New Attitude met up with Chris Klicka and found out he wasn’t half as serious as his picture! Here Chris talks about his new book, college, and the hurdles God helped him overcome to become an attorney.

Q: For those who aren’t familiar with it, what is Home School Legal Defense and what is your position there?

HSLDA was established in 1983 for the specific purpose of defending parents who were home schooling their children. At that time and even now there’s a lot of attack on the families who choose to home school by local school districts and state departments of education. I’m Senior Counsel at HSLDA and was their first full-time lawyer when I came in 1985.

Q: What was your educational experience in high school?

Prior to high school, my parents, neither of whom were Christians, knew that the public schools were getting bad and put me in a Christian school. Each subject that we were taught in the Christian school was taught from a Biblical perspective. The idea was that the scripture is the center and source of all truth and that you can only gain a proper understanding of science, history, math, politics, and government by looking at it from God’s perspective.

Q: How important were those years in relationship to where you are now?

I would be willing to say that if I hadn’t gotten that firm foundation particularly in my high school years when I believe one is more open to temptation — if I hadn’t been in a Christian school setting, I’m sure I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today and might not even be saved.

Q: What are the advantages of home schooling over Christian school?

Well, I believe parents can delegate their authority to teach their children to someone else, but they can never delegate the responsibility. Unfortunately, there are plenty of Christian schools out there that are Christian in name but have no understanding of a Biblical world view. Children who go to those may be taught to believe as Christians but not trained to think as Christians. And that’s where home schooling can be superior in addition to a number of other benefits to the family, like closeness.

Q: Why did you choose to study law?

My father wanted me to go into law when I went off to college. He thought that the best way to go into law would be as a lawyer that dealt with real estate business transactions. But I had very little interest in real estate. In fact, I was leaning towards going off to seminary.

Q: Was there a struggle between what you wanted to do and what your parents wanted?

Initially my college experience was like that. I was trying to reach the middle ground between what my parents would like and what I wanted. In my junior year in college I went down to a summer study program in Tyler, TX, where I was trained very intensely in the need for us to reform our culture. So at that point I decided that the place where I felt I could be used most was in the area of law because I saw all these churches, Christian schools and even my college being harassed, taken to court, and over regulated, their freedoms very much limited. As I looked around I didn’t see many Christian attorneys and so I felt that was where the Lord could use me most to apply God’s principle to this particular area and protect God’s people.

Q: How did your parents respond to your decision to use law to serve the Lord?

My father and others would criticize me that I wouldn’t make money in the area of constitutional law, which is the best arena to fight for protecting our freedoms in this country. But I trusted the Lord, and He opened the doors. In my senior year in college I took Matthew 6:33 as my personal verse, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” So I believe any high schooler who is trying to determine where he wants to go in life, if he uses Matthew 6:33 as his plan, God will add unto him all these other things. Put Christ first, and He’ll open the doors.

Q: Was that a tough decision to devote so much of your life to the education necessary to become an attorney?

Yes, it was very difficult. College is filled with students who switch their majors regularly, a lot of directionlesspeople. And for awhile I was included among them. And it is fearful, you don’t want to waste your college education and you want to do something you enjoy. I had skills in speaking and writing and a desire to protect God’s people from a legal perspective, so this was the best avenue for me to do it.

Q: How did you start working for Home School Legal Defense?

This is another example of God letting me know where I am today has nothing to do with myself and my abilities! I sent out resumes to several organizations. One of the resumes was sent to Michael Farris at Concerned Women for America. I didn’t know there was a Home School Legal Defense. I happened to have done a research project where I studied and wrote a 350-page summary of all the home school laws that affect home schooling across the country and all the cases that there have ever been. I did that for the Rutherford Institute as an intern during the summer of ‘84. Michael Farris saw my resume with that particular item on it, called me back within a few days and said, “This is amazing! You know more about home schooling than I do, and I’ve started this organization called Home School Legal Defense. It’s not very big, but I would like to interview you for being our first full-time attorney.” We had a great interview and next thing I knew I was heading to Virginia to work at HSLDA.

Q: So it was smooth sailing from there?

Well, no. Sometimes you run into roadblocks in your pursuit of a career or what you think the Lord would have you do. I had to take the bar exam in Virginia in order to become a full-fledged lawyer. For numerous reasons in my own walk with the Lord, I was forced to take that bar exam three times during the course of a year. God used that time to create further dependency of me on Him because there was nothing in my human power that would help me pass that exam. It was a very intense time of self-doubt and wondering if the Lord really wanted me to be in the area of Law after I had spent so much money for a legal education. As I look back, I see that the Lord was preparing me for an intense job where I would have to face a lot of uphill battles. If I hadn’t gone through the struggle to pass a bar exam, I might have given up.

Q: Your new book “The Right Choice” is one of the most talked about in home schooling. There are a lot of books on home schooling. What makes yours unique?

What make it unique is that everything one needs to know about home schooling is now in one book. So a family who wants to know “Is it legal to home school!” can read my book. If a family wants to know how to home school or who has been home schooled in the past, they can read my book. I also discuss the failure of public education and why we as Christians cannot tolerate putting our children in public schools any longer if we’re going to be true to God’s commands. The book is an attempt to prove through foot-notes and documentation that our case in favor of home schooling is very strong.

Q: Would a home school teen benefit from reading “The Choice”?

I had home-school teenagers in mind when I wrote the book. I believe that home-school teenagers need to read this book so that they can fully understand and appreciate several things about being home educated. Number one, they’ll be able to understand the heritage that they enjoy as home schoolers. They’ll be able to study those people of the past, Christian leaders who have gone before, who were basically taught by their parents in the home setting. From this book they’ll be able to appreciate the tremendous sacrifice that their parents are putting into educating them, which will, I think, help them love their parents more. Furthermore, they’ll be able to see the legal risks that their parents face; and they’ll see the Biblical reasons why their parents are doing what they’re doing. Their parents are acting in obedience to the Lord. Unless high school teenagers fully understand this, the home school movement will not continue from generation to generation.

Q: What specific things do you think home schoolers should be doing in their teen years?

I think home schoolers in the high school years need to be a little more serious than their contemporaries. Students must realize the responsibility they’ve been given. To whom much is given much is required. God is giving you, the home schooler, much and so much is going to be demanded of you. You can’t waste this time. Be thinking ahead to developing a skill, developing a trade, looking for an area that you want to work in to make a difference. Start preparing and planning for that as soon as you can. The best I can give home schoolers is —don’t get caught up in the day-to-day drudgery of home schooling and despair because all students get tired of school. But rise above that by seeking God’s face and asking him to give you the vision that we’re talking about. And consider this tremendous privilege that you have to really excel in God’s word and apply that to the area of life in which you want to work. The parents can only do so much. The great burden is left to the students to take what their parents are giving them and use it for the glory of the Lord.