Report: More Kids Being Home-Churched
September 14, 2005 | Issue 41•37
BIRMINGHAM, AL—A new trend in the religious upbringing of children has
recently emerged in the heart of the Bible Belt. "Home-churching," the
individual, family-based worship of Jesus Christ, is steadily gaining in
popularity, as more parents seek an alternative to what they consider
the overly humanist content of organized worship.
Biloxi, MS's Lori Williams home-churches her four children.
Norville Tucker, who moved his family to the woods outside Shelby, AL in
1998 to "escape the damaging cultural influences of urban Mobile," is
widely credited with pioneering the home-churching movement. Tucker said
he was inspired to home-church when his 10-year-old son Macon returned
from Sunday school singing a lighthearted song about Zacchaeus, a tax
collector befriended by Christ, and then later recited the parable of
the Good Samaritan.
"I couldn't believe that the liberal elite had infiltrated even the
study of our Holy Scriptures," Tucker said. "It was bad enough that my
youngsters were being taught evolution in public schools, but when I
discovered they were learning to embrace foreigners and Big Government
in Sunday school, I drew the line."
Home-churchers create their own services, emphasizing close readings of
Old Testament books led by a parent, and sermons that often exceed two
hours. Proponents of home-churching argue that, when handed down by
family members, biblical teachings take on a more direct, personal
meaning. Additionally, they say home-churching reinforces familial bonds.
"When I open the Good Book and begin to preach, my kids associate all
the things they learn about—the floods, the plagues, the impalings, the
threat of eternal hellfire—with their daddy," Tucker said.
Many home-churchers say they chose to worship at home because they
objected to "licentiousness" within the church social structure.
Chattanooga, TN's Judith May MacAuliffe, who home-churches her family of
five, said her frequent complaints about modern church music and coed
potluck dinners fell on deaf ears for years. It was only after she
discovered that the evangelical summer day camp in which she enrolled
her eldest daughters emphasized Frisbee and horseback riding that she
made the move to private worship.
"We don't need these born-again evangelists watering down God's fearsome
judgment," MacAuliffe said. "It sickened me to think that young
Christian boys and girls were sharing canoes, watching occult videos of
bewitched talking vegetables, and arranging pieces of macaroni into
suggestive patterns in a so-called 'wholesome' setting."
MacAuliffe added: "By separating my children from sinful elements, I can
finally teach the lessons of Leviticus in peace, without all this 'let
he who is without sin cast the first stone' nonsense."
Critics of the home-churching movement argue that its practitioners
deprive children of a well-rounded religious education.
"An untrained theologian is not equipped to address the thornier
questions of morality," said Rev. Lawrence Case of Grace Methodist
Church in Homestead, FL. "Home-churchers often make their own
interpretations of complicated biblical instruction such as 'knowing'
daughters, or whether eating a rock-badger is as sinful as eating a
regular one."
Home-churchers like Pottsville, AR's Othniel Beebe say that in an
increasingly secularized world, "Home worship is the only safe worship."
"My kids don't have to understand everything in the Bible—I don't claim
to," Beebe said. "But it ain't my place to question God's will. As long
as my Caleb grows up understanding pestilence, sin, massacres, and to
eternally fear the wrath of our Lord—and not this warm and fuzzy
'universal brotherhood' crap—then I've done right by Jesus."
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40517
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