Frontline Ministries and Exodus Mandate held its 20th Anniversary banquet on Friday night, November 14 at Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia. The event was well-attended by a large crowd of approximately 240 people. The celebration commemorated twenty years of Rev. E. Ray and Gail Moore’s ministry to promote Christian schools and homeschooling. Frontline Ministries was co-founded by Ray Moore and Lee Adams. God blessed the Moores with the foresight to homeschool their own children forty years ago to escape the indoctrination of the anti-Christian agenda promoted by government schools. Seeing the success of their own efforts, they started their own ministry to educate and encourage other Christian couples regarding the importance of providing a Christian education for their children.
The Moores have produced a variety of materials to educate and inform Christians, including the book Let My Children Go, The Promise of Jonadab, and most recently, the movie IndoctriNation.
Dr. Henry Jordan emceed the event. Dr. Jordan told the audience that perhaps the reason many people his age have not supported ministries such as Exodus Mandate is because they had such a wonderful public school experience. Dr. Jordan described his own such experiences, e.g. the teacher opened the day with prayer and then prayed again before lunch. And he said that anytime the teacher wanted to talk about the Lord she was free to do so. Consequently, it is hard for people his age to relate to just how anti-Christian government schools have become.
The Durocher Family supplied entertainment with their wonderful bluegrass gospel music. The Durocher Family consists of Paul and Judy Durocher, parents of twelve homeschooled children, nine of which now play in their band. They travel around the country performing their music ministry, averaging 200 events. Paul said that their band ministry is also a homeschooling ministry. Unfortunately, there is resistance within some churches, as he gave one example of one church where a pastor told him not to talk about homeschooling.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Jeffrey C. Tuomala, Professor of Law at Liberty University. Dr. Tuomala said that he “considers homeschooling and Christian schooling the most encouraging cultural thing that’s happened in the country in the last 40 years.” He reminded the audience of the Biblical teaching that all wisdom and knowledge come from the fear of the Lord. Dr. Tuomala said that State schools are antithetical to our republican form of government. The State school tells the citizens what values they should believe, which is opposite of the principles of our Constitutional form of government.
Dr. Tuomala spoke on the importance of a Christian education and how it was a priority among the Founding Fathers, specifically using the example of John Adams, our second president. He described how they valued an education and were often homeschooled or read enough to educate themselves. He summarized Adams’ beliefs on the relationship between writing ability and a foundational education as follows:
1. Adams believed that poor writers are poor because they don’t have anything to say.
2. They don’t have anything to say because they haven’t thought very deeply.
3. And they haven’t thought very deeply because they haven’t read anything of significance.
When one contrasts Adams’ view with America’s modern obsession with social networking systems such as Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters, the decline in the education of Americans over the last 200 years is truly frightening.
John Adams felt he could hold his own intellectually among older, more educated men because he was well-read. He loved his wife Abigail, the daughter of a pastor, because she was also well-educated and they engaged in deep conversations. At that time in early American culture such intellectual interests were normal. Abigail homeschooled their son, John Quincy Adams who became sixth president of the U.S. She ran their farm while her husband was away occupied with his political career.
Unfortunately, over time the interest in education began to decline in American society. Dr. Tuomala cited one author who theorized that, beginning around the 1840s as the frontier was pushed westward, the ideal of masculinity became less represented by intellect and more on the athleticism of the rough men taming new lands. We see this trend manifested today in public hero-worship of athletes. Consequently, a revival of early American values must restore our society’s value and promotion of a Christian education.
The event closed with a video of testimonies by various people involved with Christian education in South Carolina. An example of God’s hand in the establishment of Northside Christian Academy in West Columbia was presented. Also, Dr. Carl Broggi of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, S.C. discussed the value of a Christian education. He pointed out the Biblical admonition of 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Do not be deceived; bad company corrupts good morals.” This is enough reason alone not to send your children to State schools to spend all their days around wicked people. Besides their anti-Christian curriculum, some State schools have become like glorified prisons with hardened inmates as students. What Christians would knowingly send their children to prison every day?
The event was a wonderful celebration of the Frontline Ministries and Exodus Mandate and offered the opportunity for refreshing fellowship and encouragement with like-minded Christians. Rev. Moore and Gail, and all those assisting, did a great job planning and conducting the banquet. We should thank God for Christians like the Moores and all the others who work so tirelessly to rescue our children from the destructive government schools.