Homeschooled Girl Ordered to Attend Public School Over Her ‘Rigid’ Faith

Came across this article…very interesting

“Amanda Kurowski is a 10-year-old homeschooled girl who performs well academically and is socially well-adjusted. But her strong Christian beliefs were reason enough for a New Hampshire court to order her out of homeschooling and into a public school.

The daughter of divorced parents, Amanda has been homeschooled by her mother, Brenda Voydatch since first grade. Her father, Martin Kurowski, is opposed to homeschooling, arguing that it prevents “adequate socialization” for Amanda with other children. He requested that she be placed in a government school.

In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the Guardian ad Litem – who acts as a fact finder for the court – reported that Amanda was found to “lack some youthful characteristics,” partly because “she appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith.”

The GAL concluded that Amanda “would be best served by exposure to different points of view at a time in her life when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief and behavior and cooperation in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs.” (more)

I do wonder if a child of an atheist family–who thought they could do a better job homeschooling their children than sending them to public school–would be critiqued in the same manner if their child showed similar “rigidity” to people of faith? hmmm….

Is Christian Faith Blind and Irrational?

On the Christian worldview, faith is not opposed to reason. It cooperates with reason. “Faith is trusting in what we have reason to believe is true.” (synonyms for faith = trust, confidence, reliance, God-confidence).

Put another way, “Faith is a readiness to act as if something were so” (cf. Dallas Willard). It is important to notice that this is the same faith we employ when we get on airplane or decide that forgiveness is really better than bitterness and Jesus was right about that.

A challenging aspect of this understanding is also that “what we we believe is what we actually act as if it were true.” (ouch)

Finally, it is important to recognize that faith doesn’t make anything true or false…whether airplanes are safe, forgiveness really is better than bitterness, or that Jesus rose from the grave. Sincerity doesn’t make something true or false. Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed.

N.T Wright Explains Gnosticism and the Gospels

N.T. Wright is one of the most prolific Christian scholars writing today in the area of historical Jesus studies. A very helpful explanation of gnosticism–which looks similar to our modern new age movement–and how it differs from the earliest biographies we have about Jesus–Matthew, mark, Luke, John. He critiques Bart Ehrman’s and Elaine Pagels’ view. Enjoy!