The issue is not evangelical Christians per se — I am a Christian myself, and have friends who are evangelical who are fine people. The issue is fanaticism.

For example, one friend I have who is an evangelical and home-schooled her children did get them involved in local sports leagues and scouting. They also live in a neighborhood with a Muslim family and the children are good friends. So these children have close Muslim friends, they also have friends of different races and background through their sports and other activities, etc. Are they being raised in their parents’ religion? Yes. But the Muslim kids are being raised in their parents’ religion, I was raised in my parents’ Hindu religion, my Jewish friends were raised Jewish, etc.

The reality is that of course parents want to raise their children according to their own traditions and culture. There is actually nothing wrong with this, it’s part of the fabric of society. Part of living in a diverse society is tolerating all different traditions.

The issue therefore is not Christians wanting to raise their children as Christians, any more than there is an issue with Muslims wanting to raise their children as Muslims. The issue is fanaticism.

99% of Muslims are not terrorists, but every terrorist is a fanatic. Similarly, almost every Christian I have known has been a decent human being. It’s unfortunate that there are fanatics on the fringes, but assigning to them the voice of all Christians is just as unfair as making terrorists representative of Islam.

Re. your thoughts on low income people — I totally agree. They do similar things in places like India — several poor parents band together to make sure their children are decently educated. And actually, that is what education was more like in the early days of the United States! And the quality was better…