Arguments were heard this week in a California district court case to determine whether the California state university system can dictate that private Christian schools or homeschoolers must teach from exclusively secular, Bible- and God-free textbooks in order for the credits from those courses to be counted towards admission.

Christians and all of those who believe in the consitutional principal of religious freedom will suffer a major setback if U.S. District Judge S. James Otero rules that it is legal for the University of California institutions to reject high school credits for courses that are Biblically based. Judge Otero’s ruling is expected soon. If the ruling is unsconstituional, it will be appealed.

The University of California system adopted a policy in May, 2007 that dictates that courses based on the major Christian book publishers, such as The Bob Jones Univerisity Press, A Beka Book and Alpha Omega Publications, do not qualify as a core admission requirement due to the fact that those courses are taught from a Christian perspective.

The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents schools serving more than 1.1 million students worldwide brought a civil action against Robert Dynes, the President of the University of California accusing President Dynes of unconstiutional and discriminatory policies that trample upon upon some of the most sacred principles of the American people, specifically the right to religious freedom.

Robert Tyler, who is representing Calvary Chapel Christian School and five students in the case against the University of California, told WND that the university’s discriminatory policy creates an ultimatum for Christian schools. “If you want courses to be approved in private education, so your students are qualified to attend (UC) institutions, you must teach from a secular point of view,” he said.

“We believe that UC’s discrimination is clearly unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment, because UC is attempting to secularize Christian schools,” Tyler said.

Mimi Rothschild, CEO if Learning By Grace, Inc. the leading provider of online Christian educational programs, commented “If Judge Otero upholds Robert Dynes and the UC system’s clearly discriminatory and illegal practices, the implications to Christians and to the principle of religious freedom could be catastrophic.”

Rothschild said “It would essentially be allowing the government to tell us that to qualify for admission to a university, we must eradicate God from our high school teaching. This is beyond unacceptable.”

Rothschild implores Christians to speak out against this affront to their beliefs and their freedoms, “Please send me an email telling me how you feel about this issue at mrothschild@learningbygrace.org. I will include it in a filing to the court so that His Honor will know that the freedom to practice one’s beliefs and teach them to our children is sacred. Judge Otero must know that Christians will not tolerate being deprived of that right.”