GOOD NEWS

SCRIPTURE OF INTEREST

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; or the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn His anger away from him. (Proverbs 24:17, 18 NASB).

MY COMMENTARY

Re-posted from Life Site News written by Jonathon Van Maren – this is good news for Albertans.

Left melts down as Alberta moves to recognize Christian parents’ right to choose education for kids

Premier Jason Kenney said the bill was introduced because ‘we believe that parents know better than politicians or bureaucrats about what’s in the best interests of their kids.

May 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Yesterday afternoon, Alberta’s education minister Adriana LaGrange introduced Bill 15, the Choice in Education Act. The legislation appears to be, in part, a response to attempts by former premier Rachel Notley and her education minister David Eggen to shut down religious schools that refused to conform to progressive values and set up Gay-Straight Alliance clubs under the guise of “anti-bullying.”

Premier Jason Kenney stated that the legislation “enshrines the belief of Albertans in freedom, diversity, pluralism and choice as well as parental responsibility.”

“Because we believe that parents know better than politicians or bureaucrats about what’s in the best interests of their kids,” Kenney added.

According to LaGrange, this legislation makes good on an election promise to give greater latitude to homeschooling families and protect religious charter schools. Religious schools, she noted, “felt they were not valued, but threatened under the previous government.”

Indeed, over twenty schools would have been shut down by NDP Education Minister David Eggen if Jason Kenney had not defeated Rachel Notley for the premier’s office. Christian communities had politically mobilized in an unprecedented fashion to fend off the threat to their right to educate their children according to the tenets of their faith. I attended several political meetings in Alberta during the run-up to the election, and many of the attendees had never been involved in provincial politics until the NDP came after their communities.

According to the CBC, the proposed changes make no changes to private school funding and  would allow those seeking to set up a school to “go directly to the minister,” at which point the Department of Education would ensure the proper consultation:

In addition to these changes, there are also a number of smaller changes, including two additions to the preamble — the introductory part of the statute. The first would add a new whereas statement to the act: “whereas parents have the a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children” — which is also the language used in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The second addition recognizes all of Alberta’s current choices in education as “valued and as integral” in providing choice in education to students and parents. Included on this list are public schools, separate schools, Francophone schools, private schools, charter schools, early childhood services programs and home education programs.

This development is very positive news, especially the explicit recognition of parental rights in education. It is easy to forget just how brazen the NDP was in attacking the values of religious schools, at one point going so far as to object to the inclusion of the following statement in one school’s “Safe and Caring” policy: “We believe men and women were created in the image of God, after His likeness, and therefore have transcendent, intrinsic worth.” This statement, claimed the NDP, violated the School Act because it was allegedly “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful.” The NDP is anti-Christian, and the moment they gained power, they stopped pretending that they were not.

The reaction to the United Conservative Party’s move to protect parental rights and diversity in education was both predictable but once again highly revealing. Gil McGowan, the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, promptly melted down on Twitter and did what is referred to in political circles as “saying the quiet part out loud.” The bill, he claimed without irony, “paves the way for nutbar religious charter schools & homeschooling that doesn’t follow the curriculum. They’re trying to create an army of brainwashed right-wing warriors. And they accused the NDP of being too political with education!” (By “curriculum,” of course, he means the sort of curriculum he approves of.)

In case you didn’t catch his opinion on religious schools with that first tweet, McGowan followed up: “To add insult to injury, this will pave the way for a money grab so that the government can use YOUR tax dollars to help fund these crazy right-wing, religious schools. No other province gives more public money to fund private schools than Alberta.”

I’m glad McGowan went off the way he did, because he is saying precisely what he and his fellow ideologues think: That Christian, Sikh, Muslim, and Jewish parents do not have the right to educate their children in their own beliefs because they are “religious nutbars.” McGowan, like most progressives, sees homeschooling and religious schools as a threat to his ability to control and shape the minds of your children. His children, if he has any, can go to whichever school he chooses. But that isn’t enough for dangerous, spiteful little men like him. He needs to know that your children are being taught what he believes. And why is that? Because you’re a crazy religious nutbar, that’s why.

How could we ever trust these ideologues to make decisions about the education of our children? They hate us. They have contempt for us. And we must fight them tooth and nail every step of the way to deny them the power they desperately crave—and seek to use.

Q and A

Question: Why death?

Answer: Death is not pleasant and something we certainly don’t want to think about. For many of us fear grips our hearts when we know we will die. It is a fact of life that everyone will die. Scripture says, “And it is appointed unto men once to die . . .” (Hebrews 9:27 KJV).

Why death? Scripture points out in Genesis that God said to Adam “And the Lord commanded the man, saying, ‘of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:16, 17 NKJV). As we all know that in the following chapter Adam and Eve both disobeyed God by listening to the devil and as a result death came. Their decision affected the human race and every other living being. Death is everywhere.

TESTIMONY OF GOD’S GOODNESS

Conclusion of the testimony entitled “Life After Aids’.

Discovering Freedom

Ultimately, the Holy Spirit used my HIV diagnosis to help me realize that sins such as homosexuality, drug or alcohol abuse, and other compulsions were symptoms of deeper issues, or scars, in people’s lives. Acting on my homosexual desire was a grave sin, and God did not desire for me to struggle with these feelings. But those desires and temptations were only symptoms of the deeper pain in my life. Until I found healing for those wounds and scars, I would always be driven by the sin and would remain unable to bring “every thought into captivity.”

The Holy Spirit had given me the direction I needed, but it would cost me one thing: my secrecy. If I was ever to be free, I would need to become open and transparent with people I knew and risk rejection – something I had feared all my life. I had learned the hard way that secrecy breeds bondage and ultimately death.

I am thankful I made the tough choice to open up about my struggle. I would give anything to change the past, but I cannot. I have great regrets, but I can truly say that I no longer feel shame. Jesus took my shame when He forgave me.

I never gave the AG a chance to react to my situation. Although my credentials had always represented acceptance and approval, I resigned them, knowing that I no longer “needed” them in order to minister to hurting people. I could share the story of my past and minister out of my wholeness. I have subsequently written letters to the denomination, apologizing for my deception and secrecy. They have responded with great love and compassion.

The most beautiful response has been from my wife and children. As painful as it was for her to hear my confession of how I contracted the AIDS virus, my wonderful wife made the choice to forgive me, to love me and to keep our marriage and family together. I admire her commitment to God and to our family.

My children also made the choice to forgive me, and have responded as true servants of God. I am blessed man because despite the tremendous pain I have caused, my wife, children and father and mother love me and have stood by me.

My life is given to one single purpose: turning this tragedy into ministry. As Romans 11:29 states, “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” I must share my story. People in the prison of homosexuality need to know there is a way out, that there is hope.

Sadly, our churches are filled with people in this prison, and they are too afraid to tell the truth. They are afraid of our judgment, afraid of our inability to offer them any hope.

I am a testimony of the hope and the freedom that does exist and is available to all who need it. I know that pain of homosexuality and secrecy, but I also know the joy and peace of freedom – freedom that lasts. I know that the ultimate victory in my life has come as I turn what Satan meant for harm and destruction into ministry. I like to imagine the victory as my story of pain and bondage is used as a weapon against the enemy of our souls.

The church does not need to be silent about homosexuality. We can preach a message of hope, freedom and deliverance to all those who are held captive.