God Bless the Pioneers of "New" Ideas

PART 1: Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged
PART 2: Religion and Legalism
> PART 3: God Bless The Pioneers of New Ideas
PART 4: Incorrectly Politically Correct
PART 5: Feel-Good Theology
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(I began this post as a single post, but I felt the need to say so much more that I wound up dividing it into several posts to fit in everything that was on my heart to say. Then I realized that if read as a series including 2 of my previous posts it would more fully explain what I'm trying to say. So that's how yesterdays post grew into the behemoth series I'm reposting it as.)

I'm sure some think I'm totally radical after reading my two earlier posts listed above as parts 1 and 2, but I feel like someone who has been half asleep and am finally waking up! It's so easy to overlook things that are the cultural norm when holding things up to the light of the Word. We would think to pray and read about something that there is controversy active in our country about, because we know that there are two sides to it and therefore know that there's a decision to be made about what we think about it. The things that are a cultural norm however are the tough ones. The things that EVERYONE (or almost everyone) believes are different however. It doesn't click in our brains that there is possibly anything wrong with it because everyone and their dog thinks one way. For instance celebrating hollidays. The whole world celebrates hollidays. Have you ever stopped to wonder if God wants us to celebrate hollidays? For most of us I think the answer is likely no. It's just something our timeperiod and culture does. Everyone does it. So we don't think to question it. What about birth control? I know that 15 years ago I didn't know and had never even heard of a single soul who questioned the "fact" that birth control was okay and not only a valid option for all but it was important to use it to be a good steward of your lifestyle. But there were a few crazy radicals who woke up from mere acceptance and realized that just because it's the cultural norm, just because it's endorsed by the church, doesn't mean that it's necessarily what God endorses! And so they loooked into it and now, I'm sure you know of the Duggars on tv if nobody else, I think we've all heard of or know someone who has come to the conclusion that birth control is not only NOT actually endorsed by God, but may even be AGAINST what God does endorse. If a "crazy" few hadn't questioned the cultural norm, then more and more people would not have questioned it until quiverfull is now a growing movement that is surrounded by much controversy but is gaining more and more acceptance. The same goes for homeschooling. Back in the 70's and 80's if you homeschooled, people reacted with horror and called CPS! Most adults hadn't ever thought about the existance of homeschooling, let alone the possibility of it being a viable option. If a "crazy" few hadn't kept fighting for the right to do what they felt was the better way to educate their kids, while the rest of the world scorned and looked down on them for something THEY believed was the FAR INFERIOR way to educate children, then homeshooling would not be so widespread today and those of us who have chosen to homeschool would still be hiding our children during school hours and warding off visits from CPS.
*As an aside, I have nothing against teachers and it hurts me when public school teachers automatically assume that I hate them or think they're evil just because I homeschool. This is so far from the truth! I think the SYSTEM is a flawed system run by an atheistic new-world government by forcing people who do not believe in it to pay for it and then using it to brainwash our kids right out of their faith in God (among other things). The teachers themselves, yes, they work for the flawed machine, but they are overworked and underpaid and I have the greatest respect for anyone who can teach a bunch of disrespectful and troubled kids who are not their own. I can teach my kids because I love them and their best interests are always at the front of my mind. Other people's kids though I don't know if I would have that unique quality to see through their behavioural issues and love them enough to teach them as though they were my own. So while I am against sending my kids to the big government atheist machine, it does NOT mean that if you are a teacher that I have any less respect for you than I would for a fellow homeschooling mother! And if you're a Christian teacher in a public school, then I pray God grants you grace and blessings to shine for HIM because YOU might be the only Jesus some of those kids ever see and I know how hard the government machine tries to restrict you so you won't be able to shine. And to my knowlege, MOST homeschool mothers have nothing against teachers and are hurt and confused as to why public school teachers assume that our choice to homeschool means that we hate them.*

I have been blessed that in most of the things our family has chosen, I am not among the first "radicals" to walk this road and so it is therefore pretty easy for me to find support. (Now, there is nothing new under the sun, and there was a time when things like birth control and public schools were unheard of concepts as well, because "the only new thing is history we have not learned." When I refer to something as being a new concept, I am meaning that it is a new concept to the people who are alive in this current piece of time which I'm talking about.) There are things that are not so widely progressed yet though that are more difficult. Home birthing for instance is accepted and supported in some US states but in others it is something that midwives can go to jail for and finding a homebirth midwife is actually done through an underground network. Thankfully in my state Midwives don't have to hide, for which I'm thankful. But there are some new concepts that I'm apparently one of a very small, nearly nonexistant portion of the population to believe during my own little piece in history. Like the politically correct thing. I have actually never met anyone (yes NEVER met ANYONE) who didn't believe to some degree that it's wrong to tell other people if they're doing something you consider wrong because it might step on the toes of their culture or religion or thier personal code of conduct. That it's wrong to offend anyone so we should all just let everyone else think say and do anything they want to without making it known that we feel they are in the wrong, lest we hurt anyone's feelings. Now if you've read the earlier post that I've now dubbed Part 1, then you have an idea of where I'm going with this next.