A Letter Exhorting Homeschooling Families

(This is a letter written by Pastor Joe Morecraft III, one of the most theologically consistent church ministers of Presbyterianism in the United States, uncompromisingly faithful to the legacy of the Protestant Reformation, and a tireless defender of the truth of God and an opponent of its enemies both within and without the church.)

Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Name of Him in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In ancient Israel, before the shepherd would lead his sheep to pasture, he would go to that pasture and remove all sharp stones or poisonous plants that would harm the sheep. Elders have a similar responsibility towards our congregation. We are to protect it from false and poisonous teaching.

Particularly if you are homeschooling your children, I want you to know about several authors whose writings are infecting homeschools with their false teaching.

The first is a brilliant woman named Susan Wise Bauer, an evolutionist, a revisionist of church history, with a less than biblical worldview, who is hostile toward the Reformed Faith. She has even written a novel criticizing and characterizing the distinctives of our denomination, the RPCUS, calling people who share our views “Christian Nazis.”

The second is Mary-Elaine Swanson, author of John Locke: Philosopher of American Liberty. She attempts to make Locke’s political philosophy biblical and Christian. Whereas Locke personally professed Christ but was no Calvinist, his philosophy was rationalistic, based on human reason rather than the word of God. When the West adopted his philosophy, it began its radical rejection of the historical Christian approach to politics that had marked it for hundreds of years.

The third author I would warn you about is Michael Farris the best essay writer and founder of Patrick Henry College. Throughout his career, he has stood against a Reformed worldview and a Reformed approach to education. But one of his most recent books entitled From Tyndale to Madison should especially be avoided. This book presents a revisionist view of the Protestant Reformation and the history of the church since. Farris paints Calvin and the Calvinists as the culprits throughout the centuries, the betrayers of true liberty. The opposite is true, however; they were instead the great defenders of liberty and justice for all. Farris’ book is an embarrassing misrepresentation of the facts, probably out of ignorance and prejudice.

The fourth author I must warn you against is Michael Horton, who professes to be Reformed, but whose theology, ethics and worldview leaves something to be desired (although he says some good things). His view of the relation of church and state, called the “two kingdom view,” is especially poisonous and flawed. This view says that the Bible governs the church, but human reason, unaided by the Bible, governs the state.

Although we may glean some good from some of these publications, we are sad to note that, not just a lack of real scholarship, but also in some a desire to revise actual history and turn it according to pre-conceived false ideas has influenced these books. Don’t be led astray. “To the Law and the prophets,” must be our standard of excellence for truth, not the opinions of men and women. Let God be true and every false man a liar.

If you have any questions, please call me.

Your servant,

Joe Morecraft III

2 comments

  • I am a bit surprised by Susan-Wise Bauer since I have used the The Well Trained Mind many times over the course of years in addition to the Trivium by Bluedorn.
    What does not surprise me is Michael Farris. He is just so dangerous for homeschoolers. Although he advocates himself to be a protector of hs, one can see that he is very much on the side of the advocates for Education for Sustainable Development. There are many proves to this, but the long and short of it all is that he is trying to put homeschoolers under the same umbrella as those who go to public school. Its good for him if they homeschool, as long as homeschoolers will reach the same outcomes for ESD.

  • Although my interest for posting was not the theological challenges presented here, I would like to offer up something I think is interestingly left in the cold.

    So, when Horton’s work is criticized, which I am not suggesting it shouldn’t be, I have experienced a great deal of Christians that claim they are concerned for the welfare and disposition of this great country, but noticed they are HUGELY absent from doing anything about it. We might like to see ourselves as the proprietors of the government, its policies and laws, but seriously, when will the majority stand up and DO SOMETHING?

    If it’s our job to put believers in government, when are we going to do something about it?

    I have connections with most every persuasion of Christianity in my state, run a statewide political action committee dedicated to raising up Christian candidates for various positions around the state, and do you know, I RARELY receive funds from Christians?

    Christians like to fight and fight and fight about their theology until someone survives the debate, puffing out their chest like they won something, all the while they can get up in their pulpits and be pious about the world around them.

    I am so tired of being abandoned. I have learned Christians are the STINGIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD when it comes to raising up Godly candidates for office.

    If you view the web site we have provided, this web site has been operational for the last four years. Last year we received close to 2 million hits. This year, we will end out at a million.

    If we do not receive support from Christians, we may have to shut it down. I think the reason I vented a little here is because a lot of Calvinists like to see their worldview as post-millennialists, and it bothers me to no end when they won’t back up their theology with action but like to talk about it ALOT.

    So, maybe not everyone here are post-millennialists, but if anyone can explain to me why the theological debates that have not been resolved over centuries and centuries really helps when the current administration may just shut you down on account of hate-speech while you act like it will never happen?

    SERIOUSLY?

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