Prairie State Wire

Calvin Lindstrom, Pastor for the Church of Christian Liberty, said that rallies and bipartisan backing played a role in halting a bill affecting homeschool families. The statement was made on the Prairie State Wire Podcast.

"We rallied in the Springfield several times in Chicago, and at least as of now, this legislation has been stopped," said Lindstrom, Pastor School Administrator. "Stopped. In part because some Democrats, thankfully it wasn't just the mighty Republican party in Illinois, which there is none unfortunately, but it was some Democrats, prominent Democrats from Chicago, in fact, who came to our side, at least in part."

Illinois lawmakers revisited homeschooling regulation in 2025 through HB2827, known as the "Homeschool Act," after earlier failed attempts in 2011 and 2019. According to Capitol News Illinois, the bill would have required mandatory notification, diploma standards, and possible portfolio reviews. This sparked intense grassroots backlash over parental rights and child safety concerns. The measure reflected a renewed push for oversight in a state with minimal requirements.

Illinois does not track exact homeschool enrollment, but withdrawal data shows steady growth. Capitol News Illinois reports that nearly 4,500 children left public schools for homeschooling in 2022, about double the figure from a decade earlier. The lack of a registration system complicates long-term trend analysis, leaving officials reliant on indirect measures to estimate growth.

Bipartisan opposition to HB2827 underscored the contentious nature of education legislation in Illinois. Chalkbeat Chicago reported that the proposal drew more than 40,000 witness slips in opposition, dwarfing typical response levels. Republican lawmakers voiced concerns during hearings, and the bill ultimately failed to advance in the House despite strong support from some child advocates.

Lindstrom serves as pastor of the Church of Christian Liberty and administrator at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. According to Christian Liberty Academy, he earned degrees from the University of Illinois and Whitefield Theological Seminary. His leadership includes both pastoral duties and oversight of the academy’s educational programs. His work links religious ministry with Christian education policy.

Illinois treats homeschooling as a form of private schooling with minimal state oversight. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, families are not required to register or notify authorities but must teach core subjects in English and comply with compulsory attendance laws. Proposed legislation like HB2827 would have added new notification and accountability requirements.

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FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT

Bryan Hyde: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prairie State Wire Podcast. I'm Brian Hyde. Today I'm joined by Pastor Calvin Lindstrom. And Calvin, it's wonderful to have you on this program. Before we dive into this topic, which I think may be one of the, the most timely topics of all, tell us about your background, a little bit about to who you are, what you do, and then maybe if you want to set the stage, we'll talk about why religion and and politics are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Yeah. 

Pastor Calvin: That's, thank you, Brian. I, I appreciate the opportunity. I've been raised in Illinois. In fact, where I live now is just a couple houses down from where I grew up originally. So our church and ministry were established in ProSites, Illinois in the early 1960s. Our church and school, by God's Grace, were able to purchase a much larger building for our educational ministry and local church gatherings in Arlington Heights.

That was about 40 years ago, so I spent a lot of time in the Northwest suburbs, Arlington Heights, prospect Height, Mount Prospect, they [00:01:00] all kind of act as one, one suburb, but I'll say a changing area. Maybe I'll get to that in a moment. So my dad was a pastor. Teacher I have followed in some of his steps.

He was, I, I'm gonna say this humbly, he was a great man. I, I aspire to be that way, but the Lord really used him even as a young man. He was doing a lot of crazy, adventurous things. I've never been arrested, like he has never done some of the things he has done. But you know what the Lord. Gives us different callings.

We have to be faithful where, where he places us. I'm blessed with the six children of, of a godly wife and so I've spent my time as a pastor, teacher, administrator, 

Bryan Hyde: and, and tell me a little bit about Illinois family Action. 

Pastor Calvin: Illinois Family Action is part of Illinois Family Institute. It is a a 5 0 1 C four, so it can do things, express things that perhaps the 5 0 1 C3 aspect of Illinois Family Institute cannot do.[00:02:00] 

Dave Smith and I have been friends probably for. At least 10, 12 years. So I've had a long relationship with, with Dave and have been blessed to, to serve with him in, in different capacities. I do some writing for either the IFI website or the IFA website. Dave will sometimes ask me to write on a specific topic, so sometimes I'll come up with my own, but, so I, I believe that Illinois Family Institute is doing a good work.

One of the things we have to realize. And it's good to realize this, we're not the movers and shakers in Illinois politics. Cultural matters. WW. It would be wonderful if we were really shaping public policy, influencing the Christian conservative movement in Illinois is not that large. Probably getting smaller every year with net migration.[00:03:00] 

Out of Illinois, our governor is the U-Haul salesman. Every month, every year. As some, as some say. However, what I-F-I-I-F-A do together it, it's an important work. It's, it's not like we're the king makers, but addressing, informing, trying to equip is, is an important work, even if we don't maybe always see the fruit of what we're doing.

So, for example, Illinois Family Action will work to interview candidates, make recommendations on candidates. Some of those candidates will, will win. I, I don't think it's because of our efforts necessarily, but we'll, we'll inform and get the word out. A lot of the candidates that we would support and say, Hey, this is a godly man, a godly woman running for public office.

Good chance they're probably not gonna get elected. But it is, you know what? It, it's part of the process. I, I believe Dave is, is, and, and his team, you know, do a faithful [00:04:00] work. It's a, it's a challenging work, as I say, especially when people start moving out of the state of Illinois. So it's, it's good to be humbled and at the same time.

The Lord can use all of our efforts together. I think, I don't know if you, you or your listeners are familiar, there was a bill that was introduced. It would've been a, a draconian change in homeschooling, I think it was HB 28 37, if my memory is correct. Something like that. It would've, it would've really changed.

What has been a blessing in Illinois in terms of homeschooling without government interference? And the number of homeschoolers in the state, it's significant. But again, it's not like we're the movers and shakers. Right. Homeschoolers in Illinois do not determine most public policy. Right. But in this case, and there were a lot of good teams working together.

Illinois Family Institute, Illinois Family Action, Illinois, Christian Home Educators, itchy other groups. [00:05:00] Individual families, concerned families. We rallied in the Springfield several times in Chicago, and at least as of now, this legislation has been stopped. Stopped. In part because some Democrats, thankfully it wasn't just the mighty Republican party in Illinois, which there is none unfortunately, but it was some Democrats, prominent Democrats from Chicago, in fact, who came to our side, at least in part.

That helped derail the bill. I use that as an example. You know, it's not like we could just, oh yeah, we're the mighty army of Illinois. No, we are the, we're God's people scattered. Maybe not always as united as we should be, but in this case we did come together in prayer, humility, doing the hard work, going down to Springfield, passing out pies to our legislators.

You know, it was, it was, it was, it was a synergism. A lot of things, and I think the Lord used that. So people who say, oh, there's no point. You can't do [00:06:00] anything. No, that, that's, God never tells us, sit around and do nothing because it's pointless, you know? He tells us, be in service. We can't control the outcomes.

We, we shouldn't think, oh yeah, we can change the future. No, we have to do what God has called us to do. 

Bryan Hyde: If there's one place where I hear people regularly express, I don't know if it's disappointment or maybe despair, they're just, they're, I'm so tired of politics. Politics is, this is so terrible. And, and granted there are some Illinois.

Is is one of the states where we see a lot of really, yeah. We see where politics can go. We see this on the national level as well. Talk to me about the effect that religion and culture have on politics or vice versa. I know this can kind of begins the chicken versus the egg debate. Sure, yeah. It is obviously one of, you know, there there's great influence to be found in, in religion.

Talk to me about how you can tell by the laws that a, that a nation has, you know, how it's doing spiritually. 

Pastor Calvin: Sure. Right. I, I would, I would like to say Illinois has been [00:07:00] moving away from its Christian basis through the legal process. So a new religion dominates if, if you look at the city of Chicago, which is really the power center of the whole state, my guess is a good number of the representatives have some religious profession.

They might consider themselves Roman Catholic. Protestant, I, I don't think they, you know, the, the majority would be atheists. However, I'll say this, there, there has been a, a great disconnect between their professed religious background, whatever that means, and their actions. So it's a radical dicho dichotomy so that, you know, the influence of of Roman Catholicism in the Chicago land area is profound.

And I remember it was Dr. Irwin Lutzer. Former pastor of Moody Memorial Church who, who I, he, he, he's, he could speak well [00:08:00] on this, but he said at one time, you know, the, the city of Chicago kind of feared what the Roman Catholic Church thought about matters. That, that's gone now. I don't think any of our politicians really fear what some pastor or group of religious leaders might have to say.

So I, I think we are in a long, slow legal revolution, as I would see it in Illinois, moving away from a, you know, a foundation of, of faith, you know, hardworking people that came to Illinois, farmers, businessmen, whatever. So I, I think that that's the challenge for Christians is to say, Hey, we need to try to encourage our, our politicians to stand on God's truth witness to them.

There are witnesses. In our capital. We, we have supported for many years, Reverend Vandenbosch, who, who is a, a lobbyist, he tries to go in and not only speak on, you [00:09:00] know, specific pieces of legislation, but would try to bring the gospel to our legislators. It, it's a, it is a, a difficult and a challenging work.

So for the most part, we're not the movers and shakers. I think some of what we have to do is, is try to rethink where we can be a better influence. And as I say to people who say, well, it's all pointless. No, you have to look there. There are, I think there are some parts of the state where it's maybe a little more friendly to Christian conservative thought.

I know there's some good people who are in elected office, so some people have found ways to get elected. My stepbrother for I think almost. 10, 12 years served as a state rep from the northwest suburbs. He had to work really hard. The reason he, he stayed in office was he, did, he, he went door to door, ev, you know, every, every time.

So he wasn't running, you know, he wasn't, he didn't have millions of dollars to run these slick [00:10:00] ads. He did it, I think, through hard determined work. And by convincing people who would not normally vote for him to give him a chance. And you know what, that's, that's a lot of work to do that, you know, politically and, you know, people, oh, well let's do a Facebook ad or something.

You know, going door to door is not, not an easy thing. He's trying now to, to train people, to find people who wanna run for public office. And I, and I'll say this, you do run a gauntlet if you choose to run for public office. The, they will look for anything in your background. You know, your family, it, you know, it's, it's not, it's not an easy task.

Al, almost. Yeah. I have to say, it's almost like being a missionary and you're gonna be going to a strange land. 

Bryan Hyde: I, there there's something about the approach though that you were mentioning of. In, instead of trying to, to blast a message, this is gonna convince everybody all at once and, and we're just gonna, you know, right.

[00:11:00] Mass produce it, go out there and, and, and blare it, you know, night and day from loudspeakers. That's not as effective as that approach of face-to-face on the doorstep individually. It's like, it's like filling a, filling a row of milk bottles if you have a fire hose. You'll definitely get some water in their direction.

You might even get some inside if you're lucky, but mostly it's just gonna kind of knock 'em and scatter 'em to and from. Mm-hmm. If you wanna fill those milk bottles one by one, carefully. Sure. Deliberately, and I, I, mm-hmm. I think there's a parallel there in, in how hearts and minds are changed. 

Pastor Calvin: I, I, I think, I think you, you are right there.

Our current governor, j JB Pritzker, he has the money to just fill the airways. However, and, and I'll say this, the democrats often do a much better job mobilizing people. So even though they can run the messages, whether fa, you know, and, and use social media, they don't neglect some of that individual convincing, prodding, whatever that might be.

So I, I, I [00:12:00] think your analogy is a good one, and we do have to still consider where, where can we, you know, try to take our faith to the next level. And thankfully on some of the issues in part because of President Trump and the momentum at the federal level, some of the things even at the local level perhaps are, are shifting some of the transgender confusion, insanity.

Maybe we're seeing some momentum. In what was in the opposite direction of where things were were moving, thankfully. So 

Bryan Hyde: there was a, there was an article that you had shared from Illinois family.org about how the, the 2025 legislative session was, was coming to an end. And Yes. You know, the, the culture war, if you want to see what it's like, you know the example of this democratic Yes.

In individual who stood up? Kelly Cassidy Yes. Accused people of really heinous things for 

Pastor Calvin: Yes. 

Bryan Hyde: Being normal, 

Pastor Calvin: correct? It is. And, and it, it does. When Jesus said they will [00:13:00] hate you, you know, sometimes we went really well. It, it comes, you know, Jesus is speaking almost 2000 years ago. May maybe it doesn't look identical, but, but there is, there is a, a hatred for truth and yeah.

Call Kelly Cassidy as she was closing the 2025 session. She, she did make some. Horrible charges. Thankfully there were those who called her on that and said, you know that, that's not appropriate. That's a violation I think, of decorum. And, and I think it was true just to make those statements in, in such a manner to blame people for murder centrally or being complicit with murder.

I mean, those are very strong words and that is where in, in my article I, I, I did see it. We are in a spiritual, legal battle. Yeah. And that, that is a good example of that. 

Bryan Hyde: I, you had mentioned, you know, people feel like, well, there's nothing you can do. I, I know there are voices out there that say that I appreciate your message where [00:14:00] you were saying no, there's a lot that people can do.

We have influence, but sometimes we correct, we tend to think big and well, but nobody from the newspaper is gonna come and interview me if I do this. That's right. That's, that's not what influence always looks like. Sometimes it's, you know, it's the little details. Correct. 

Pastor Calvin: There are, let, let me give a great example of that.

In, so there's, you know, there's the federal elections every four years, those will bring out the most voters. There are some of the other elections every two years. Usually the, the voter turnout is a little bit less when it comes to the school board. Elections, which are elections most people have. Oh, really?

There's an election. I, I figure out it's, it may be less than 10% of the voting population that determines who's in power. Think about that, less than 10% determine who actually has the power on the school boards, library boards, some of those local matters. So it's a very small minority of people. So in a [00:15:00] sense, democracy, I would say we are a, a constitutional republic with, you know, our, our elected officials are voted in a democratic manner.

But, you know, it, it only works when people are engaged. And I, I recognize our lives are very busy. But if we can't even get out to vote, then who are we to blame if we are in a mess? 

Bryan Hyde: One final question for you, and that is I've, I've heard people describe what we're dealing with today. The whole big picture thing is as much spiritual as, as it is, you know, everything else, including political.

What council would you give for our listeners in terms of staying spiritually grounded so that they can, wherever they happen to be standing, yeah, they're more likely to, to wield their influence wisely. 

Pastor Calvin: Sure, yeah. That I really, the, the God's word being engaged in God's word, personally, training our children.

We have to, we personally, we, we have to know what God is wanting us to do. And I think the, the Book of [00:16:00] Psalms reading at least one Psalm every day, I would, I found that my own personal devotions, very encouraging reading. I, I like to read also the gospels, something from the gospels every day, just to never forget.

The heart of, of our Lord and Savior and his power. We, we have different eschatological views of the future, right? Christians have have been divided on that, but one of the things we know is our Lord has said he will never leave us nor forsake us. We have orders from him. We have to look, okay, what does it mean to act and live as a Christian?

We need God's word, as I say, training our children and then looking to be aware of what's going on politically. And, and engaged. And so that's, that's the challenge I think that God puts before us. And I think those, the heart of it is, is a spiritual thing, recognizing, you know what? We don't have power in ourselves here, here, but God's word is powerful.[00:17:00] 

The Holy Spirit will accomplish what he determines, so it's never in vain. Corinthians 1558 to serve the Lord 

Bryan Hyde: are, are there any websites that you would point our listeners toward if they would like to get some more information or perhaps even get involved themselves? 

Pastor Calvin: Sure. I, I would suggest people get acquainted with Illinois Family Institute.

IFI, I think it's Illinois family.org. There's also, then you'll find Illinois Family Action. Another for, for political matters, not from a Christian perspective, but is a website called Capital Facts. Capital Facts. And it, it just. Tells, it's almost almost like a Drudge report. I don't go to the Drudge Report anymore, but almost like a Drudge report for Illinois.

The guy who writes it does, does know a lot of what's going on, as they say, not from a Christian perspective. And there is when, when there are specific pieces of legislation there, it's good to go either to the Illinois General Assembly page or there are websites that can make it [00:18:00] easy to follow what's going on politically.

Illinois Family Institute point out every year there are almost 8,000 bills, eight to 10,000 bills introduced. They're not all passed, obviously, but it's, it's so much, and the list, the list of bad bills was so long. Not all of them were passed. So it, it is, you know what, if you live in Illinois, you have a lot of work to do in terms of just kind of realizing what's going on and, and trying to be aware and engaged as much as we can.

Bryan Hyde: Sounds like you've got some great tools to, to help people to that very purpose though. I 

Pastor Calvin: think you know what there are, I think there are the tools. It's not like you have to try to figure everything out from, from square one. So 

Bryan Hyde: again, we are talking with Pastor Calvin Lindstrom. Thank you so much for being our guest today and, and.

Man keep, keep pushing that rock uphill there. There's just a few more hands coming along to help. 

Pastor Calvin: Our, our church has had a Christian school and a homeschool program, and a book publishing ministry for many years, so if they wanna learn more, a little bit [00:19:00] more about our own ministry, they can visit Christian liberty.com, Christian liberty.com to learn more about what the Lord has given us to do, so thank you, Brian.