This is an e-mail I received from an out of state friend. It is a true account. I have only changed names and locations.

Henry writes as a preface,

“There is a matter of grave concern that I would like to bring to your attention and ask for your prayers. This goes back a couple of weeks ago when the pastor of our sister church in Paleo, Oregon wrote an urgent e-mail asking for prayers for a dear family in their congregation, the Gardeners, a home schooling family of very godly parents with multiple children. Adam (the father) while at work received a call from his wife (Eve) saying that there was a social worker accompanied by a police officer at their door demanding entrance to investigate a complaint of child abuse. Before making his way home Adam told her to contact the Home School Legal Defense Assoc. HSDLA told her that since the complaint alleged “immanent danger” that Oregon law states that the authorities did not need a warrant and that she could not legally refuse them entrance. What followed was nightmarish, with a blatantly confrontational social worker subjecting the family to a hostile investigation with interviews of the children that included forcing them to strip so as to examine them for signs of abuse. Even though absolutely no evidence of any kind of abuse was found the social worker left them, still hostile and breathing out threats that, “This is not over.”

Henry then writes,

I am pasting the latest updates from the Gardener’s pastor:

It would appear that this is not over yet. Adam got a call from the social services supervisor this morning. She insisted on interviewing the children again. Adam refused to subject the children to this again and was told that he was not cooperating. This all happened after social services had received information from HSLDA warning them of the ways they have violated the Gardener’s rights along with information from several licensed counselors who sent written complaints to social services about the way they conducted the first interview. Up until this point, I have given social services the benefit of the doubt by assuming that all this is the result of incompetence. After this morning, I am convinced this is driven by malice against the Gardeners, homeschooling, Christianity, etc. Social services has already implied that they do not approve of the way the Gardeners are raising their children. Everyone who has counseled the Gardeners, including lawyers, other social workers, and licensed counselors, have all said this does not look good for social services if it goes to court. The scary thing is that the social workers don’t seem to see that things don’t look good for them (or they don’ t want to see it). I think they are probably used to getting what they want and not being challenged. They seem unconcerned about the legal consequences. They have refused to receive calls from the Gardener’s lawyer or contact the children’s counselors…. Eve and the children are not at home and Adam does not plan to give social services another chance to harass them. They can stay away as long as they need to.

Adam has been very firm with social services in reminding them of his rights. It would seem that they are not used to this and if anything it’s making them more aggressive.

A later day,

Adam just talked to the HSLDA lawyer who had spoken with the social services lawyer. Basically social services wants to interview the children again and there’s nothing the Gardeners can do about it, aside from leaving the state or refusing until the issue goes before a judge. From his conversation with the social services lawyer, the HSLDA lawyer believes that the charges being made against the Gardeners are not so much physical abuse (although social workers might consider any spanking to be abuse). As far as we can tell, the issue seems to have something to do with the way they raise their children. The kinds of things we suspect are things associated with a typical home school family. “They work all the time. They don’t go to movies. No socialization. They don’t let their kids go to public school, etc.” Social services refuses to reveal the precise nature of the charges because they are afraid Adam and Eve will “coach” the children on what to say. The last thing Adam and Eve want to do is expose their children to another interview, especially in light of what happened at the last one. It has been very difficult for them to determine what their rights are in this circumstance. They don’t want the social worker to be alone with the children, but they don’t know if they have a choice. Adam and Eve are willing to grant another interview with their lawyer and counselor present to protect the children from another interrogation. But they are not sure if they even have that right.

If anyone knows a lawyer who would be willing and able to help them with this, please let me know.

Bret writing,

Friends, with each passing day, the encroachments of the state are getting more and more aggressive. Each of us, family by family, need to be thinking about what we will do when the state comes aggressively pounding on our doors insisting on our rendering obeisance to them. Increasingly, war is descending upon those who would be left alone and it is difficult to believe it is going to get any better.