Last November Douglas Pruiett and his wife received a letter from Goochland County Public Schools about updated procedures to the district's requests for religious exemptions for homeschool students.

Under the updated rules, once a child turns 14-years-old, the district requires that homeschool parents reapply for a religious exemption to public education.

It sounds to me like some sort of modern-day religious inquisition—hauling Christian kids in front of the school board to be interrogated about the authenticity of their relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Pruietts have seven children, three of whom were impacted by the revised policy.

"Each application must be completed along with a statement of your bona fide religious beliefs and a statement from your child age 14 or older stating his/her bona fide religious beliefs," the policy reads.

In other words, the homeschool kids have to prove to the school board that they love Jesus. And then there was this rather ominous paragraph:

"The School Board reserves the right to schedule a meeting with the parent(s) and, in the case of a student age 14 or older, with the student. The parent of a student younger than age 14 may choose to have his or her child attend the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is for the School Board to determine whether the request for exemption is based upon a conscientious opposition to attendance at a public school or at a private, denominational, or parochial school due to bona fide religious training or beliefs. Such meeting will be conducted in a closed meeting of the School Board."

It sounds to me like some sort of modern-day religious inquisition—hauling Christian kids in front of the school board to be interrogated about the authenticity of their relationship with Jesus Christ.

"The policy provided the school board the right to call the child before them (and I call it interrogation) to defend those beliefs so they could determine whether indeed the child and the parents still held bona fide religious beliefs to qualify for the exemption," Pruiett said.

His immediate reaction was to reject the district's mandate—even though his refusal could have had landed the family in court. He cited the Virginia religious exemption statute which gives families a right to an exemption from school attendance based on the religious training the parents are providing to the child—regardless of what the child believes. The local policy, he said, violates that right.

So like a good citizen, Pruiett contacted the school superintendent.

"When I spoke with the school superintendent about this issue he stated that part of the rationale in changing the policy was to allow the board to ascertain if a home schooled child really wants to be home schooled so that they, ‘can be given the opportunity to go to public school,'" he said.

The Home School Legal Defense Association also weighed in—warning the school district they were in violation of state law and there was no legal ground to force the Pruiett family to do what they had been ordered to do.

"We are still a nation of ‘We the People,'" he wrote. "If liberties are taken away, it is because we did not stand. In a wonderful country like ours, we should desire that all our institutions and policies be characterized by a respect for individual God-given freedoms."

And that brings us to Jan. 13th when hundreds of parents piled into the Goochland School Board meeting to show their support for the Pruietts and other homeschool families in the community.

The school board heard the will of the people and voted to repeal the policy. They also decided to suspend any religious exemption letters that were sent to other families. (Photo: Courtesy Doug Pruiett)

It took a village to change what was a very bad policy—but it's proof positive that "We the People" can still engage the political process.

"The board acted honorably to repeal this thing," Pruiett told me.

But it's also a reminder that the government seems to believe they know what's best for our children.

"We are Christians and we homeschool our children so that we can instill in them Christian values—from an educational standpoint so that they will acknowledge God in every discipline of life," Pruiett told me. "You're not going to find that in public schools."

So let what happened in Goochland County, Virginia serve as a warning to school boards across the fruited plain. "We the People" will not tolerate busybody school marms meddling in the private religious affairs of American school children.

To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE

How Algorithms Are Targeting Our Young Boys

Thanks to the Woke Math Movement, Some Freshmen at UCSD Can’t Do Grade-Level Math

Israel Charges Hamas Rearming, Stockpiling Weapons Abroad as White House Welcomes Israeli Hostages

Blue State Somalis Allegedly Sent Welfare Money To Al-Qaeda Ally Planning Another 9/11

DOJ Arrests US Citizens and Chinese Nationals for Exporting AI Tech to China

US Marshals Help Rescue 122 Missing Children Calling It 'Largest Rescue Mission in History'

Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at Museum of the Bible Invites Nonbelievers to Witness 'Power' of Biblical Texts

Hamas Opens Fire on Israeli Troops, Intelligence Bombshell Reveals Threats to European Jews

Scathing Report Calls on US to Label Islamist Group Infiltrating All Aspects of American Life as Terrorist Organization

DOJ Charges Democrat Florida Congresswoman With Stealing $5 million in FEMA Funds

George Soros Confirmed as CCDH Funder; And 20+ Dark Money Backers Now Exposed

Homan: ICE Has Found 30,000 of the 300,000 Migrant Children Trafficked Under Biden

FBI's Dan Bongino Educates the Public on a Major Child Exploitation Ring, and How They're Working to Wipe It Out

President Trump Signs Epstein Files Transparency Act, Says the Truth About Epstein's Democrat Affiliates 'Will Soon be Revealed'

Alveda King: When Words Become Weapons; America's Dangerous Double Standard on Political Violence

Republicans Fire Back at 'Treasonous' Democrats Who Tell Military Members to 'Refuse Orders' by Trump, Hegseth

Victory for Parents: CA School District Drops Appeal after Forcing Fifth Grader to Teach Transgender Lesson to a Kindergartener

Federal Court Delivers a Big Blow to GOP Prospects for Holding the House

Hakeem Jeffries' Team Sought Donations from Epstein, Newly Released Email Shows [WATCH]

US Senate Passes Bill to Release Epstein Files, Heads to Trump's Desk