“Moms for Liberty” are fighting the good fight

“We do not co-parent with the government” has become the rallying cry of a new generation of moms and dads committed to fighting for parental rights, better curriculum in public schools, and against the restrictive COVID policies hindering kids’ ability to learn and thrive.

On the front lines of this battle is Moms for Liberty, an organization founded in 2021 by two moms and former school board members disturbed by the progressive direction of public education. In only 19 months, Moms for Liberty has grown to about 90,000 members in 200 chapters in 37 states. The group’s activists protest government overreach, raise awareness among parents about troubling curriculum or school policies, and help elect liberty-minded candidates for local and statewide races. Their advocacy helped pass Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill, which banned instruction on gender ideology and sexual orientation to kindergarteners through third graders.

In July, I had the pleasure of delivering the keynote speech at Moms for Liberty’s first national event in Tampa. They gathered to celebrate the work they’d done and to support each other in the face of the relentless pushback they receive from their opponents. The theme for the conference was “such a time as this,” inspired by Esther 4:14. These women are convicted by God’s calling on their lives to stand in the gap for their children and their communities, and I assured them that we would stop at nothing in our fight for what is good, right, and true.

The fight won’t be easy, though. Those who benefit from apathetic or absent parents are terrified of moms and dads who care. Teachers’ unions, liberal school boards and administrators, Democrat politicians, left-wing activists, and the media have been merciless in their castigating of concerned parents.

The Biden administration heeded a plea from the National School Board Association and labeled parents speaking up at school board meetings as potential domestic terrorists. At school board meetings, parents who attempt to read aloud the pornographic material available to students in their school libraries have been shouted down and removed. Moms for Liberty has been labeled a “fascist” group and “a threat to democracy.” Twitter just suspended the organization’s account for criticizing California’s radical “gender transition” bill, which removes the rights of parents who want to prevent their child from traveling to California for puberty blockers, mastectomies, or castration.

Much to the chagrin of outlets like NBC, however, parents are not letting up. Moms for Liberty plans to take over as many school board seats as possible in upcoming elections, and their message is increasingly resonating with everyday parents.

NBC reports that “voters, by a 32 percentage-point margin, said they were more likely to vote for candidates who believe public schools should focus less on teaching race and more on core subjects.” By a 28-point margin, respondents said “transgender athletes” should not be allowed in girls’ sports. By a 27-point margin, voters also said teachers should not be allowed to conduct lessons on “sexual orientation and gender identity” to K-3 students.

This is the issue that elected gubernatorial underdog Glenn Youngkin last November in Virginia. It will re-elect Gov. Ron Desantis of Florida, and Republicans across the country this November. Parents are tired of relinquishing their children’s education and well-being to those who wish to harm them. They are tired of perverse lessons on sexuality and sex-switching and divisive curriculum that compares children’s privileges based on skin color.

As I’ve written before, I firmly believe Christian parents should take their kids out of public school and ensure they have a Christian education. But that doesn’t mean we tap out of the fight because, one, even Christian schools are not impervious to cultural pressure and compromise, and, two, because, as good, loving citizens, we must invest in the well-being and stability of our neighbors and our country as a whole, which means caring about what the next generation of voters and leaders are taught.

The pendulum in the cultural and sexual revolution may indeed one day swing back, but it won’t do so without a good, hard push. Right now, that push comes from parents, which is why groups like Moms for Liberty suffer so much grief from their opponents on the left. But we concerned moms and dads won’t be intimidated. The media can malign us, politicians can punish us, and activists can try to silence us, but we won’t sit down or shut up. The goal is to remove from power every person who seeks to indoctrinate our children with progressive ideology, and we will not stop raising a ruckus until that happens. The fight is on, and it is worth it.