Showing posts with label Prophetic Voice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prophetic Voice. Show all posts

Monday, January 8, 2024

Kuyper on Obergefell and Drag Queen Story Hour

“We observe [the impossibility of neutrality in government] perhaps most clearly in the question of marriage and the status of women. Here, too, opinions completely diverge. In one perspective, man and woman are only two names for what we commonly call human being, and because there must not be inequality between one person and another, no distinction between the two is warranted. Conceptually, then, marriage is something that cannot be permitted to persist. Or, if we still want to call it marriage, it is in fact nothing other than a contractual agreement between two equal individuals that in no case may be binding any longer than they themselves want it to be. Nor may such contractual living together be considered more honorable than living together without contract. In this way, “free divorce” and “free love” stand on the same level as marriage. With this the foundation of the family collapses, and the care for the children falls to the state. Diametrically opposed to this new—or, in fact, warmed-over pagan--thinking stands the other view, which acknowledges an essential difference between man and woman, sees marriage as arising from this essential difference, permits divorce only in very specific cases, and places—thanks to the permanent character of marriage—the children under the care not of the state but of the parents. How is government to remain neutral in this? And is it not clear that “neutrality” would in fact mean being partial to the first perspective? If the government is not involved with marriage and does not regulate its permanence and its consequences, then the men and women who advocate “free love” get what they want. Their will and desire become the law of the state, and marriage acquires the character of a private pastime. Here then a choice must be made and is always made. Government, if it is responsible in its choice, must know why it chooses the first over against the second approach.”--pg. 207

"The same must be said of the matter of public decency. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone still expects that the government will maintain a measure of decency in the public realm. Order and safety are not enough. Human honor must govern the public realm, and it is simply contrary to any notion of the role of government for it to allow human beings to live like animals. But, of course, in order to maintain “decency,” government must have a conception of what is honorable and what is not. Here, too, “neutrality” would be nothing but surrendering all decency, and the most shameless individual would attempt to have his base instincts become the law of the land." pg. 209, Common Grace Vol. III

 

Friday, November 19, 2021

Kuyper on Public School "Neutrality"


 "[By the public schools] our people have been cast into the arms of materialism...For a long time the public school was a veiled image to our people--its essence hidden, its true visage invisible. It just stood there, covered by a garment in which the misleading term "toleration"...was woven in shiny gold thread. Misled by appearances, our people did not believe what some trustworthy individuals told them about the heinous form that would become apparent as soon as the veil fell off and the garment was removed. In the meantime, they had grown to love the public school and became accustomed to it as an integral part of our national life.
It's just math and reading...

And now, it is finally clear at last that everything said about the school understates the appalling truth now revealed. The mask is finally thrown off, and the school is displayed in all its naked barrenness. The dissembling about faith is gone and has been replaced with active efforts to silence God and eternal life. Yet still they dare to call out to our people: "You must send your children to me, you will entrust to me your baptized sons and daughters, although the name of Christ may not be heard within our walls and no talk about God or immortality will be permitted." And the nation as a whole is silent while thousands and tens of thousands send their children. There is still present an unholy desire to fight for the public school as one does for one's idol. Where are we headed? Do you not sense that going down this path will mean the end of your immortality as a nation?--Abraham Kuyper, "Teaching Immortality in the Public Schools" 1870, reprinted in Collected Works in Public Theology: On Education, pg. 28.