Ray Moore on Educated for Liberty and the Fight for Our Kids

Ray Moore (0:00)

They say, well, the children are salt and light, are missionaries in public schools. Well, that borders on the absolute absurd. I'm sure there's some exceptions. But generally speaking, you don't feed your little children to the wolves so that maybe you can do some good here and there. And we have some data that 80 percent of Christian children who are public school through their entire career abandoned the church and the Christian faith in their early adult years.

Your organization is known worldwide and we certainly appreciate every facet that you do. I do believe in what you're doing because I've seen it in my family.

SPEAKER_2 (0:44)

I'm so excited about all the things that, Robert, you guys do with Classical Conversations. It's been a huge blessing for our family.

Ray Moore (0:50)

Grateful for the work at Classical Conversations.

Robert Bortins (0:53)

You're a leader and you have been in this movement for a long time.

Ray Moore (0:56)

We love Classical Conversations.

SPEAKER_4 (0:57)

I do feel like I have a debt of gratitude to you, your family, all of CC for just the fruit that has come from CC.

SPEAKER_5 (1:07)

Appreciate all that you guys do, both through this wonderful podcast and also through Classical Conversations, which I am convinced is the best education resource out there. Thank you very much for all that you do for the cause of Christ and for our families and for our children. Really, really appreciate it.

Robert Bortins (1:23)

Hey, everyone, and welcome to another informative episode of Refining Rhetoric. Today, I am excited to have E. Ray Moore. He is the founder of the Exodus Mandate Project and Ministry, urging Christian parents to withdraw their children from government schools and place them in private Christian schools or homeschool them.

He has produced the award-winning documentary, Indoctrination, Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America, which my mom, Leigh Bortins, is in. He has been recognized for the South Carolina Order of the Palmetto Award, the Noah Webster Education Award, and the inaugural Christian Education Hero Award. He is a preacher, cultural warrior, and one of the most consistent voices in America, calling the church to reclaim its role in the education of children, and multiple-time guest now on the Refining Rhetoric podcast. Without further ado, Mr. Moore, welcome to the show.

Ray Moore (2:11)

Thank you, Robert. We're so grateful for your family and classical conversations. One of the really bright spots in growing Christian schooling, homeschooling in America today, and this has been a privilege to work with you and your mom for so many years.

Robert Bortins (2:27)

Yeah.

It certainly has been, and we've enjoyed it. Before we talk about this new indoctrination movie, tell us a little bit how you got started with Exodus Mandate, and just how you saw before many other Christian leaders, the damage being done by our government indoctrination centers to our nation and our children.

Ray Moore (2:48)

Well, it started for me and my wife in 1977, when we were starting a new campus ministry at Purdue University in Indiana, when I was finishing up my theological seminary training. And our son was six years old and beginning school, and we moved to West Lafayette. And just a series of events, really, one would call it God's Providence led us to home school. We didn't plan on it. We didn't know about it. We had never heard of it. We didn't even call it home schooling at that time. We call it the family school. And we started in 1977 when he was six years old.

It was just a choice for me and my wife to make about our son, who's now 55, what was best for him at that particular time. And right away, we saw something very unique and special. And we kept it up with our four children, usually through middle school. When they got to middle school, we would have a tendency to put them in a private Christian school. And then our grandchildren were also home school for a time. Then their mother got hired to teach at a Christian school. So she had to put them in the Christian school. So we've had about 40 years. You go back to 77 even more. And in 1995, about, I began to see the need for this to become an agenda, not just for Ray and Gail Moore and our children, but for the whole nation. And so I launched the Exodus Mandate beginning about 1995

And we've been doing it ever since.

Robert Bortins (4:35)

Well, so over 30 years, yeah, 31 years, I guess, doing that. Classical Conversations was started in 1997 So I'm sure you're praying for other organizations to rise up and people to rise up and help you with it. And here we are today. The Good Lord's kind of led a change in the hearts and minds of pastors and Christian leaders over the last really five or 10 years, and it seems that more and more people are seeing the importance of Christian education and homeschooling for the next generation, especially as we see the moral decay of society falling around us.