good<\/em>\u00a0thing.<\/p>\nThe sad thing is that sentence is utterly true for A Beka Books\u2019 target audience: \u201cYou\u2019re the only thing standing between the world and your child.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sick thing is that the next sentence doesn\u2019t say, \u201cSo get the heck out of their way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that A Beka Books fancies itself an educational<\/em> publisher. This slogan perfectly captures the stunted notion of \u201ceducation\u201d they have in mind. The whole world is right outside your door, a glorious universe of possibilities, wonders, joys, truth and dazzling beauty. We\u2019ll help you make sure your kid never sees any of it.<\/p>\nRemember, too, that this is coming from Christians of the sort who loudly proclaim their devotion to the Great Commission: \u201cGo ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.\u201d Whatever the second part of that means, it\u2019s surely impossible to do if you refuse to do the first part \u2014 if you think of the world as something to be kept apart with barricades and barbed wire.<\/p>\n
And remember, too, that these are Christ<\/em>-ians, people who purportedly worship the word become flesh, the incarnate God who taught us that \u201cGod so loved the world\u201d \u2014 God loved the\u00a0\u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd, the cosmos<\/em>, the whole kit and caboodle of the universe.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve said this before, but white fundamentalists remind me of the Krikkiters from Douglas Adams\u2019 Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide<\/em>. In Adams\u2019 story, the planet Krikkit was enveloped in a dust cloud that kept them from seeing the rest of the universe. But finally, one day, they developed the technology to launch a rocket up into space, finally seeing beyond the cloud that shrouded their planet:<\/p>\nThey flew out of the cloud.<\/p>\n
They saw the staggering jewels of the night in their infinite dust and their minds sang with fear.<\/p>\n
For a while they flew on, motionless against the starry sweep of the Galaxy, itself motionless against the infinite sweep of the Universe. And then they turned round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll have to go.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ultimately, of course, none of these homeschooling parents will be able to keep back the world any more than they\u2019re able to keep the sun from rising. You can homeschool your kids, allowing them to read nothing but A Beka Books, and then send them off to Pensacola Christian\u2019s hermetically sealed campus to complete their education, but eventually they\u2019ll find their way around all the obstacles you\u2019ve placed between them and the big wide world.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the only thing standing between your child and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world. \u201cThat\u2019s here. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s home. That\u2019s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every \u201csuperstar,\u201d every \u201csupreme leader,\u201d every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there\u00a0\u2013 on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You\u2019re standing between your child and the world. For God\u2019s sake, get out of their way.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I had to re-read that several times before it finally sunk in that they were saying “standing between the world and your child” was supposed to be a good thing. The sad thing is that sentence is utterly true for A Beka Books’ target audience: “You’re the only thing standing between the world and your child.” The sick thing is that the next sentence doesn’t say, “So get the heck out of their way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[169,28],"class_list":["post-22967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-pensacola","tag-religious-right"],"yoast_head":"\n
For God so loved the world<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had to re-read that several times before it finally sunk in that they were saying "standing between the world and your child" was supposed to be a good thing. The sad thing is that sentence is utterly true for A Beka Books' target audience: "You're the only thing standing between the world and your child." 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<\/a><\/p>\n