One of the only safe generalizations to make is that it's rarely safe to generalize, about any particular demographic. Homeschoolers do exist who prefer to teach only one viewpoint and whose children, if they attend college at all, either head for “safe” schools, or attend secular universities and there find it difficult if not impossible to understand, and interact with those who advocate, different belief systems.

However, such a species of homeschoolers seems to me to be largely fading, replaced by what I call Homeschoolers: The Next Generation.

Homeschoolers: The Original Series concentrated on home-grown things, were occasionally legalistic and stressed elements like family businesses, apprenticeships and such (and very often the spiritual benefits of near-poverty).

However, Homeschoolers: The Next Generation often recognizes the necessity of learning presuppositions and worldviews, classical literature, interaction with those of different beliefs even while remaining grounded in a firmly founded Christian faith.

Whereas the Originals, as courageous as they were, sometimes preferred their children to grow up and help with the family business or something like that, the children of the Next Generation go on to become American congressional interns, attorneys, large business owners or participants, computer programmers, even journalists.

The Black Glove wrote:

(H)aving a “Christian” product doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a chicken coop makes you a chicken.

This strong point is worth elaborating. I argue in a forthcoming column, for example, that Christians' yelling at The Da Vinci Code and its author is hardly worth it, when there is so much more junk published from within Christendom that even more needs to be purged from the face of the Earth.

I shan't elaborate on the exact persons I have in mind here, but suffice it to say that specifically within the realm of nonfiction, these authors' books advocate either just short of or direct heresies. The Gnostic “conspiracy” often “exposed” in the DVC hype is hardly a conspiracy if everyone knows about it; whereas so many “Christian” authors are advocating a message far removed from the truths of the Bible.

This may be another reason why the Christian Subculture is actually more insidious than a mere irritant.

Why?

Partly because it studiously avoids participation in the “marketplace of ideas” that many philosophers, and American Supreme Court justices and such, have advocated — instead, it eliminates most ideological competition afforded by other religions from the scene.

Thus, hideously bad Christian authors, of novels and nonfiction, are able to get away with more. Quality control, of theology and artistic value, is replaced by a rationale that goes something like, “Well, it's Clean, and not nearly as bad as the Secular Things that are out there!”

To this I protest vehemently! — Most Christians can easily spot the “evil secular” culture aspects. But to discern subtly anti-Biblical material from within the Church is far more difficult.