Read the latest news about the struggle to preserve parental rights at all levels of government. Learn what the Santa Clara Moms for Liberty group has been up to, what upcoming events and functions we're having, and how you can help.
Our education system is doing whatever it can to sow confusion, untruths and division by using the idea that truth is somehow subjective and that children can live under a reality which they come up with. Let's be clear, there is a reason why little ones are called dependents. Children depend on their parents to guide them on a good and correct path. The school system, and teachers and administrators who work within that system, are now operating under the delusion that it is they who determine what is best for children placed in their care. It is time for parents to take a good hard look at this and make sure that their views are not being trampled on.
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
- 1 John 4:6
Inappropriate Books in Classrooms and School Libraries
The seven books whose covers are shown above are now known to be in our school libraries. We submitted our public records request and were supplied the information we requested.
Now what?
Well, it's time to make the members of the board for the individual school districts in question justify the placing of obscene materials into their school libraries, making them accessible to young minds in the formative stage of their development, many of whom may not be capable of understanding what it is that's being foisted on them.
Let's be clear: what is happening within schools today is tantamount to grooming. We must put a stop to this. We will put a stop to this.
You will hear a good many people complaining that Moms for Liberty is working to "ban" books. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If a parent wants their children to read porn, while wd disagree with the very idea of doing that, it is well within their right as a parent to do it, but in the context of their home. It is unreasonable to allow them to infringe upon the rights of those parents who do not wish their children exposed to such material.
As Moms co-founder Tiffany Justice tells us, "No one is looking to ban books. What we're talking about is curating content in a library. You wouldn't have the same books in a medical college that you would in a seminary, and just because a book is printed doesn't mean that it belongs in a children's library."
The Most Important Decision in Life by Bishop Robert Barron
The following excerpts are taken from the commencement speech delivered by Bishop Barron to this year's graduates at Hillsdale College.
What kind of soul will you have? What kind of person will you be? Will you do whatever it takes to get what you want? Or will you accept even great suffering in order to do what is right? Everything else in your life will flow from your answer to that question.
I know that Hillsdale College is committed to the study of the Greco-Roman intellectual tradition, and it is for this reason that I commenced with Plato. But Hillsdale is also, and above all, committed to the Scriptures. The Bible gets at this very same issue, not so much through philosophical argumentation, but through the prophetic language of idolatry and right worship.
For the biblical authors, it is never a question of “religion” vs. “secularism.” First of all, they were not trading in what we call religion, and secondly, they knew that there really is no pure secularism. Rather, they understood that the world is basically divided between those who worship the one true God and those who indulge in idolatry or false worship. Even in our supposedly secular society, we can appreciate the appropriateness of the biblical terminology, for everyone, even the most un-churched, operates under the aegis of something he or she considers supreme, a summum bonum or highest good. No one would get out of bed in the morning unless he believed in some value that is ultimately motivating his actions and decisions. This might be bodily pleasure or fame or material goods, or it might be one’s country or family, but if it is functioning as the prime mover of a person’s activity, it is playing the role of a god and it is being, in effect, worshiped.
So the biblical form of the question we have been considering is: whom or what do you worship? Again, everything in your life will flow from your answer.
There are numberless biblical texts that are relevant to this question, but I should like to look at a particularly clarifying and dramatic one -- namely, the scene described in the First Book of Kings regarding Elijah and the priests of Baal.
We recall the setting. Elijah had called out King Ahab for his worship of the false gods proposed by his wife Jezebel. He subsequently challenged the avatars of these deities to a kind of duel on Mount Carmel. Standing alone against the 450 devotees of Baal, Elijah proposed that he and they should erect altars to their respective deities and see who would respond. All morning long, the priests cried out, “Oh Baal, answer us!” But, the Bible says, “there was no voice, and no answer.”
At this point, Elijah mocked them: “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
In their frenzy and frustration, the priests of Baal proceeded to “cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them,” but it was to no avail. Then, of course, Elijah calls out to the Lord and the fire falls, consuming the sacrifice and vindicating the prophet.
What I would like to emphasize is that this is much more than a jingoistic story of “My God is bigger than your god.” In point of fact, it is an incomparably rich presentation of the dynamics of true and false worship. The altar erected to Baal should be taken as standing for all the ways in which we order the infinite longing of our hearts to something less than God. When we do this, the fire never falls, because merely worldly things cannot, even in principle, satisfy our hungry souls. And when we persist in worshiping falsely, we find ourselves, in short order, caught in an addictive pattern, hopping obsessively, as it were, around the altar of pleasure, power, or fame, desperately seeking a satisfaction that will never come.
The self-harm inflicted by the hapless priests of Baal speaks eloquently to the self-destructive quality to which any addict can attest. Only when the fondest desire of our soul is directed to the infinite God will the fire fall and addiction be avoided. So once again, young graduates, the question is simple: at which altar will you worship? Your whole life will unfold, for weal or for woe, from that decision.
If we would like to see the place where Plato and Elijah come together, we need look no further than the cross of Jesus, which St. Paul described as a divine weakness stronger than human strength and a divine folly wiser than human wisdom. Where could we find a clearer instantiation of the principle that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it than in Jesus crucified? Sinless, blameless, he nevertheless took upon himself all the sin of the world: hatred, cruelty, stupidity, violence, institutional corruption, betrayal, denial—all of it. But rather than lashing out in answering violence, he said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Laboring under the full weight of human wickedness, his soul remained inviolate. And this is why, to the consternation of all of the advocates of “might makes right,” from Callicles to Nietzsche, we hold up the cross and say, “Ecce homo,” behold the true man.
My intellectual hero, St. Thomas Aquinas, said that if we want to live a happy life, we should love what Jesus loved on the cross and despise what he despised on the cross. What did he despise but all of those objects of false worship to which we tend to erect altars. Many of us worship wealth, but on the cross he was utterly poor, stripped naked; many of us worship pleasure, but on the cross he was at the limit of suffering, both physical and psychological; many of us worship power, but on the cross he was nailed in place, unable even to move; and many of us worship honor, but on that terrible cross he was the object of scorn and ridicule. In short, the crucified Lord said no as radically as possible to the idols. But what did he love on the cross? He loved doing the will of his Father. The cross itself functioned as the altar on which the sacrifice of his life to the Father took place, and this is why the fire fell.
St. John Paul II, in his writings on the moral life, observed that in every particular ethical choice a person makes, he is doing two things simultaneously. He is performing a moral act with definite consequences, and he is making his character -- crafting, little by little, the person he is becoming. I have the confident hope that your years at Hillsdale College have prepared you, above all, to shape your characters, to become the kind of men and women who would endure injustice rather than commit injustice, who would never dream of worshiping at the altar of an idol, and who wouldn’t surrender the integrity of your souls for the whole world.
And if you become the persons God intends you to be, you will succeed in lighting a fire upon the earth.
If you share our concern over what has been taking place in our classrooms, please consider joining with us as we fight for families, for children, for education, for truth, and for common sense.
We continue to ask people whether they understand what is now taking place within our school systems. We continue to provide information and resources to help people, especially parents, gain some idea of what's being taught to kids (and why). And yes, we continue to ask people to get involved and help with the lifting.
We fight against children being taught to hate their country, to judge people based on the color of their skin, and to ignore the basic truths of biology. We fight against the sexualization in school of little ones and the destruction of the innocence of youth. Perhaps most importantly, we fight to ensure that the proper teaching of math, reading and writing remain at the forefront of a child's education.
The idea that it is parents who are responsible for raising, educating, and seeing to the well being of their kids, that is sacrosanct.
Join with us in preserving the attributes and ideals of this great nation.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and family. Actually anyone who acknowledges the fundamental right of parents to raise, educate, and protect their children are invited to join with us. We are gathering a group of joyful warriors, folks who understands why (and for whom) we fight.
Parents, arm yourselves and your children with understanding
The attacks being perpetrated against kids are real. Parents must learn what they can about what's taking place. There are good books out there that can help. There are organizations that can help.
One such organization is PERK -- Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids. The group is all about keeping an eye on crazy California bills, tracking the many lawsuits in the works, and notifying folks about calls to action.
"In the past year, 110,283 students left the California public school system. It follows a decline in the 2020-21 school year of approximately 161,000 students.
"In fact, California’s public school enrollment has been on the decline for five straight years, and now sits at its lowest level in two decades. Since its peak in the 2004-05 school year, California public schools have lost 475,824 students.
"Think of it another way: In less than two decades, California public schools have lost more students than the entire population of Long Beach."
If you have kids, keep that in mind, and please keep your head in the game. It's important.
No upcoming events currently scheduled...
Three Initiatives for the California Ballot
Beginning next month the California Moms for Liberty chapters will begin gathering signatures to get three initiatives on the ballot here in California for 2024. Given what's been happening within the state legislature, the initiative process remains the last best hope for getting certain problems addressed.
The three initiatives are as follows:
Protect Children from Reproductive Harm - An initiative to prevent child sterilization using puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or transgender surgeries. Recent polling suggests 75% of California voters agree minors should be protected from puberty blockers, crosssex hormones and transgender surgeries.
School Transparency and Partnership - An initiative to require schools to notify parents when their child wants to socially transition. Recent polling suggests 68% of California voters support schools notifying parents of kids wanting to socially transition at school.
Protect Girls Sports and Spaces - An initiative to make certain girls have fair competition by ensuring athletic programs for girls are kept to females. Recent polling suggests 64% of California voters agree student athletes should only play on sports teams matching their biological sex.
Beginning in October we will be gathering signatures across the state. Please help spread the word. It is time for us to take back control and see to it that future generations of Californians enjoy the same blessings that we in this current generation have enjoyed.
Problem Books in Classroom Libraries
Back in January, a New York Times article reported that “Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an ‘unprecedented’ 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.”
Moms for Liberty Santa Clara has been slowly determining which of the 31 school districts here in Santa Clara County have been making obscene, pornographic books available to students. We have done this through use of the California Public Records Act. We now have a fairly good idea of where the problem books are shelved. It is now time to move to doing the things necessary to see to it that these materials are removed from school libraries.
Parents have enough to worry about without having to wonder whether their young kids are going to stumble upon erotic literature in their classroom libraries. It is incumbent upon school board members to take better care that the books being allowed into schools and being made available to children are in fact age appropriate.
Kids should be allowed to be kids. The innocence of youth is precious and the world will have time enough to mess with these kids once they're a bit older.
If you would like to help us with this effort, please drop us an email.
While the U.S. Constitution does not expressly discuss parental rights, the right to protect, raise, and educate your own children has been described as the oldest of our fundamental liberties.
The history and culture of Western civilization embraces a strong tradition of parental rights, and the Supreme Court of these United States has described parental rights as being "established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition." See Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 US 205, 232 (1972).
Parents need to begin to recognize the rights they hold as parents, and make their voices heard. Only then can we hope to turn things around.
Please let us know if you'll be attending. We are trying to get a handle on if there's interest in doing this. Thanks!
Check Under the Hood: SEL is Not What You Think It Is
SEL, "Social Emotional Learning", has taken classrooms by storm. And like so many things being pushed by the far left, it is made to look and sound very nice. But don't be fooled, there is much to be concerned about.
