At National Royal Rangers Council and Conference March 19-21,
in Springfield, Missouri, 500 organizational leaders learn
Royal Rangers isn't changing so much as expanding. In addition
to outdoor program, churches can choose from sports, trades,
technologies and arts, to reach young men of all interests. New
"Royal Rangers Leader Manual" will be released later this year.
See http://RoyalRangers.ag.org for a downloadable "Seek and
Save" magazine that describes entire ministry plan and gives
opportunity for feedback. For questions or suggestions, see
http://royalrangers.ag.org/connect/qlc.

** Homosexual movement makes inroads in schools

Some say recent news of kindergartners asked to sign "pledge
cards" in support of homosexuals and a class of first-graders
taking field trip to participate in teacher's lesbian wedding,
illustrate growing influence of homosexual movement in America's
schools. Studies show most parents do not support pro-homosexual
curricula. In 2004 survey by Kaiser Family Foundation, just 8
percent of high school parents and 4 percent of middle school
parents said schools should teach "that homosexuality is
acceptable." Yet, number of pro-homosexual programs and curricula
increasing. Some parents have sought legal help and urge other
parents to be aware of what is being taught in schools.

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** ROYAL RANGERS READY FOR iPod(r) GENERATION

At the National Royal Rangers Council and Conference held last week,
March 19-21, in Springfield, Missouri, 500 organizational leaders
gathered to hear the vision for the future of Royal Rangers. What
they heard left many leaders pleased and eager for the future.

"We are taking Royal Rangers to the iPod(r) Generation," states
national Royal Rangers director Doug Marsh. "In a nutshell, what
that means is we're creating a simple and flexible mentoring
ministry for future men that the men in our churches will find
useful, bringing them years of ministerial success and personal
satisfaction."

Marsh explains that just as current iPods(r) are similar in their
robust ability to download and play a multitude of media, the
content on each iPod(r) is unique < each reflecting its users own
preferences, no two being exactly alike in their play list or
content. The new Royal Rangers' efforts will reflect the need for
supplying powerful materials that will meet the unique needs of
churches of every size and location.

"The program content will reflect the vision, personality and
ministry of the church and the demographic they're trying to reach,"
Marsh says. "They choose their budget, the uniform that allows them
to best minister to boys and young men and the tracks they're
interested in."

According to Marsh, Royal Rangers isn't changing so much as it is
expanding.

"Royal Rangers is still an outdoor program," he says, "but now
churches can also choose from one or more interests, including
sports, trades, technologies and the arts, in addition to camping."

Marsh says that many leaders expressed enthusiasm for the expanded
Royal Rangers program during the conference, and so far, all the
evaluation forms have also expressed great excitement about the
direction this ministry to future men has taken.

"We believe every church in America will find that all obstacles
have been removed that would otherwise prevent them from running
Royal Rangers," Marsh says.

Currently, the new Royal Rangers Leader Manual is slated to be
released later this year. In the meantime, the Royal Rangers Web
site offers a downloadable "Seek and Save" magazine that describes
the entire ministry plan as well as various places for providing
feedback, asking questions or making recommendations.

"The resources to back all these new tracks will begin to become
available early next year as we begin to move a healthy portion of
our curriculum to an online delivery system," Marsh says. "This will
include the whole gamut of interest tracks."

For more information about Royal Rangers, see its Web site at
http://RoyalRangers.ag.org. For questions or suggestions, see
http://royalrangers.ag.org/connect/qlc.

--Dan Van Veen

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** HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT MAKES INROADS IN SCHOOLS

Last October, a group of first-graders at a San Francisco charter
school took a field trip to City Hall to participate in their
teacher's lesbian wedding.

In November, kindergarteners in Hayward, California, were asked to
sign "pledge cards" in support of homosexuals.

In December, more than two dozen teachers in Philadelphia took a day
off in the middle of the school week to protest the passage of
California's marriage amendment and to discuss ways to introduce gay
issues to their students.

While some dismiss such stories as examples of poor judgment among a
few educators, others say they illustrate the growing influence of
the homosexual movement in America's schools.

"Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents," says Mat Staver,
founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal
organization based in Orlando, Florida. "They're becoming more and
more frequent. The schools have become a battlefront for social
agendas."

When social agendas in classrooms clash with values instilled at
home, parents often face a difficult dilemma.

Michelle Turner of Silver Spring, Maryland, never thought of herself
as an instigator. The Christian mother of six had been a longtime
supporter of Montgomery County Public Schools, serving as PTA
president, room mom and fundraising organizer. In 2004, she
volunteered to serve on a committee that had the task of reviewing
curriculum for eighth- and 10th-grade sex education. Then the
trouble started.

The material was filled with references to homosexuality, which the
authors claimed was no more abnormal than being left-handed. Turner
later learned much of the text had been written by homosexual
advocacy organizations, including the Gay, Lesbian and Straight
Education Network.

"I was dumbfounded," Turner says. "It had a very pro-homosexual and
pro-bisexual slant."

As one of the few dissenting members on the committee, Turner was
unsuccessful in her attempts to block the curriculum's approval. She
continued to protest it, however, spreading the word to other
concerned parents and organizing an opposition group, Citizens for a
Responsible Curriculum. She also sought legal help from Liberty
Counsel, which filed a lawsuit against the school district.

In 2005, a federal court blocked the school from using the
curriculum. However, Turner says new curriculum implemented this
school year contains similar statements about homosexuality. Her
organization continues to petition the school district to reconsider
its approach to sex education.

Turner says Christians have a responsibility to investigate what's
being taught in the public schools, especially parents who have
children attending classes.

"Parents need to wake up and find out what is going on in their
child's school," she says. "If more parents who are opposed to this
instruction would find out what's going on and speak out against it,
we would see far less of it."

Studies show most parents do not support pro-homosexual curricula.
In a 2004 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, just 8 percent of
high school parents and 4 percent of middle school parents said
schools should teach "that homosexuality is acceptable."

Turner is hopeful that concerned parents will take more of an
interest in the issue.

"When more and more parents realize what's going on and that this is
really an indoctrination, we'll see more parents taking a stand and
saying, 'No, this is enough. You've gone too far,' " she says.

However, some radical programs fly under parents' radar by
masquerading behind agreeable ideals such as acceptance and
tolerance.

Welcoming Schools, an anti-bullying program for elementary kids, was
created by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based
homosexual rights organization.

The program teaches vocabulary words such as lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender. It uses books such as The Sissy Duckling and King
and King, a story about two men who fall in love and marry.

It also employs a puzzle in which students are asked to arrange
pictures of children and adults into seven families. The catch, as
students are meant to discover, is that the puzzle doesn't form
seven traditional families. Placing same-gender adults together is
the only way to complete it.

The program, introduced this school year in three Minneapolis
schools, "will move toward broader distribution Š after the
completion of the pilot phase in summer of 2008," according to the
Human Rights Campaign's Web site.

An organization based in Seattle called The Safe Schools Coalition
also promotes homosexual causes under the guise of an anti-bullying
program. The group's Web site even addresses spiritual issues,
providing information about books and religious organizations that
assure students homosexuality is not a sin.

Though the organization claims to promote schools "where every
educator can teach and where every child can learn," a blog
sponsored by the organization recently called for the "weeding out"
of educators who disagree with the homosexual agenda.

"It doesn't hurt to put pressure on homophobes and transphobes to
get out and stay out," the writer said. "People who are unwilling to
self-educate and open their eyes to ever-growing worlds of sexuality
and gender should be made to feel unwelcome."

Turner says she and her children have been harassed and threatened
by people who disagree with their views. Yet she says the experience
hasn't been completely void of educational value.

"My kids have come to realize the importance of taking a stand and
that you cannot always be the winner of the popularity contest,"
Turner says. "If you're really going to profess a belief in God and
His teachings, you need to be able to express that < not just on
Sunday morning, but in everyday situations."

--Christina Quick, Today's Pentecostal Evangel