Should They Have Stayed?

I mentioned in my last post my support of a Tennessee judge's decision to grant political asylum to a family of homeschooling Germans. I wonder, though, if I were a friend of the family's, what my counsel to them would be. And I wonder what decisions I will make about place and calling when the education of my own daughter (39 days old and counting as I write this) comes into play.

I was thinking about the homeschooling case and how I would write about it on the Metro when I flipped my Bible open to 1st Peter. We're reading 1st Peter in my small group and, being less familiar with the book, I wanted to read through it to get a "feel" for the epistle. I know I'm supposed to say this about the Bible, but I mean it, this book has some great stuff in it, and much of it is about living as a community of believers in the non-Christian (and in their case, often hostile) world.

The following passage in chapter 2 made me think of the homeschool situation:

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

¹³Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. ¹⁶Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. ¹⁷Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

There is a lot we can talk about here, and we live in different times and context when it comes to government. We happily do not live under a monarchy, for example. And, of course, proper respect does not mean we need to support government action when it is doing some wrong - peaceful civil disobedience is sometimes appropriate (i.E. I don't think Martin Luther King violated the spirit of this passage).

The German homeschoolers also engaged in civil disobedience. The state eventually had policemen escort their children to school and slapped the parents with a 70,000 Euro fine ($100,000 in today's exchange rate). The justification for their civil disobedience? "The curriculum was more and more against Christian values" and that the children faced bullying, violence and peer pressure.

All this makes me wonder if the family in question made the right choice. According to Peter, living and doing good within the bounds of civil society is a living testimony to the non-believer - salt and light Germany could use. No question the addition of children into the equation makes this more difficult. It is one thing to only martyr ourselves; kids are a different matter. But consider, our children will be exposed to worldly people and ideas at some point. Would it be such a bad thing that they learn these things at a point in their lives when they come home in the afternoon?

Again, homeschooling ought to be an option in a free society. Moreover, I am convinced by the academic excellence of my homeschooled friends that homeschooling is an effective method of education, often more effective than public schools. I know for a fact, however, that homeschooling is not a sure-fire way to keep your child from rejecting Christianity. I know, because I have seen it happen. Neither is public education, of course. But public education refined my Christianity in a way I would not have experienced had I been sheltered from it.

Do their complaints justify the civil disobedience? Is their family missing out on a good 1 Peter 2 situation?

Truth is, I don't know. I don't know the family, I don't know their school situation. I know that I love Europe, Germany in particular, and I am sad whenever the faithful leave, even for good reason. I know that there are parts of DC where I would not want my daughter to go to public schools - more for her safety and quality of education than for humanist ideas. Perhaps their complaints of violence are more beyond schoolyard tussles and bullying. I cannot say for sure.

But let's not be too quick to flee the world God so loves.