Or should I say the case separates the “girly men” from the men, since this is California we are talking about?

It is in times of crisis (or perceived crisis) in the homeschooling community that you see who was merely convinced to homeschool versus who was convicted by the Word of God to do so. 

In case you haven’t heard, a California state appeals court declared in a case involving a homeschooling family that parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool, the only exception being if the parents hold teaching credentials. 

Homeschoolers are up in arms, and the reverberations are obviously being felt in Sacramento as Arnold has gone so far to declare the ruling “outrageous” and that if the courts don’t overturn it, then he and the other “elected officials” would intervene.  Not entirely comforting I would say, as it is the past and recent actions of these same “elected officials” that have made the public schools in California unbearable cesspools of homosexual indoctrination. 

This case reminds me of an incident few years ago when then Superintendant of Public Instruction of California, Delaine Easton, declared private homeschooling illegal.  Fear coursed through the homeschool community in California.  Those of us in homeschool outreach felt frustrated as the situation was over exaggerated, and not only by the liberals, but by some conservative columnists and organizations as well.  In the trenches, it became harder to convince parents who were on the fence about homeschooling that the option was safe. 

But, as nothing happened, people forgot.  The Democrats pushed through more awful bills that affected education and the flight from public schools resumed its former intensity. 

Let’s hope that a swift end to this awful ruling happens soon.  But let’s say the ruling were to stand. If you are a homeschooling Christian in the Golden State, what would you do?

I’ve had some interesting discussions with homeschoolers on this topic, and their answers reveal how theology affects whether someone starts or continues homeschooling when the right to home educate comes under serious assault.  Would you break “the law” to homeschool?  Some tell me, “No – I would just move to a more homeschool friendly state”. But what if you are poor, like most of us homeschoolers, and could not just up and leave?   Would you reluctantly send your child to the legal, free, but soul-destroying public school or would you defy the authorities and raise your child in the Lord at home?

Many Christians get so frightened when liberals attempt the desire of their darkened hearts – to quash homeschooling or to at least intimidate people out of considering it.  Believers who have been given a warped view of Romans 13 think they must obey any foul “law’ that the despotic think up. 

But from the mother of Moses and her heroic following of God’s Law to the apostles stating, “We must obey God rather than men!'" Scripture is clear that you do not fear the false laws man may conjure up.  Would homeschooling even be legal in the United States had not brave pioneering homeschoolers “illegally” homeschooled in the face of arrests and even jail?

The Bible never gives the civil government the responsibility for educating our children.  That is the parents’ God-given role, and you cannot abdicate that to the government because of something that a human judge, who is in violation of the Word of God, declares.

There is only one Law, God’s Law.  Any “laws” made that violate God’s Law are not laws at all, but lawlessness.  And Christians must follow the Law, no matter what. 

I am sure rumors of this ruling in California will cause the faint hearted or theologically confused to waver about homeschooling.  But the “manly men” remain unshaken.