Carmen J. Bryant, August, 2002
20
have become one in Christ as sons and daughters of God. Therefore, each wife is entitled
to all the spiritual rights granted her Christian husband, including the ability to interpret
Scripture and listen to the indwelling Spirit, the privilege of praying directly to her God
and exercising spiritual gifts, and the responsibility to reject sin in any form. The church
must not at any time deny a woman what God himself has given her.
4. Patriarchs, priests, and homeschooling
Gothard's Advanced Training Institute of America is only one among several
homeschooling programs emphasizing the husband's rule in the family. Our concern here
is not with alternative forms of education but with the authoritarian control that is
maintained by isolating wives and children from the rest of society.
54
"Never even
consider sending your children to private Christian schools, much less the public,
automaton factories," say Michael and Debi Pearl, authors of several books for
homeschoolers.
55
For many, Christian homeschooling is an honest attempt to thwart the godless
education of the public schools, an opportunity to integrate a Christian worldview into all
of learning. At the extreme end of the homeschooling movement, however, the agenda is
not just a superior education for children but a total control over influences that will
53
Ibid., 66. Italics in the original.
54
The homeschool-only movement arises from a very literalistic view of Old Testament commands for
parents to teach their children the commands of the Lord, such as Deut. 4:1-10, 11:19; Ps. 78:5-11, et. al.
Doug Wilson, who favors private Christian schools, argues against such a misuse of Scripture: "But why is
it legitimate for parents to delegate the responsibility for research to others, but not legitimate to delegate
the responsibility for actual teaching?...The answer to this, of course, is that the responsibility of parents is
not to do everything themselves. The Scriptures require parents to provide food for their children; it does
not require every father to be a farmer, growing the food his children will eat. The key is responsible,
diligent oversight." Douglas Wilson, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively
Christian Education (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991), 129.
55
Michael Pearl and Debi Pearl, To Train a Child (Pleasantville, TN: Pearl, 1994).