A Republican lieutenant governor candidate in South Carolina is calling for Christian parents to pull their children out of "godless" and "pagan" public schools.
"We cannot win this war we're in as long as we keep handing our children over to the enemy to educate," E. Ray Moore said at a rally earlier this month in Charleston, reports
The Huffington Post.
Moore said that he home-schooled his own son, and that the "socialistic model" can't be fixed and should be abandoned.
"As conservatives and Christians, if you think you're going to win this war you're in, and leave your children in those schools, it will not happen," Moore said.
Moore has also railed against other public school agenda items, and has founded a project, the
Exodus Mandate, described as a "Christian ministry to encourage and assist Christian families to leave Pharaoh's school system for the Promised Land of Christian schools or home schooling."
He also opposes the
Common Core State Standards benchmarks that have been adopted in more than 40 states, including South Carolina, calling the standards "the basic tenets of a totalitarian government. "
Instead of public schools, Moore says on his website, "the best answer for your church, family and children is to withdraw from the K-12 public schools and to utilize private, Christian schools or home schools for your children's education."
In his Charleston speech earlier this month, Moore used former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, to outline the danger of public schools.
He compared her to a "janissary," a word used for Christian children during the Ottoman Empire who were captured and trained to fight against other Christians.
"Hillary Clinton, who may be the next president, God forbid, was raised in a conservative, Republican family . . . There's an example of a janissary," Moore said. "And we are turning many of our own children over to this system."