Reviewed
Sep 20 2009
•
1 review
• thenation.com
The editorializing is pretty strong in its negative typecasting of religious parents and homeschoolers...
No one seems to think there is any intrinsic evil propensity from hatred and rebellion alone? No personal responsibility? Blame everything on our religious parents? IF there were no religion the world would be perfect??? (as John Lennon's "Imagine")
There is no sense that any of his rebellious reactive choices of lifestyle are also to blame for his descent into madness... of course, it was not his later deeds that drove him to madness; It was his parents and their religion, right? They make it sound as if hatred, rebellion, bitterness and unforgiveness can't possibly lead to this sort of spiritual cancer and madness, but I would suggest that this is pretty much an example that that they can and sometimes do. These are cancers of the spirit, that if left in the soul, produce the vilest things...
There are many people with abuse in their childhoods who decide to be better than they were raised and become moral, pleasant people. There are also many from "good" homes that decide to descend into the depths of depravity and self destruction. People have a choice as to how they respond to their upbringing, in most cases, unless they are abused beyond the ability to make choices, i.e., brain damaged, slowed development from severe deprivation, etc. People make choices on how they respond to life, and how they will act. People are responsible for their choices.
It is easy to pick out a deviant gone mad from any background, yet the logical premise suggested here seems to me that homeschooling charismatics produce social disasters that become mass murderers....
Of course, by contrast or to provide balance, there is no mention of the majority of homeschoolers who score above the 75th percentile on educational exams compared to their publicly school peers, who excel on ACTS and SATs and graduate with highest honors, or devote much of their lives to the good of mankind. Perhaps the Nation will next month give us an article about a mass murderer from a background of neglect, or steeped in atheism or the fundamental Muslim movement. Possibly can we find one who was formerly a Chassidic Jew?
It is a sensational story with the aim of casting blame on religious people for the ills of society, instead of dealing with the intrinsic evil in the heart of man, and each man's personal choice on how to choose to be in the world, whether we had an ideal childhood or not... we must blame it on religion gone wacko instead of each individual's choices and actions.
I do not approve of the severity of the methods portrayed as coming from the parents, assuming that they are accurately portrayed, which, I have cause to doubt from the overall tone of the article. I do not think this is characteristic or can be applied generally to homeschooling or religious families. This is quite the exception to the rule, I would think, and I know many personally.
It's clear that the writer wants to single out the worst charlatans of the religious community as characteristic of all. Foul. Not even a logical premise. Logically this is akin to saying all the religious right are perverse, morally corrupt crazy makers who pollute society and warp children, and all the pagans are the salt of the earth...
This is fairly typical of what I continually see in the liberal media: That religious people are the source of all our societal and personal problems, and they are the only group that we must not be tolerant of, who must not have civil rights, who must be silenced, who alone are allowed to be hated.
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