RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — A North Carolina judge, whose recent ruling that a home-schooling mother must send her three children to public school stirred national controversy, said in a written order March 17 that his decision was based largely on concern that the woman's church is a dangerous cult.
Controversy erupted after Wake County Judge Ned Mangum ruled in a divorce case March 6 that Venessa Mills of Raleigh, N.C., must stop home schooling her children and send them to public school.
A March 11 story on the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com quoted Mangum as saying the mother had done a good job at home schooling, but it is time for the children to have a "more well-rounded education" in public school.
The order outraged home-school advocates, who said it violated her parental rights.
A friend of the mother, and a home-schooling mother of four, started a website called Homeschool Injustice to urge supporters to pressure public officials to have Mangum removed from the case.
The story appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, gained the attention of Focus on the Family's CitizenLink action center and earned a link in the March 13 Drudge Report.
The editor of the North Carolina Baptist newspaper weighed in March 12 with a blog saying the ruling "raises the warning hackles of home-schooling families the nation over."
"I am not one who sees the tentacles of government under every bed, but home schooling has been proven a solid, effective and character-building method of education for the past generation," wrote Biblical Recorder Editor Norman Jameson. Jameson said parents are the best judges of how to educate their children and described Mangum's order as "scary stuff."
In his written court order, however, the judge said the two parents disagree about the children's education, leaving it up to the court to decide what is in the best interest of the minors.
Mangum said Thomas and Venessa Mills were happily married for many years, but the relationship began to change in 2005 when she left the church they attended together to join the Sound Doctrine Church, a Washington state group that witnesses described in sworn affidavits as a "cult."
One witness, a former member of the Sound Doctrine Church, told the court the group is run by fear and manipulation and is not a healthy place for children to grow up.
An online tract for the Sound Doctrine Church says what most churches have is not love, but rather "a thin veneer of polished flattery and token socializing."
"In order for Jesus to give life to our Bible studies, we must allow him to drive nails into our hands and feet," wrote former Sound Doctrine pastor Timothy Williams. "We must permit our very hearts and lives to be taken. If you are not willing to allow this to happen concerning your understanding of the Bible — indeed, in everything you think you understand — then you will not enjoy the love at Sound Doctrine Church."
Robyn Williams, the blogger who worked to mobilize support for Venessa Mills, said the wording of the final order is "substantially different" from the judge's earlier verbal ruling and attempted to "destroy the character and credibility" of the mother.
"The whole order is blatantly intended to shift the focus away from the issues of justice regarding home schooling, financial support, and adultery — and instead use 'shock and awe' tactics to pull attention into a mudslinging free-for-all against Venessa Mills' church and religious beliefs," Williams wrote.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.