Christian Challenge: Widening ALL the Gaps and Disparities!

AD Robles

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You know, a lot of ink is spilled and a lot of blood pressure is raised. People get all uppity about shrinking gaps.

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You hear it all the time. We need to shrink the gap of healthcare. We need to shrink the gap of wealth and income and things of that nature.

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We need to shrink the gap of education. And nobody really ever argues that point. It's almost just assumed.

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It's like, that's, that's the goal, right? That's the goal of, of social justice and civil policy is shrinking these gaps.

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That seemed as like the ultimate good and people just concede that point automatically. Shrinking the gap is a good thing.

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Um, and I'm here to tell you that if you read the Bible, I don't think that you'll find, not only will you not find that shrinking gaps is what we need to be doing.

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That's, that's the ultimate goal of everything. I don't think that you'll find that, but I would argue that as a

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Christian person, a parent or a member of civil society, you should be doing whatever you can in your power to the people that are within your influence, to be increasing the gap as much as possible.

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By the way, trigger warning. All right, well,

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I'm a Christian, so let me just say that at the outset. I believe the Bible. I believe the 10 commandments. I believe in the teachings of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so I'm obviously not talking about doing whatever it takes. I'm not saying, you know, increase the gap or do whatever you can to get as much as possible.

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Um, you know, without any kind of, you know, regard for what you're doing, it's not like by all means necessary.

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So stealing is off the table. Um, withholding your hand from the poor, not helping poor people out.

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That's off the table for a Christian. You have to help poor people. That's something that your Lord commands.

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If you're a Christian, um, you know, that kind of stuff that that's just sort of automatically violations of Jesus's teaching.

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That's off the table for a Christian, but I have to say that you don't really hear a lot about the strive for excellence that Christians ought to have.

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Like you should be trying to make more money tomorrow than you did today. And I don't mean literally tomorrow.

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I mean, in the future than you did today, you should be in trying to increase your wealth. Of course, under the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ. So again, it's not like wealth at all costs, wealth by all means necessary.

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No, rather you should be working hard and trying to do better and increasing your situation, your assets, your entire financial situation, your education, your health care, your personal health, all of that stuff.

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You should be seeking to increase that. And I think that the Bible actually teaches that you should be doing that.

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So again, when I say widening the gap, I don't mean through illegitimate means by holding people down or by not sharing with the poor, not giving to the poor, things of that nature.

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That's off the table for a Christian. I'm a Christian. So let me say it again at the outset, because I'm a

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Christian, when I say you should try to widen the gap, what I don't mean is through means that are illegitimate for a

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Christian. But if you look at the teachings, there are numerous Proverbs, there are numerous

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New Testament passages, parables that Jesus Christ teaches that commend people for excellence.

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There's no question about it. If you look at one of the things I love to do is look at the parables of Jesus Christ, because Jesus obviously didn't think economic activity was dirty or something to be ashamed of or things like that, because so many of his parables have to do with economic activity.

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That's weird. Have you ever thought about that? Like Jesus oftentimes brings economics and business into his teaching.

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And I think one of the reasons he does that is because that's something that's common to everybody. That's part of being a human being, engaging in business, engaging in economics.

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That's part of being a human being, part and parcel of it. Like your property, what you own and what you do with it is part of you.

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That's why it's called a livelihood, like what you do for a living, that kind of thing. So Jesus often talks about these things.

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And one parable he tells that people sometimes I think find confusing is the parable of the talents, right?

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So he's got these servants, the person in the parable, he gives one servant a lot of money, he gives another servant a medium amount of money, and he gives another servant a little bit of money.

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And it certainly seems that he does that according to their ability. So the person that's capable of a lot, he gives a lot because he's expecting a good return on it.

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The person that's capable of a little bit, he doesn't give that much and so on. And what happens is that he was right.

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The person that he thought was capable of a lot and he gave a lot got a great return. The person that was in the middle got a medium -sized return.

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He was very pleased with it because both of them lived up to their potential. He was expecting a result and he got that result.

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And then the one who he didn't think was very capable of much, he didn't give very much, didn't do anything.

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He just buried the money in the sand and gave him back his money when he returned. He calls him a wicked servant.

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Wicked. I mean, that's hardcore. It's not just, you know, well, you know, what do

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I expect? You're just not that smart. No. He says, you know, you're wicked. You're lazy. You didn't do anything with what

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I gave you. And so there's a certain kind of idea here that someone who doesn't really engage in business according to their abilities, you know, faithfully, that's not a good thing.

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It's just a parable, of course. We know he's not necessarily only talking about business. He's talking about the kingdom of God.

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We understand that. But the lesson he teaches is from business. And so the idea is you would understand that a businessman who does so poorly that they don't even try, they don't even do anything.

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And that's something that's to be, you know, to be spurned. That's wicked. That's evil for that person to do that.

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I think there's lessons we can learn there. You know, we also see from the Proverbs, this is one of my favorite Proverbs. The Bible says, do you see someone skillful in his work?

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Let me, let me, let me, let me change that because someone is actually not what it says. It says a man. Do you see a man skillful in his work?

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He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure men.

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You see, you should seek to be increasing and improving your skill set. And the idea here is that you will be influential.

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And that's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. So you should be doing what you can to improve your situation, improve your skill set.

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And I would argue, get a better return on the work that you do. There's nothing wrong with striving for excellence.

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There's nothing wrong with trying to make money. Again, under the Lordship of Christ, it's not like you're trying to make money just for yourself, although you can spend it on yourself.

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I'm not saying that you cannot. But the reality is that the Bible teaches whatever you do, work with your whole heart, whatever you do, right?

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So this is talking about your work. Whatever you do, work with all of your effort, right, is essentially what it's teaching.

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With all your heart, as if you are working for the Lord rather than men.

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And the reality is that it's, you are working for the Lord. And so if you're at work and you're not trying to improve your situation, if you're, you know, every person is his own business, right?

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Like, you know, you have your own property and you should be trying to get a return on the property that you make, right?

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That's something that you should do. You should be trying to teach your kids better tomorrow than you do today.

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You should be trying to increase their education, increase their situation, financially, whatever it is, health -wise, whatever it is, you should be trying to improve that.

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And that's what I mean by widening the gap. Like, your children, you should be trying to teach them special, right?

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Teach them more, teach them better, and that kind of thing than the pagans are doing, right? We should have a gap between Christians and pagans.

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This doesn't make any sense that there wouldn't be. And so whatever you do, whether it's teaching, whether it's working, whether it's sales, whether it's, you know, investing, whether it's, you know, your house, your health, whatever your situation, whatever you do, the

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Bible says, work at it with your whole heart, as if for the

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Lord and not for men. Because it's not as if it's for the Lord, it is for the Lord.

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Because what Paul says there, he says, you know that you will receive an inheritance for the Lord as your reward.

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It is the Lord Christ you are serving. And so how many of us would be in a sales job, right?

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And we're working for the Lord, that's what the Bible says. We're working for the Lord, that's what the Bible says.

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So whether you work for Salesforce, or you work for Fidelity Investments, or you work for a real estate brokerage, or whatever it is, you're actually working for the

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Lord. How many of us, if we were working for the Lord, would not be trying to make as many deals as possible, close as much business as possible, get as much commission as possible?

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Because not only are you working for the Lord, that's what it says in the Bible, but that money can be used to improve the situation of so many people within your influence.

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We should be trying to increase the disparities, increase the gap, so to speak.

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Because the reality is that there are lazy people out there, and there's no reason why we should have equity with those lazy people, because we should not be lazy.

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Now, again, let me say this, I am a Christian, so I believe in charity, I believe in helping people out,

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I believe in making friends with the lowly and the poor, and taking up the cause of the oppressed. But the cause of the oppressed does not include rewarding laziness, right?

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Does not include rewarding disobedience, does not include being a wicked servant that gets one talent and doesn't do jack with it.

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You understand what I'm saying? That's not part of taking up the cause of the oppressed, rather, the cause of the oppressed, we should be taking up their cause when there's some kind of an injustice, when there's some kind of an unfairness, and they can't defend themselves, and we can defend them, we should be doing that, right?

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And this is another reason why we should be trying to increase the gap, because if we increase the gap of power, of influence, of all of these things, we can take up that cause of the oppressed, right?

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Because if you're just sitting before obscure men, that's what it says in the Bible, like someone skillful in his work will sit before kings, someone not skillful in his work will be amongst obscure men, how are you going to take up the cause of the oppressed, right?

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When somebody goes to court and they can't defend themselves, and you don't have any money because you haven't tried to widen that gap between you and the pagans, right?

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What are you going to do? What are you going to do, post about it on Twitter? I mean,

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I guess you could try that, but that certainly strikes me as one of the things that the one talent servant would do.

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But the reality is that if you have extra income, you have extra money, you've done well for yourself, you've improved your wealth, your financial situation, all of these kinds of things, you can serve the

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Lord Christ in a way that people who do not have that kind of income cannot. Now, I'm not saying that you're wicked if you're poor, that's the other thing.

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People say, well, what are you saying? Am I wicked if I'm poor? No. You see, the reality is that the wicked servant didn't just become wicked overnight.

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The reality is he was wicked from the start, right? And so just because he was given the one talent, that wasn't like you're wicked so you only get one talent.

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He had an opportunity to prove himself, right? What do you think would have happened if that one talent servant would have came back to his master and said, here's your one talent, and I made one talent more.

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He did exactly what the other guys did. He doubled his money, right? I don't think he would have been like, oh, well, you're still poor, so you're still wicked.

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That's not what the master would have said. The master would have said, fantastic, fantastic. You doubled your money just like everybody else.

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Maybe next time around, I'll give you two talents. Maybe next time around, I'll give you 10 talents. That's probably what would have happened in that parable, but no, that's not what happened.

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He was actually a poor person and wicked. So the reality is we've heard this before.

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You can be rich and wicked. You can be rich and righteous. You can be poor and righteous and poor and wicked. This is the way it is.

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I know that's not that way in critical theory, but in the Bible, that's how it is. And so whatever your financial situation is, be faithful with your financial situation.

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Be trying to improve it. Be trying to increase your skills. Be trying to do what you need to do to widen that gap between you and the lazy pagan.

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Do you understand what I'm saying? There's nothing wrong with gaps. There's nothing wrong with disparities. Disparities are something that absolutely tells you who's being blessed by God and who's not.

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There's nothing wrong with that. And again, I'm not saying if you're poor, you're wicked. I'm not saying that.

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But the reality is when you are poor, you still have to get a return on what Christ has given you.

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You still have all of these Proverbs and all of these New Testament passages and all of these things still apply to you.

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Whether you're working a minimum wage job or you're an investment banker, you still work as if you were working for the

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Lord because you are working for the Lord. And so if you're a minimum wage worker and you're working for the

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Lord, you better be working that minimum wage job as hard as you can. It's just that simple because you would do it if it was working for the

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Lord, which it is. All that to say, this is what got me to think about this.

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This is a Fairfax County Public School memo for parents that they released a few days ago.

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Listen to this. This is them admitting that what they want is equal outcomes.

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They don't want, you know, things to get, they don't want to widen that gap. They want to shrink that gap.

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But the reality is shrinking that gap is not what you should be focused on as a Christian. It is not what you should be focused on as a

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Christian. You should be trying to advantage you and your family and the Christian church.

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That's something that you should be doing. You should be teaching your kids better than the pagans are getting taught at Fairfax Public Schools.

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It's just that simple. And so it's not that you're holding them down. It's that if you're doing what

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Christ said to do with your children, they are going to be advantaged. So you should be going for that advantage because they're going to understand the world better than the pagans at Fairfax Public Schools.

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Listen to this. Ready? Across the country, many parents are joining together to engage private tutors who are often school teachers to provide tutoring or home instruction for small groups of children.

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Now, this is what's going on. This is very good. So parents are like, OK, well, I don't want to,

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I don't know about this Fairfax Public School thing. So what I'll do is I'll hire one of the teachers as an independent contractor to teach my kids in a small group setting.

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So that way they can continue school. Now, parents should be doing this anyway, regardless of COVID -19 or anything like that, because private tutors will teach your kids better than the public school system will.

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So this is not perfect, but it's a good idea for parents that are bought into the public school system.

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She says this. I'm assuming it's a woman. That's funny.

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All right. While there is no systematic way to track these private efforts, it's clear that a number of pandemic pods or tutoring pods are being established in Fairfax County.

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We are aware of these tutoring pods as well as some accompanying community concerns. To be clear, these instructional efforts are not supported by or in any way controlled by Fairfax County Public Schools for several reasons.

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One, they are purely private initiatives on the part of parents and families. Families have an absolute right to work together and pool resources to provide instruction or tutoring, just as they do to pool resources and provide private daycare, music lessons or recreation activities.

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But tutoring pods are not a part of this public school system. Okay, fair. Listen to this. Under the terms of their contracts,

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Fairfax County Public School teachers are allowed to provide tutoring services for reimbursement, but only as long as they meet these conditions.

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They must make it clear that they're independent contractors, not employees of Fairfax. They can't tutor children for private compensation if they have the same children in their public school.

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So it can't be the same teacher. And they cannot engage in outside instruction or any preparation for it during Fairfax County Public School work hours.

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Okay, that seems fair. Listen to this. This is where it gets spicy. While FCPS doesn't and can't control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students.

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Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families cannot provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for these services.

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We have received some requests from parents who would like to cluster groups of pods of students together with a specific teacher.

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From both a logistical perspective and the interest of educational equity, Fairfax County cannot accommodate such requests.

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Listen to this. So the real concern that public school system has is that because not everyone can afford it, then this is somehow wrong.

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That's the impression that they're making, that this is somehow something that is not ideal. It's not something that you should strive for.

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It's not something that you should do because it's going to widen the gap. Some people can't afford it. And that's true.

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Some people can't afford it. Some people can't drive to these public private tutoring sessions, rather. And that's true.

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Some people can't. But the thing is, that's why you should be trying to increase your financial situation so that you can take care of your kids when daddy government cannot or will not.

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In this case, they just will not. And so if you are in a financial situation right now where you could not afford private tutoring for your kids, if this public school system shut down,

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I would argue you should be trying to get them out of there anyway. But you got to do whatever you can do to improve your situation, to widen the gap between people who can't afford education and you and your children.

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You have to do it. God says you're required to teach your kids. And so you need to do what you need to do to teach your kids.

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I'm not saying hold down poor people. I'm not saying that. In fact, if you've got extra money, you might want to consider helping some of these poor people out, get their private tutors.

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That's something that I think would be a very good effort, especially through churches when you can start giving religious instruction.

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And I mean by religious instruction is talking about the world the way it actually is. You know, boys or boys, girls or girls, two plus two equals five, four, you know, facts, things like that.

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God created the universe. Jesus Christ is the son of God. Stuff like that. That's something that you should be considering as part of getting a return on what

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God has given you. That stuff is important. That stuff is required for a Christian. And so the reality is that all this, we need to, we need to flatten these gaps.

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See, they're admitting in this document that it's not about equal access because every parent has an opportunity to send their kids to a private tutor.

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If they can afford it, they have that opportunity. Nobody's binding them from that, but some people can't afford it, but that's all, but you already have equal access, right?

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You already have equal access, assuming you have the money. But if you don't have the money, then you, then you can't afford it.

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I mean, that's like saying if that, if, if that was the definition of access, that would be saying, okay, well,

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I don't have access to your multimillion dollar home, Mr. Superintendent, which you probably own a million dollar home in Fairfax County.

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Of course, I don't have access to your private stuff. You know what I mean? That's not, that's not a problem. That's not a problem.

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So the reality is that that's just bogus. What they really care about is equal outcomes. They want everyone to have the same education.

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And so they want every student in Fairfax County public schools to be programmed robot, to believe the same stuff, to have the same stuff and all of that kind of stuff.

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And that is not biblical in any way, in any way. Here's the reality.

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Not talking about holding poor people down. I'm not talking about anything illegitimate. What I'm saying though, is that you should be working for the

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Lord, trying to be as exceptional as possible. And again, saying if you're wicked, you're, if you're poor, but do what you would do if your boss was

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Jesus Christ, you'd be working your butt off. You'd be working your butt off to improve your skillset, to get a better return on the skills and the, and the, and the, and the stuff that Christ has given you.

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That's what you should be doing because you actually are working for the Lord. And so if you can honestly look me in the eye and say, if I was working, if my boss was

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Jesus Christ, then I would still just be half -assing it. I wouldn't be trying to improve my skillset.

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I wouldn't be trying to improve my financial situation if I knew that my boss, Jesus Christ, was expecting a return, a good return on the stuff that he gave me.

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If you can look me in the eye and say that, and that's somehow some kind of Christian virtue for you, I think you probably need conversion to be perfectly honest with you.

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But the reality is that this widening gap and seeing that we need to, we need to shrink that gap, people talk about that as if that's the ultimate good.

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I'm here to tell you that not only is it not the ultimate good, I don't even think it's good at all. You should be trying to widen the gap between the

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Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, in your sphere of influence, and the pagans as much as possible.