Letter to the Editor: An Undocumented Fundamental Right

From Larry Jones

♦I’m sure many of you have heard or read the recent quote by MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry where she essentially says that children don’t belong to parents, but to the collective.

She says this in the context of education.  But I don’t think she’s  interested in my picking up her kids and bringing them to our homeschool where we:

1. Learn about the US Constitution and interpret it the way the authors intended
2. Read the Bible to determine what it says about the sanctity of life or the meaning of marriage
3. Read the Bible to better understand the one true God
4. Read science books to learn about God’s creation and see that science and Christianity are compatible
5. Go to the range to learn to shoot a variety of rifles and handguns

I don’t think that’s what Melissa had in mind.

This elitist concept that the government knows what’s best for your children has been around for a long time.  Hillary Clinton wrote a book in 1996 called “It Takes a Village”, and that book promotes some of the same philosophy.  There’s even a UN treaty that supports this philosophy and many of our senators and members of this presidential administration would like to see us ratify that treaty.  That treaty is called the Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”).  It gives these elitists and UN bureaucrats the authority to override any decision by any parent if they disagree with a parent’s decision.

The good news is that there are organized groups fighting to oppose this infringement on parental rights.  One of those groups is called ParentalRights.org.  Their solution to this problem is to educate parents about the threats and to add an amendment to the U. S. Constitution that defines parental rights as a fundamental right.  My family and I started supporting their efforts in 2007 and continue to do so today.

It’s a long and difficult process to get an amendment ratified.  But we think it’s necessary to stop the overreach of the federal government.  Here are some concerns about the CRC:

1. Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.
2. A murderer aged 17 years and 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.
3. The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent’s decision.
4. A child’s “right to be heard” would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.
5. According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children’s welfare.
6. Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.
7. Christian schools that refuse to teach “alternative worldviews” and teach that Christianity is the only true religion “fly in the face of article 29″ of the treaty.
8. Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

Ratification of the CRC was defeated in the Senate last session due to Republican opposition, but the statists didn’t give up.  In December, the Senate considered another treaty called the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  That treaty contained some of the same language as the CRC.  Both of these treaties are a threat to American sovereignty and certain inalienable rights, but the supporters are persistent and will not give up.  The best way to stop them is with an amendment that would override the offending sections of the CRC.

The CRC is not the only threat to parental rights, we face domestic threats also.  Federal courts consistently deny that parental rights deserve protection as a “fundamental right”.  Here are some items of interest from various states:

1. Current administrative law on parental rights blocks parents from seeing their children’s medical records and information.
2. Current law on parental rights does not allow parents to protect their children from “sexually explicit” presentations in public schools.
3. Current law on parental rights does not allow parents of a kindergarten student to know about or have the right to opt out of indoctrination in homosexual rights and practices.
4. Current law on parental rights does not allow parents to stop public schools from giving condoms to their children.
5. Current law on parental rights tells parents that they have no say over their children once they enter the door of a public school.

One of the ways we’re working to get the Parental Rights Amendment (“PRA”) ratified is by building support at the state level.  We’re also trying to implement some of the amendment’s protections through state law.  State Representative Carl Ford recently introduced a parental rights bill in the NC House.  The bill states:

“The liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, and care of his or her child is a fundamental right.  Neither the State nor any agency or locality of the State shall infringe on a parent’s rights to the care, custody, and control of his or her child without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.”

This bill has been assigned to Judiciary Subcommittee C.  We are asking you to help get this bill approved by the subcommittee so that it can be approved by the House.  It needs to be approved by the House and be sent to the Senate by May 16 in order to be passed this session.

Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  What we’re fighting for is the parental authority to determine “the way he should go” and to make that determination without undue intrusion from the government, its agencies, and the statists that think children belong to the collective.  As I continue to think about what we’re doing politically, I realize that what we’re doing is fighting to protect the authority of parents to train up a child in the way he should go.  Parents and grandparents, we’ve got to educate our children and ensure that traditional values, character, and morality are taught and reflected in our children’s behavior.  We can’t just teach our children what we believe; we have to teach them why we believe it so that when they are challenged, they can effectively defend their positions.

If you will help protect parental authority, please write or call members of Judiciary Committee C.  Contact information is available on the NC General Assembly website:  http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Committees/Committees.asp?sAction=ViewCommittee&sActionDetails=House Standing_3

You can also register your support of the PRA by signing the petition at ParentalRights.org: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/385/personal2.asp?formid=signup

Larry Jones

Salisbury, NC