Statement of faith??

[Guest rubilynne4]

SOFs prevent people from erupting into debate in the middle of the science class or history class. For goodness sake, could you imagine what would happen if you had all the parents here in the same history class? If Bill were there we would never get past the book selections/curriculum. :D (not picking on Him, I swear!

 

:smilielol5:

[mommaduck]

I have not and do not feel like reading all the posts at the moment. Here is my take on it.

 

I have been in homeschooling groups that required a SOF. I don't fit into anyone's box. And it definitely wasn't because I was "too liberal". Homeschooling groups with an SOF generally want people that fit into their social box (not just religious...because they react to people that are too different in either direction from them in practice even if they agree on the SOF). This was the ONLY, and rather large, group in that area. The comments were that other people could just go "start their own"...uhm, when they are the minority? The one LDS, JW, or Jewish family is NOT going to corrupt the whole co-op.

 

 

We moved, we avoided homeschooling groups. We technically belong to a homeschooling group that is very inclusive (headed by our evaluator who lists herself as an earth-based pagan...we love her and she's much better than the so-called "christian" evaluator we had before that judged us based on the fact that we didn't convert to his/our relatives faith a year after moving here). Honestly, I want a group that includes people that ARE different, that ALLOW for differences and room to move and think. Unfortunately, that group is a county over and we can't really participate. My children will go to college. They will face things they don't agree with (or may later choose to disagree with me). My job as a homeschooling mother isn't to "protect" them from different thinking, it's to guide them through it and keep it as a continuous, flowing discussion.

Edited July 3, 2010 by mommaduck

[Ellie]

I'm in favor of the "This is what we believe so you know up front what we're about here, but, it won't hinder you from participating in the co-op" type of SOF. But, that's just me.:D

:iagree: for a support group (I didn't do co-ops when I was hsing).

[mom31257]

The co-op I started has a basic one. We don't teach Bible classes, but I did want to know that everyone basically believed the same. I did say upfront that I wanted to stay away from old/young earth, etc., but I did want people to feel free to pray for each other, start the day with prayer, etc.

[prairiebird]

In my area, the biggest homeschool group requires a SOF that I can't sign as a Catholic. To me it is blatantly Anti-catholic, and I wonder if the person who wrote it did specifically intend to exclude Catholics. For those of you who were interested in what makes a SOF unsignable for a Catholic, here is a perfect example from my local group (bolded lines are problematic):

 

Our Statement of Faith

 

We believe the Bible to be the only God-inspired, infallible, supreme and final authority for all faith and life.

 

We believe that there is one God, eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

We believe in the deity of Lord, Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.

 

We believe that people were created in the image of God, but fell into sin and are therefore lost, and only those who are born of the Holy Spirit are saved from their sins.

 

We believe that salvation is a gift of God's grace and we do not trust in personal works, but only in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

 

We believe the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict individuals; and to indwell, guide, instruct, and empower the believer for godly living and service.

 

We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost: the saved to everlasting blessedness and joy with God, the lost to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment.

 

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

The problem with the first statement is the word "only". Catholics do believe all those things about the bible, we just don't believe the bible is the "only" authority - our belief also includes the authority of Sacred Tradition and the Pope. Take out the word only and I could agree with this statement.

 

If the second statement stopped at the word "grace", Catholics could accept this statement. However, we do trust in personal works (the sacraments) when they are accompanied by faith. While, we do believe that Jesus' sacrificial death is paramount to our salvation, we don't believe it is the "only" thing that is important.

 

Also, I must admit that thier name bothers me: "Christian Home Educators", I would be much more understanding if the called themselves "Protestant Home Educators" :glare:

 

I am bumping up this thread because this post was sticking in my mind when I started investigating the christian home educators coop here. I intended to join because it seems to be the only main coop in the area with over 200 families, and members dominate most of the non-coop related homeschool activities. My kids have made friends with other kids in the homeschool 4-H club, library clubs etc., and the parents all told me I should join the coop.

 

Here's the statement of faith:

 

Statement of Faith:

 

1. We believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God, the supreme and final authority for all faith and life.

2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

3. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension and His imminent bodily return in power and glory.

4. We believe that man was created in the image of God but fell into sin and is therefore lost, and only those who put their faith in Jesus Christ alone can be saved.

5. We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose substitutionary death on the cross paid the penalty for man’s sin.

6. We believe the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict men, indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service.

 

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers through our common faith in Jesus Christ and that individual doctrinal differences which may exist should not hinder the unity of Christian home educators.

I was worried because I remembered your post, so I printed it out and gave it to the rectory to have one of the priests or the deacon look at it. Sure enough, he gave it back saying that most of the statements were compatable, but he underlined the first one and wrote:

 

"The Roman Catholic Church believes in the Teachings of the Church (Dogma) and in Traditions of hundreds of years. Th eoly infallible source in the Catholic Church is the Pope when he speaks "ex cathedra."

 

So now, I still don't know what to do, and I have this hanging over me, but at least I know for sure now. I do like that they don't use the word "only"

as you pointed out in your statement of faith example, and I do like the bit I bolded about doctrinal differences not hindering. Argh. I really don't know what to do.

Edited July 28, 2010 by prairiebird

[milovany]

Yeah, but the word "final" could get you, too (not just the word "only"). Have you asked them if you have to AGREE with everything written, or just understand that it's their statement of faith and you'll not raise a stink about anything in it?

[prairiebird]

Yeah, but the word "final" could get you, too (not just the word "only"). Have you asked them if you have to AGREE with everything written, or just understand that it's their statement of faith and you'll not raise a stink about anything in it?

 

 

Unfortunately, yes, and you have to reaffirm it yearly. A group of us met in a coffee shop to discuss 4-H stuff and all the women but me happened to be in the group. And although it's not in their faith statement, they basically mentioned they all support young Earth only. However, she did say she thinks there are some Catholics in the group because she saw them do that "weird thing with touching their foreheads and shoulders' sometimes. I wasn't quite sure how to take that, you know?

 

I'm actually not too worried about trying to go without a group, though I do hope that doesn't mean the kids have less opportunities to meet other kids. They're in scouts and YMCA sports too, so I'm hoping that helps. It would be nice to meet other families that are homeschooling though.

[milovany]

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers through our common faith in Jesus Christ and that individual doctrinal differences which may exist should not hinder the unity of Christian home educators.

 

Well, then, I'd ask them what one should do if they don't agree 100% with one of their statements of faith, but it's a "doctrinal difference" as described in the quoted phrase. It seems like they can't say "here's our statement of faith and you have to agree with it, but we believe in spiritual unity through common faith and that doctrinal difference shouldn't hinder that unity." They can't really have both, you know?

[Impish]

Personally, if I found a coop that had a statement of faith that I agreed with (haven't yet heard of one that has one, but admittedly, haven't looked too hard), I'd join.

 

It would be nice to be in a group that could openly discuss studying the Bible, and other Christian curricula, without worrying that someone was offended...or have Diva ask me why John Jr told her that there is no God. :glare: