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Homeschooling is good for culture! In order to save our constitutional republic we must train the next generation of leaders to know history, to love the Truth, to respect the Constitution, and to fight to protect the morals, values, and principles that America was founded on.
Seen regularly on Fox & Friends, Kathy Barnette is a conservative commentator, and proud mother and wife. She is a veteran, a former adjunct Professor of Corporate Finance, a speaker, and a political commentator. In addition to Fox & Friends, Kathy can also be seen on Neil Cavuto, Martha MacCallum, Fox & Friends First and several local news stations around the Philadelphia area. She served her country proudly for ten years in the Armed Forces Reserves, where she was accepted into officer candidacy school. Kathy is not only a public advocate, but she advocates for her own family. Perhaps her most cherished opportunity to date, besides being a wife, is the ability to homeschool her two children. You can learn more about Kathy and watch some of her media appearances by going to KathyBarnette.com.
Automated Transcript (spelling and grammar errors are guaranteed!)
Yvette Hampton: Hey everyone, welcome back. We are here with Kathy Barnett and I am so glad that you guys have come back to join us. Um, Kathy, welcome to the homegrown generation family expo. I’ll thank you for having me. eVet very excited to be here. Yes. Well it is an absolute honor to have you, I think it was a couple of years ago, maybe two years ago or so. Actually my father in law said, have you heard of this lady named Kathy Barnett? She is a Fox news commentator. She’s a conservative, she’s a homeschool mom. And I was like, who is this woman? And so the Lord graciously introduced us to one another. And um, and you are one who I love. We, we just got, we just finished a session with Heidi st John who we talked about you in the end because I know that you are getting ready to travel with Heidi and Elizabeth Johnston and the [inaudible] for the faith that speaks conference that’s coming up and the three of you are firecrackers.
Yvette Hampton: It’s so exciting to see God bringing you together and really just exposing some of the stuff in culture that’s going on in equipping women specifically in this conference that you’re doing faith that speaks really equipping women to be able to learn how to fight, how to fight for our families, how to fight for our freedoms. And that’s really Kathy, what you’re all about. You’re about freedom. You’re about a family, you’re about homeschooling, you’re about so many different things. And so I would love for you really quickly to introduce yourself and your family to us. And then I want to talk a whole lot about just your, um, just the platform that God has given you and why you have gone down this road. Yeah. Well, my name is Kathy Barnett. Uh, Oh my goodness. You know, it’s always that the difficult thing, uh, when someone says, what do you do? I almost feel a little bit of cane because I do so much, you know? And generally, you know, you ask someone, what do you do to like, I’m a lawyer, I’m a doctor, I’m a candlestick maker. Whatever the case may be. It’s like one track. And yet God has been so faithful to open up so many doors of opportunities and he’s allowing me, you know, the grace and the time and the,
Kathy Barnette: of uh, patients, uh, to be able to do so many different things. So as you mentioned earlier, I am a commentator, a guest commentator on Fox news. I’ve been doing that, uh, for the past three and a half years. So it’s been so wonderful to be able to take your ideas and share it with millions of people. So that has been very fun and very rewarding on so many regards when you believe you’ve been given, um, you know, a message to share with the world and then God opens up such a national platform. So I’m very grateful for that. I am the new author of the book that just came out about a week and a half ago, uh, called nothing to lose everything to gain being black and conservative and America. The first week it came out, it went number one on Amazon and new releases. So I was so excited about that and just such a wonderful opportunity that again, God would be so gracious to do such a thing.
Kathy Barnette: Um, I dunno, you want me to talk about my run? I’m running for Congress. One would think, you know, if you have a book that has just come out and you have this national platform and the book has come out a number one, if I drank, which I don’t drink, but if I did, I’ll be kicking my feet back somewhere. I’m just relaxing and taking life easy. But no, God has opened up a new door of opportunity for my family and I, and I am running for U S Congress for the fourth congressional district here in Pennsylvania. As most of you know, Pennsylvania is one of those must win States. And so I’m, I have thrown my hat in the race and then through the ASM, uh, behind my campaign has just been, you know, quite humbling. We had an event yesterday and we probably had over 300 people, uh, trying to get in.
Kathy Barnette: We needed a much larger space than we had reserved. I mean, long lines. People waiting forever just to see me, just to encourage me just to get to meet me and to know what, what my policies would be. And I’m still very humble, but I’m so energized by that because I see people want to be inspired, people want to be led by good leadership and people are sick and tired of being sick and tired with what we have currently as far as leadership is concerned. Yeah. One of the things I love about you and the first time I met you, um, w is that you, you have all of these accomplishments. You’ve got degrees, you’ve got, you know, all of these, um, labels on you, but your favorite and most important label is mom and wife. I know I’m almost a, yeah, I was a little neglectful. Mom and I homeschool. I’ve been homeless slowly now for the past six years. Um, and um, I do not feel like the Lord is telling me to let it go. Although if I become
Yvette Hampton: a Congresswoman, my phone is my clock. Oh no. And get,
Kathy Barnette: or the Lord, Oh no, I have a clock that actually speaks the word of the Lord every hour on the hour. So it’s a little bit behind if you guys can see. Um, but nonetheless, um, yes, I’ve been homeschooling my babies and I’m, I’m very excited about that.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah, I love that so much. I know you have a real passion for family. Um, and, and that’s, that’s really what, what motivates you and what keeps you going and doing what you do. Um, and, and I want to talk about some of the things that you really feel are important and you’re, I don’t know if you mentioned this, but you’re, you’re a veteran also military, um, because you believe in America, you believe in this country of ours and you believe in bringing back the freedoms that we have to be able to teach our kids and educate our kids. And one of those ways that we do that is through history. Um, you know, teaching them, this is what’s gone on. So talk, talk a little bit about that. And I want to talk about culture and kind of why, knowing the history of our culture and our country is important for our kids. And then how homeschooling plays into that. Yeah.
Kathy Barnette: You know, I am a little black girl from a pig farm in Southern Alabama. I grew up below the economic wrong, the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Uh, I remember, um, where my grandmother would ask me to help her in the garden. I thought she just wanted to spend quality time with me. I had no idea it was for on survival. But if we want a beans or greens or peas or potatoes, we had to go and work the land with our own two hands. I’m, I grew up in a house with no installation, no running water and outhouse in the back and a whale on the side. And I’m so very grateful for those people, my people who invested so much. And again, this is a small pig farm and Southern Alabama deep South Alabama. Um, you know, with everything that comes along with that, for someone growing up in the 70s, as you know, a civil rights movement with just in the mid sixties, and then here I come less than a decade later.
Kathy Barnette: Um, and so you still have the remnants of some of those things, uh, around. And yet I never remember anyone looking at me and telling me that because I’m black and poor and from the deep South that I’m a victim. Never. I, I never remember anyone saying, you know, you’re a victim. You know, you can’t achieve anything in life. Um, instead, they worked hard. They believed in the quality of this country that this country would do better, would be better, could be better, um, and would be better for us. And so, and yet when you look at the culture around us today, especially with some of the false narratives like white privilege for example, they would say, because what’s really behind that term white privilege, which is very prevalent in schools prep, very prevalent within our culture, is that somehow your white skin gives you all of these privileges that my black skin does not afford to me.
Kathy Barnette: They will have me and my children and my family to walk around looking at our Brown skin as though it has betrayed us. I’m creating this perpetual victim mentality that lowers the bar of expectation, right? Because why? Because why reach to the next wrong in life if the odds are already stacked against you? Why try if you know, if everything you do, um, is already, uh, you know, um, it w if there’s already a, when I’m in front of you and there’s nothing you can, you can possibly do because of the color of your skin. So, not only do you have that, which has been very prevalent, um, over the past three years, um, but even going in, emanating out of the Barack Obama administration and just kind of flowing over into the Trump administration. Um, I remember at one point, there were times when I felt like I could close my eyes and just listen to the rhetoric that was around me.
Kathy Barnette: And I could have four, we were back in the 1960s during Jim Crow law days, um, or even slavery days, the way the media and the anx and the politicians and all of these, you know, cultural leaders and even teachers, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re leading us to believe that America is just a racist country. In fact, you know, there had been a number of surveys, um, that have been taken among young people as some of them have said, young people believe on average, I think it was like 46% believe that nothing good has ever happened in America. Uh, and then you begin to think, well, where in the world would they get that kind of mindset? And a large portion of that is from the public school system. Yeah. Yeah. Because they’re not always teaching truth. You know, they’re not right. It’s a, it’s a distorted version of history.
Kathy Barnette: It’s a distorted version of what we see in front of us, right? That I’m walking around and somehow I supposed to look at my Brown skin and say, Oh, it has betrayed me. Oh, you have more privileges. Although I can walk into any bank and get alone if my credit is good. Right? Um, I’m not block lined or red line and forced to live in a particular neighborhood, but I can buy a home anywhere. My money can afford me to buy a home and yet they will look at us. Um, you know, the, this pervasive narrative within schools and all throughout my book, I highlight some of those situations within the public school system where our children are being taught. Um, black children are being taught that they are victims. Minorities are being taught that they are subhuman and white kids are being taught that they are the aggressor, and that somehow they need to perpetually walk around apologizing because of the color of their skin, you know, which is very arrogant in and of itself, right.
Kathy Barnette: Because it’s not as though, um, you know, these white liberals are walking around say, I apologize for my white skin. Now let me give you all of my money. No, they’re not doing that. They’re just walking around, apologizing, making themselves feel superior. And then all the while, if I believe what they’re selling me, I walk around Philly inferior. Yeah. Talk about your decision to bring your children home because your kids were in public school. They were for a while. Talk. Tell your story about bringing them home. I had absolutely no idea. Uh, no, no, no. Um, no idea about homeschooling. I had no intention to ever homeschool because in my mind, I’m thinking who homeschool? Uh, it wasn’t something I had been brought up with. I didn’t know anyone who homeschooled as specifically in the black community. You never saw anyone homeschooling. So when I thought about homeschoolers, I literally the image of little house on the Prairie, what pop up into my mind, like who homeschools.
Kathy Barnette: And yet when I was pregnant with my daughter, I’m walking around, we had just moved to Illinois and I’m walking around in the culdesac rubbing my belly, talking to the Lord. And I heard him so clearly say, you’re going to homeschool. And I remember stopping in the middle of the COTA sack and telling him the Lord, no, pick something else. Right? And I remember waddling into the house, slamming the door and saying to my husband, Oh my goodness, I think God is on a call me to homeschool. Like why would he call me to homeschool? I have all of these, you know, degrees and all of these abilities. Surely the Lord wants me to use those skillsets to go save the world, right? I was an activist before I knew what an activist was. I was chartering buses and loading them up with people and taking them up to the state Capitol so that they could, you know, talk to their legislator.
Kathy Barnette: Why in the world would God want me to spend time with my own children. I was looking forward to that little yellow bus pulling off Monday through Friday for about eight hours out of the day. And yet I’m still very grateful that God is such a good God and that he’s so gentle. He’s so kind. He didn’t strike me down with lightning. He didn’t turn my world upside down. But over the course of five years, um, he would just bring it back to my mind, bring it back to my mind. And I try so desperately to shove it to the back of my mind each time. God will bring it forward until one day. Um, it was like a light bulb moment and it was almost as though I had come up with the idea of myself, Oh, take your kids out of this environment. And it was so amazing.
Kathy Barnette: Cause I had so many, I, I didn’t know that I knew so many homeschoolers, but apparently I did. I went on social media, sad. I’m homeschooling my kids. I have no idea what I’m doing. And my inbox was flooded, um, with people that w we homeschool and, um, and they literally, they virtually took us by the hand and walked us down the path that we’ve been on now for the past six years. And I’m so very grateful for it. What was the turning point for you? Um, cause you, you’d felt like the Lord had called you to homeschool, then you put them in school. What was that turning point for you that made you just say, huh, I’m not too sure about this school thing and let’s think about this homeschool thing now. You know, my, my son was in third grade at this time.
Kathy Barnette: Um, we had moved to Philadelphia outside of Philadelphia, one of the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. So my son was in third grade. My daughter was starting kindergarten and she came home with a stack of paperwork. And so as I’m going through this paperwork, I noticed that my five year old had a letter from the guidance counselor. And I’m thinking to myself, what, what is a guidance counselor talking to my five year old daughter about, I mean, I remember when I had a guidance counselor in high school, do you want to take the act, the sat? Which college do you want to go to? But I could not for the life of me understand why or what a guidance counselor will be talking to my five-year-old about. So I emailed the guidance counselor and I asked them to send me their teaching objectives and it was thorough.
Kathy Barnette: It was a list of 35 of the most insane things. And essentially the guidance counselor comes into my five year old daughter’s classroom as well as my third graders classroom twice a week. And um, and serve as a parent. Um, I remember number 35 was going to come home with a, with a, um, with a permission slip because they were going to be talking about little boys and girls anatomies and how they work five years ago. Mind you, number five was talking about, um, uh, you know, how to distinguish between, between telling, uh, uh, between a lie and a truth. And I’m thinking to myself, most of the adults I know can’t, this thing was between a lie and a truth. Who was this guidance counselor to be able to stand in front of my daughter and stand there as a subject matter expert and do and decide and determining what’s a lie, what’s the truth.
Kathy Barnette: And then number 15 was teaching my, my five-year-old, how to recognize and reflect different family configurations, which is buzzword, which is a buzz word for homosexuality. And so I made appointment, went in and talked to the guidance counselor and I asked her to show me what she would kind of take into my five year old daughter’s classroom to show the teacher how to recognize and respect different family configurations. And it was, um, you know, a very, uh, beautifully illustrated little book that talked about Billy going to his father’s house and his father’s boyfriend, Henry was there are Thali and two moms or they talked about divorces. And, um, and over the course of about a 45 minute conversation of me explaining to this guidance counselor how far outside of her pay grade she was operated in, you know, because I’m sending my kids to you for you to teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, throwing some social studies and science and then send my children back home to me.
Kathy Barnette: They have two parents and we will parent them. I don’t need you to parent my children. We will do it ourselves. Um, she seemed to understand and so she gave me all of her little books for the course of the 35 weeks so that I can go through it and edit and throw out and put all any flags. What was interesting with that, she says she’s been teaching this class for about eight years and not one parent had ever mentioned anything to her. She seemed very, you know, gracious and grateful that I would bring this up. You know, she seemed like if on any other given day, this is someone I would like to go have coffee with the same, very nice, very sweet, but very oblivious. Right. She just doing her job and her job was to go and read a book that she herself perhaps didn’t really believe in, um, all of the nuances of the book.
Kathy Barnette: But because she was mandated to teach it, this is what she was going to teach. Um, so I walked out of there with all 35 of her little bugs thinking to myself, this is why God sent me to Pennsylvania, clearly to help these people understand the difference between right and wrong, their role as educators and my role of the parent. And then the next week, my third grader comes home and he asked me, mom, what’s a step mom? And I’m like, why, why? And he says, because his teacher who was newly divorced, um, had had a, um, a, um, a new wife and, and she will just step mom of his kids. So again, I set up a meeting with my third graders teacher and I’m like, why are you talking about your family configuration? Your job again is to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, throwing some social studies and science and send my children back home to me.
Kathy Barnette: They do not need to know what’s going on in your home. We already, they have parents, they don’t need you to parent them. I’m sending them for one particular thing, right. To just educate on the, on, you know, on the fundamentals of life. And after about 45 minutes of this man throwing out all kinds of ridiculous examples and how he should be able to talk about his personal life to my children, a light bulb came on and it was just take your kids out of this environment. That was on Friday. Monday I took them. I, um, I took them out of the school system. Tuesday we’re sitting around the table and I’m looking like, okay, now what? Had no idea what I was supposed to do, you know? Um, and then that’s when I took the social media and found all of these people who I actually knew and who homeschool, but for some reason they weren’t sharing that aspect of their lives that they were homeschooling. And by that Thursday we had started classical conversations. And, uh, that’s been a program we’ve been doing for the past six years.
Yvette Hampton: I love that. You took them out mid year. And that’s a question that often gets asked because a lot of times parents will say, well, okay, I’m ready to take my kids out. So we’re going to wait until next year and we’re going to take them out. And earlier we were talking to Heidi and she was, you know, she said, when the barn’s on fire get out, run, run for your life. And so I want to encourage any parent who’s right now considering, you know, do I take them out now? Do I have to wait till the end of the year? It is legal to homeschool in all 50 States. You do not need the school’s permission to take your children out of that institution. They are your children and you have every right legally to remove them from public school at any point, any day of the year.
Yvette Hampton: And, and again, we mentioned this in the last, um, the last session with Heidi is that if you go to school house rock.com, you can actually see, um, there’s a button right on the front. It says homeschooling in your state. And you can find your state homeschool organization, you can contact them directly and they will tell you every law for your state, everything that you need to do legally to remove your children from school. Cause you don’t want to go just yank them out and say, see you later. You don’t want CPS to show up at your door. Certainly can’t do it. And there are people who will help you take your kids out mid year. And so don’t, don’t wait. If you feel like the Holy spirit is prompting you to remove your kids from public school or private school or whatever, and bring them home to homeschool them, you don’t need to wait until the end of the year.
Yvette Hampton: So I just wanted to put that little plug in there. Um, you know, you were talking about the fact that when you were sending your kids to school, you were sending them because it was the school’s job to teach them reading, writing, math, all of those things. And as, as we have, I used to just think that academics were academics. You know, reading is reading, writing is writing, math is math. It’s just all you know, learning. And we have been very convicted over the past couple of years, my husband and I, and that everything that we are teaching, our children should lead them towards Christ. There are, there are two teams, there’s God’s team and, and he, his team’s gonna win in the end. And then there’s Satan’s team and, and you can’t, there’s no middle ground. I mean, you either are teaching your children and leading them towards Christ or you’re teaching them and leading them away from Christ.
Yvette Hampton: And there is no neutrality in education. Even math. You know, when you look at the common core math curriculum that’s out there right now, it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. And it’s because they’re trying to undo the logic of math. And when you learn math the way that God intended it to be learned and taught and understood, you understand that our God is a God of order. He is a God, an absolute. He is not a God of chaos. And so even with a subject like math, we can still use that to point our kids towards Christ. And with science, we teach our kids science because we want them to know who their creator is and when we understand the way the universe works in our, the human body works and ecology and everything, we understand God is creator and history. We briefly talked about history.
Yvette Hampton: When we understand history from a biblical perspective, we understand how God created the, you know, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and we take it from there. And so I, I think, you know, it’s so important not to just think, well we’re just putting them in school just so that they can learn and then we can do all the other parenting stuff on this side. It’s all one big package. It’s life schooling and I know you’ve done a really good job of doing that with your kids, of just teaching them this is life. We do this together. Now education is just part of it. You know, you can’t really separate education from life, especially when they’re home from you. It’s, it’s one thing all encompassing of who God is, how he created our kids to be, who he created them to be. And uh, being able to, to foster that in our kids as we’re building those relationships with them. Um, how has it, since bringing your kids home, cause you’re, I want to say is this your third year or fourth year of homeschooling? Oh, your sixth year. Okay. What was I thinking? Your son was younger, your sixth year. So how have you seen the relationships develop between you and your kids with being able to have them home?
Kathy Barnette: I love it. I love it. You know, let me just go back a little bit to what you were saying a few moments ago. Uh, you know, I was under the belief I was an adjunct professor of corporate finance. And so I was under the belief that whatever, I didn’t like that my kids were being taught in school. Well, I’m smart enough I can just go around and figure it out and, and teach them a different way. And when I took them out of school and then you realize, cause you know, I’m Monday, I mean Friday I decided to take them out. Monday, I took them out Tuesday, we’re just sitting there and I realize, you know, just how much of my role as their parent, my husband and I, how much of our role had been abdicated out to other people. I mean, I mean, I mean, and, and when you think about it, I mean, like the school system, they turn five, you just drop them off and they have the whole thing mapped out.
Kathy Barnette: They have the whole plan. Right? And I get it. It’s so easy, like now as a homeschooler if I want my kid to play clarinet, I’ve got to go find a clarinet teacher. If I want them to play piano, I’ve got to go find someone to do that. But I want them to take Latin or, or a foreign language. I mean, we have to be very involved as parents and, um, and establishing the type of curriculum that we want our children to be a part of. And, um, and it allows for me as a parent, my husband and I, to be very intentional about what we believe is important. Um, how we see the world and a lot of what I do, um, because it’s just how God is, has wired me. I’m a warrior. I’m ready to go to battle and I love this country.
Kathy Barnette: I recognize from a pig farm to where I am today. My story only takes place here in America. I love this country. So a large part of what I want to share with my children is a love for this country and helping them to understand, right? Um, you know, the good and the bad, right? The good, bad, and the ugly. I believe we can walk and chew gum. I can look at, you know, what this country has gotten wrong and I kind of look at all that this country has done to write her wrongs, um, throughout, throughout our history and yet be able to pray and yet to be able to stand on the other side and say, I’m so very thankful to God that I’m an American. But as, as a homeschooling mom and dad, we get to make sure our kids hear that side of the story and that they’re not bullied to believe one version of us history over the complete version, right to look at, you know, the whole of the perspective, the good, the bad, the ugly that’s in between and still be able to, you know, to see, you know, our growth that how God has used this country to be a light until the world literally.
Kathy Barnette: And so we can, so we can talk about that. We can talk about the rule, you know, the place for law and order and that, you know, you don’t call on the constitution when you just want to impeach a duly elected president. But actually you can call on this rule of law throughout every aspect of your lives. So much of you know, um, um, our, our bill of rights is, is a spotlight on the value of human life and how, and how and how our lives are supposed to interact with one another and with the government and all of that. And we get to share that with our children. Now to your latter question on, um, just a relationship. Oh my goodness. You know, my babies, again, they were in, my daughter was in kindergarten when we started homeschooling and my son was in third grade and I saw, you know, they’re just my babies and they still are, I don’t care if they’re 80, they’re still going to be my babies if I’m living.
Kathy Barnette: But I remember walking into this brand new environment and there were a number of high school level homeschoolers and our classical homeschool setting. And that was very intentional to watch, uh, how the boys relationships were these high school boy, these teenage boys relationships were with their mom. And it was so gentle. It was, um, it was just, it was, it was a softness there. Right. And, um, and I look to that and I, um, admire that and I, you know, as someone who was brand new, walking into this, not quite knowing, you know, what we were doing at all and where this was going to lead us. You know, I, I remember watching these, these home, these, um, high school kids and their interaction with their parents and envying that and praying to God that that would be something that my family and I would emulate.
Kathy Barnette: And it is, my son is now 13 years old and I, um, and it’s just a softness there. He’s getting ready to turn 14. It’s just a softness and I appreciate that. Now he plays on three different basketball ball leaves. Uh, what I know, right? I’m all over the place and one is, um, is a community league that my husband coaches with my son. Um, and then the other two, one is, uh, eighth grade, um, basketball. And then the other is travel team, which is primarily made up of public school kids. My son is the only homeschool kid. And so I’m in that environment with all these other public schools, uh, kids and their moms. And you’re looking at some of these public school kids and you can tell that their children, but you look into their eyes, there’s, um, I dunno, there’s a, there’s an awareness there.
Kathy Barnette: There’s a, there’s, there’s a, um, adept there that perhaps should be there for 13 year old. Like they know some things that they perhaps should not know. There’s a, um, you know, less of a sensitivity and a softness. I’m still, you know, good, good people. I’ve, I’ve met so many of their moms and dads and I’ve talked to them, just wonderful people. Um, you know, um, very sweet, very kind, um, children, very sweet, very kind. And yet, not all, but with a large number of them. You see, um, a softness that has been a race. Yes. Yeah. Um,
Yvette Hampton: you mentioned earlier, and I think this was when you were talking about when you were taking that walk in your neighborhood and you felt like the Lord was saying, I want you to homeschool. And you were like, no, no, no, go. You went kicking and screaming. Um, and you had mentioned that, that you wanted to save the world, you know, that was kind of your, your passion. You, you wanted to go out and make a huge difference. And I think one of the things as a homeschool parents that we don’t realize is that we, we are having a great impact in the world because we are raising tomorrow’s leaders. We are raising those who are going to be leading our country. And so one of the things I would love for you to talk about is you, you are so passionate about being an American. You’re so passionate about our country and loving our country. And I love that about you. How can we pass that on to our kids in a very practical way, right.
Kathy Barnette: My charger. Okay. I’m so sorry. My, my, my, my computer is just alerted me that the battery is going low, so I’m getting my charger. I’m so sorry. I’ll get that. Um, you know, one of the things that I see, you know, uh, when I was growing up, I remember I wasn’t a Christian, but I remember, uh, the theme in the late eighties was, um, we’re just gonna go inside of our church wall and we’re just gonna let the world, you know, go to hell in a hand basket. And once they realize they’re wrong, they’ll come back to church and politics. Right now. I, I, you know, I remember the church kind of fight for ground and territory and it was difficult, I guess. Now of course I’m in, you know, middle school, early high school, and I, um, and I remember, and I remember them getting to that point that it was getting so difficult that they just decided, well, we’re just going to go in and we’re just gonna let the world do what the world wants to do.
Kathy Barnette: And then we will just go into our little Holy huddles. And for most part, I don’t think we’ve really come out of those Holy, Holy huddles. We have our little, our little spaces and you know, and I see a lot of that even with among homeschoolers, not all, because you have the events and the Heidi’s and they live [inaudible] of the world. But to some degree, you know, I’m, I, I see that even among, uh, some homeschoolers as well as the church. We, you know, I, I’m just a homeschool mom. I just sit here and I just teach reading and writing. And, and we have our little, and we have our little Bible studies and that’s all I’m called to do. Um, and I see the same thing in the church. You know, I’m a Christian but you know, um, you know, God is love. So I really can’t say, I can’t speak about anything that’s going on in the culture around me. And, um, and I just think those are two of the greatest lies of the enemy. There is no such thing as just a mom as the specifically just a homeschooling mom or a homeschooling dad. One, we are training up the next generation. I mean, I look at my babies. So much of my life is always about projecting out beyond me. Um, you know, uh, what will the world need by 10 years from now and then coming back today, trying to make
Kathy Barnette: sure I’m equipping my children with that, right? Our world is going to need people who know that there is such a thing as truth who know that there is such a thing as a right and a wrong way of doing things and who will have the courage to put a stake in the ground and say, this is where I’m standing. Our culture is going to need people like that. We’re currently living in a culture that is, you know, for you and I, you know, there are those who struggle with, you know, um, and the, um, homosexual lifestyle. There are many who are struggling with their own bodies, how they feed themselves, right? I cannot imagine that kind of struggle and that kind of pain. And I believe that the pain that many of them are suffering or real pains, they are real. I’m not here to say that what they’re filling are not real Phillies.
Kathy Barnette: I believe their fillings are real. Um, and yet we have, uh, um, a political culture, for example, that is creating laws that forbid me to be able to look at someone and call them by the gender that I know them to be. Now you and I may know, may say, Oh, well, you know, um, well I know that this, that this is a man that I’m looking at, but I will just go along because God is love. Well, we’re raising up a whole generation of children who won’t know that necessarily. Instead, they’re being taught to not trust their own eyes. Their eyes are telling them, this is a man that I’m looking at, but I have to wait and because I can’t trust myself, I need to wait for you to tell me who you are. I need to wait until someone gives me permission to know who you are because I can’t trust myself and no one is having that conversation, uh, in our culture on a, on a public platform, right?
Kathy Barnette: We are pretending that we don’t see who we see because God forbid we offend someone. Um, God forbid we hurt someone’s feelings and as adults, okay, we may want to do that. Well for the next generation, these little babies who are being trained at very early ages. Like I said, my daughter was five years old and she was being introduced to this whole new agenda. Um, and uh, and it’s something we want to be mindful of, but there is no such thing as just a mom, just a parent, just homeschooling. We are raising up the next generation of citizens, of lawyers, of doctors, of accountants. Do you really want an accountant who don’t know the difference between what is right and what is raw handling your money? Do you really want to have bankers who don’t, who you know, who want to kind of test the wind to see which way, you know, a culture is moving and then they go in that direction.
Kathy Barnette: Or do you want people who know the difference between right and wrong? That is what we’re doing. Um, so that’s one. There is no just anything when it comes to parenting up the next generation. And secondly I think is vitally important that we lead by example. I hear so many adults say, well, you know, I will, you know, I mean, my kid is strong enough to withstand the culture, so I’m just gonna push them out into the culture. And yet I look at the parents, um, they’re like little wallflowers. Um, they’re like little, you know, shrinking violet. They’re little turtle, just like, okay, I don’t want anyone to see me. Our children. So much of what our children will learn will be caught and not necessarily taught. So you may teach your children to stand up for your rights, to not be bullied, um, to know what is truth and to stand on that truth, but so much of what they’re going to emulate and life is what they saw you doing.
Kathy Barnette: And so if you’re not willing to take a stand and to, you know, and to say no, there is such a thing as right and wrong. No, no, no. There is such a thing as up and down, a boy and a girl and I will not confuse any of it. Then our children are gonna grow up to be shrinking violence by lists. They’re going to grow up to be little turtles, right? With a little heads stuck in. But I think we’re in fast moving into a culture where they won’t have a, where they won’t have the ability just to sit on the sidelines. And because we’re living in a culture that is very aggressive about who they want to be, we’re living in a culture that will walk right into your home, ms. snatch your children if you don’t agree to what they believe to be the norm. And if that is what we’re contending with today, can you imagine what our children are going to be contending with a five years from now? And if we do not equip them to have a backbone by showing them how to have a backbone, right? Uh, by showing them what it means to take a little heat. Right? Um, then your children will be you plus a weaker, yeah. And that’s a sad thought for me to have for my own children.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah. It really is. We, we tell our girls all the time, we’ve told them this since the day they were born, is that God created them on purpose and for a purpose. And every one of us, adults, children, babies, every single one of us was created by a loving God on purpose for this perfect time in history for his purpose, for a reason that that brings honor and glory to him. And I can’t think of a better way to help our children see who they are in Christ than for them to be able to be home with us. And you know, there, you and I both know there are a lot of really good teachers in the public school and in the private school system. Many I know of them, you know, two of my best friends were, were public school teachers. I know that there are many of those teachers out there, but as great as they are, there is not a teacher on earth who can take a, your child and individually instill in them the values and the morals that God is, has given them a bent towards and, and help them to understand who they individually are in Christ and as their parents.
Yvette Hampton: No one knows our kids better than we do. We have the greatest opportunity to take our kids on a daily basis. And we talked about this and I think it was in Heidi’s interview, that that when kids are in school from kindergarten through 12th grade, they’re in school for over 16,000 hours. And imagine losing that time of us as their, their mom or as their dad being able to instill in them, this is who God made you to be this and not that we get to pick for them. You know, this is what you’re going to do as an adult. But helping them to foster who God made them to be. What kind of leader did he make them to be? And, and as great as many teachers are knowing can do that, like mom and dad. Yeah. And no one should. I mean, God has given them to us.
Yvette Hampton: They are our children. They’re our responsibility to raise and to protect and to disciple and to train. And so, um, you know, it’s just such a great privilege that we have of being able to teach them. And, and as part of that, teaching them, this is our country. We are going to fight for our freedoms and I’m going to teach you the truth. I’m seeing a couple of posts or people are asking about history, curriculums and stuff. Tomorrow we’re going to have a Linda liqour Hobar from the mystery of history. She’s going to be on tomorrow. We’re actually talking about something else. But she’s the creator of the mystery of history. And there are several other great history curriculums out there, a curricula I should say. And um, you know, that’s one that’s just fantastic because she takes it from a biblical worldview. She teaches our kids, you know, this and she takes them from Genesis in the beginning, God created. Um, so for those of you asking about history curriculum, definitely, uh, look at the mystery of history. Um, how, how do we teach our kids to fight for the morals and the values that America was founded on? And I really want to talk in a practical way, you know, you take your kids individually every day in your home, we can teach them history, but how can we teach them in a really practical way to fight for what is right.
Kathy Barnette: Yeah. Okay. So being practical. Yeah. Again, I think it’s all about leadership. Leadership starts with mom and dad. Uh, leadership starts with you and I reading books, um, and then talking to our children about it. For me, very practical way of doing that. Um, if I’m off box, guess what? My kids are waking up getting in the car and they’re going, um, they’re going into the Fox studio with me. They’re standing there watching mommy have respectful interchange, uh, vying for the hearts and minds of people. Um, working in the marketplace of ideas, right? So they see mommy at home reading, study writing, and I’m sharing these thoughts with them. Right? So, not only am I talking about two plus two equals four, or, um, you know, or what did the square root of nine. But I’m talking to them about, you know, uh, we watched the news and then I was, I would say, look at that.
Kathy Barnette: What do you think about that? Let’s talk about that. What are they, what’s the end goal? What do we know to be true? Right? We have Bible study, but Bible study is not just opening up the Bible, reading a passage, saying a couple of prayers, building a little emotional, and then moving on with life. No, the Bible is practical, is living those things out, right? And so when someone presents and untruth to you, you don’t say, Oh, I’m gonna go on pray about it. You know what that untruth is? And you take a stand and say, no, that’s not true. Uh, no, I don’t agree with that. No, that is wrong. Our children need to see us doing it. We cannot, you know, because we want to be light. And because we want the world to think we’re tolerant. We walk around saying, well, God is love and that becomes your excuse for not having to engage on some really difficult topics.
Kathy Barnette: So I’m always going to get back to parents. I’m modeling what it looks like to stand up for truth. Our children need to see us out side of our four walls competing in the marketplace of ideas. They need to see it. And if you feel ill equipped to do it, then find other people and let your children see you supporting playing a supporting role to someone else who is out there in the marketplace of ideas. Because let me tell you, as you and your husband knowing that those arrows are strong and they come and they’re, and they’re not nice all the time and they heard, right. Um, and there’s a lot of sadness that can come about for those of us who feel as though we’re on the front lines of things. Um, another very practical way. I’m running for Congress, as I said earlier.
Kathy Barnette: And so this is a civics lesson. I would have never been able to. My children, I would have never been able to thoroughly get a book and show them all the things that mommy’s doing. At the very beginning, I had to call, we have over 700 committee people and our district and in my children saw me picking up the phone, calling at least 30 of them a day for that first month, calling 30 of them a day, introducing myself, I’m running for Congress. I want your endorsement. This is, this is what I believe. What do you think? And, and my children saw it so much. So my husband came home one night and he and we were just sitting on the bed talking and he says, so what did you do today? My daughter who’s 11 runs and jumps out of the bed and she gives me a whole speech.
Kathy Barnette: So my husband and I’m just sitting there like, I could not have paid for this, but it really opened my eyes. I thought, I knew history govern us history, but it opened my eyes that our founding fathers never intended us to be looking up at our elected officials as elite as our saviors. They expect it. Even the committee person, which is just just a mom, just a dad living in their community who wants to be engaged, you know, at a very local, mild level, but they intended for us individually to be informed on what’s going on around us, what’s going on in our country and to select the individual people like myself who will then rise up and represent them. It starts at the lower level. I wasn’t calling, you know, um, you know, the various people up in Congress or the president. No, I was calling the 700 committee people who are just, just individuals living in the community who are just paying attention to what’s going on to some degree of the culture.
Kathy Barnette: My children are walking alongside me. A lot of it is not a new curriculum that I’ve, that I’ve pulled off the shelf. A lot of it is them just watching mommy and daddy live out their faith because who, if not you and I, who know the difference between up and down the truth from alive fool, if not you and I should be out in the world and engaging our culture at the highest levels of our culture, not just at our churches and you know, backpack ministries, but who, if not, you and I should be out in the marketplace competing for, for the hearts and minds of the next generation. And so my children are watching me do that and I’m doing it not because I think I have all the answers. God, no, that’s not the case. But because for such a time as this, I believe that if I stand, you know, the word of God says in Ephesians chapter six and it gives us this whole litany of what we do when we’re engaging battle, right?
Kathy Barnette: We have the sword, we have the shield, we have the shoes, we have the breast plate, we have all these things. And then Paul says, and after you’ve done all that, you know, to do sand, just take a sand right where you are. Just take a stand. Because we recognize that the battle is not given to the Swift or to the strong. We recognize that it’s not by my mind or my power, but it’s by the spirit of God. And so ultimately, if we really want our children to be all that God has called them to do, to be, I believe it starts with you and I, I believe it starts with you and I walking out what know to be true, not just reading it in a book and having some curriculum and going to this conference and that conference, but our children actually see mommy and daddy say, I different, I differ with you. I don’t agree on that and this is what I’m thinking. Yeah. Putting yourself out there, taking a risk. I think that’s how we become practical.
Yvette Hampton: Yes. I love it. And I, and I think it, it starts, you know, you talked about getting outside of the walls of your home and at first, and you’re absolutely right. I love seeing parents take their kids to abortion clinics, to pray over people or to, you know, different rallies that are fighting for what’s right. Um, and at the same time, one of the things that I years ago was really convicted of is I get up in the morning, I try to get up before my kids to do my quiet time and just spend time with the Lord. But my youngest one specifically, she’s, she likes to get up early and so oftentimes she’ll just come and, you know, it, I, my flesh wants to just be like, okay, I need you to go away now because I’m trying to, trying to read my Bible. I, and I need to spend time praying and reading.
Yvette Hampton: And I learned years ago, I heard someone actually talk about this and it was a homeschool mom and she said, bring them in with you. Invite them to read whatever you’re reading, read it out loud. Or even if they’re just sitting there for them to see us as their parents digging into the word of God. You know, we, we, we’ve said this lots of times, you can’t teach your kids what you don’t, how, what, you don’t know what you don’t have. So if we’re not in the word of God and we don’t know truth, we can’t teach it to our children. And so what a privilege that we have to be able to have our kids at home with us to be able to have them watching us dig into the word and know it and then take those, take that truth outside of the walls of our hires. I love
Kathy Barnette: it. Yeah. You know, I mean, another example I came in from the campaign trail and it was one of those hellish, literally hell com demons coming out of hell kind of a day. And, um, I came home and my children were there and I sat down. I said, well, let me tell you what, what mommy’s day was like today. Right? So I started telling them high level, you know, some of the things, um, because my son was a little prayer warrior. He, he’s 13. He laid his hand on my head and he started praying. Um, you know, praying for the favor of God, praying that God will give mommy wisdom and direction, um, and the stuff that she should take. By the end of that day, I mean, God had cleared up so much of the confusion that has started earlier in the day. And I mean, again, it’s bringing them into our problems is bringing them in, you know, at a high level and child appropriate way, but sharing with them, letting them see us walk out, our faith mommy is, you know, stuff is, stuff is flying all around. People are acting confused and a lot of confusion. Mommy’s confused. Um, and then letting them see mommy and that state and then asking for their prayers and inviting them in, right to go before the throne of the Lord on mommy’s behalf. And um, and letting them feel ownership in it and in the direction the family is moving.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah. That’s awesome. And how great to think of your son praying over you because if he’s learning to do that with you, then how likely is he to do that with his own family? I mean, that’s amazing. Those are the kinds of men that we are, that we need to raise men who will stand up and be strong spiritual leaders in their home. We pray everyday. We have two daughters and we pray daily that the Lord would just be raising up right now today, that he would be raising up godly men for our girls some day, Mary and he would be raising our girls to be godly women because there’s, you know, a godly man is not going to want a girl who’s weakened her faith. And, um, so I, it’s interesting I’m seeing these comments pop up and I see this one from Christina and I was actually just thinking about this thing because how do you, oftentimes as parents, we want to hide the things that are going on in culture from our kids because we want to protect them.
Yvette Hampton: We genuinely want to protect them. Um, and she said, sh let me wait, hold on. Let me scroll back up to, I lost her question and got too many comments coming in at one time. Um, she says, I, I have four kids, nine, seven, four, and one I’m worried about taking, uh, talking about big issues with them and stealing their innocence. Um, how do, how do we go about doing that? How do we be truthful with our kids and help them to really see this battle that we’re fighting and allow them to enter into this battlefield with us to a point. Because of course they still need to be girded up. Um, Ephesians chapter six, 10 through 20, you know, they need to put on the form or of God just like we do. How do we prepare them for this battle and at the same time engage them in the culture without stealing their innocence. And so, Christina, that’s a great question,
Kathy Barnette: a wonderful question. Um, uh, you know, this one is one that I’m walking in right now actually, because you’re right, I recognize one of the, one of the tactics of the enemy is to steal our children’s innocence, not just their children’s in a sense, our innocence things I don’t want to know and see. And yet the enemy, you know, like, that’s what I mean. He tries to desensitize us by putting things out there. And by taking away our innocence. I, I honestly believe that’s one of his chief methods. Um, you know, uh, but my, you know, God had me to share a very, um, had me to start sharing on a much larger platform, very, um, personal aspects of my life. I am, I am the product, the byproduct of a rape. And it’s a very hard, it’s just very hard to share that story no matter how many times I’ve shared it.
Kathy Barnette: There’s just nothing beautiful about the actual act by which I K. and yet I see that God has so much value that I have so much value that you know, that his promises are true to me as well. That from the, from the foundation of the earth, he saw me, he called me. He, he loved me. He predestined me and at just the right time he called me out of the world. Um, you know, those things apply to me as well. And, um, but you know what, because I have such a national and public platform, I knew that that story was going to get out to my children and you know, and I wanted, I wanted my husband and I to be able to share it with them first, but, Oh, so hard because now I have to talk to them about the ugly side of sin and rate and what does that mean exactly right?
Kathy Barnette: And, Oh, I labored, Oh, I’m labored. I cried, I moaned, I fasted, I prayed, Lord help me. And when I finally worked up the nerve to talk to my children about it, they were so gracious and they were so kind. They didn’t want the gruesome details of anything. It was very high level. And they just kind of, you know, patted me on the back, gave mommy a hug and just moved on with life. And I was, I mean, and I’m sitting over here broken and bruised, then like Tervaine lane. Um, I mean, there’s so much more resilient than I think. We give them credit and you know, and I, and, and I do believe the fast that and the praying that God is so faithful to preserve those things concerning us. Yes, I would have never shared that aspect of my life of God had not made it abundantly clear that he wanted me to.
Kathy Barnette: And when he was making it abundantly clear that he wanted me to share that aspect of my life, I have to believe that he took my children into consideration and that he would want me, that he knew I would have to come to a point where I share this story with him and that he’s faithful to preserve all those things, all those people, all those dreams that are near and dear to my heart. And I saw him do that. And um, you know, and it’s still, it’s a very, it’s very hard for me to talk about it because of everything that has come alongside it. But you know, homeschooling, for me, when I came into this, I was very adamant that it is not about me trying to put my children into a bubble. I am not trying to put, you know, throw my children in the, in the, you know, put them in a bubble and, and, and lock them up and throw away the key.
Kathy Barnette: That was never the case. I want my children to engage the culture. Um, and sometimes I have to remind myself of that, that homeschooling is not about me putting my children into a bubble and that nothing would ever touch them. That’s not the case. Reality happens. Life happens and we need to be able to equip our children. You know. Um, last year I had my son as a part, he was a junior UN model. Um, I, I forget how the actual name of it, but he was a part of the, the junior UN model program. And um, and I intentionally selected human trafficking. We didn’t get to the aspect of, you know, the, the, the uglier side of, of human trafficking. But we just talked about the labor aspect of it. And even to this day, I’m giving him articles to read about the world around you because I want my little man to grow up and to be a big man of integrity and to have a heart for, you know, um, to be mindful, to be sensitive, you know, to have a heart that can be broken when he sees something that’s not right and to, you know, and to know that you get to have a say in this, you get to speak about this, you get to put your words and to action when God opens up that door of opportunity.
Kathy Barnette: I think we have to be very careful as we’re homeschooling our children not to somehow, you know, put up this guard fence around them and try to shield them from everything that happens. We have to be very intentional when you’re homeschooling cause I think is almost like a knee jerk reaction and just want to protect and put up that shield and be, you know, and be in front of them. I think we have to be mindful of that and be very prayerful.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah. And I think we need to be, be ready with an answer. You know, as scripture tells us we need to be prepared to answer the questions that our kids bring to us. We don’t necessarily have to put these things in front of them and say, okay, here we’re going to teach you about all of all of the sins of the world. But they’re going to see this stuff. You know, just going to Walmart or you know, anywhere out in public to a restaurant. You see things around you and, and our kids aren’t blind. They see the stuff that’s happening around us and they hear conversations about it. And so being that parent who you just say, you know, I and I, I’ve told my girls this many times and they’ve taken advantage of it. I’ve told them, you can ask me literally any question.
Yvette Hampton: There is not a question on earth that will shake me enough to where I can’t answer it. I can answer any question. And if I don’t know the answer to it first we will look to the word of God and see what God says about it. And like you said, we maybe go to someone else, you know, who may be better educated in, in this area. But it’s important for us as their parents to be willing to answer the questions because if we don’t answer them someone else’s going to. And so we don’t have to intentionally expose them always to these things. But, um, but I think be willing to have the conversation comfortably. And I think, um, you know, many in our generation, Kathy, our parents were, I’m not saying my parents, but our, our generation’s parents and, and especially our, our parents, parents generation, they, they wanted to keep silent about all of these things.
Yvette Hampton: You know, they didn’t want to talk about the things that were hard to talk about because they wanted to protect their kids. And that’s not that, that’s not doing any good for them. You know, they’re, they’re seeing things that are happening and they need to know, they need to know what abortion is. They need to know, you know, my, my girls asked me, what does LGBTQ stand for? And so of course we had to go through every letter of the alphabet and explain, you know, well this is what this is. And, and, but we talked about it from a biblical worldview. And, um, so I think being willing to have the conversation with them is very important. So we have a few minutes left. Um, and let me see. I think I’m looking to see, look at questions here. I know we’ve had a few that have kind of popped up and I’m trying to see them as they are coming up.
Yvette Hampton: Um, and if you have questions for Kathy, we have about 10 minutes left that you can ask any of your questions. Um, I love that. I heard somewhere that homeschool is not putting kids in a bubble. It’s more like a greenhouse. You nurture it so that it’s strong when you put it out into the world. So I have not heard that, but that is fantastic. Um, there was one back care and you guys feel free to, to pop in your questions. There was one, um, uh, someone on Facebook that talked about taking her daughters to see, um, unplanned, which is the movie about planned Parenthood. And, um, and they got upset with her for that. She says, they see me read my Bible every day. They’ve gone to church. Um, their whole family goes to church. They hold hands for dinner prayers, but are annoyed and refuse to say the prayer. What am I supposed to do? I do walk out my faith. They’ve been raised to not see this crazy gender stuff as good. Um, so, so it looks like maybe a couple of teenagers who are bothered by the truth of what’s going on with planned Parenthood and bothered by the truth around it. So do you, do you have an answer for that, Kathy? Can you bring some inquiries?
Kathy Barnette: Yeah. You know what I mean? You, all you can do is San, I mean, you know, uh,
Kathy Barnette: I mean it’s, it’s, it’s really tough. I mean, it was tough when I was a kid. I was bullied. Um, uh, I mean, it was just ridiculous how much I was bullied in school and it was very tough. Um, and yet today there’s an added level of meanness about it all. Um, and the ways know, cause if I left school, no one was following me. Right? Um, I didn’t have the internet. People couldn’t track me down and still talk about me. They weren’t capturing footage and putting it out there or anything like that. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of pressure to fit in. Um, and I think honestly, one of our Amantha, we’ve done all that we’re called to do. We have to just take a stand and, um, and know that it’s not your responsibility, our minds to drag our kids and to heaven. That’s God’s job. That’s what we’re called to do, is to, uh, is to be a light on the Hill and to be ready with a word of truth, right? Chi. And with a smile I’m all about, you know, put a smile on your face, right? My talk or scripture for the day or scripture for the hour and they’re walking, it’s like somebody’s going to catch some word.
Kathy Barnette: Someone is going to catch some word because God’s word will not return void. Our job is, our job is to simply plant seeds and his last job to make sure that that heart, that soil is fertile and ready to receive this seed. But it’s our job not to back up. You know, I hear pants, I go, I’m not gonna say anything because my kids get mad. Oh, well. So what, I’ve never seen people so nervous about making someone upset with them, you know, but mile loved them. I have, I mean, I’m black conservative and, and, and, and, uh, support the policy that this president, I, I tell people all the time, you can’t have thick skin of your black conservative and you support the policies of this president. You can’t have thick skin. You gotta toughen up. And, um, and so I will go into the black community often and have these discussions openly with a smile on my face. And after with all over, it’s like, okay, let’s go eat. We’re family. I love you. Come on, go. Um, and never, never got into an argument or a big brouhaha with anyone. I mean, we just have to stop apologizing. We have to just start standing, um, be prayerful for our loved ones and for our nation, but being willing to take a fan, um, and to God be the increase.
Yvette Hampton: Yup. Yup. That’s right. Um, here’s another one, and this is kind of along the same lines of what we’ve been talking about, but it says, what can I do if my teenage daughters 14 through 17, are thinking that being nonbinary and transgender is the right thing and that our church family and friends are being hateful by not supporting people. And isn’t that what the world’s telling them? You know, the world is saying, you know, Christians are being hateful because they don’t, they don’t support the Senate. And, and I would, I would reverse that and say we’re being hateful by not telling them the truth because it’s the truth that us free. I mean, there’s only one way to heaven. You know, there, we’re all gonna come face to face with God one day and we’ve either trusted him and believed in his word and his truth and his salvation, or we haven’t. And so it’s, it’s so disturbing that our society and culture has told people and told our kids, well, if you don’t agree with the way someone wants to live their life, then you’re being hateful,
Kathy Barnette: right? A lot of other isms.
Yvette Hampton: Right. And we need to be loving people and enough, you know, it’s not being loving to allow, um, a mother to go into an abortion clinic and kill her baby that’s not loving her, but loving her as saying that baby was created on purpose for a purpose and that baby deserves life. That’s loving that mother and the pain that will, that, that mother will endure afterwards. You know, those are important things. So, um, how, how would you answer that?
Kathy Barnette: Yeah. You know, kind of the same way that I always have, um, you know, that we’ve been, that we’ve been discussing it and there is such a thing as true, you know, I mean like if we’re talking about abortion for example, uh, in the black community it is anything but a woman’s choice. It is an annihilation of whole generations of black people, right? For every 1000 black babies that are born, 477 are murdered in their mother’s womb. That’s a 32% kill rate. And I tell a black people all the time, lynching got nothing on planned Parenthood. It is genocide of a whole group of a whole race of people. And that fat is not dependent upon your emotions, right? Things are just true whether you believe it or not. And it is our job to be willing to take a stand and say, this isn’t true.
Kathy Barnette: This is true. You can go this way, but here’s a better way and it’s our job to be ready. I don’t care. You can throw out the scenario. We have to be willing to compete in the marketplace of ideas. We have to be willing to, to stand, not that you know, everything. And none of us know everything. Not that you have to be the most articulate person in the room. Moses. Most definitely wasn’t. I mean, you know, that was one of his complaints. I can’t Stanford and God said, didn’t I create the top? And so we have to, um, and you know, w you know, Paul, you know, probably one of the most prolific writers in the Bible. Uh, I, it always, it always captured me when he was say, um, at the end of, you know, uh, one of his books, um, you know, prayed that when I open up my mouth, God gives me the worst to say, really, Paul, you’re like, you know, most of them, most of the new Testament is all about you.
Kathy Barnette: Most of the, the grand doctrines that we have is all about you. Why are you praying that God gives you the word? Clearly you have the words, but it was Paul’s recognition that this battle is not about you and I, but that, but we’re here for a purpose, right? And that in this we are to be continuously asking God, what would you have me to do today? Who would you want me to talk to you today? Um, and when someone presents something to you just stand. The reason why the left is such a bully, the liberal left specifically is such a bully is because they’ve been trained that if they push, we will fold like a cheap suit. And when we stopped folding like lawn chairs and start standing on truth, it becomes a little easier to speak that truth the next time and a little bit easier the next time.
Kathy Barnette: Right? And then you get a little, you know, you get a little swag with it as you start telling the truth to people. But we have to be willing. God just needs a willing. Bessel have to do that. Our children are watching and they will replicate exponentially. What they see, they see you being weak exponentially. They’re going to be spineless. I’ve seen it. If they see you be strong exponentially, they’re going to be little warriors. The odds are in their favor in that regard. And I, and I earnestly believe, you know, uh, we can’t push it off to our children. Oh, you will say the world, Oh, God will make a difference through, you know, God wants to start with you.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah, that’s right. Well, and, and um, and being dedicated to praying for our kids. You know, I, I, I hear the heart of these moms who are commenting and saying, you know, we’re, we’re trying, we’re trying to live it out and our kids are still rebelling against the truth. And sometimes kids need to go through that rebellion to know what they’re missing and keep setting that foundation. Keep praying for your kids. You know, there’s, we, we talked about this earlier today. Homeschooling is not the gospel, but it’s a great way to teach our kids the gospel and to help them learn how to put on that armor and how to love Jesus and who Jesus is. And so, yes, I mean it just keep on your knees, praying for your kids daily. Pray over them. If they don’t like you, praying over them when they’re awakened, it bothers them. Then maybe pray over them when they’re asleep. You, I don’t pray with them anyway.
Kathy Barnette: Get over at stops, right. No flake. I mean, wherever are when they’re awake. Cause you know what? What’s always been so interesting. You know, those who would tell us but don’t do that, that offends me. They don’t mind offending me when they say it. I mean it’s offensive to me, but you know, but somehow we’ve created this very arrogant generation that, Oh my goodness, if they feel some kind of way about something, all of a sudden I’m supposed to just acquiesce and bow down to them. No, I was telling someone not too long ago, the same amendment, the same first amendment that applies to you. Guess what? It applies to me too. You want to say something? You know, this is a free country. Have your, you know, have your say. But guess what? It applies to me too. We have to stop acquiescing as a nation, as parents, to our children.
Kathy Barnette: Um, you know, it’s like some people I grew up, you know, people, parents say, you know, I’m not your friend. You know, I’m your mother. Um, I enjoy being my kids’ friends. Um, and there is no blurred line of them thinking somehow they get to be disrespectful towards me. They are not in it. And when they do feel like they can be different sexual towards may, I remind them very quickly. But I love them, their little personalities and who they’re becoming. And I mean, it’s just so much fun. I mean like I prefer hanging around, hanging out with them than any, you know, a girlfriend that I have. Right? I mean, we love being around our children. There’s so much fun. Um, and I just, I just love it. I’m so grateful to God that their minds and that I have had this, this little window of time to be able to pour into their heart to see who it is God is carving them out to be, how he’s wired them.
Kathy Barnette: And then to be able to come alongside them and to, you know, Oh, you know, I see this in you are, Oh, what about looking at this part of your personality? Right. I love that. And I would have never had this because, because of my personality to be so naturally outside of the home saving the world, I was told, you’re going to hell with pastors, you know, pass the PK kids, right? There’s like, we have all kinds of jokes about the pastors. Kids got these out, saving the world, and yet his own home is in a flux. Um, you know, uh, I’m so, I’m so grateful to the graciousness and the kindness of God to not allow me to be looking back saying, Oh, Oh, I wish I could have, would have, should have teach. So grateful to God that when my babies were little that he yanked my chain hard enough to open up my eyes so that I can see that there’s so much value and you know, and you know, and it was a hard thing for me, you know, going on to Fox and people asking, well, what do you do?
Kathy Barnette: I hung homeschool.
Kathy Barnette: And people said, I remember how Rondo were, Vera being in the green room at Fox. And I was talking to him and he said, well, what do you do? Oh, like I started making it a habit to lead with I homeschool because it was so uncomfortable for me to say that because it seemed like, you know, not that much value right now when I was an adjunct professor, corporate finance seem really cool. Or when I could say, you know, I was a controller at this company, or when I could say I worked on wall street for two there. I mean like those things, right? I looked good, I look educated. Um, but at this time I was homeschooling my kids primarily and it felt uncomfortable and I did not know just how much of the culture, the feminist culture and become a way of my head had, had become a part of my thinking until Geraldo asked, well, what do you do?
Kathy Barnette: And I, and I, and I intentionally led with I homeschool. And then he said, Hmm, I don’t know how I feel about that. And I felt good cause I’m not asking everyone else in a gray room lab that we went on about our day. But that’s what, that’s the culture, right? It started with me recognizing that I feel shame, shameful. I feel some sense of shame when I say I homeschool. I feel as though a part of my, I, you know, me, homeschooling speaks to, um, a decreased value of who I am as society. And in order to combat that, I didn’t go read a book. I didn’t go pray about it for extensive amount of time. I just started leading with it. Someone would ask me, what do you do? I homeschool. I will start off with that. And just because, yeah.
Yvette Hampton: Yeah. We, we should start a new hashtag and make some tee shirts that just say, I homeschool.
Kathy Barnette: If you go to my, if you go to my Facebook or Twitter page, you will see is homeschooling mama. Yeah. I mean, God has opened up so many doors. I, I’ve had the opportunity to do so many really cool things that for a little black girl from a pig farm in Southern Alabama, I would have never thought I would be doing. And yet, um, my, my greatest, the greatest thing I’ve ever had the opportunity to do is homeschooling my own two children. Yeah, very grateful to God for that.
Yvette Hampton: Amen. Amen. What a blessing. Well, I can’t think of a better way to end this. Um, very, very quickly grab your book cause I see it behind you and you’ve got a new book that just came out. Um, we have to sign off in just a minute, but I want to make sure people see this and I say it. Can you see it? There we go. Nothing to lose, everything to gain. what was the subtitle?
Kathy Barnette: Being black and conservative in America. It went number one, the first week it was out there on Amazon. I’m so grateful to God, Kathy Barnett. Nothing to lose everything to gain being black. I conservative in America and it’s about my love for this country, for the black community, but also for the American community. We’re all on the same boat. As I goes down, your side’s going to go down because we’re all in the same boat called America.
Yvette Hampton: That’s right. That’s right. So, and I think we have a link to it, um, on the homegrown generation website. Um, Oh, it’s on her. It’s on [inaudible] on your bio. So yes, if people go to your bio on the homegrown generation website, they can uh, find it there or I’m sure on Amazon or on your website, wherever. Um, so people can look for, for that book. And you will be traveling with Heidi St. John and Elizabeth Johnston in the coming weeks. Again for faith that speaks. I’m so excited. I wish I could go to join you guys and just listen to, to the three of you speak together cause man, anyone who’s going to go to, there’s you, you better bring a bucket of water because there is going to be a lot of fire going on there. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, it’s going to be great.
Yvette Hampton: Kathy, thank you so much for your encouragement. Thank you for your enthusiasm and, and just for all that you do to fight for freedom in our country and uh, and the, the voice that you are, the voice of reason, the voice of truth. We appreciate you so much and thank you for taking time out of your day. Cause I know you are a very, very busy woman, especially now you’re running for Congress. So the fact that you would take time for our, uh, event this week, um, we really appreciate it so much. So. And thank you guys that yes, yes. Thank you guys for joining us. Um, and I know many of you are seeing it but there are contests that are popping up, um, on, on Facebook and I believe on the website as well. You can, um, enter to when we’ve got lots of giveaways going on.
Yvette Hampton: We’ve got, we’ve had many, many of our um, sponsors and contributors who have just contributed tons of curriculum and all kinds of exciting things, so, Oh, okay. Oh, okay. We already have one winner, uh, Corey Garrison. So that is exciting. Corey. I don’t know what you won but something very exciting. So we’ve got this going on all day long and they will be going through the rest of the week. So make sure that you’re looking for that post and you can enter to win. Lots of exciting stuff. So thank you again Kathy. We will be back in about nine minutes with Rachel Carmen, and we’ll see you back here then. All right. Bye bye.