I suppose this is as good as any a place to put this...

What do you think of the proposed parental rights amendment? As the UN seems to want America to adopt the "Rights of a Child" document, several conservative organizations(one major player is the HSLDA(Homeschool Legal Defense Association), which is an organization that helps legally defend the rights of homeschoolers) have proposed to add a "Parental Rights Amendment" that would limit the power of this document.

Personally, I'm all for it. I am everything that most people dislike, admittedly. I am a Christian conservative. I am a capitalist. I don't believe in separation of church and state(though I most emphatically believe that the church and state should NOT actually share power), and I was homeschooled. Now, I know those are all reasons that many of you will be inclined to dislike me, but let's bear with each other. =P

Let me start out by saying that as a fundamentalist Christian, I believe in applying the Bible to EVERYTHING. I do not believe in being "neutral," that would be a case of sta ex veritas(Latin for: "Standing outside the truth), which is a term that I have coined to describe people who first start out with their own reasoning and try to work from there to find "truth." If there is absolute truth, all our reasoning comes from it. Therefore, as a Christian, I use the Bible as a guide for everything.

Therefore, I believe parents have a right to govern their children. They have the right to use discipline(including corporal discipline, though to a limited extent), and to raise their children the way THEY want to, not the way the government wants them to. Therefore, I am highly opposed to any government mandate that gives government authority in "helping" to raise children. I am not saying there should be no government power in this issue. Sometimes child abuse and neglect(both evil things) take place, and the offenders should be punished. Severely. Therefore you need at least some authority to take custody of the children IF it can be shown that the parents are unfit. But from the Rights of the Child document, each parent would be automatically under the obligation of proving they are fit.

This is unfair and unlawful. I think you all know that, "Everyone is innocent until proven guilty." This would completely reverse that to, "Parents are guilty(when investigated by the government over anything regarding childrearing) until they prove themselves innocent."

Therefore, I support the Parental Rights Amendment, which would protect America from this terrible thing. I will add that without this amendment and with the Rights of the Child in place, the government would have the right to come and take any child into custody who they thought was not being raised right.

-Jeremiah Lamech