A California appeals court has ruled that children must be educated by a state-credentialed teacher and NOT by their parents! See Homeschoolers’ setback in appeals court ruling:

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. “Parents have a legal duty to see to their children’s schooling under the provisions of these laws.” Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said.

Go to The Home School Legal Defense Association for breaking news, analysis, the chance to sign a petition, and information about what may be done. (The HSLDA and Patrick Henry College where I teach share facilities. I’ll try to monitor this and keep you posted.)

UPDATE: Read the HSLDA response and the litigation being prepared.

Now it seems that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States will be determined by those two states that flouted party rules and whose delegates will not be seated. If you will remember, I predicted that this would become a huge problem for the Democrats. Any ideas for how this should–or will–be handled? (Here’s a call for a Democratic do-over.)

You know how in “King Lear,” he walks out at the end holding the body of his daughter, and we’re at the “no worst, there is none” moment, and just at the saddest point, Lear, mad with grief, thinks that he sees her breathing after all, and how that injection of false hope right then just makes it EVEN WORSE, breaking Lear’s heart and making him die? So goes this column by Michael Wilbon, who writes a noble elegy for Bret Favre upon his retirement, only to inject at the very end the possibility that he might be back!

The Pope is now praising Martin Luther:

Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the impact of July’s papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”.

The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope Benedict’s image as an arch conservative hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month. This week it emerged that the Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the telescope. . . .

Cardinal Kasper said: “We have much to learn from Luther, beginning with the importance he attached to the word of God.” It was time for a “more positive” view of Luther, whose reforms had aroused papal ire at the time but could now be seen as having “anticipated aspects of reform which the Church has adopted over time”.

HT: Uwe Siemon-Netto

The Vatican has put together a museum exhibit on the Inquisition, supposedly trying to show that it was not as bad as its reputation. From this story, it still sounds pretty bad, with the exhibit showing instructions on how to persecute Protestants and an account about how one of these “heretics” was hanged.

It’s interesting to hear non-believers bring up the Inquisition as some sort of evidence against Christianity when Protestants–and, especially, us Lutherans–were some of its major victims.

Remember the predictions of a surge in Christian-themed movies after “The Passion of the Christ” became such a smash hit? Well, it didn’t happen. Studios, such as Fox, did open divisions for religious films, but they are mostly churning out straight-to-video adaptations of sappy Christian popular fiction. See Faith-based films few, far between.