Government must empower parents to control the upbringing of their children and minimize its interference with the exercise of parental authority, except in cases of demonstrable abuse or neglect.
Specifically, public policy must protect the right and maximize the power of parents to choose the form of education they wish for their children, be it public schools, secular or religious private schools, or home schooling. Public schools must avoid undermining parental authority or interfering with transmission of religious or parental values to their children.
Medical procedures must not be performed on minors without parental consent, except in cases of medical emergency or extreme public health necessity. The right of parents to impose necessary discipline upon their children should not be infringed.
‘You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.’ The Bible, Deuteronomy 11:18-21
