The name for my Substack is a play on words. I chose it based on my love for hiking the breathtaking trails of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and for a term used to describe the daily life of a disciple of Jesus Christ (the “walk”), which is the life I am imperfectly practicing day by day.

I spend my time on the trail alternating between talking to God, listening to the Bible and Bible teachings, talking to a friend about the Christian life, and mulling over a question I’ve wrestled with for at least as long as I’ve had this Substack, which is this: at a time when America seems poised (hungry, even) for another Great Awakening, why is it so difficult to find other Christians who are committed to, and equipped for, discipleship in Jesus Christ? In other words, at the very point in history when the world needs the Body of Christ to fulfill its mission of making disciples (just as Jesus commanded us to do), why aren’t there more modern-day “apostles, [] prophets, [] evangelists, and [] pastors and teachers” effectively exhorting others into the practice of disciplines that lead to the abundant life the Good Shepherd promises us in the spiritual reality known as the Kingdom of God?

That apparent disconnect, and its eternal implications, gnawed at me.

So, in 2024 I signed up for a five-month ministry training program at my church, Calvary Chapel Delaware County, seeking to develop the tools necessary to understand why that is the case and what can be done about it. Specifically, I wanted to figure out how, exactly, God causes the Body of Christ to come alive in such a way that an outpouring of the Holy Spirit triggers revival. It has happened many times throughout history, and it can (and will) happen again. But when, under what conditions, and what role do disciples play in the process?

That ministry education experience helped me understand that the path to revival starts with a personal commitment to discipleship (a conscious, free will response to a divine calling), but it can’t end there. By God’s grace, I am experiencing the fruit that comes with responding to that calling in my life and the lives of other Christians close to me, so I know beyond any doubt that the promise is real. Yet the answer to my broader question (why isn’t the Body of Christ sparking a “Revival Fire” in America and across the world?) has remained frustratingly elusive.

Then, over the last few weeks, some pieces finally came together that helped me understand that when individual disciples make a deep commitment to walk the daily walk with other disciples (literally 2 by 2) the mystery of spiritual multiplication animates the Body of Christ to bring about the conditions in which God unleashes Revival Fire. Disciples, like me, who pray for revival can’t simply wait for church leaders around the world to roll out a new discipleship training program, good intentions notwithstanding. Instead, we have to take personal responsibility to start small, in our own spiritual walk and with those closest to us, and trust through faith that Jesus Christ will fan the flames. We have to commit to Christian living with other disciples, not as a way to earn salvation but rather as a way to experience the “boundless riches of Christ” and bring that Gospel to a world that desperately needs it. I realize now that if I want to see a Revival Fire in my lifetime I have to go deeper into that life with other believers — not just by myself.

I am not suggesting that this conclusion is new or profound, but for me it was convicting. Here I’d spent at least the last six years asking God why he isn’t sparking a worldwide revival, and why modern-day “discipleship training” doesn’t seem to produce earth-rattling results, and all the while the answers to my questions were in the very scripture I was reading, studying and listening to every day.

The final bit that clicked this together for me came this week after reading a thought-provoking essay by Reality Theology author entitled “What to Do About All the Young People in Your Church Interested in Spiritual Formation”. In that essay, Gooch addresses a problem that I confess I didn’t even know exists: the apparent desire of skeptical church leaders to establish “guardrails” to contain the growing number of young people who are interested in learning how to practice Biblical, spiritual disciplines in their daily lives. Read that sentence again.

If that is truly a concern among modern church leaders (and Gooch makes a persuasive case that it is) then the conditions for Revival Fire are even greater than I believed.

The First Great Awakening in America (1730-1740) came about when evangelical preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield challenged existing power structures (both in the church and in government) in favor of true freedom through faith in Jesus Christ. Those great “prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers” implored their fellow humans to seek a personal, spiritually activated relationship with Jesus Christ, which ultimately led to a religious revival that produced unity among a diverse group of people and ultimately challenged (and crushed) institutional power structures.

So, what do we do if there is a growing hunger for spiritual discipline but a reluctance (and fear) within institutions writ large to feed it? We go to the Word of God.

Gooch’s essay helped me weave together the tangled web of threads I’ve been pulling at for several years. I think the answer to my question about the role disciples play in bringing about the conditions under which God will pour out His Holy Spirit in Revival Fire can be found in a deeper study of epistles like Ephesians, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and 1 & 2 Corinthians (in that order). That is the path of study I intend to pursue and, as the Spirit leads, write about along the way.

If you’ve read this far, and this subject interests you, I ask you to pray with me that God will show us how to follow this path and invite others to join us. I intend to seek Christian living with other disciples in a more intentional way, which is not easy for someone who has grown very comfortable going it alone. But I realize now that the Revival Fire I am praying for will never happen that way.

You started following my story back in 2023. You wrote about it again in 2024. You asked good questions and got to the point in far fewer words than I ever could.

Although we’ve never met in person, we connected a few times by phone and email. I value your humor and your consistent reminders that institutions fail, politics is filthy, and in the end the “art of the possible” is probably the best we’re going to get. So, I thought you might like to know how this story ends.

On Monday, corporate media organs declared that Eagle Ed Martin, President Trump’s hand-picked czar of the Weaponization Working Group, was sacked. The reports are hazy and conflicting, but the common thread is that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent Martin to the proverbial basement of some government building far away from the hallowed halls of the Department of Justice. Some say Blanche didn’t bother to tell President Trump about the decision before-hand, but who really knows?

Martin’s exile was unwelcome news for me. He opened an inquiry into my case a few months ago following orders from Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify and prosecute “violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings.” Bondi drove this priority home in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, practically waving her memo as proof that weaponization of government against meddlesome parents is no longer tolerated now that Donald Trump is back in the White House. She seemed almost annoyed by Senator Josh Hawley’s line of questioning as he grilled her on the “litany of abuses” and suggested that a special prosecutor should be appointed to put an end to this behavior once and for all. Unfortunately, that vim and vigor fizzled right around the time the Arctic Frost provision became a chit in the ongoing government extortion - er funding -bill. Maybe Hawley will turn out to be one of the good guys. Only time will tell, but now that Martin is gone it’s unclear if there is anyone left at DOJ willing to follow the clear directive in the Bondi Memo.

I also heard from a “Republican consultant” this week who recently met with a senior DOJ official about a letter sent by the grass-roots parental rights organization she represents. That group is seeking long-overdue action on President Trump’s campaign promises, which he backed up through several Executive Orders in the first few days of his new administration. Based on an audio recording of the meeting posted to X, the DOJ official took umbrage with the group’s “threat” to go to the media if the DOJ fails to promptly follow-through with substantive steps to address Biden-era civil rights violations against targeted parents. Just to drive the point home, the official defiantly declared that they will never negotiate with parent “terrorists” who have the temerity to impose deadlines for action before exposing institutional apathy and insubordination. So, there’s that.

The Republican consultant also shared that the DOJ bureaucrat was especially peeved by my “threat” to share my story on a national media platform, calling it a “mistake” and warning me that if I follow-through I will suffer the consequences, whatever that means. She put that in a text message and later revealed that the big problem with my case is that I’ve documented corruption and violations of law by public officials on both sides of the aisle, which makes me persona non grata.

Lucky for them, at this point the only way I will publicly name names and lay out the detailed evidence of public corruption and violations of law would be on a platform large enough that I can go “one and done” (think Carlson, Rogan or Ryan). Those shows are focused on far bigger stories right now, and I don’t have the spiritual energy to continue to stare down threats from government officials while simultaneously trying to access a platform large enough to sound the alarm on the very real dangers that remain for conservative, Christian families that are stuck in the American education system.

Friends tell me I should accept the small victories, close the books and move on. They remind me that within the last few months the superintendent and school board president in my district resigned in disgrace, and the frivolous disciplinary complaint filed against me by the school’s massive law firm (in an effort to get me to keep my mouth shut) was ultimately dismissed by Pennsylvania’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel. As Matt Walsh observed in his segment about my case, the sad fact remains that radical indoctrination is so deeply embedded in the leftwing public education system that the resignation of a school superintendent is the most accountability one can reasonably expect these days. Fundamental change, even during a time when Republicans control the White House and Congress, is still a pipe dream.

That might be true, but the reality is still disheartening and it compels me to think deeply about whether this battle was worth it, especially given the threats and intimidation aimed at my home, my reputation, my ability to provide for my family, and most recently at my college-aged daughter while she was working her part-time job. My beautiful, brilliant, and selfless wife bluntly told me a long time ago that the only true accountability for all of this misconduct will come from God on His timing. She was right then and she’s right now, yet I’ve plowed ahead driven by a gnawing belief that God called me into this fight for such a time as this.

That might sound corny, but I talk to God every day and I know for certain that every positive development in this case comes when I follow God’s lead while everything that causes stress and anxiety is the product of forcing my will and trying to be the king of my own kingdom, as my teacher Dallas Willard would have said. That’s been a tough lesson to learn, but this experience taught me that no amount of effort on my part (no matter how well-intentioned) will bend God’s will to mine. A humbling and necessary lesson that faith in God doesn’t work that way.

So, I asked God to show me how this story ends and here it is: it ends with the formal complaints I submitted to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees delivered along with evidence establishing obstruction of justice by at least two senior DOJ officials, a senior Department of Education employee, and the senior staffer of a United States Senator. It ends with the file of information I separately delivered to Senator Hawley’s team over the last few months in support of his demand for a special prosector. It ends with a letter from my attorneys at Pacific Justice Institute seeking the imposition of the maximum statutory penalties (e.g., loss of federal funding and other sanctions) against my local school district and the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the documented and admitted multi-year violations of family privacy laws, which also happen to be the same penalties President Trump calls for in his Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling Executive Order. It ends with a formal request to the Civil Rights Division at DOJ to take such other enforcement action as it deems appropriate based on the directive in the Bondi Memo to prosecute violations of First Amendment rights and retaliation against parent whistleblowers, which is – verbatim - my case. And it ends with the letter I sent to the incoming chairman of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania seeking a formal review of attorney misconduct in the filing and handling of the frivolous disciplinary complaint against me by lawyers at a politically connected law firm.

The truth is, though, I don’t expect accountability to result from any of those efforts. The spirit of evil animating the forces impeding justice in this case is so insidious that I am resigned to the fact that there is absolutely nothing more I can personally do to overcome it. The complaints and letters simply punctuate the sentences I’ve been writing over the last few years and give any honest people remaining in our federal government one final opportunity to step up and do the right thing. The true reckoning in this case will come on God’s time, probably in a way I never imagined, and maybe not even in my lifetime.

So, that is how this one ends.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. I have peace in knowing that I took a righteous battle all the way to the highest levels of the United States Department of Justice, even though it will probably end without any true accountability because…institutions fail and politics is dirty business. Yet the reward I gained in fighting this battle is an eternal lesson on faith and trust in God, and how to find light in an increasingly dark world.

Evil surrounds us. It presents in bodily form in people like Jeffrey Epstein, Anthony Fauci and the never-ending carousel of public officials who are either “literally Hitler” or the Devil incarnate (depending on whether one still thinks the R or D beside their names makes a functional difference). But we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

At its core, evil is a spiritual force. One that moves in punitive government power wielded against innocent people. A force that leads people to threaten a man’s family, his liberty, his property, and even his soul just for the sport of it. Spiritual evil manifests in the corruption, abuse and even permanent disfigurement of children. Evil yearns to torture and inflict pain. It feasts on chaos and misery. Evil is all around us, yet even in the midst of all of that darkness God gives us free will to walk into true life in the entirely different reality of his Kingdom.

This story ends with a return to a peaceful, quiet life and the freedom to focus all of my energy pursuing the inverse of evil, or what the Apostle Paul calls the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I don’t think our “leaders” have passed laws against any of those things. Not yet anyway.

For those who have read any of my prior essays about this case, you know that I accept the parade of delays and obstacles as part of the struggle. There is peace in knowing that this is in God’s hands, and I fully trust his timing.

I have a follow-up call tomorrow about the progress in my case, and I am particularly looking forward to an update on the status of the investigation into criminal misconduct and violations of my constitutional rights by the former superintendent, school board members and lawyers in my school district, as well as senior officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Stay tuned.

Back in July, I appeared at a press conference in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of Congressmen Andy Ogles and Andy Biggs, organized by a grass roots group called Parents Demanding Justice Alliance (PDJA). The group does not have external funding. It doesn’t have a companion public interest law group waging a multi-front legal battle. It is a loosely affiliated group of parents and parental rights advocates who have joined together to demand redress from the United States government for violations of law over the last few years.

Perhaps it is the lack of well-heeled lobbyists and the lack of a war chest to conduct litigation like the ACLU, but PDJA is facing serious headwinds in its pursuit of justice for parents who were unfairly targeted during the Biden Administration. What is most troubling is that the source of those headwinds seems to emanate from within the Trump Administration itself.

I have no idea if the increasing number of stories about dissension among senior Trump officials are accurate, but based on my observation of the seemingly endless obstacles PDJA is facing in its broader efforts to vindicate parents, it certainly seems as though a critical piece of President Trump’s domestic agenda (and a very large and loyal base of his support) is at a pivot point. From where I sit, President Trump is at risk of losing the initiative - whether he is aware of what is going on behind the scenes or not.

Between the now month-long government shutdown, resistance within the dark recesses of the federal bureaucratic state, and now (apparently) tension between senior people in his own administration, President Trump’s once in a generation opportunity to ensure accountability and fundamental change is fading fast.

Trump came into office with a clear mandate delivered in part through the overwhelming support of American families, particularly Christian families. Of critical importance to those voters is the promise of transparency and accountability for education officials who are pushing the Marxist policies that have become firmly rooted in the American education system over the last few decades.

Things looked promising at first with unequivocal executive orders like Ending Weaponization of the Federal Government and Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling. Yet, for whatever reason, execution and follow-through are severely lacking. For example, the Ending Indoctrination executive order called for the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work together with Attorney General Pam Bondi and put an Ending Indoctrination Strategy on the President’s desk in April. It’s November and that strategy still doesn’t exist.

There are flashes and strong pronouncements, but they are starting to look an awful lot like empty platitudes. On September 8, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo boldly declaring that the Department of Justice “stands with America’s parents” and promising to “restor[e] the rule of law and return[] the federal government to the people it serves.” The words are nice, but they are no substitute for the decisive action America’s parents were promised.

By failing to act, or even follow-through on basic deliverables (like the Ending Indoctrination Strategy), Christian parents are essentially being told that the lesson of the last few years is this: when the government tells us what we must do with our children, including the types of things we must allow the government to expose our children to whether we like it or not, we really don’t have a right to defend our families or our values. The inaction sends a message that government can do whatever it wants to do when it comes to our families, up to and including using government resources to intimidate us, threaten our livelihood and even use the full weight of the government to silence us if we ask too many questions of public officials who don’t want to answer.

The inaction also suggests that universal education freedom will never happen, and that parents will remain bound (by force of law) to financially support a public education system that is hostile to our faith. And for the vast majority of those families (many of whom are included in the more than 50% of American families that require two incomes just to stay afloat), if they can’t afford private school tuition or homeschooling then it’s just their tough luck. If you don’t believe me, go listen to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s comments during oral argument in Mahmoud v. Taylor. These people are telling us exactly who they are, exactly what they think of us, and exactly what they intend to do to ensure that their radical ideologies are firmly ingrained in our children and grandchildren.

For those who still think concern about anti-Christian, Marxist influence in the American public education system is an overblown conspiracy theory, I have a name for you: Zohran Mamdani. New York City today, your hometown school board tomorrow.

The 2026 Midterms are a year away. I know for a fact that there are good people who are committed to executing President Trump’s domestic agenda because I am speaking, meeting and working with many of them. Yet it is undeniable that the Department of Education, Department of Justice and other agencies aren’t moving fast enough, while the precise source of that internal resistance remains unclear.

Maybe things will move aggressively when (if?) the shutdown ends. Either way, I hope the curious people digging into the apparent turf war within the Trump Administration will start asking whether that war is threating to undermine a key piece of the president’s domestic policy agenda and, ultimately, his support among a critical component of his base.

Matt Walsh recently featured part of my story on his YouTube channel:

The crux of Walsh’s thesis is that the public education system is radical to its core, and Republicans owe it to the people who elect them (and to our entire nation, as a matter of national security) to take bold legislative action to root out the Marxist influences infecting government schools. Walsh’s message to Republicans is timely and compelling, but it remains to be seen how many of them are listening.

Fortunately, at least one member of Congress seems to be paying attention. On Tuesday, July 15, Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, along with a grassroots organization called Parents Demanding Justice Alliance are hosting a press conference in Washington, DC, to shed light on the unjust weaponization of government against parents following the October 2021 Garland Memo. The details of my case were included in a memo delivered a few weeks ago to Vince Haley, President Trump’s top domestic policy advisor, and Ed Martin, who is leading the weaponization working group in the Department of Justice. I have been invited to speak at the press conference and will have an opportunity to meet with administration officials while I am there. For those who have read any of my earlier essays about my case, you will know that this opportunity is an answer to prayer.

Below is a copy of the statement I intend to make at the press conference:

Good morning. My name is Chad Williams, and I am a husband and father of four from West Chester, Pennsylvania.

I am grateful to Representative Ogles for hosting this press conference and to Kelly Walker, Sam Sorbo and the rest of the team at Parents Demanding Justice Alliance for leading the charge and giving me an opportunity to share my story. This is truly an answer to prayer.

Christian parents don’t have a massive lobbying group. We don’t have the equivalent of a well-funded ACLU to fight back against unlawful conduct by school officials or to otherwise fight for our civil rights on a national scale. We are individual citizens and taxpayers, with jobs and other responsibilities, who are compelled to pour our blood, sweat and tears into the fight for parental rights because we owe it to future generations.

The ongoing violation of my Constitutional rights by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District has been covered in national media, so the details are available for anyone who would like to learn more about my story. My family and I have endured a coordinated campaign of threats and retaliation by corrupt public officials who are weaponizing government against me in order to hide their egregious misconduct and avoid accountability for their documented violations of law.

I am represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, and I currently have civil rights complaints pending before the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. When those investigations are concluded, I expect complete transparency and accountability so that what is being done to me will never happen to another American parent ever again.

Children and families were harmed by the unlawful policies forced on us against our will during Covid, and traditional Christian values are under attack by a well-funded campaign to indoctrinate students in Marxist ideologies like critical race theory, gender theory and queer theory. In response, President Trump has set clear policy and enforcement initiatives through Executive Orders like Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, but now it’s time for all elected Republicans to step up and do their part.

My experience in the critical swing-state of Pennsylvania illustrates why we need Republicans in the United States Congress to join us in this fight. Pennsylvania spends nearly $20 billion a year on K-12 education, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars a year in federal funding. Governor Josh Shapiro and his Democrat minions thumb their noses at President Trump’s domestic agenda and have shown no signs of relenting in their mission to indoctrinate Pennsylvania children with leftwing values. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Republicans are terrified of the public education machine, so they remain on the sidelines in the battle for parental rights, and school choice is a distant pipe dream for Pennsylvania families.

Congress must conduct investigations and hold hearings about the extent to which school boards and other educational agencies were empowered by the federal government to target parents during Covid and beyond. There must be investigations into the extent to which radical ideologies permeate public school curriculum and instruction, and the manner in which public funds are used to deny parents their fundamental rights. There must be a reckoning that includes federal action to make education choice a reality for every American family, especially in states like Pennsylvania where Democrats, funded by the public education lobby, control state government and openly discriminate against Christian families.

Republican officials can’t take the loyalty and support of Christian families for granted any longer. It’s time to step up and take bold action in defense of parental rights, or risk losing our support in the next election cycle. The stakes for our families and our country couldn’t be any higher.

I expect that it will be several months before the investigations by the Department of Education and Department of Justice are completed. I’ll post any meaningful updates as they come, but I also intend to start publishing essays again on theology and spiritual formation, which is what I originally set out to do when I started this Substack.

Most of the people who subscribed or followed me here did so after shared this piece back in January, so if you’re not interested in topics like theology or spiritual formation, this is fair warning to unsubscribe or tune me out!

At the end of April, I wrote an update on my Quixotic pursuit of truth and justice in Pennsylvania. Less than a week later, I faced yet another attack on my reputation from school officials in my town. But I plowed ahead, and just this week Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick’s office wrote to me and confirmed that the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education (OCR) and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) are actively investigating my pending complaints.

Good news? Sure. Progress? Yes. But, still, painfully (and inexcusably) slow.

In the first few weeks of his new administration, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at tackling cultural rot in public education, with the stated goal of dismantling the Department of Education and “returning education to the states.” While it sounded great on paper the early results are not promising, especially for voters in blue and purple states who voted for Trump and other Republicans expecting meaningful action in defense of parental rights.

For example, Linda McMahon’s performance before the Senate Appropriations Committee this week is cause for serious alarm, but it is unclear if anyone in the White House is even paying attention. Trump tasked the Department of Education with enforcing the law and rooting out subversive ideologies in public education, but key roles in the agency are still vacant and the “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” that was due at the end of April has yet to be delivered to Vince Haley, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.

The Department of Education is supposed to work directly with the Department of Justice to enforce Trump’s policy, but apparently that isn’t happening either. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon recently appeared on The Tucker Carlson Show and explained how entrenched federal employees play games to thwart the President’s agenda. Dhillon is smart and resolute, but if she doesn’t quickly put a team together that is committed to the administration’s policy and enforcement initiatives, the resistance within her own office will undoubtedly prevail.

My ongoing experience with these agencies proves the point. I currently have three active federal complaints: one with the Student Privacy Policy office of the Department of Education (submitted July 2024); one with OCR (initially submitted July 2024, resubmitted February 2025); and a complaint submitted to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District (submitted May 2025). Even though these complaints fall squarely within the enforcement mandate in the Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling executive order, I am still fighting headwinds created by an excruciatingly opaque federal bureaucracy.

For example, the Director of the Student Privacy Policy Office is a man called Frank Miller, a Biden era holdover. Miller’s sole purpose is to ensure the enforcement of two federal statutes: the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which also happen to be cited in the Ending Indoctrination executive order. Yet, in response to my attorney’s request for an explanation for the SPPO’s year-long delay in taking enforcement action in my case, Miller actually said that his “first priority is to work with educational agencies and institutions to achieve their voluntary compliance.”

So, Miller’s boss (the President of the United States) directed him to take strong enforcement action against educational agencies that violate parental rights, but Miller thinks his “first priority” is to treat school officials with kid gloves, and wait for voluntary compliance from the very same people who violated family privacy laws for seven years, destroyed public records and then retaliated against me for blowing the whistle on them. Frank Miller should be fired, immediately, but my guess is Linda McMahon doesn’t even know who he is or what he does (or, more appropriately, doesn’t do).

Things aren’t much better in McMahon’s OCR. My civil rights complaint was initially directed to the Philadelphia office, but that office was abruptly closed in March following a round of DOGE cuts. I was notified this week that my complaint is now being investigated by nameless, faceless federal employees in the OCR Atlanta office. Although Trump appointee Craig Trainor is currently the acting assistant secretary for OCR, the Atlanta office is run by Biden-era employees and lawyers who refuse to correspond directly with me or my attorney.

Trump’s good intentions aren’t going to be enough to combat the obstinance in these agencies, and simply dismantling the Department of Education and sending education “back to the states” isn’t going to do anything for parents in states controlled by soulless Democrats and impotent Republicans.

Which brings me back to Pennsylvania.

During Covid, Pennsylvania agencies and public officials advised school districts in the state to intentionally violate the law, knowing that they were causing systemic harm to thousands of Pennsylvania children in the process. I have evidence demonstrating that those very same Pennsylvania officials are now covering-up violations of family privacy laws in my school district because they know that a fair and impartial investigation of the documented misconduct in this case will also implicate senior state officials in serious violations of law.

This isn’t conjecture. I have provided authorities with a roadmap of public records that support every allegation I’ve made. Even so, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office wrote to my attorney and explained that they cannot investigate my state law complaints due to a “conflict of interest” and lack of resources for an independent investigation. Compare that to the way state and federal authorities responded to a 2023 complaint manufactured by the ACLU alleging discrimination against LGBTQ students in Pennsylvania’s Central Bucks School District. Democrats leapt into action and compelled an independent investigation by a former US Attorney that cost taxpayers more than $1 million. Review that case and then convince me that we don’t have a two-tiered “justice” system.

It’s not that Pennsylvania Republicans can’t compel an independent investigation in my case. It’s that those Republicans are afraid of the public education machine, aren’t serious about education reform, and lack the political will to do anything to defend parental rights.

At the federal level, Senator McCormick’s office has been somewhat helpful, but I’m still not convinced that his team shares President Trump’s urgency when it comes to education policy or parental rights. I am in consistent communication with McCormick’s office, specifically Deputy Chief of Staff Kristin Sapperstein, Legislative Director Laura Atcheson, and Deputy State Director for Constituent Services Anna Romeo. Yet, it’s been six months and his senior staff still can’t get clear answers from their legislative liaisons in the Department of Education or Department of Justice, and they can’t even identify the people within those agencies who are supposedly working on the Ending Indoctrination Strategy referenced above. I know this, because in February Laura Atcheson connected me with James Forester, the congressional liaison in the Department of Education and another Biden holdover, who promised to refer me to the Ending Indoctrination team and then promptly disappeared, never to be heard from again. If Forester is still employed by the Department of Education, he should be fired right along with Frank Miller.

Returning education policy to state legislators in places like Pennsylvania will leave far too many parents without any meaningful recourse against a public education institution that is openly hostile to our values. Republicans in those states demonstrate by their inaction that they either don’t share Trump’s goals of ending radical indoctrination and defending parental rights, or they’re too weak and incompetent to do anything about it.

If Trump’s appointees in the Department of Education and Department of Justice don’t step up soon, then things like ending indoctrination and delivering universal school choice in places like Pennsylvania will be a dream once again deferred for millions of families.

McCormick’s office tells me he is interviewing candidates for his education and healthcare policy team, and maybe that person will be able to figure out what is going on with the highly anticipated Ending Indoctrination Strategy. Or maybe someone reading this knows Harmeet Dhillon, or Craig Trainor, or Vince Haley, and can share this with them. They should probably know that “the resistance” is alive and well in the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, and maybe they can do something about it.

I’ll post an update when someone in government answers the call.

Despite the undeniable cultural shift, there remain a surprising number of Republican officials who are ignoring the issues most important to conservative and independent Christian parents, the very voting bloc that is perhaps most responsible for delivering Republican victories across the country in November 2024.

Trump’s overwhelming support from tight-knit, traditional families is not that surprising. Many of those parents started pushing back against government schools during the Covid debacle, and Christian parents enthusiastically went to the polls for that very reason. As a Christian parent who is politically independent, I can say for certain that people like me are far less loyal to the Republican party than we are to our faith, our family and our cultural values. In fact, many of us have taken note of Republicans who pander for our votes at election time and then ghost us when we actually need their help on matters of policy.

I have an update on my multi-year crusade to expose corruption and violations of law by state and local officials in Pennsylvania, but first I want to highlight some encouraging developments on the national stage that, hopefully, represent a harbinger of positive things to come.

So, first, the good news.

Earlier this month, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) announced that it was terminating all “gender-affirming care” for children. While that decision might seem like a no-brainer in the current environment, remember that we’re talking about deep-purple Pennsylvania, where a disgraceful 11 of 50 Pennsylvania state senators and 47 of 203 state representatives are sinister enough to have signed a letter condemning UPMC’s decision.

Even still, the good news kept coming this week.

On April 22, David Zweig’s much anticipated Covid opus - An Abundance of Caution - was released, chronicling the “decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century.” I am just diving into the book, but the C.S. Lewis quote in the inscription sets exactly the right tone:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

This is a book that had to be published to cement the historical record, and I’m grateful that Zweig and The MIT Press had the courage to do so.

That same day, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case involving the battle for parental rights in Montgomery County, Maryland. You can read the transcript or listen to the oral argument here, and I strongly encourage you to do so. Oral argument went so bad for the Zizian-adjacent anti-parent cult that Martha McCallum got the demonic goblin and head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, to reluctantly admit on Fox News that parents do, in fact, have rights when it comes to the health and education of their own children.

What was particularly encouraging from that oral argument was that all of the conservative justices seem to finally understand what time it is - at least on this issue. Unfortunately, education policy in the United States is still tightly controlled by people like Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who let it slip that she thinks Christian parents can either deal with the forced indoctrination of their children or pursue the super-accessible alternatives of homeschooling or private school, while at the same time being forced to fund a public education system that is openly hostile to their religious beliefs. Yet another reminder of how little respect these people have for us.

After listening to Justice Jackson’s condescending remarks, I wondered whether women like her have ever spent a minute homeschooling a child (let alone multiple kids at the same time) or if they ever seriously agonized over the decision to stay home with their children or go back to the workforce just so the family could afford private school tuition. I seriously doubt people like that ever struggled with such things.

So, back to the status of my parental rights case.

When I last wrote about this story, I was riding a wave of momentum in my years’ long effort to expose serious misconduct and violations of law by Pennsylvania school officials and lawyers. But, after an initial flurry of activity, I ultimately hit another bureaucratic wall.

On February 20, 2025, my attorney and I had a meeting with two Department of Education holdovers from the Biden regime - James Forester (Legislative Affairs Specialist) and Frank Miller (acting director of the Student Privacy Policy Office of the Department of Education), regarding my federal complaints. Following that call, the United States Department of Education formally initiated an investigation into the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District’s admitted violations of state and federal family privacy laws, and Miller referred my civil rights complaint to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Two weeks later, in what can only be described as a cruelly ironic twist of fate, the Philadelphia branch of the DOE Office of Civil Rights (where my complaint was assigned) was shut down, leaving my case (yet again) in bureaucratic limbo.

My attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute made numerous inquiries with the Department of Education to find out where my civil rights complaint was transferred, but as of today we still don’t have any answers.

On the bright side, the people in Senator McCormick’s office have been steadfast in their support. In addition to facilitating the February 20 meeting with Forester and Miller, the McCormick team recently escalated my civil rights complaint through a formal inquiry with the Department of Education. Nevertheless, it’s been several months since I first contacted my United States Senator seeking assistance, and for some reason his team still can’t get straight answers from anyone. I understand that Mr. McCormick was just recently elected, but something isn’t right when it takes months for a US senator to get a simple response from an executive branch agency.

For example. President Trump’s January 25, 2025, Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling Executive Order directed the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to enforce existing federal laws to the maximum extent necessary to defend parental rights. That same executive order also required the Department of Education and other federal agencies to deliver an Ending Indoctrination Strategy to the President within 90 days of that order. That report is due next week.

During my February 20 call with the senior officials from the Department of Education, I specifically requested an introduction to the team that is tasked with delivering the Ending Indoctrination Strategy to President Trump. I have developed a voluminous trail of public records that demonstrate deeply subversive and unlawful conduct by state and local education agencies that receive millions of federal taxpayer dollars every year, and I simply want an opportunity to present that evidence to the government officials tasked with advising the President on how to fight back against radical indoctrination in public education. I’m still waiting.

In light of the Kafkaesque delays in Trump’s education department, Senator McCormick’s office is currently working on directing my complaint to Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, who is uniquely qualified to review this matter.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Republicans are nowhere to be found. Whether it is feckless clowns like Craig Williams or Dave Argall, or impotent politicians like Scott Martin and Doug Mastriano, Republican members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly seemingly have no interest in standing up for parental rights, while Shapiro and his loyal Democrats hold the line on the leftwing agenda.

So far, Republican AG Dave Sunday has been a major disappointment. During his campaign, he promised to uphold the rule of law, but his behavior thus far suggests that he doesn’t understand that he would not have been elected were it not for the Trump wave that swept Pennsylvania, led by conservative parents who want corrupt officials in Harrisburg and beyond to be held accountable.

The cultural and political winds are blowing in favor of parental rights, but the victories are still tenuous. At this point, any elected Republican who is not aggressively advocating for parental rights (including formal investigations and legal penalties for violations of law over the last few years) does not deserve the vote of conservative, Christian voters.

We’re almost 30-years into our long Slouch Towards Gomorrah, so it’s kind of now or never for elected Republicans to step up - legislatively and in the court room.

I will post an update when Senator McCormick’s office connects me and my attorney with Harmeet Dhillon. Until then, I plan to finish reading An Abundance of Caution and take a look back at what Robert Bork saw coming in 1996.

On January 25, I published a piece on this platform expressing my gratitude for God’s presence in my life in the midst of a dark spiritual battle I’ve been fighting for several years. A few days later, Chris Bray of Tell Me How This Ends shared my essay with his 13,000+ subscribers. Then, a flurry of activity by federal, state and local officials ensued.

I created this Substack page in August 2020 with the intent of [someday] writing on Christian theology, spiritual formation and discipleship. I still intend to use this space for that work because it is deeply important to me - spiritually and intellectually. But God opened a door for me in my battle to defend parental rights, so I am going to publish a few pieces chronicling my experience over the last few years.

The events following the publication of my last piece are astounding. Shortly after Bray shared my essay, Senator Dave McCormick’s office finally responded to my many inquiries. They explained that the reason for delay was due to the fact that Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon’s confirmation process has hit a wall, and therefore it could be months before Trump appointees are in place in the Department of Education. This perfectly illustrates one method the bureaucratic state is using to frustrate the implementation of President Trump’s agenda.

Even so, Senator McCormick’s team leapt into action. By Wednesday afternoon, his deputy chief of staff had introduced me and my attorney to three senior officials in the Department of Education. That introduction led to a rapid succession of communications and confirmation that my complaints were being reviewed by the appropriate people in the Office of Civil Rights. For some perspective, we had more direct communications with senior education officials in a two-hour span on Thursday afternoon than we’ve had in the previous six months combined.

Things also started moving here in Pennsylvania. Kyle King, who is Attorney General Dave Sunday’s chief of staff, confirmed that attorneys in the Office of Attorney General are looking into this matter. Although our request for a meeting has not yet been granted, it is encouraging that lawyers in the AG’s office, who have a duty to uphold the rule of law, are now reviewing the inexplicable delays and conflicts of interest in the pending Pennsylvania Department of Education investigation. It is also noteworthy that Mr. King is uniquely positioned to direct the AG’s response in this matter, given that he served as president of a school board in York County for four years during the height of the pandemic.

On Friday, the Chester County District Attorney’s office finally responded to my multiple communications seeking confirmation that they have preserved all records (including email communications within the DA’s office) related to the investigation into criminal conduct by senior officials in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. Michelle Barone, the DA’s chief of staff, apologized for a “misunderstanding” that she said kept the DA’s office from responding to my prior communications. She also assured me that the DA’s office has taken all steps to ensure that the evidence in this case is preserved and will be available when sought pursuant to a subpoena in connection with the administrative investigations.

By the close of business Friday, John Sanville, the highly compensated Unionville school superintendent, had abruptly announced his “retirement.” Although the announcement does not provide an explanation for his sudden resignation at the pinnacle of his career, locally the calls for Sanville to be held accountable are growing louder.

The events of the last few days make it abundantly clear that there will be an independent investigation of my complaint alleging that Unionville school officials have engaged in a multi-year pattern and practice of violating the law, violating my civil rights, destroying and hiding evidence of those violations, and then threatening and retaliating against me in an attempt to suppress my right to speak freely and seek accountability.

Based on the public record I have built over the last few years, when that investigation is complete it will reveal breathtaking misconduct by local public officials who swore an oath to uphold the law and to discharge their duties with fidelity. The superintendent’s resignation is just the beginning.

All of this occurred against the backdrop of two game-changing executive orders issued by President Trump.

On January 29 the president issued the Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunities for Families executive order, which clearly articulates the policy goal of “support[ing] parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children.” That order also directs the Secretary of Education to promptly issue guidance to the states as to how federal funds can be used to “support K-12 educational choice initiatives.”

That same day the president issued the Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling order, which takes aim at the insidious efforts to “indoctrinate…children in radical anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.” Importantly, that order directs government agencies to “enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights[.]”

These executive orders validate years of hard work in the battle to defend parental rights. They also confirm that the Trump Administration is listening to the millions of parents who have been marginalized by the public education machine.

Randi Weingarten, the loathsome president of the American Federation of Teachers, predictably issued a series of press releases decrying the purported “assault on educators and vulnerable kids” and “attacks” against public schools. Yet it is Weingarten, and the countless others like her in state and local government, who have destroyed public education. They created division and fomented distrust, which made these executive orders not only inevitable, but morally imperative.

As God warned Israel through His prophet Hosea - those who sow the wind are destined to reap the whirlwind.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few more pieces chronicling my battle to defend parental rights over the last few years, with links to articles and public records documenting the astounding misconduct and violations of law by public officials in my school district. In doing so, I hope to provide encouragement to parents fighting similar battles against their public schools. If you think of other parents who might benefit from my work, please share this with them.

I also hope to create a written record of the violations of civil rights in this case so that those in authority will ensure that the misconduct in public schools over the last few years, and the vicious attacks on parental rights, are rooted out so that nothing like this ever happens again.

I can trace all of the light, all of the goodness, in my life back to God’s fingertip. I’m married to the strongest, most loyal woman I know. We have been together for more than 25 years and there is absolutely no one on earth I trust more than her. Anyone who knows her will tell you that she is the most loyal friend you could ever have.

My wife and I live in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania, and all of our kids live with us, or close by. We see our college-aged daughters several times a week. We live within a few miles of both sides of our extended family. We see our parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and even the towns we grew up in, on a regular basis. I am a partner in a law firm that is very well-respected locally, and my office is ten minutes from my house. I am doing interesting work helping real people who create jobs in this great country. My clients value and respect my advice, and I admire and respect the work they do.

My family is also blessed to live within a broader community of people who share our Christian faith. We want to live in community with people who share our values and who are seeking to model their lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. Together, and individually, we are pursuing spiritual disciplines and character formation based on Biblical teachings. Our theology is rooted in doctrine that was revealed to the Apostle Paul by Jesus Christ, persuasively articulated in the Epistle to the Christians in Rome around AD 57. Our faith is founded on the Word of God, revealed in dramatic detail from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

As I watched the sun fall beneath the trees, I thanked God for all of His light in my life this week. I felt His light in the Tuesday morning prayer gathering at my church, where we prayed for each other, our families, believers worldwide, for our local communities, our leaders, and our neighbors. I saw his light in an impressive guy from my church community, who recently graduated from Liberty University in three and a half years and is preparing to go to law school. Although he came to me for guidance, I left our meeting filled with optimism that strong, Christian men like him are still entering the legal profession.

I experienced the warmth of God’s light in my time with other believers at a multi-generational, multi-racial Bible study in the home of dear friends, and over coffee with my pastor and mentor, who is encouraging me in my spiritual journey. I also witnessed God’s light in a friend who retired as a Senior Chief with Naval Special Warfare Development Group, went on to earn his PhD, and is now doing important work preparing a new generation of leaders.

God’s light was everywhere around me this week.

As I continued hiking through the snow, I pondered the fact that I was able to deeply experience God’s goodness at the exact same time that I am struggling through the darkness of an exhausting spiritual battle that, at times, severely tests my faith.

I’ve written about this battle elsewhere, and the story has been covered in local and national media outlets. The common thread is God’s providential hand, guiding me through the battle.

An encounter with my local school board earlier this month illustrates the point. I showed up at the meeting to ask some questions about why the school district’s legal fees have grown exponentially over the last few years. Boring, wonky local government stuff. But it was an important part of my effort to build a public record for the state and federal investigators looking into my complaints alleging serious misconduct and violations of law by senior school officials in my community. More on that in a bit.

After I shared my public comment at the meeting, I hung around to listen to my fellow citizens share their concerns. For the next 30 minutes or so, those speakers asked the board (which is responsible for stewarding a $110 million education budget, funded entirely by taxpayers) to answer some questions. A few of those speakers were hardworking retirees troubled by out-of-control government spending and declining performance in our schools. There were also two young speakers, students who school board members invited to speak at the meeting. One of those students shared her thoughts on a “racist play” that almost made its way to the stage in our high school auditorium, while another young lady shared anecdotes that she said represented the “student perspective” on a proposed $120 million middle school building project. It was a boring, local government meeting about things that only matter to people in our community.

But things got interesting when one of those elected officials took his opportunity to speak. A school board member called Jody Allen, whose most recent job was as a “progressive turnout coordinator” during the 2022 election cycle, used his time to patronize the senior citizens who expressed their fears about being forced out of the community, and to thank the student who praised the school board for its swift action in censoring the “racist play.” Then Mr. Allen turned his attention to me.

Video of Mr. Allen’s comment is available on the school district’s YouTube page, so those who are interested can go view it for themselves. My comment begins at about the 19-minute mark and Mr. Allen shares his thoughts at about the 48-minute mark. Long story short, he likened me to Luigi Mangione because he didn’t like my questions. There was nothing in my tone, or any previous incident involving me or anyone else in our small community, that justified any of the purported concerns Mr. Allen said he has for his safety. He just didn’t like my words, so he compared me to a homicidal domestic terrorist and made sure that members of the public understand just how careful he and his fellow school board members have to be around people like me. You know, people who take their time to show up to public meetings and ask questions about the way local public officials exercise the authority voters give them.

At the very next meeting on January 21, another citizen demanded that Mr. Allen apologize to me for his inflammatory insinuation that I was somehow “threatening” him for asking questions. Mr. Allen couldn’t be bothered to apologize.

So. Back to the unlawful conduct in my school district. Officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the United States Department of Education are currently investigating multiple, documented allegations of serious misconduct and violations of law by senior officials and lawyers in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, which is ranked as one of the top public school districts in Pennsylvania. The school district has admitted, in writing, to violating federal family privacy laws for a period of seven years. Based on that admission alone, state and federal law requires an independent investigation of the documented violations, the destruction of evidence and the threats and retaliation I have endured for pursing my complaint. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but the light grew brighter this week.

God is opening new doors that were nothing more than a distant hope just six months ago. In November, Pennsylvanians elected a new Attorney General named Dave Sunday. Mr. Sunday has spent his entire legal career as a prosecutor, and if he follows through on his pledge to uphold the rule of law, then he will certainly ensure an independent investigation of my complaint.

We also elected a new senator, Dave McCormick, who claimed that defending parental rights would be central to his policy initiatives. If he follows through on his commitment to defend American values and “always stand up for the truth with moral clarity,” then I am certain his staff will facilitate connections with President Trump’s incoming Department of Education.

For his part, President Trump has started to make good on his promise to dismantle the federal bureaucratic state and set right the many wrongs that happened over the last few years. So far, he has pardoned everyone from wrongfully imprisoned right to life advocates to Ross Ulbricht. Just a few days ago, his Justice Department finally dropped all charges against a heroic doctor named Eithan Haim, a whistleblower who exposed child-mutilation occurring in a Texas hospital.

God’s light broke through a lot of the darkness in our country this week.

My case has been dragging on since 2022, but now I am represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a public interest law group, that is helping me take this case to court. Former Attorney General Ed Meese serves on PJI’s advisory board, and the PJI team has notched impressive legal victories in state and federal courts across the country. They take on principled battles involving weighty constitutional, civil and religious rights matters. Think of PJI as the conservative, Christian version of what the ACLU claims to be.

Next week, PJI is filing litigation on my behalf against the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the United States Department of Education, seeking a writ of mandamus and injunctive relief compelling those agencies to comply with their legal duties by ensuring a prompt, fair, impartial and independent investigation of my complaint. There is ample state and federal precedent supporting the legal basis for an investigation in my case. So, now it is just a matter of time.

For example, consider the recent investigation in the Central Bucks School District, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which ensued after the ACLU filed a dubious complaint on behalf of a teacher in the school district. That school district commissioned a $1.4 million, taxpayer-funded investigation by a former US Attorney. The investigation resulted in a detailed written report that makes a compelling case that the teacher manufactured the entire ordeal (with some help) as part of a scheme to advance a leftwing political agenda and undermine the Republican majority on the school board - which worked, as Democrats flipped the board in the election immediately following the filing of the ACLU complaint. If you want to read the very long, well documented, investigative report yourself, you will have a tough time finding it online. I had to obtain my copy from the former US Attorney who conducted the investigation. It’s worth asking why that report is so hard to find, especially given how much taxpayers paid for it. (Hint: neither the ACLU nor the Central Bucks school board want the public to see what is in it, especially now.)

You could also review the file on the 2014 investigation into alleged misconduct and violations of law in the Coatesville Area School District, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which is the same county where my school district is located. If you look into that case, pay particular attention to the role local law enforcement played. The district attorney at that time understood his duty to uphold the rule of law, but his sense of duty is not shared by the most recent district attorney (who is now a state judge) or the current district attorney (whose office will not respond to a preservation notice seeking confirmation that the investigative record and communications will be produced in response to a subpoena).

You might also read about the DEI surveys in the Montana v. Cardona case, which was settled in August 2024 thanks to the dogged work of a mom and lawyer named Patricia Montana and the team at America First Legal. Professor Montana sat for a terrific podcast interview with her colleague Professor Mark Movsesian at St. John’s Law School, where she shared more information about her case. I connected with Professor Montana this week. Another ray of light.

The roadmap is there, and now I just have to wait for the new Attorney General in Pennsylvania, and for the Trump appointees in the Department of Education, to review the public record and compel an independent investigation, which is what the law unquestionably requires.

My experience over the last three years has nearly destroyed what little faith I had left in our government and legal institutions, and the people who control them, so I know I am still going to face delays and denials along the way. But this week I found one state agency that still appears to take its legal duties seriously. This week the Office of Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to me, in writing, that the PSP has preserved all evidence related to the investigation of criminal conduct by certain senior school officials and will produce that evidence in response to a duly issued subpoena. That record includes a formal report, copies of documents, emails (including emails with the district attorney’s office), recordings of interviews with witnesses, and other evidence (such as videos of meetings, etc.). All of this evidence is available in public records in the custody of the Pennsylvania State Police, and it will be there when state and federal investigators finally comply with their legal obligations. Another ray of light, shining through the darkness.

As I finished my walk tonight, I listened to an interview on the Carousel Podcast, with Substack writer Chris Bray covering the epic failure of government institutions and elected officials in California. Chris has written about my story, and his observations on cultural and institutional decline in our country are outstanding. Chris pulls threads that most observers ignore.

In a Substack piece on Friday, Bray explained difficulties people are facing when trying to reach the White House to express their concerns. He noted that the White House website does not currently allow for the submission of messages, and the White House phone lines are only open for public comment for four hours a day, three days a week (Tuesday through Thursday). That isn’t right, and I hope the White House will fix it right away.

I have personally experienced the same frustrations in my attempts to contact the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the office of United States Senator Dave McCormick. Calls go directly to voicemail. Emails, and submissions on their websites, go unacknowledged and unanswered. That isn’t right, either.

The reality is most local, state and federal officials make speaking to them - actually engaging in dialogue with them - nearly impossible. Remember that image of Gavin Newsom being confronted by the mom in California? Citizens who live intimately with the consequences of incompetence, corruption and government failure are left desperately banging on the door, hoping that someone in authority will open up, listen and do something to fix things.

But all of the phone lines are busy right now.

As I walked in my door and hung-up my dog’s leash, I marveled at how God is using my struggle through this spiritual battle to show me that I can trust Him in every circumstance. He is right here, walking through it with me, just as He always has been.

When I follow the light and goodness in my life, it inevitably leads back to God’s fingertip. Even on the darkest days of winter.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, PA offered yet another example of the spiraling incompetence of government institutions, while Joe Biden “stepping down for our democracy” might end up giving Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro the role he’s been dreaming of since his days as a county commissioner.  Meanwhile, Pennsylvania families are at the front of a different political battleground – the fight for parental rights in education.

While Gov. Shapiro is probably hoping everyone forgets his empty campaign promise to expand school choice, his bipartisan brothers and sisters in the state legislature just approved his $47.6 billion budget, of which nearly $20 billion (or 44% of the entire budget) will go to a broken and corrupt public education bureaucracy.

Institutional failure, all the way down. 

As state spending on education has ballooned by nearly $10 billion in just the last five years, many Pennsylvania families are looking for a way out. Abandoned by politicians in both parties, some parents (like me) have decided to take the fight to Harrisburg.

In October of last year, I wrote about my experience fighting for transparency and accountability regarding COVID-era misconduct and violations of law by public officials. Over the last four years, I have taken this battle to my school board, elected state representatives (including Republican state representative Craig Williams and Republican state senator, and chair of the senate education committee, David Argall), the Chester County District Attorney, Democrat Deborah Ryan, state ethics boards and even the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the United States Congress.  At each stage I have either been completely ignored or passed off from one government bureaucracy to another. Not a single institution or elected official has been willing to do what they exist to do. 

That changed last week. Sort of.

On July 19, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Education finally acknowledged its legal duty to do something about an educator misconduct complaint I filed in April against the superintendent of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. To say that I had to drag the Department – kicking and screaming – to order this investigation would be an understatement. 

The Department did not even start its investigation until I sent an email (copying several investigative journalists who had taken an interest in my story), asking why my complaint had been completely ignored for more than three months. About an hour after sending that email, I finally received a letter acknowledging that the Governor’s Office of Chief Counsel had “determined that the allegations in [the] complaint are legally sufficient to warrant professional discipline” under Pennsylvania’s Educator Discipline Act. A copy of that letter is attached here: 

Pde Sanville Letter

97.1KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

If not for a case called Doe v. Shorn earlier this year, that might have never happened.  In that case, a father (who is the lone Republican school board member in Bucks County, Pennsylvania) filed a complaint against a school district counselor who improperly used personal information about his children in order to pressure him to vote against a “controversial” school district neutrality policy that would have barred social and political advocacy in public school classrooms.  The father filed an educator misconduct complaint against the school employee, but the Department dismissed it without an investigation.

Adding insult to injury, the Department warned the father that he would be prosecuted if he publicly disclosed information about his complaint, including the fact that the Department dismissed it without an investigation. He filed a lawsuit alleging that the confidentiality provision of the Educator Discipline Act violated the 1^st Amendment to the United States Constitution. Judge Karen Marston of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania agreed. 

Unshackled by the unconstitutional restriction on speech, I have been able to shine some light on egregious conduct by public officials and compel the Department of Education to do what it is legally obligated to do. But it hasn’t been easy.

My local “newspapers of record” – the Daily Local News (owned by Media News Group) and the Philadelphia Inquirer (owned by the Philadelphia Foundation) – have shown no interest in covering this story. Fortunately, the editor of a small community news site and a journalist at an independent Philadelphia outlet called Broad + Liberty have offered some local coverage, and National Review, Daily Wire, The Federalist, and Chris Bray (Tell Me How This Ends) have helped me bring national exposure to this story. I am deeply indebted to each of them.        

Justice Brandeis was inspired to write his Harper’s Weekly article because he was troubled “about the wickedness of people shielding wrongdoers and passing them off (or at least allowing them to pass themselves off) as honest men.” If the Pennsylvania Department of Education ensures a full, fair and impartial investigation of my educator misconduct complaint, the dishonest wrongdoers in this case won’t be able to hide anymore.

Here’s hoping that the light keeps shining on all of them for just a little while longer.     

I was slapped in the face at church yesterday. Let me explain.

On Sunday morning, as I mindlessly scrolled LinkedIn (the last social media app left on my phone), a post by The Wall Street Journal caught my eye:

He was a lawyer living the American dream. Then mental illness turned his brilliant mind against him.

Ok, I’ll give this a read.

From Renaissance Man to Homeless Man

The story is about a homeless man in California named Rob Dart. As I read about Rob, his email to the WSJ reporter jarred me: “You should understand by now that I had quite a stable and productive life before I underwent any psychiatric treatment or therapy. I believe people in your position often use medicine to try to keep people from learning what they otherwise could.” If you’re as intrigued as I was and want to read further, this article by his high school friend provides more context.

As I went off to church, the smiling image of homeless Rob Dart came with me.

Reality shifted during the Covid saga. As Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, informed us — one result of the “Great Reset” is that we now live in an “angrier world.” But why is that the case? Do we have to live in that world?

By all standard notions, Rob Dart succeeded at life. High school Renaissance man. Duke University, undergrad. Law degree from the University of Chicago. Federal clerkship. Married, kid, prestigious job. Then…crash. Then a period of recovery, routine and purpose. Then the Covid lockdowns. Crash again. Evicted. Homeless.

So, what happened?

According to the WSJ article, his condition seemed to worsen after treatment in accordance with the standard of care for mental illness — a series of successively more powerful drugs until the patient is rendered a husk of a human being. He also seems to believe that he is being driven by something spiritual. In December 2022, when his mother was gathering his personal belongings after his eviction, she found an entry in one of his notebooks that read: “[t]here is a slim chance that this is in fact satan, I can’t take that chance.”

What if Rob Dart was writing about something he actually experienced?

Do we love our neighbors?

At the church service, pastors Austin Medley and Anna Walker-Roberts shared a message entitled “Loving God, Loving People.” You can watch it here. The message is based on the record of Mark 12:28-24, in which a lawyer asks Jesus “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, drawing from Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The same conversation, as recorded by Luke the Evangelist (Luke 10), wraps up with Jesus sharing the parable of The Good Samaritan. It’s a story about showing compassion and mercy to the least among us. It’s definitely worth a read in this day and age.

I walked out of that service asking myself if I love my neighbors, or if instead I have allowed myself to succumb to Schwab’s “angrier world”?

Walker-Roberts referenced a book called The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside your Door. Here is a summary:

Once upon a time, people knew their neighbors. They talked to them, had cook-outs with them, and went to church with them. In our time of unprecedented mobility and increasing isolationism, it's hard to make lasting connections with those who live right outside our front door. We have hundreds of "friends" through online social networking, but we often don't even know the full name of the person who lives right next door.

So, what are we to do about neighbors like Rob Dart? Not everyone on the street wants to be there, but some do. Some have made choices, but others are listening to voices not their own. Voices that tell them they’re not good enough. Voices that tell them continued consciousness isn’t worth it. So, where do those voices come from, exactly? Is it possible that some people, like Rob Dart, are more attuned to those voices than others?

God is Love. Love is Reality.

I’ve been reading a lot of Dallas Willard’s work over the last year or so. He was a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California who spent much of his life pondering The Four Great Questions: (1) what is reality? (2) who is blessed? (3) who is a really good person? (4) how do you become a really good person? Willard believed that the answer to the first question is “God and his Kingdom.”

If, as Christians believe, God is Love, and if Willard is correct that ultimate reality is “God and his Kingdom,” then love (agape love) is the ultimate reality.

As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity:

Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.

If love is the ultimate reality, the state of the world shows us that some are living in an alternate, darker reality. Agape love doesn’t mean you have to be a push-over. According to Willard, “the love God wants to create in us is a love that is both tender and fierce.”

It does not appear that Rob Dart is a drug addict or alcoholic. He has family and friends who love him. He even had neighbors who knew his name and were kind enough to share bits of information with his mom and sister who live across the country. Yet he is in the grips of something beyond his control.

Maybe people like Rob Dart are overcome by something unseen, by “powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. Maybe the separation, loneliness and denial of the small interactions with other human beings that was forced upon us during the lockdowns opened a portal to something sinister. Something demonic.

This is complete conjecture, but what if the mental health crisis in America is actually a spiritual crisis? What if the more disconnected and “artificial” the world becomes the worse the crisis will get? What if the antidote to Schwab’s “angrier world” is to learn how to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to take Lewis’s direction to simply act as if we love our neighbors.

Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.

Subscribe now

In the meantime, tell your friends!