This is the kind of ministry that Faith Baptist Church of Louisville, Nebraska started. The state of Nebraska, however, claims sovereign jurisdiction over education. There was no grant of such authority from the people of the state of Nebraska to the government in this area. In fact, the people of the state have repeatedly voted down compulsory education laws and amendments. The United States Congressional enabling Act in 1864 which actually created the State of Nebraska, demands the State of Nebraska "harm no inhabitant in person or property because of his religious beliefs." (See appendices _E). The Constitution of Nebraska, Article 1, Section 4 states "infringement of conscience shall not be tolerated". (See appendices H etc.) The religious conscience of myself and the members of the Faith Baptist Church are two-fold. 1. We must train and educate our children in the Lord. 2. The subjection of our church and our children to the control The court order of April 23, 1979 (See appendices K gave us three choices. 1. To submit our church to the foreign religious cult, the Department of Education. 2. To close the school. 3. To move out of the state. This court order violated our conscience in exactly the same way the assumed statutes, rules and regulations violated our conscience. At all times, the parents offered to supply to the county prosecutor or county superintendent of schools the names, addresses, ages, test scores, and attendance records of their children to verify education. The state is obligated to follow the least drastic means to assure its own interests and accomodate the faith of its citizens. At no time did the state show injury to any party. The sheriff testified under oath that no crime had been committed. Test scores (See appendices F clearly show the students academically above national and state norms on California Below is a list of the actual violent acts taken by the state of Nebraska against the people of Faith Baptist Church and myself which violated our Constitutional liberties and rights. 1. On September 13, 1981 Faith Baptist Church doors were padlocked and the people forced out of a prayer meeting. 2. On February 18, 1982, I was sentenced to four months of jail in the Cass County Jail. 3. On September 3, 1982, I was arrested from behind my pulpit in 4. On October 18, 1982, over 100 praying members and visiting people were ejected physically by 18 armed officers and the church doors of the Faith Baptist Church once again were padlocked. 5. On November 29, 1982, I was arrested at the midnight hour while 6. I was arrested the fourth time on December 8, 1982, and served 53 days in the Cass County Jail. 7. On November 23, 1983, seven men, parents of students attending the Faith Christian School were jailed the day before Thanksgiving where they spent 93 days behind bars. Their wives fled the state with bench warrants for their arrests and 32 children taken with them. The teacher, Mrs. Tresa Schmidt also fled the state to prevent arrest. She was not allowed to return home until April 26, 1984 at which time the warrant was dropped, 8. On April 26, 1984, I voluntarily surrendered myself to the I have actively and continuously tried to negotiate this whole matter since 1977. We have met numerous times with different officials trying to find a solution. In December of 1983 such a solution and negotiation was reached. However, the Attorney General of the State of Nebraska adamantly refused his assistant to consumate the negotiated settlement. the How did all this happen? In the Nebraska statutes under 79-1701 law states that every teacher in a private parochial or denominational school must be certified (See appendices I however, in the statutes chapter 79-1703 there is an exception for those teachers who are teaching religion. The problem was created when the judge refused to accept our own definition of our own religious faith. We believe that every subject that we teach is religious. For instance, two plus two equals four is religious because it is truth, and Jesus said I am The Truth or the Source of Truth. Therefore, if two plus two equals four is true, it came from Jesus thus making it religious. However, the court made a willful decision that there were certain truths which could no longer be considered religious. He the judge decided that Math, Science, Social Studies, and History and any other subject which he would call secular would come under the police power of the state. This brings to the forefront one of the major problems causing persecution over religious conscience. The government must not, cannot, and should not define what is acceptable religious practice for another person or any of its citizens. If the court had only asked the questions, who is injured and what property is destroyed? as our religious faith would have been protected by the First Amendment and the Nebraska State Constitution, Article 1, Section 4. It is very convenient for the IRS or the Labor Department or for the Education Department or some bureaucratic organization to say we are not persecuting religion because we define this as non-religious. It just so happens though that to thousands and millions of Americans the education of their children is a religious function. This could be said about almost every act of tyranny being carried out against Christians. It must be understood that actual crime is not protected under our Constitution nor is it protected by the scriptures. Many people have said, well if you're going to allow anything to be religious then someone may kill babies in the name of religion. Well, of course, you and I know that over eighteen million have been killed and no one seems to care about that. However, we do have laws against murder. Anytime there is a common law crime meaning a murder, bodily injury, property damage, infringement on another person's rights, or the disruption of peace and tranquility in the community, all of those actions would be regulatable by the government and punishable by the court. However, in our case and in the case of Rev. Moon and the case of Bob Jones University and the case of literally thousands of churches and Christians across America this is not the case. They simply are not creating a problem. Therefore, we would plead with this committee to introduce legislation which would prohibit any federal or state government or bureaucracy or agency from infringing on the right of any individual relating to religion as that individual would define his religious beliefs unless it is in the matter of commission of common law crime. We would also beseech this committee to include in that legislation some form of redress of grievance. We have literally spent a million dollars in the courts. Not one time have we ever had a favorable decision; not one time have we had a Writ of Habeas Corpus granted; not one time have we had any decision favorable from the courts. It is obvious that there is a conspiracy between the judges of the State of Nebraska even up to the Federal District level. There must be a removal of this cloak of immunity for judges. There must be a removal of a cloak of immunity from any official. There must be redress of grievance or there will be revolution. 16. See note 153 & accompanying text infra. 17. The United States Supreme Court has consistently held that government reg 18 Government regulation of actions is permitted to a limited extent. The test The "Interests of the highest order" test, as stated in Yoder, mirrers the Nevertheless, a minority of lower courts found a distinction between the 19. Thomas v. Review Bd, 450 U.S. 707, 713-16 (1981), Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 215-19 (1972), Sherbert v. Verner, 374 US. 398, 403-06 (1963). 1 1982) FREEDOM OF RELIGION 77 for not allowing an exemption for those whose religion the regula- That assurance, however, has been shaken by the recent Ne- 26. NES. REV. STAT. $79-201 (Reissue 1976) requires children between the ages of Pursuant to this power, the State Board of Education promulgated a rule |