“Let me show you my room, Daddy!” The young boy’s eyes beamed with excitement. He had been working on cleaning up all morning and was anxious to share the unusually good results. His father had been working with him to understand the importance of taking care of his things and keeping a tidy room. Dad opened the door and was shocked to see the room looked wonderful! “Wow!” the boy’s father exclaimed, “What a great job! Let’s celebrate! How about with ice cream!”. They get out the cones and scoop up their treat – and then, a knock at the door… It is the Health Department. They barked that the man was not authorized to give his son the ice cream – the sugar content was too high and could lead to adverse health effects in the future. They would, however, authorize a carrot stick to celebrate the child’s victory.
Who has jurisdiction over the children?
Fortunately, (for now anyway), this story is fictional. But it demonstrates an example of a government entity infringing on a family’s jurisdiction. The Bible is very clear as to where the jurisdiction lies for raising children. Ephesians 6:4 clearly lays that responsibility upon fathers. I am not attempting to downplay the role of the mother in the home, and defining Biblical roles of father and mother in the home is beyond the scope of this article, but the important thing to notice for our purpose is that it is NOT any level of civil government that is responsible before God for raising children. Raising children is a jurisdiction of the family. All too often, government at whatever level pries its way into family jurisdiction, and we need to stop allowing this to happen.
What does the Bible say?
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
-Ephesians 6:4
What’s the right question
I think also many times, even conservative people who believe in limited, constitutional government allow ourselves to be pulled off track with regard to jurisdictions. For example, let’s use our fictional story above about the ice cream and the Heath Department official. If, (or should I say “when”?) civil officials would abuse their roles to this point, we might be tempted to jump into the debate trying to prove that a little ice cream for a child to celebrate a victory is ok – or even good. I mean, I would agree with that, and I enjoy sharing a treat with my children as much as anyone. But the right argument is not whether or not ice cream is good or bad for such a thing. The right argument is that civil government has no jurisdiction in the matter at all! The parents have been given jurisdiction by God to raise their children. The parents are accountable to God for the full range of how they raise that child. The time celebrating the child’s wins can be relationship-building times, but admittedly, the child’s eating habits and health are important. So, who is to balance this kind of thing? It has to be the parents. The parents have been given that job by God Himself. So, we don’t need a law or a constitutional amendment that says parents can give ice cream to their children – we need civil government to stay within its legitimate boundaries and to stay out of jurisdictions they have not been given.
not an easy subject
At this point, let me confess I have had this partially written article in my “In work” folder for several weeks, and I have had as many as 4 different files saved in this folder with different versions! I have struggled to figure out the best way to discuss and show the ways that government intrudes into family jurisdiction. God gives children to parents and parents are accountable to Him in raising them, but how is best to communicate this and tell that story in a blog article? As I contemplated this, a couple of important examples have come up that will help to illustrate this point. Unfortunately, these are not fictional like our ice cream story.
The kidnapping of Baby cyrus
In Meridian, Idaho, recently, a 10-month-old baby named Cyrus was literally kidnapped – ripped from his mother’s arms at gunpoint by police in tactical gear. This was done in the name of “child endangerment”. How did the parents “endanger” the child? They did not. That is the simple answer. The parents have been working with doctors to try to figure out a health problem with Cyrus’ digestion. His body has trouble digesting food other than his mother’s breast milk. If you have ever been a parent trying to find a doctor who can tell you what is wrong and how to help your child, then you know how they feel. I have been a parent like that. So, during this process of trying to help their baby, a power hungry, overzealous Nurse Practitioner reported them to CPS. You can read the entire story and see the videos of the encounter with police at this link here. Baby Cyrus Was Kidnapped!
COme on! Is it really “kidnapping”?
How did we get to a place where “authorities” feel they can kidnap a child – literally pull him from his mother’s loving arms – and take custody from the family? Fortunately, Baby Cyrus is physically back now with his parents, but the State of Idaho still claims custody of the child and dictates decisions of his care. This is an area where the state has no real jurisdiction and yet Idaho has stolen jurisdiction. Cyrus’ parents have the responsibility to care for their son and to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The State of Idaho has unlawfully stepped in between them and violated their rights in many different ways. This is kidnapping. Cyrus’ grandfather shared how the State of Idaho earns funding for each child they take from the parents, and they earn more funding for placing the child into foster care. In this regard, the State of Idaho is literally getting money for stealing and selling babies. Wickedness like this happens all too often. We need to reclaim this area of jurisdiction and not allow this to happen in our country. Baby Cyrus’ family has vowed to fight this injustice not just for Cyrus, but for the countless victims of this kind of thing that happens every day all over our country. If you would like to support their work, as well as Baby Cyrus’ legal and medical expenses, you can do that at this link. GiveSendGo – Save Baby Cyrus from Medical Kidnapping
The MInd polluters
With the story of Baby Cyrus still on our thoughts, my wife and I attended a film the other night called “The Mind Polluters”, which was an event hosted by Texas Freedom Coalition and Texas State Senator, Mr. Bob Hall. The film discussed how our public education system is indoctrinating our children with everything opposed to traditional values and the Christian faith. Children, even from kindergarten and early elementary levels, are taught all kinds of wickedness including sexuality, homosexuality, and transgender. There are books in our schools and libraries with graphic illustrations that would be illegal anywhere else, but are made freely available to our children. These are things these young children do not need to be exposed to. A couple things really struck me in the video. It said the children have a natural response to not be comfortable with this material. However, education officials are taught to overcome this reaction and continue the exposure until students become desensitized. Secondly, it really struck me the children are taught not to listen to their parents. They are taught that their parents (who are often far more traditional thinking) are out of touch and stuck in an outdated and obsolete way of thinking. So, our state-funded education system is at war with parents and is lying to the children to steal the children’s allegiance away from their parents and into their evil agenda.
this is war
When I consider a couple of these real-life examples where proper family jurisdiction is under full assault, I find myself wishing we were still talking about ice cream vs carrot sticks. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war. This is a war for the heart and soul of our children, our families, and our nation. If America is to survive, we must follow the R.E.C.I.P.E. to save our country. We have to ask the question, “What can I do?”, and get plugged into the fight wherever God would have us. God gave family jurisdiction to parents. Let us not agree to have it stolen by civil government and/or an education system with a wicked agenda.
I so agree. The government has NO right to dictate to the teachers
nor to force this indoctrination on our young people. The problem
is so many parents cannot afford to send their kids to a private school
where they would be taught Biblical messages. I am glad I “got out” of
the present educational system. I would probably be in jail if not already
killed as I opposed these types of govt interference. (60 yrs in education)
We might need you to get back in! 🙂 Thank you so much for your comment!
It’s scary what people in government are getting away with. Fortunately I’m in Texas and our homeschooling laws are good . My son has had enough of local schools and will be homeschooling his children, with my help, and other parents as well. It’s time to take back the education system and put God at the head again.
Amen Trisha! Glad to hear that about your son. RaShell and I have homeschooled our children for a long time so let me know if there is anything we can do to help.
Too often the problem is that we don’t know our rights and have let the state create laws that are constitutionally wrong. To correct this we have to get out and vote. Not just vote, but vote for people willing to defend our rights. This includes courts, police, senate, congress, president, clerks, school boards, etc.
If there are not qualified people running for office, then that is when we have to step in and run ourselves. “If not me, then who?”
I’ve been guilty of not paying attention to laws, candidates, proposed bills, etc. However, it is that attitude that has gotten us where we are today, which is letting our elected officials take away our rights a little at a time until we wake up one day and see a child kidnapped.
To fix this it will take getting the right elected officials into office, which starts with the lowest to the highest elected officials. Get out a vote!
Recently voted and got in right before the poll closed. It was for the school board. There were 62 votes cast with 7000 registered voters in my precinct. If we don’t all vote it makes it too easy for a “BAD” person to get into power.
Well said Ken, thank you for the comment. Yes, I agree, we have to do our part and vote. (or run if no good candidates). It is easy nowadays to become an educated voter. If you go to a meeting or two and listen to these folks, it will be easy to figure out which one to vote for! But, yes, I agree, we gotta do it, and we gotta start with the local elections and fix this thing from the “bottom up”. 62 votes cast out of 7000 voters… that is incredible. One church could easily tip that election.
I was fortunate be able to homeschool our children from middle school thru high school. I believe it made a difference. I know that everyone does not have that option. I’m happy to see parents becoming more involved in their children’s education and that school boards are beginning to change. Getting out the vote is critical!
Yes it is critical! I love seeing parents waking up – some are homeschooling and others are starting to stand up for what is right in the school board meetings and holding the school districts accountable. We all have to do our part and get involved. homeschooling if at all possible, being outspoken in school board meetings and/or city council meetings, etc, and definitely voting!
This is so heartbreaking to hear these atrocious stories of the government over reach. I am glad you have brought this to light about Idaho. Know I know not to support that state in any form. It is baffling how everything we are seeing is so manipulating and utterly demonic. This is certainly a wake up call for all Patriots of our beloved country.
Thank you for all you do Jason!
Thank you! I appreciate what you are doing as well. I agree with you and hate the corruption that is so prevalent right now and the lies of the media that serve only to suppress the truth. The more each of us learn and spread the word to other Americans, the sooner we can fix this thing! 🙂 Thank you for your comment!
The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The First Amendment’s, actual purpose was to protect people of faith from the government— not to protect the government from faith or people of faith.
We have all believed the lie, that the State was being protected from religion, but that is wrong. Our religious freedoms are protected by the State. This includes our schools, and more importantly our children.
Our children are under attack— what can we do?
The “religious” answer has been to pray. Yes, I agree, prayer, when used as God instructs in His Word, is a powerful force that can “move mountains”.
We do need mountains moved. God also wants us to be involved. We must occupy until He comes.
The next thing we always hear is vote. Yes, that is correct, and we can look at the statistics and know that if every God-fearing, Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled Christian had voted and voted the Bible, we would not be seeing our tax dollars used for human sacrifices called abortion, we would not be fighting for the truth to be taught in the schools. How many of your churchgoers vote in the school board elections or even know who is running and even more, what are their platform issues?
The third thing that is suggested for us to do is run for office. Yes, support Christian elected officials. We need men & women that will stand for Christian values, constitutional rights, and religious freedom. However, elections are expensive, time-consuming, exhausting, and require a team of volunteers. Did I mention expensive?
Let’s be honest we are not all called to run for office. Can I get an “Amen,” on that?! We are called to be involved. How?
It’s simple. I recommend, that every church in Oklahoma, be represented in all school board meetings for their community.
Regardless of the size of your church, someone from your church could attend school board meetings. Just having a physical presence at these meetings will make a difference.
If every church in our state had a person(s) (could be one person or a small group) representing their church at every school board meeting and then give a quick report to your church with any important information. Wow! What a powerful voice God would have in our schools, in our children, our communities, and our country.
This takes you and your church from being uninformed to being informed— from feeling powerless to being powerful, and instead of being uninvolved, you are now actively making a difference. We find out about things that we need to pray for— if there is something that we need to take a stand on. We find out how to vote & who needs to be voted out.
Maybe even, someone in your church would be called to be on the school board.
Information makes us powerful and God tells us, in His word, that we don’t have a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. Let’s use that power— that love and that sound mind to save our children. Get involved and participate in school board meetings. Use the information you learn from these meetings, to pray, vote, and take a stand for truth!
President George Washington once called children the “future guardians of liberties of this country.
Wow, Misty! I love your ideas! If every church implemented this strategy, there would be huge changes.
We were blessed to hear David Barton a couple weeks ago and he told a very encouraging story. There is an organization called Faith Wins, https://faithwins.us/, that employed a similar strategy as what you described. They went to work in Virginia. 11 months before the election, they worked very hard and got 312 churches involved. Those churches found 77,000 people who were not registered to vote and got them registered and on board. They trained 1,300 people as poll workers. They flipped Virginia! Rural Virginia had a 64% voter turnout that year!!! That is unheard of! This could happen nation-wide! Isn’t that encouraging?
Jason, this is a good article to read, causing many positive comments and encouraging ways to be involved and make a difference. I appreciate the time and effort you have taken to put together this article. I am very impressed with the time and effort that replying readers have taken with thought provoking responses, while encouraging positive future actions.
Ultimately, God and His positive influence in our lives is required. Our forefathers knew this to be true. And today, Christians that live a life in Christ Jesus know that we are to be “as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart,” Ephesians 6:6. Though many people may not have a relationship with God, living by Godly principles yields a better society.
Thank you Glenn! Yes, there is no denying the great influence of the Christian culture on our nation (even when particular individuals maybe weren’t Christians). I also love all the amazing comments on the articles on this site! Thank you for the note!
I was a teacher and loved my 33 years in education. But I would really hate to be in some classrooms today with what they are doing. I totally agree that parents have the responsibility to raise their children and have the right to know what their kids are being taught in school. It shocks me to see what is going on in some schools, even during the pandemic when they were going to school online and some teachers were trying to forbid parents from listening in on the kids lessons. I’ve also seen evidence of school boards not allowing parents to have a say in what they allow to be taught in their schools. Some even went so far to get the government involved and have the DOJ to label parents as terrorists because they wanted to have a say in what was being taught and that their children were safe. I totally think any money given to the school by the government for education should allow parents to use their child’s allotment and go to whatever school they choose. I think we will see a lot more parents pulling their children out of public school and sending them to private school or home school consortiums in order for them to be protected and actually educated instead of indoctrinated.
I always made it a point to visit my kids schools and teachers and keep an eye on what was going on. Parents today have a lot rougher time trying to keep their children safe.
I agree it must be difficult, and it is interesting that the whole covid thing gave parents the glimpse into what was going on in the classrooms and kind of woke them up! Thank you for your comment. May parents drive the train on what and how their children are taught.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a war. This is a war for the heart and soul of our children, our families, and our nation. “
Definitely time for action!!!
Amen! May we all find the spot God would have us in and get busy! Thank you for your comment! Our nation and our families are too important to let the bad guys steal! Thank you for your comment!
in agreement with Cathy. We are in a war. We need to take a stand and use the foundation provided to us by our forefathers with prayer to God Almighty our ultimate authority.
First move is on us. Know that our children, families, and our nation are in my daily prayers.
In addition, to those who have come against . God Bless America
Thank you – Amen! Yes, I agree. Thank you so much for your prayers for our children, families, and country, and thank you for your comment!