Reformation Day

I find it hard to understand that there are Christians who celebrate Halloween - a celebration (or propitiation, depending on your beliefs) of evil and death, yet I used to do it myself. Why did I? I was living an unexamined life. Once I began to examine everything by the light of the Word of God, it became impossible for me to continue a practice that did not bring glory to our Lord and Father but rather glorified evil spirits, death, and evil -- even in jest.

I was not much happier with the harvest festivals held by so many churches. They seemed to be just a G-rated version of the world's festival: Halloween-lite. Can the church do nothing better than imitate the world?

Yes, it can! And it has! For nearly 500 years, faithful protestants have remembered a real encounter with the forces of darkness: in 1517, on October 31st, a monk named Martin Luther nailed an academic call to debate on the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral. That debate shook the world and rang out from the halls of academe to the plowboys in the fields. As a result, the gospel was rediscovered and the Word of God was translated into the languages of people's hearts, their native tongues. For centuries, the church celebrated Reformation Day in gratefulness for God's hand in the life of Luther and his contemporaries and the glorious results it has had not only in the church, but in the history of the world (I'll deal with that at a later date - I'm looking forward to it.)

Our family has celebrated Reformation Day for many years. We nearly always watch the terrific old black and white movie, Martin Luther, unmatched in stirring historical accuracy by the flashier modern versions. We always eat foods of the countries of the Reformation: cheese fondue from Switzerland, bratwurst, sauerkraut and hot German potato salad from Germany or some other Germanic delight. We play Reformation games like "95 Theses" in which blindfolded folks stick their post-it-note theses to a big paper cathedral door with candy rewards listed in each panel. We joyfully tell the stories to our children of those who stood for right and scripture before us, hoping that one day, they too will be able to stand. It's a day our children eagerly look forward to -- whether we celebrate with dozens of friends or just our family. In fact, they can't figure out why a Christian would do anything else. And neither can I.

Amazing Lack of Perspective

This past week, a number of North Carolina homeschoolers received a letter (once on the page, hit refresh to view) from the state oversight agency requesting them to bring their children and records to the local police station for inspection. There's only one little problem: the statute authorizes no such thing.

For one year after the testing, all records shall be made available,
subject to the provision of G.S. 115C-196, at the principal office of such
school, at all reasonable times, for annual inspection by a duly authorized
representative of the State of North Carolina. (1979, c. 505; 1981, c. 423, s.
1.)

NCHE, our state homeschool organization, issued an alert encouraging non-participation with this extra-legal request. There are several amazing things here:

1. How in the world could anyone who has ever studied history or even current events think that the police station is an appropriate venue to ask people to come to for these record reviews? How could they think you would choose to bring your children into this situation? This appears to be an innocent mistake, yet I am totally flummoxed that anyone could be clueless enough not to realize this would be seen as pure and simple intimidation.

2. Homeschoolers are such nice folks that they really, really want to comply with the law such that some folks don't seem to care that this is way beyond the law and are thinking of participating. Beats me.

3. Some of the veteran homeschoolers among us don't seem to understand what is the big deal. Dear husband says it's the methadone effect[1]: the situation was so awful when they started homeschooling, that anything less than that seems just fine. However, this is a step towards less freedom, not more.

Here's the big deal: When we willing and voluntarily submit ourselves to government requirements beyond the law, we place ourselves in the position of providing an excuse for more regulation ("We're already doing it anyway. What's the big deal?") Loss of freedom is always a big deal and freedom relinquished is seldom regained. That's why the fight to regain freedom to direct your child's education was and is such a battle.

Samuel Adams said it well. Freedom costs, chains are free. Which do you want?

[1] methadone effect - Our family's term for something that is a step in the right direction for some, but the wrong for others. Methadone is a step in the right direction for heroin addicts, but for non-addicts, it would be a step toward addiction. Always move in the right direction.