Parental Rights Lecture with Michael Farris and Steve Spencer

Last night I got to go to an informational lecture about parental rights in America. The first speaker was Steve Spencer. He gave his testimony as a parent facing 11 years worth of litigation from his wife's parents. He and his wife felt that her parents were exposing their children to immoral behavior so they stopped taking them to see the grandparents. Hence the grandparents have been suing every year for grandparent visitation. In Texas, there is a law that allows for that. It was supposed to be used by good grandparents to become the instant foster parents of their own grandkids if the parents were unfit. He said that there were 2 similar cases before the Texas Supreme Court. Then he pointed out that there are hundreds if not thousands of families that give up before long before the Texas Supreme Court.

Then Michael Farris spoke. He gave a compelling argument for adding a constitutional amendment stating:

SECTION 1

The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.

SECTION 2

Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.

SECTION 3

No treaty nor any source of international law may be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.

He pointed out that much of the wording has been taken from Supreme Court decisions already on the books so that it is well understood and won't be misinterpreted. He also pointed out that the amendment doesn't federalize parenting because there is no section saying congress shall make laws enforcing these sections. He said the amendment merely takes a right that has been found to be "fundamental" and makes it "explicit" in the US Constitution. I encourage every one to become a citizen sponsor of this amendment. Go to http://www.parentalrights.org/ for more information.

As one more example why we need this amendment, I am also posting some snippets from yesterday's WorldNetDaily article.

A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled in a public school or "legally qualified" private school, and must attend, sending ripples of shock into the nation's homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal.

The judges ruled in the case involving the Longs the family failed to demonstrate "that mother has a teaching credential such that the children can be said to be receiving an education from a credentialed tutor," and that their involvement and supervision by Sunland Christian School's independent study programs was of no value.

Nor did the family's religious beliefs matter to the court.

Their "sincerely held religious beliefs" are "not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California's compulsory public school education law to them violates their First Amendment rights."

"Such sparse representations are too easily asserted by any parent who wishes to homeschool his or her child," the court concluded.

The father, Phillip Long, said the family is working on ways to appeal to the state Supreme Court, because he won't allow the pro-homosexual, pro-bisexual, pro-transgender agenda of California's public schools, on

which WND previously has reported, to indoctrinate his children.
"We just don't want them teaching our children," he told WND. "They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children's minds we don't feel they're ready for.

"When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it's my job to teach them the correct way of thinking," he said.

"We're going to appeal. We have to. I don't want to put my children in a public school system that teaches ideologies I don't believe in," he said.

As and interesting aside, Alan Keyes was at this meeting. It was an honor to get to hear him speak at the reception before the speakers. I really like him, and (of course) I didn't tell him that I already voted for Huckabee on Friday. ;)