{"id":278,"date":"2011-09-09T20:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T20:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/09\/michael-pearl-on-children-who-leave\/"},"modified":"2012-08-10T08:09:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T12:09:47","slug":"michael-pearl-on-children-who-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/09\/michael-pearl-on-children-who-leave.html","title":{"rendered":"Michael Pearl on children who leave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cThere is an epidemic of young adults jumping ship from their Christian upbringing to join the world\u2019s parade to hell.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I came upon this article series<\/a> by Michael Pearl, which was later expanded into a book called Jumping Ship<\/a>. Somehow I feel like it confirms everything <\/em>I have ever said on this blog.\u00a0Let me dissect the introduction for you all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The homeschool movement has matured to the point that we now have a large pool of graduates from which to survey our successes and failures, and to modify our course accordingly. The first wave, in their late twenties to early thirties, are now married and have children of their own. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>There are many success stories among them. Success can be measured by tangible or visible achievement, such as the many attorneys, doctors, scientists, teachers, and statesmen who are now making a difference in the world and in the lives of the individuals they touch. But success is best measured by the emotional stability and spiritual perspective that homeschooled young people have carried into their marriages.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note: Tangible and visible\u00a0achievement\u00a0is not the best way to measure success, \u201cemotional stability and spiritual perspective\u201d are. This is code for ideological and spiritual conformity. THAT is what makes a child successful, nothing else. <\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the prestige of their vocations, we have a new generation of godly parents, not having been tainted by the world. They are now building heavenly marriages and raising a fresh new breed of stable, godly children. While the public school system continues to degenerate into a drug-stupid, sex-oriented, illiterate morass of misfit, Marxist clones, the homeschool movement is producing intelligent, clear-thinking, confident citizens ready to stand in the middle of cascading corruption and declare their allegiance to God and family.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good kids = those not tainted by the world. These untainted children can then bring up doubly untainted grandchildren for you. <\/span><\/div>\n

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Furthermore, homeschooling produces \u201cintelligent, clear-thinking, confident citizens\u201d while public schooling produces a \u201cdrug-stupid, sex-oriented, illiterate morass of misfit, Marxist clones.\u201d Just so we\u2019re clear here. <\/span><\/div>\n

However, not all homeschoolers become success stories. A few fail to measure up fully, while a small percentage fail miserably. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, so some homeschoolers become \u201csuccess stories\u201d while others \u201cfail miserably.\u201d Given that success means ideological conformity, I\u2019m not seeing a lot of middle ground or flexibility here. <\/span><\/div>\n

Not all homeschool families create themselves equally. Homeschool children are the product of their parents and the culture they provide. There is nothing magical about homeschooling itself. It is just a context in which to conduct parenting without interference from humanistic government and the influence of contemporary cultures, which are causing the \u201cdevil-lution\u201d of society. When parents choose to homeschool, they are choosing to become the primary example and the prevailing culture for their children. They are \u201ccloning\u201d their worldview\u2014an enormous commitment of responsibility before God.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay, so, homeschooling allows for parenting \u201cwithout interference from humanistic government.\u201d This paragraph makes crystal clear that these homeschoolers are doing just what I\u2019ve been saying \u2013 intentionally trying to produce little clones by isolating their children from any influences outside their control. Wait a minute. *Looks back up the page.* I thought homeschooled kids were \u201cintelligent and clear-thinking\u201d while public school kids <\/em>were clones! Apparently it\u2019s not being clones that\u2019s the problem here; it\u2019s who\u2019s doing the cloning. <\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

However, there are two problems. In the first place, some parents are not always good stock for \u201ccloning\u201d. The world doesn\u2019t need more people \u201cjust like them.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aha. So what do you tell that, sad, grieving parent, grieving because you promised they could make\u00a0their\u00a0children into clones of themselves and it didn\u2019t work? It\u2019s your fault! <\/em>You\u2019re simply not good enough! <\/span><\/div>\n

Secondly, and this will be the main point of our present discussion, there is nothing easy or automatic about culture cloning. You cannot take it for granted that your children are going to adopt your perspective on life. It takes serious commitment and wisdom to duplicate your heart and soul in your children. There was a time, many years ago, when the community life (church, school, the extended family, friends and neighbors) all pointed the children in the right direction\u2013a godly direction. Sometimes when parents failed to be good trainers and examples, their deficiency was rectified by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and the local church, around which all social life revolved. But no more. The average church today will send your children to hell as fast as the local video rental store. Community life has gone the way of the old familiar front porch and grandma sitting there shelling beans. Today, you have to be on guard for your uncles and cousins, who may attempt to molest your children. Our present culture is scary enough to send a family packing to the Amazon, taking their chances with drug lords, anacondas, and malaria.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You hear that, other grieving parents? You failed because you didn\u2019t shelter your kids enough! You let them go to church and hang out with grandparents! <\/span><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m intrigued by one specific statement here, though: \u201cYou cannot take it for granted<\/em> that your children are going to adopt your perspective on life.\u201d Let me fix that for you: \u201cYou should not expect<\/strong> that your children are going to adopt your perspective on life.\u201d There, much better. <\/span><\/div>\n

We are receiving far too many letters from parents who tell us that their older children, 15 to 18 years old, are jumping ship, bailing out, changing sides, looking for the meaning of life on the other side of the tracks. Parents are shocked. They tell us, \u201cI kept them from the TV. We homeschooled and homechurched, were careful to only meet with families of like mind. We taught them the Word of God and protected them from evil influences, but the first chance they got to join the world\u2019s parade, they did so without hesitation.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, this sounds just like my parents. They followed the formula, threw out the TV, sheltered their kids, taught them the Word, and then their oldest daughter left them for the world. And as Pearl states, my parents were \u201cshocked.\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n

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So just what does this look like, when the children leave for the world? <\/span><\/div>\n

One woman wrote and told us that she discovered that her two teenage homeschooled boys had been engaging in sodomy since they were young. Another family discovered that every one of their children were engaging in group incest in the first degree. Children everywhere are finding ways to access pornography on the web. One kid was slipping into his neighbor\u2019s house when they were gone. A sixteen-year-old girl ran away and shacked up with a druggie. In two years, she was a drunk and a drug addict with a child and a broken jaw where her shiftless man busted her one for sassing him. When one family discovered that their children were engaged in incest, the mother and father stopped going to church and took up drinking themselves. The whole family went to hell with an \u201cI don\u2019t care\u201d attitude. One of the girls wrote to us to decry their shameful condition. She told how the family had done devotionals every day and did not watch TV. They did all the \u201cright things\u201d, but it just did not take with the kids. She got saved after getting married and having three children, and then became concerned for the rest of her family, especially her lesbian sister.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O_o <\/span><\/div>\n

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I have to say, I have some serious questions about the sort of people who read Michael Pearl\u2019s publications and feel the need to write to him. <\/span><\/div>\n

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It seems to me that Michael Pearl creates a dichotomy: there are good homeschooled kids who turn out to be clones of their parents\u2019 fundamentalist beliefs, and there are bad homeschooled kids who do drugs and commit incest. Either you\u2019re a good little cloned Christian, or you\u2019re a wicked perverted mindless sex addict.\u00a0Somehow I\u2019m really not sure where I fit here. Because, well, I don\u2019t. <\/span><\/div>\n

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In a strange way, this dichotomy makes my parents\u2019 anger and pain more understandable. By leaving their beliefs, I have grouped myself in with the incesters and druggies. This also helps explain my parents\u2019 confusion that I seem to be having a successful life. Jumping ship for \u201cthe world\u201d is supposed to mean every manner of perversion, and, well, I\u2019m leading a pretty straight life. I don\u2019t fit with what they\u2019ve been taught to expect. <\/span><\/div>\n

I know this is depressing to you. It has depressed me to write it, but you need to be forewarned. So the question I seek to answer is, \u201cWhat can I do to ensure that my children do not jump ship when they get to be 16 or 18 years old?\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh yes, tell me what to do Mr. Pearl, I don\u2019t want any incesting going on in my house! For the love of God, tell me quickly what I can do to keep my child from the demonic and perverted world! Anything \u2013 anything! <\/span><\/div>\n

Let me reframe the question a few times, and then see if you catch a hint of what the answer will be.
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