authorities over homeschooling in August 2008.

“The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has dramatically intensified,” said HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. “They are regularly fined thousands of dollars, threatened with imprisonment, or have the custody of their children taken away simply because they choose to home educate.”

It’s for these reasons that the Romeikes fled Germany and with the help of HSLDA filed for political asylum in the United States.

Uwe Romeike, a music teacher, and his wife Hannelore, have five children. “The freedom we have to homeschool our children in Tennessee is wonderful. We don’t have to worry about looking over our shoulder anymore wondering when the youth welfare officials will come or how much money we have to pay in fines,” said Mrs. Romeike.

“We left family members, our home, and a wonderful community in Germany, but the well-being of our children made it necessary,” said Mr. Romeike.

“If the political asylum application is granted it will be the first time America has ever granted political asylum to Christian homeschoolers fleeing from German persecution,” said Donnelly.

Pray for the Romeike family that they might be able to be the primary educators of their children in the manner in which they choose.

The good news: New Hampshire shot down an onerous bill that would have placed draconian restrictions on homeschoolers.

The bad news: The chattering classes still look upon homeschoolers like they are aliens with three heads.

In the Harry Potter books, there is a professor called “Mad-Eye Moody” whose experience fighting dark wizards has made him completely paranoid; he sees dark wizards almost everywhere. His refrain to the students is “Constant vigilance!” Although most of the students see him as a bit of a crank, in the end he is correct, as dark wizards are often looming around the corner trying to harm those who are fighting for good.

My wife and I have taken up Mad-Eye’s motto for the raising of our children. The sad fact is that today there are many forces that wish to attack our children and corrupt them with the values of this world, instead of the values of the Gospel. Two generations ago, Catholic parents could be somewhat relaxed about parenting because there were many other parents who were teaching their kids the same values, and they could trust their parish and parish school to do likewise.

However, the generation previous to mine had the misfortune of maintaining this trust in institutions yet having those same institutions (parish, school, and neighborhood) fail them greatly. There were many parents who sent their kids to the local parish or Catholic school in the 1970′s and 1980′s expecting them to get a Catholic education, yet discovered much too late that they instead got the same spiritual upbringing of public schools. As my former pastor once told me, “All I learned in CCD in the 1970′s is ‘Be nice’ and ‘Don’t do drugs.’” Not exactly a well-developed Catholic formation.

Most serious Catholics of my generation now realize that they cannot blindly trust others in the raising of their children – they must have constant vigilance in their parenting, testing those institutions before leaving their children with them. In other words, they need to take a “Mad-Eye Moody” approach to parenting.

What does all this have to do with Advent? Yesterday Christ warned us at the beginning of Advent to “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent” (Luke 21:36). Sometimes our culture is positive enough that we can start to fall asleep and trust others to the tasks given to us. I think most would agree that this is not the case today. But in any time, we must be vigilant, as St. Peter also reminds us: “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

This Advent let us all resolve to be more vigilant in all our responsibilities.

Constant vigilance!

• The Sun is Hot

• Men and Women are Different

• Homeschoolers Scoring ‘Well Above’ Public School Peers

This is an interesting study: the Princeton Review surveyed the students at college campuses and came up with the schools with the “most religious” students. At the top of the list? Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic school in California. Diverse traditions were represented in the list, as Mormon Brigham Young University and Evangelical Wheaton College were 2nd and 3rd, respectively, and non-sectarian Hillsdale College was 4th.

I’m not sure how they determined that a college had “religious” students, but much of the list seems in keeping with popular perceptions. One surprise – at least to me – was the inclusion of the University of Notre Dame at #8. I know that they have a strong group of practicing Catholics there, but I was under the impression that it was a minority of their entire student body. Perhaps I was mistaken. Also, I was surprised that other very religious schools – such as the Franciscan University of Steubenville – were not included, but perhaps they didn’t qualify for the survey for other reasons.

I do think such a study is useful, as there is very little real difference in the academics of most colleges across the country. So knowing details about the demographics of the students can be very helpful in determining what school to attend.

When I was a kid, Vacation Bible Schools became all the rage in Protestant churches. I remember going each year for games, crafts and hopefully a little Bible-learning as well. In recent years, many Catholic churches have also had VBS programs, and many of them are quite valuable.

A formerly-homeschooled college student in my area, however, had a great idea. She held a Latin Camp this week for kids grades 5-8. Her description of the camp:

This camp will teach common Latin vocabulary and regular verbs drawing from the Latina Christiana word lists; however,this will not be conducted in a normal classroom environment. In fact, no time will be spent doing “schoolwork”! Activities such as playing sports, drawing, putting on skits, nature walks, cooking, etc. will be the means by which the students will learn related Latin words and concepts. By the end of the week each will have created their own illustrated Latin dictionary and will be able to “act out” the verbs and vocabulary they have learned.

My oldest daughter participated and she really enjoyed it – it made all the Latin she learned last year more fun and memorable. I attended the end-of-camp puppet shows earlier today and was able to see “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (my daughter was the father bear), “Three Little Pigs,” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” performed exclusively in Latin by the youngsters.

If anyone is interested in having a similar camp in their area, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the young lady who put this one together.

We have homeschooled our children the past five years, and it has been a great decision for our family. Of course, we are far from alone in our decision to homeschool. Recently, the Department of Education released a report on homeschooling in the United States and it shows that homeschooling has grown considerably in the past decade.

What I also found interesting were the top reasons people homeschool:

1. Provide Religious or Moral Instruction
2. Concern about the Environment of other Schools
3. Dissatisfaction with the Academic Instruction Available Elsewhere
4. Child has a Physical or Mental Health Problem
5. Child has other Special Needs
6. Interest in nontraditional approach to education
7. More family time
8. Family finances
9. Ability to travel
10. Distance to school

Looking over this list, I note that six of the top ten apply in our situation. But what I find interesting is that our initial reasons for homeschooling are not necessarily the same reasons we continue to homeschool. For example, reason number 6: “Interest in nontraditional approach to education” did not initially interest us – when we first started homeschooling we simply made our homeschool like an institutional school, except at home. But over the years we have become more “nontraditional” in our approach, realizing that having children sit in chairs for hours on end while a teacher drones on is not necessarily an ideal educational environment, especially for boys. Homeschooling has given us the ability to tailor our educational program to the strengths of our own particular children, as well as to the strengths of their teachers – my wife and myself.

For whatever the reasons, the rise of homeschooling as a viable, mainstream option has been a great development in education in this country. It will never be the choice for all families in this country, or even the majority of families, but for those who choose it, it can be quite beneficial.

There is an effort underway to add a “Parental Rights Amendment” to the Constitution. It is spearheaded by Michael Farris, a long-time advocate for homeschooling. As a homeschooling father myself, I am a strong supporter of the rights of parents to raise and educate their children without government interference. But will this amendment help? Here is the text of it:

Section 1 appears to be boilerplate introduction language, whereas Section 3 is clearly directed at recent UN actions regarding the “rights of the child.” Section 2 is the meat of the amendment, but I find the language uninspiring. I understand that they need to have something that gives government authority to intervene in cases of child abuse, but it seems to me that the clause “without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served” could be interpreted in such a way that the government could justify any action. How does this really strengthen the rights of parents?

This highlights that the problem is not so much with the laws, it is with those who interpret and enforce the laws. Even a good law can be twisted to advance an evil agenda. If those who are judges or law enforcers wish to push evil on society, words on paper will not stop them. We need to change not so much the laws as we need to change the hearts and minds of those who interpret and enforce them.

St. Thomas More, pray for us!

I’ve been on the internet long enough to run into many examples of Godwin’s law, which basically states that any argument, after enough time, will eventually have someone compared to Nazis. A corollary is that the person who first makes the comparison automatically loses the argument.

Well, in this case, I think the comparison is apt: Evangelical German Family Seeks U.S. Asylum to Homeschool Kids. In Germany, homeschooling is illegal, and school attendance is compulsory until the age of 18. What is often not noted is that the German compulsory school law was first created by the Nazi regime, who understood the best way to control a nation is to control the children, and that can best be done through the schools.

Pray for this family that they might have the God-given freedom to educate their children in the way they think is best.

In 1999, 850,000 children were homeschooled. In 2007, the number rose to 1.5 million (which, given the number of children per homeschool family, works out to about 1,000 families). (Source)

According to that same study, 83% of parents who homeschool do so for religious or moral reasons. My wife and I, on the other hand, do it to be like this family:

A good friend of mine is one of six children in a faithful Catholic family. All six of these children are adults now (one is still in college) and all six are practicing Catholics. While raising my own children, I have often looked to his parents as models of how to raise your children Catholic in today’s world. One policy of their family is that they will allow their children to go to any college they choose, but they will only help pay for the tuition of colleges of which they approve. Thus, Franciscan University of Steubenville is in, University of Maryland is out. Each child, being smartly raised, chose to forgo crushing debt and go to one of the “acceptable” colleges, and I think each would confirm that their choice of college helped form them into better adult Catholics. A while back my wife and I decided to adopt the same policy for our children.

Well, imagine my excitement when I read today that most faithful Catholic colleges are also the most affordable. The Cardinal Newman Society commissioned a study in which they compared the tuitions of faithful Catholic colleges vs. those not so faithful. The results:

The research, led by Andrew Gillen, PhD, a leading expert on college affordability issues found that average tuition for students at the recommended faithful Catholic colleges is nearly $3,000 less than at other Catholic colleges and about $1,000 less than the average private college. In addition, the Newman Guide colleges provide a larger percentage of financial aid (39%) than the average private college (29%).

Booya!

The list of faithful Catholic colleges, according to the Cardinal Newman Society:

Ave Maria University
Aquinas College (Tenn.)
Belmont Abbey College
Benedictine College
The Catholic University of America
Christendom College
The College of Saint Thomas More (Texas)
DeSales University
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Holy Apostles College & Seminary
John Paul the Great Catholic University
Magdalen College
Mount St. Mary’s University
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy
St. Gregory’s University
Southern Catholic College
Thomas Aquinas College
The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (N.H.)
University of Dallas
University of St. Thomas (Texas)
Wyoming Catholic College