Vaughnshire Farm

The use of the pen can be a powerful weapon.  

We place a high priority on learning the art and skill of the pen.  Writing is an absolute must do in this family.  While we do have structured how to lessons on writing here and there, the majority of our writing consists of letters they write to friends and family all over the country as well as “reports” they write for mom and dad on different topics…such as a summery about a book they just read.  They also enjoy writing plays and stories about knights, princesses and castles.  Another way we get writing practice is taking notes during church and if you are too little to write…you draw pictures of something pertaining to the message. 

Our hope and prayer is that we would raise ready writers who are swift and skilled with the pen.  Writers who will write prolifically, from a Biblical perspective, about the very topics in our culture that need to be addressed. 

The other day, we took a trip to our favorite Amish market to pick up some bulk food supplies.  We haven’t been since the baby was born.  We drove through a portion of a small town that we haven’t seen in over 3 months.  As we were driving, we counted a handful of small local stores that have closed up shop.  We drove past one of the little grocery markets we frequented– lights out and abandoned —and next door…. a busy Walmart Supercenter.  I wasn’t shocked.  When the Walmart supercenter came to that small rural town, I knew it was only a matter of months before this little grocery store closed.  My children on the other hand were horrified that it actually happened.  After listening to their ranting and raving over how they felt about small local businesses closing due to being swallowed up by the big corporate giant, they began to propose solutions to the problem.  My answer was “No, we aren’t turning around and picketing today” and “No, we aren’t taping up posters all over town about what we think about Walmart!” 

Our oldest whipped out his pen and notebook and said he was “going to write about this”.  He spent rest of the trip writing.  He started off like this,

Hello, We’re here to tell you about how bad Walmart is.  First, let’s talk about food.  Let’s start with eggs.  Most hens that lay eggs lay in a battery cage.  A battery cage is a cage that is about 4 square feet and has about 5 hens and is electric and there is about one dead hen every cage.  Speaking of small spaces, let’s talk about chicken mutilation…..”

How he got from Walmart to chicken mutilation in 5 sentences and where he is heading on from there I don’t know yet!  Obviously, we still have much writing instruction we need to cover here at home still.  However, it makes me rejoice when I hear my children pick up the weapon of the pen and seek to use it for good. 

When I was a child growing up, I remember hearing the voices of Marlin Maddox and James Dobson on our kitchen radio while helping my mom cook in the kitchen or clean the house.  Now as a mother in my own home, I too often listen to radio and cd’s.  I love to listen to Kevin Swanson’s radio program while attending to the duties in my home.  We appreciate the Swanson family for their unwavering, uncompromising, bold, outloud faith in the truth of the Scriptures. 

Here are a few of the latest radio programs you can listen to as you go about your daily duties. 

Demographic Winter:  Why Women Won’t Have Babies.  (We like drywall way more than we like kids!)

A demographic winter sweeps across continents, and even evangelical Christian leaders won’t face the cause of it. Women don’t want to have babies, because they aren’t raised with a vision for it. Women are raised for careers.

Well, here’s a father who is not raising his daughter for a career. He’s actually embracing God’s vision for daughters. We know it’s weird. We know it’s unpopular. We know it’s politically incorrect. But we don’t care. Because this is what it will take to save a civilization, and glorify God in the process. We’re raising daughters to be what God wants them to be, not what Gloria Steinem or even Sarah Palin wants.

Daycare - Child Abuse:  Time for a Copernican Revolution in Education

A popular children’s author has enraged mothers everywhere after suggesting that day care constitutes child abuse. But what should we say about some of the K-12 schools out there?

Now after 200 years of increasingly cold, institutionalized education, Kevin Swanson suggests a Copernican Revolution in Education. He unveils a new Education Manifesto in which the definition, goals, method, and content of education are reworked from the perspective of a biblical world and life view

The classical Greek form of education separates knowledge from life, the fear of God from knowledge, character from education, and relationships from the paideia. This is because humanism refuses to treat man as a creature of God, created in the image of God, created for the glory of God, and created to love God as a Father. In this segment of the Generations broadcast, Kevin Swanson suggests that Christians should stop borrowing from the humanists to inform their methods of education, which in the end only cripples the faith.

Raisin’ a Palin:  How To Be A Feminist For Life (Classic Swanson Style!! Excellent!)

Kevin Swanson lays out a vision for raising the next Sarah Palins to rule the country in the year 2035. Then, he interviews Scott Brown on a biblical vision for womanhood and the vision for a feminist America. Contrasts form as worldviews clash on this segment of Generations. In a country where the family has unravelled, fatherhood is MIA, where 70% of men do not achieve manhood by 30 years of age, where the debt-to-GNI ratios are through the ceiling, and the character of the nation is in freefall, will 100,000 Sarah Palins be able to salvage our institutions in the next 30 years? More fundamental solutions are suggested on this broadcast.

There are many more good titles…check them out. 

We are enjoying watching our children love and care for their younger siblings.  What a beautiful site….brothers …big and small. 

Thanks to one of our commenters who reminded us to mention Voddie’s blog.  We regularly follow his blog, but lately Dr. Baucham has been hitting the issues hard over there: 

• Evangelical Two Step
• Framing the Abortion Debate 
• Did McCain Make A Pro-Family Pick 
• Waking Up The Sheeple

If you haven’t heard Dr. Baucham speak, you must get a hold of some of his CD’s.  We especially love his humorous but bold,  straight forward messages.  It is so refreshing to hear a man, with much influence in the evangelical world, boldly defend the Word of God without compromise. 

Next up on my book reading list is his new book Family Driven Faith of which I have heard great things about.  Hopefully, I can put together a book review after I get a hold of the book. 

Over the next week, in all of our “spare time”, we will post a few more highlights of what others are saying about the upcoming election. 

As someone who writes occasionally on the topics of feminism, I can tell you that few subjects lite the back end of the firecracker like feminism.  Whenever I write an article or publish something relating to feminism or the roles of women, I just brace myself for the firing squad.  The wonderful thing about this firing squad is they don’t have real bullets…

We take a hard line stand on feminism because we believe that is one of the top major battles in our day. 

Martin Luther said:

If I profess, with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle fields besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

I have followed the rise of feminism over the years and have learned many interesting things.  One being is that it is infective, potent and extremely deceptive.  I have had much exposure to many flaming feminist extremist and could spot them a mile away.  My family was very active in pro-life work so I grew up seeing the liberal of the liberals.  I always tried to figure them out.  I remember the first time I saw a male feminist screaming at the top of his lungs and holding a hot pink Feminist Majority sign.  I remember looking at that man trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with him…he’s a man…screaming that he’s a feminist…waving a hot pink sign…out on a public street corner.  

At that point, I had always assumed those who embraced feminism were those exaggeratedly masculine looking females who ran abortion clinics.  That day, my view of the stereotypical feminist changed.  I have since learned that feminism parades around in all different shapes and sizes.  As the Church further falls in to apathy and slumber, the fruits of feminism become all the more apparent even in the church pew. 

Feminism has invaded and infected our culture like a rabid disease.  Feminism has hooked women on the lie…the same lie the serpent hit Eve with in the Garden.  The lie of humanism.  The lie of “Hath God really said?”  The lie that you can be as God, deciding what is good and evil in your own eyes.   Feminism has gripped a hold of manhood and squeezed the man right out of him.  Feminism had mocked strong male leadership and declared it as oppressive.  Feminism has declared my rights, my body and my choice.  Feminism enslaves the very ones it has promised to free.  Feminism has exchanged truth for a lie.

While feminism in the Church may not look like the stereotypical feminist image most see in the liberal extreme, the lies of feminism are still very much alive in the Church.  And just because feminism in Christian circles may be seen as less brutal, doesn’t mean that it isn’t still the same brutal, rabid disease with serious consequences.   In fact,  so called “christian feminism” is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and is a blasphemous misrepresentation of the true liberty Christ gives to His children.  Feminism can never be Christianized.  The two are entirely different roads.  

While Roe v. Wade is a horrid symptom of the major ills in our society, it is not the root cause.  Many early feminists, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Stokes Paul, were also pro-life.  Many early American feminist spoke out against abortion.  And get this…..They all wore long skirts and dresses!

Just because they dressed more modestly than the average Christian today or the fact that they deplored abortion or the fact that some had more than 1.2 children did not make the feminism they fought for good.  The early feminist were anti-God because they spewed forth a venomous egalitarian “theology” defying God’s design and order.  And that defiance has led to all sorts of evil that is still wrecking our homes, churches and nation. 

There is nothing like the first female vice president nomination to quickly stir up the waters in Christian circles.  She claims to be a Christian.  She claims to be pro-family…. and a feminist.  She is pro-life and of that I can certainly agree with her on Biblical convictions on life in the womb.  But this whole ordeal isn’t about picking on one person.  In fact, the Republican and Democratic presidential races are just a picture highlighting just how impotent American Christianity has become in the last 100 to 150 years.  The fact that Christians at large are swooning over a mother of 5 who happens to have some conservative politics and is quick to place her in as 2nd in command says something about where we are as a nation…and as a Church.  This is not a personal attack on Mrs. Palin–It is very much about addressing,  like Luther said,  the ”little point that the world and the devil are attacking.” 

And that little point is huge in the future of reforming this Nation. 

I have a small collection of bad books.  Bad old books relating to the topics of feminism.  One of my bad books is called Women and The New Race by Margaret Sanger…Eugenics Publishing Company 1920.  Yes…that is really the name of the publisher!

I quickly found that when you touch the false god of feminism, it unleashes all sorts of rage.  It wasn’t until I began to delve deeply into the false religion of feminism that I began to understand why this issue wakes up a fire breathing dragon, why it is at war with Christianity and why there is no such thing as a Christian feminist. 

My small collection of bad books tells the chilling truth about those women’s rights women. 

So here’s a sample. Just a few little quotes from an influential early 20th century feminist: 

“If Christianity turned the clock of general progress back a thousand years, it turned back the clock two thousand years for woman.  Its greatest outrage upon her was to forbid her to control the function of motherhood under any circumstances, thus limiting her life’s work to bringing forth and rearing children…”  1

“…churchmen deprived her of her place in and before the courts, in the schools…and society.” 2

…The church has always known and feared the spiritual potentialities of women’s freedom.”  3

“The church has sought to keep women ignorant upon the plea of keeping them “pure”.  To this end it has used the state as its moral policeman.  Men have largely broken the grip of the ecclesiastics upon masculine education.  The ban upon geology and astronomy, because they refute the biblical version of the creation of the world, are no longer effective.  Medicine, biology and the doctrine of evolution have won their way to recognition in spite of the united opposition of the clerics.  So, too, has the right of women to go unveiled, to be educated, and to speak from public platforms, been asserted in spite of the condemnations of the church…” 4

“It is within the marriage bonds, (the roles of biblical womanhood)…that the greatest immorality of men has been perpetrated.  Church and state, through their canons and their laws, have encouraged this immorality.  It is here that the woman who is to win her way to the new morality will meet the most difficult part of her task of moral house cleaning.” 5

“Being the most sacred aspect of woman’s freedom, voluntary motherhood is motherhood in its highest and holiest form.  It is motherhood unchained–motherhood ready to obey its own urge to remake the world.  Voluntary motherhood implies a new morality — a vigorous, constructive, liberated morality.  That morality will, first of all, prevent the submergence of womanhood into motherhood.  It will set its face against the conversion of women into mechanical maternity and toward the creation of a new race…”  6

And it just continues to go down hill from there…. 

“In their subjection women have not been brave enough, strong enough, pure enough to bring forth great sons and daughters.  Abused soil brings forth stunted growths.  And abused motherhood has brought forth a low order of humanity.  Great beings come forth at the call of high desire.  Fearless motherhood goes out in love and passion for justice to all mankind.  It brings forth fruits after its own kind.  When the womb becomes fruitful through the desire of an aspiring love (i.e. planned parenthood), another Newton will come forth to unlock further the secrets of the earth and the stars.  There will come a Plato who will be understood, a Socrates who will drink no hemlock, and a Jesus who will not die upon the cross.  These and the race that is to be in America await upon a motherhood that is to be sacred because it is free.” 7 (my emphasis bold)

Feminism, my friends, is at the core anti-Christianity!  Tell me why we don’t have more Christian families boldly speaking out about the evils of feminism in our culture today?

1-  Chapter 14, Woman and the New Morality, pg. 175
2-  pg. 175
3- pg.179
4- pg. 169-170
5- pg. 170-171
6- Chapter 18, The Goal, pg 226
7- pg.234

The nation is all a buzz with the news of McCain choosing little known Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and now the news of the Palins unmarried pregnant teen daughter.  I have read countless articles and I sit here in amazement at how quickly our nation is further plummeting into the abyss.

Sarah is 44 and the mother of 5 children –19 years old and under.  She gave birth to a premature special needs newborn in April and returned to work 3 days after he was born.  Now her 17 year old unmarried daughter is 5 months pregnant and Sarah’s husband is…well, a stay-at-home dad while Sarah parades around the country pursuing political fame.  Sarah says she can raise her children and run the nation and reading her flaming feminist rhetoric is enough to send chills down my back. 

Why doesn’t this sound bizarre to the Christian community is the question I keep asking myself?  It is further proof that the majority of the Christian community is so watered down in the sludge of cultural thought and gripped around the neck by the lies of feminism, they can’t determine heads from tails if they tried. 

R.L. Dabney once quipped, “…when the mother shall have found another sphere than her home for her energies; when she shall have exchanged the sweet charities of domestic love and sympathy for the fierce passions of the hustings (or politics); when families shall be disrupted at the caprice of either party, and the children scattered as foundlings from their hearthstone, it requires no wisdom to see that a race of sons will be reared nearer akin to devils than to men.  In the hands of such a bastard progeny, without discipline, without homes, without a God, the last remains of social order will speedily perish, and society will be overwhelmed in savage anarchy.” 

God does not mince words when He states his desires for His women and places upon them the honored place and sphere that only a woman can fill.  Many choose to overlook the fact that He has already given a clear picture of how we as women are to conduct ourselves as pleasing servants of the Lord first and foremost.   Titus 2:4-5 states, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

Dabney goes on to say, …”the very traits which fit her to be the angel of a virtuous home unfit her to meet the agitations of political life, even as safely as does the more rugged man.  The hot glare of publicity and passion will speedily deflower her delicacy and sweetness.  Those temptations, which her Maker did not form her to bear, will debauch her heart, developing a character as much more repulsive than that of the debauched man as the fall has been greater.  The politicating woman, unsexed and denaturalized, shorn of the true glory of her femininity, will appear to men as a feeble hybrid manikin dwarf, with all the defects and none of the strength of the male.  Instead of being the dear object of his chivalrous affection, she becomes his importunate rival, despised without being feared!” 

I have to disagree with my friend Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, who released this statement:

“Governor Palin will change the dynamics of the entire presidential race. Her admirable record of confronting corruption and living her pro-life convictions shows she is a doer, not just a talker. Sarah Palin will make history as a vice presidential candidate - and not simply because she’s a woman, but because she’s a woman of substance and character.”

Certainly, God calls us to confront corruption and walk out our faith, not just talk about it.  However, God has ordained the means by which we are to live and we are not free to forgo the means to obtain the end by our own human wisdom.  A women of true substance and character…a pro-family woman does not abandon her newborn, her family or her home to go run around the country politicking in the hopes of serving as the running mate to a man who is not her husband and striving after a sphere that God has not made her for. 

Evangelicals breathe a sigh of relief because “out of the options before us….at least she is pro-life..and seemingly conservative….so that must mean she is qualified and has our support.” The evangelical community has placed being pro-life above being pro-biblical…and has, in droves, offered their support for her as V.P.  It doesn’t matter that Palin is not even Biblically qualified on many levels to serve in the civil sphere as vice president….or even governor for that matter!

As in all areas of life, we must first ask,  ”What saith the Scriptures?” 

Obama, Biden, McCain or Palin or Hillary…none are Biblically qualified leaders a Christian can vote for. 

Our country needs strong, Biblically sound, able, God fearing men of truth (Ex.18:21)..leading… and the Palin family needs momma at home rocking her cradle ruling the world within the sphere God has made her perfectly for. 

We are living in a nation under judgement.  As Isaiah 3 says, “As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.  O My people!  Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.”

It seems like the weeks are passing even faster now.  We almost have a 3 month old who is still well shaping our world here…  Last week, he caught sight of his first chicken and followed it intently as it pecked its way across the yard.  That was exciting for us for some reason.  I guess it was something “farm like” that our 11 week old (at the time) was doing–watching a chicken.  He’s well on his way to being a great farm hand!

His personality keeps us intrigued and we are enjoying lots more smiles and laughs and fewer screaming responses.  That makes me happy!  Right now, he looks around at everything going on.  He especially likes watching his siblings and gets all happy and excited when they are bouncing around near him.  Makes him wanna get up and go — which in turn causes frustration for him because he can’t make his body just get up and go like they can…or do all the neat things they do…like sit up.   

Whenever agrarianism is discussed, people want to point out the things they enjoy from the industrial revolution, such as air conditioning, automobiles, and medical advancements, without regard to the cost of these advancements. Advancements in technology and enhancements to our living conditions are indeed very nice. But everything has a cost and not all advantages are worth what they cost.

The period prior to and during the industrial revolution was marked by a departure in Biblical thinking in many areas. One area where this departure is evidenced is the loss of an understanding of the Biblical definition of labor and of wealth. One of the fruits of this change is a debt based economy that enslaves the masses. The industrial economy brought a departure from the Biblical family patterns where the father works with his family, which in turn has led to an individualistic approach to life and the destruction of the family.

We’ve all heard it said that ideas have consequences. It is more true to say that theology has consequences and as soon as we depart from using the Bible as the standard for our lives, both personally and as a nation we reap those consequences.

As we look at the history of the United States over the last 200 years we can see the evidences of a nation who turned her back on God’s Word and in its place looked to the wisdom of man. As we watch the disintegrating economy, the destruction of the family, and the ever changing social programs trying to patch the holes in this sinking ship, we must reconcile the fruit we see with the roots from which it sprang.

Agrarianism is not “the” answer. The answer is a true reformation where we lift up the standard of God’s Word and apply it to every decision we make in life…and that is the heart of Vaughnshire. The farm is fun and exciting. More importantly it is teaching us important lessons about work and wealth. In addition, it provides a certain level of independence from our current failing economic system. But the heart is not to see a nation of farmers, the heart is to see a nation turn back to God.

Cities are not the problem anymore than agrarianism is the answer. If we look to the Scriptures we see that God will give us “goodly cities”. But what many fail to see is that biblical cities, and in fact every city up until the 1900s, had a local agrarian foundation. The food was grown nearby and the substances of the earth formed the foundation for the economy. Wealth was found in items like livestock, food, dry goods, etc… Has anyone tried to make a living raising livestock lately?  How about in textiles? Farms are failing at an unprecedented rate because our economy is not based on a “just weight and measure”.  A paper economy is not a just weight or measure and therefore is not Biblical.  True wealth, that is to say Biblical wealth, is found in production and in working with the raw material of the earth.

The distinction between agrarianism and city living in today’s world is that our cities are centers of consumption. With the exception of a few artisans who are producing works from material that is shipped from abroad, skilled labor is gone from the cities. Even our food service industry, is precariously dependent upon a transportation line that brings its raw material from afar. The fact that it is called a “food service industry” should be a hint to us.

Gone is the craftsman who worked in his shop at his home. The transportation he once produced through wood and iron works has long ago been replaced by the automobile factory, which itself is now being removed from our suburbs and relocated overseas. Gone is the butcher who processed meat raised in the nearby fields. He has long since been replaced by a factory farm and corporate processing plants. This is not the result of cities. This is the result of industrialization coupled with unsound economic policies. This is the cost we must consider. The wealth of America is being exported daily. We are importing a substaintial part of our food supply and our raw materials.  So what becomes of us, when the rest of the world rejects the US dollar? Tell me again why we should be dependent upon this so called global economy?  Tell me again, why we need to import anything?

Vaughnshire is not about bashing city life and yelling to everyone the sky is falling. But what we desire very much to do is to raise a standard to which the wise and prudent may rally. If Christians, can rightly assess the times in which we live and put forward Biblical solutions to the problems we face as a culture, then we can effect the outward reformation of ideas, laws, and practices, while we cry out to God for the inward revival of His grace to be poured out upon the hearts of our nation.

This is one of the funniest political stories I have heard in a long time.  It comes from my own 7 year old young man.  As you read it, I think you’ll agree his keen political insight has him destined for leadership!

Here is the background.  I have offered a reward for a little history work.  In true southern fashion I gave the older boys a pellet gun when they memorized the 50 states and capitols.  Now the next two boys are making the effort.  Our seven year old, Patrick, has been studying diligently and his 5 year old brother is helping him.

Beth recently took Patrick with her to an eye appointment where the conversation suddenly turned serious with this question, “Mom do you think Obama will be president”?  Beth answered with an “I don’t know” and a period of thoughtful silence ensued.  Eventually Patrick states that he sure hopes he can finish learning all the states and capitols before the election.  Beth turns to him, now very curious, and ask what the states and capitols have to do with the election.

Patrick turns to her and says, “Well if Obama is elected he will take all our guns and I won’t get my pellet gun”!  After Beth suppresses the laughter he says, “Yea and Hitler will take away our guns too”.

Beth, puzzled once again, relays to him that Hitler is dead.  A rather shocked and animated Patrick replies, “Really SHE died? I thought she wanted to be president too.”

Out of the mouth of babes….