In Germany, the Catholic Church and Protestant churches lost more than 430,000 members in 2018

By Julio Severo

The Catholic Church and traditional Protestant churches (including Lutheran and Presbyterian churches) lost more than 400,000 members in Germany in 2018.

Germany’s Catholic Church lost 216,078 members and Protestant churches lost about 220,000 in 2018, according to data published by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany.

In total about 23 million German citizens are still members of the Catholic Church and 21.14 million are members of Protestant churches. Both groups represent 53.2% of the total population of Germany, which has 83 million inhabitants.

The main reasons for the decline in membership in both churches are a very aging and dying Christian population. Considering that 50% of Germany is Christian and that 954,897 Germans died in 2018, 50% of that death numbers explains the 430,000 Germans who “left” the churches: They went to the cemetery.

Modern German family: Only 1 child

To make matters worse, German Christian families average only one child, a stark contrast to Germany in the 1800s, when Christian families had an average of 10 children.

Family of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Germany in 1896: 7 children

While the Catholic Church and traditional Protestant churches are steadily shrinking, with an abundance of deaths of elderly Christians who have not had enough babies to replace them, Islam is growing steadily in Germany, with plenty of Islamic babies. Unlike small Catholic and Protestant families, Muslim families are large and true to their religion.

While the diminishing German Catholics and Protestants beget very few babies to baptize in their religions, Muslims beget legions of babies to advance their religion.

Large family of Muslim “refugees” in Germany

The abundant birth control in German Catholicism and Protestantism is destroying German Christianity. The lack of such control in Islam is increasing in abundance future Islamic members in Germany.

With information from Deutsche Welle.

Portuguese version of this article: Na Alemanha, Igreja Católica e igrejas protestantes perderam mais de 430.000 membros em 2018

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Mohammed was the most popular name for boys born in Berlin in 2018

Invading Islamic “Reformation” in Luther’s Germany

Germans Protest Islam, Leftwing Media Denounces Putin

Fast Islamization of Europe, with Christian Assistance

Mohammed was the most popular name for boys born in Berlin in 2018

By Julio Severo

Mohammed was the most popular first name for baby boys in Berlin last year, a study said.

Not only in Berlin but, as the Association for German Language revealed in its study, Mohammed featured near the top of the list of names also in other major German regions, including Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Hesse.

Mohammed was among the ten most popular names in six of Germany’s 16 states.

More than 65,000 different baby names were recorded in the study.

If Mohammed was the most popular name for boys born in Berlin in 2018, it is not unsafe to conclude that 2019 and the next years “Mohammed” and Islam will be increasingly stronger in Berlin and German.

The Association’s managing director Andrea Ewels has said the name Mohammed’s rise was “of course related to the wave of immigration.”

The power of the name Mohammed shows the power of the Islamic invasion in Germany. More than one million Islamic Middle Eastern and North African migrants have entered Germany since Angela Merkel threw Germany’s doors open in 2015.

Germany, which is the cradle of the Protestant Reformation, has heavily suffered secularization. Now that Christian values have been weakened and even the Protestant and Catholic churches are secularized with increasingly smaller families because of the contraceptive mindset, the German secularized society is unable to face the Islamic invasion and its efforts to erase the German civilization, including increasing vandalism against Christian churches.

Other consequences are that ethnic German Christian children have been suffering increasing bullying and violence from children whose parents are Islamic immigrants.

With information from DailyMail.

Portuguese version of this article: Maomé foi o nome mais popular para meninos nascidos em Berlim em 2018

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading about Immigration and Islamic Invasion:

Immigration: A Weapon of Mass Cultural Destruction in Liberal Hands

Invading Islamic “Reformation” in Luther’s Germany

Germans Protest Islam, Leftwing Media Denounces Putin

Catholic Church Paid Millions in Dollars to Facilitate Immigrant Invasion in U.S.

Hillary Clinton’s machine of war and destruction

Trump, Obama, Hillary and NATO

Obama Using Marxist Experience to promote Muslim Expansion

Invading Islamic “Reformation” in Luther’s Germany

By Julio Severo

Reports from various European news outlets are confirming mass migration rampage events by hordes of Islamists whom the Western media insist in portraying as “refugees”. One of these reports says,

Half an hour ago on the border between Italy and Austria I saw a huge crowd of immigrants. With all solidarity to people in difficult circumstances I have to say that what I saw arouses horror. This huge mass of people – sorry – but it’s an absolute wilderness … Vulgar, throwing bottles, shouting “We want Germany”. So what, Germany is now a paradise?

I saw an elderly Italian woman in a car that was surrounded by the immigrants. They pulled her by the hair out of the car and wanted to use it to go to Germany. They tried to topple the bus I was in. They threw feces at us, banging on the door for the driver to open it, spat on the glass. My question is: For what purpose? How do they want to assimilate in Germany? For a moment, I felt like in a warzone.

Among them there were almost no women and children. The vast majority was aggressive young men.

Many thousands of Muslim “refugees” are invading Europe to reach Germany, sometimes over 10,000 a day.

Saudi Arabia, which boats of Mecca and its centrality to worldwide Islam, offered to “help” Germany. Its offer is to build 200 mosques in Germany for the spiritual assistance of “refugees.” This is all the help the Saudis are willing to offer to their spiritual brothers.

Germany could counter the Saudi offer by offering to build 200 evangelical Lutheran churches in Saudi Arabia. After all, if Saudi Arabia boasts of being the center of the Islamic religion, Germany boasts of being the birthplace of Lutheranism, a Protestant movement created to exalt Christ and His Word. In fact, Germany is the birthplace of the worldwide Protestantism.

Yet, Saudi Arabia bans Bibles and boasts that there is no single Christian church in its territory.

Saudi Arabia, with Turkey and the U.S., have been exposed by the conservative news site WorldNetDaily for their suspicious involvement in the civil war in Syria, especially for their indirect and even direct support of ISIS and al-Qaida, which have been raping, torturing and slaughtering Syrian Christians.

This is the main source for the Muslim refugees’ crisis in Germany.

If suspicious Islamic refugees can flee to Germany, why cannot Christian refugees flee to Saudi Arabia? Because this radical Islamic nation, a strong U.S. ally, kills Christians. Christianity is punishable by death in the Saudi Islamic paradise.

Cannot at least Saudi Arabia receive Islamic refugees, their religious brothers? A very good question! It would be fair for a radical Islamic nation to receive radical Islamic refugees. But Saudi Arabia has faced or welcomed no mass Islamic immigration wave.

Perhaps this crisis, where Islamic powers as Saudi Arabia do not want to help their religious brothers, is a punishment on Germany.

In 2011, Germany pledged 100 million euros to support the Arab Spring, a U.S. induced movement that eventually brought chaos and death, especially to Christian minorities, to Libya and Syria. As a direct result of the Arab Spring, ISIS and al-Qaida control much of Libya and Syria today, and Christians are their main victims. But the doors of Europe, especially of Germany, have not been wide open to the suffering Christian masses victims of the Arab Spring. They have been wide open to their oppressors.

There are reports of Christians murdered by Muslims when they try to flee to Europe. Meanwhile, suspicious Muslim refugees call for a supposed right to enter and live in Germany. They think that Germany has an obligation to welcome them and any hesitance is faced with charges of “racism.” Even waves of Islamic rapes in Europe cannot be denounced for fears of charges of “racism.” Multiculturalism has been a strong ally and protector of the Islamic invasion, including its notorious and infamous waves of rapes.

Under the multiculturalist craziness, Germany cannot defend its Christian roots against the Islamic onslaught, but it has an obligation to defend Islam and its adherents.

Conversely, Saudi Arabia can freely defend its Islamic traditions, kill Christians, fund worldwide Islamic terrorism and reject Islamic immigration into itself, but encourage it for Germany.

When Germany had not foolish leaders, the obvious was obvious.

For the Saudi dictators, Muslim nations are for Muslims. This is the reason that Christian churches are banned in Saudi Arabia. Ok. Let us apply this principle, reciprocally:

Christians should live in Christian nations. Christian refugees should be welcome in Christian nations, including Germany.

Muslims should live in Muslim nations. Muslim refugees should be welcome in Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia.

Especially, Germany should remember Martin Luther, who was saved because of an Islamic threat to Europe. What Luther wanted was what the Catholic Church of his time did not want: Christians free to read the Bible and worship God.

Such freedom was punished with death in that time, and many were punished this way, including John Hus and William Tyndale. Just remember the Inquisition. Even though Luther was virtually sentenced to death by the Catholic Church and Catholic governments, the impeding threat of Islamic invasion in Europe kept the killers so busy that it was very hard to focus on Luther.

Muslims were like Philistine “saviors” for Luther. The Bible says that when the furious and jealous King Saul was persecuting David and very close to catch him, the Philistines began to invade Israel and Saul was forced to leave his persecution of David to focus on the Philistines.

David cried to God, and He saved him by using the Philistines. Of course later David fiercely fought the Philistines and defeated and conquered them.

Luther cried to God, and He saved him by using Muslims.

But now that Germany is being invaded, where are the real Christians to be found to cry? Who will conquer the new Philistines? Where are the new Davids?

Germany needs a new Luther and a new Reformation against the Islamic threat.

There are reports that Muslims refugees heading to Europe cry: “Mama Merkel, help us!” But they do not direct their cries to Saudi Islamic dictators, by calling them “Daddies.”

Foolishly “compassionate” Angela Merkel is helping to build a Germany under Mohammed’s “compassionate” ideology, which brings “peace” only after it has destroyed its enemies and rivals, including Christians. In its due time, the “compassionate” Allah of the Islamic ideology will repay the foolishly compassionate Germans.

If Merkel keeps receiving Muslim “refugees,” the old Luther’s Germany will be replaced by new and abhorrent Mohammed’s Germany.

Where Muslims invade, they control and dominate. Many of the New Testament churches were in regions today controlled by the Islamic ideology, which conquered these formerly, mostly Christian regions. The modern Islamic Turkey, which has committed a notorious genocide against Armenian Christians, was a Christian “Germany” in the past.

Dictatorships, even Marxist tyrannies, have retroceded. But an Islamic tyranny has never retroceded.

Germany is sowing an irreversible Islamic dictatorship, where Luther will be erased form it is history. In this point, Saudi Arabia will be free to build as many mosques as it wishes in Germany, in honor of the infamous Islamic “Reformation” that it is encouraging in the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation.

Portuguese version of this article: Reforma islâmica invasora na Alemanha de Lutero

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Germans Protest Islam, Leftwing Media Denounces Putin

A New Reformation to Counter-Attack the Great Gates of Hell?

Germany Clashes with Pope over Child Discipline

Germany Clashes with Pope over Child Discipline

By Julio Severo (with Associated Press)

Germany has on Friday rejected as “unacceptable” the pope’s comments that it’s OK to spank your children to discipline them, as long as their dignity is maintained.

Francis made the remarks this week during his weekly general audience, which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family.

Francis outlined the traits of a good father: one who forgives but is able to “correct with firmness” while not discouraging the child.

“One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them,’” Francis said.

“How beautiful!” Francis remarked. “He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.”

Verena Herb, a spokeswoman for Germany’s Families Ministry, told reporters on Friday that “there can be no dignified hitting,” and by comparing child discipline with violence, she added, “any form of violence against children is completely unacceptable.”

Completely unacceptable is what the German government does.

German parents who homeschool or spank their children can lose their custody. In contrast with its harshness with parents, Germany is extraordinarily lenient with bad behavior, in children and adults. While Germany was condemning the pope for showing support for child discipline, American Jewish Committee was criticizing a German court for concluding that two Muslims who firebombed a synagogue last July weren’t anti-Semitic.

Leniency for criminal behavior. Cruelty for parents fulfilling their family duties. This is the U.N. way in Germany.

One lunacy just leads to another. In Germany, corporal punishment of children is crime. Apparently, firebombing a synagogue is not crime or even anti-Semitic in Germany. The terrorist Muslims who firebombed the synagogue were sentenced to perform 200 hours of community work.

Leniency for terrorist Muslims, and no leniency for the pope and parents.

Not only Germany has not been harsh with the Vatican over child discipline, but the U.N. too.

Last year, the U.N. human rights committee “recommended” that the Holy See amend its own laws to specifically prohibit corporal punishment of children, including within the family.

In its written response, the Vatican argued that it in no way promoted corporal punishment, that the term “punishment” isn’t even used in the section of Catholic teaching and that according to Catholic teaching, parents "should be able to rectify their child's inappropriate action by imposing certain reasonable consequences for such behavior, taking into consideration the child's ability to understand the same as corrective."

All the nations that are signatory to the U.N. Children’s Rights Convention (CRC) are required to enforce the repealing of their laws allowing parents to spank their children. Because the Vatican is a signatory, it is not known if the pope will be able to keep supporting parents and their right to discipline their children.

Some 39 countries signatory to CRC prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including by parents at home. Those nations range from Sweden and Germany to Brazil. Even the pope’s native socialist Argentina prohibits all physical punishment of children, including in the home.

In the United States, which is the only great Christian nation that, by pressure of pro-family evangelical groups, has not ratified the CRC, parents can legally spank their children as long as the force is reasonable.

With information from the Associated Press.

Portuguese version of this article: Alemanha entra em choque com o papa sobre disciplina de crianças

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Brazilian Nightmare: World Cup, Spanking and Abortion

When a father does not discipline his child

Germans Protest Islam, Leftwing Media Denounces Putin

By Julio Severo

On Monday, December 15, some 15,000 people in Germany took part in a demonstration labeled by the German press as ‘xenophobic.’ The demonstration was held by the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA, by its German-language acronym), whose main objective is to oppose Islamic immigration from the Middle East and Africa. Since October, PEGIDA has held weekly rallies against Islam.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned PEGIDA, declaring, “There is no place in Germany for those who are instigating hatred against immigrants.” She also denounced the protesters for “racism.”

According to Jihad Watch, “Despite efforts by German politicians and the media to portray PEGIDA as neo-Nazi, the group has taken great pains to distance itself from Germany’s extreme right. The group says that it is ‘apolitical’ and that its main objective is to preserve what is left of Germany’s Judeo-Christian culture and values.”

PEGIDA has mobilized thousands of German citizens to take to the streets to protest the growing Islamization of their country.

The American and other Western leftwing media have become accustomed to criticize anti-Islam protests as ‘racist.’ Yet, the German protests have, enigmatically, instigated the American Left to attack Putin.

Major American leftwing media outlets The Huffington Post and Bloomberg say that the anti-Muslim demonstrations are “far-right” and a strategy of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. In contrast, Jihad Watch, a group that monitors Islam and its advances in the West, has validated the demonstrations as an attempt to defend Judeo-Christian culture and values in Europe. Jihad Watch is praised by conservative WorldNetDaily.

Bloomberg says about PEGIDA, “Putin’s strategy seems to be to build up a ‘fifth column’ of far-right parties in Europe willing to cooperate with the Kremlin.”

Even in Brazil, the leftwing media has denounced Putin as a KGB agent.

If you think that what is happening is madness, consider Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, the author of the anti-Putin and anti-Russia article in The Huffington Post. Schwartz is the director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Protestant who was a member of the Communist Party in America. Even so, he managed to convert to Islam.

Now, with his vast (mad) experience he is defending Islam in Europe against anti-Islam ‘conspiracies’ from Putin.

He denounces that PEGIDA anti-Islamic demonstrations have slogans like “Frieden mit Russland! Nie wieder Krieg in Europa!” (“Peace with Russia! Never again war in Europe!”) and “Putin, hilfe uns!” (“Putin, help us!”).

Then Schwartz says, “Many observers may see in PEGIDA no more than another example of the ‘new populism’ in Europe. But an anti-Islam, pro-Russian alliance is dangerous for its advocates. Alignment of Russian ambitions and German discontent has been seen before: in the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, which allowed Germany to conquer most of Europe before turning on Russia. Germans should be wary about these issues.”

Don Hanks, an American expert on Russian language and culture, notes Schwartz’s exaggerations: “This author is either hopelessly naive or, more likely, a shill for the transnational elites who want to control the universe from Washington. It is beyond absurd to warn that an anti-Islam alliance smacks of Nazism. Hitler had an alliance with Muslims, especially the Mufti, against the Jews and these Muslims also killed hundreds of Christian Serbs for good measure. The pro-Russian alliance that Hitler entered into was with an atheist and communist who had absolutely nothing in common with Putin, who promotes Orthodox Christianity, and was not even a Russian (Stalin was Georgian)! The utter irony of this is that the most dangerous alliance in the world today by far is US-NATO-EU. So far the EU has taken over over 28 countries and absorbed them. That’s not expansionism? (Oops, I forgot, it’s exceptionalism). The first EU Commissioner was Walter Hallstein, a nazi who wrote the ‘Pride and Blood’ law forbidding Germans to marry Jews. A Nazi professor in the Third Reich wrote the blueprint for the EU, as described by UK authors Rodney Atkinson and Edward Spalton. All journalists should be required to take a test in Russian history and culture, and should have an IQ of at least 80. That would eliminate a lot of this disinformation. It would be good if more readers used their heads for something other than a hat rack as well.”

Even though PEGIDA has been portrayed as ‘racist’ and ‘extremist’ by the leftwing media, Deutsche Welle has said about PEGIDA demonstrators: “the majority are completely normal people. Of course, they’re not people who usually vote Green, or the Left party, or the SPD [Social Democrats], but they’re not extremists.”

PEGIDA’s motto is “We are the people!” (Wir sind das Volk!), the same slogan used by East Germans to bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Even so, the Left is implicating PEGIDA in Putin’s alleged ‘communist’ conspiracies.

If Putin were really a communist agent, would they be implicating him in conspiracies with conservatives in Germany?  

In the Soviet times, the American leftist media faithfully attacked America and praised the Soviet Union. Just to be clear: the Left always protects the Left.

In the current situation between America and Russia, the American Left and even the Brazilian Left protect America and attack Russia.

Are there more socialists in America than in Russia?

Don Hanks has another explanation: “Left and right is irrelevant these days when it comes to Putin. Russophobia is de rigueur if you want to get ahead in politics and media these days.”

Nowadays, incredibly ultra-nationalism has united American left-wingers and right-wingers against Russia. American right-wingers hate Russia for its communist past and because Russia is the only nation able to challenge minimally the U.S. supremacy around the world.

American left-wingers hate Russia for its present conservative laws and because the Orthodox Church is heavily involved in the government affairs. The Left hates Church and government together!

If Putin wants the American Left to love and defend Russia again, he should do more than Obama has done: to embrace Marxism, Islam and gay ideology. And to expel the Orthodox Church from his government. Afterwards he should try to convince the Western media that he is more Marxist than Obama is. He should say to them, “Look, now I have allowed gay parades in Moscow and I have revoked the ban on homosexual propaganda to children. Now Russian children will be exposed to all kinds of homosexual sexual activity. Besides, I proclaim that Islam is a ‘religion of peace,’ just as Obama does! What about now? May you at last love me and Russia again?”

Yet, Germans should not be deterred by American leftist propaganda, especially The Huffington Post and Bloomberg, which preache that anti-Islam opposition is a Putin’s conspiracy. And even if it is so, an anti-Islam conspiracy is better than an pro-Islam conspiracy. There is information that Obama has been championing Marxism and Islam. He is their greatest advocate. Does this secret that explain why Obama is loved and Putin is hated by the Western mass media?

Nevertheless, we should not miss the point that the biggest threat to Europe today is Islamic immigration. Islam intends to change Europe, by destroying what is left of its Christian culture and establish an Islamic dictatorship.

Whoever helps Islamic expansion in Europe is an enemy of Europe. Whoever helps save Europeans from the incoming Islamic dictatorship is not an enemy.  

The Western media interpret who the enemy is. This is why they praise Obama and attack Putin.

My view? I think that whoever defends Europe from Islam deserves support. I would support even the pope in this just cause. But, sadly, Pope Francis has said that “equating Islam with violence is wrong,” essentially agreeing with Obama that Islam is a “religion of peace.”

If there is hope for Europe to escape Islamization, will it come from Obama or the pope?

The real point is not if Obama, the pope and Putin are attacking or defending Islamization of Europe. The point is that European natives have a right to reject Islamization without being labeled ‘racist.’

Portuguese version of this article: Alemães protestam contra o islamismo, mídia esquerdista denuncia Putin

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Obama Using Marxist Experience to promote Muslim Expansion

Pope says equating Islam with violence is wrong

Rising Turkish Menace: U.S. and NATO Ally Wants Islamic Advance in Latin America

Main threat to US, Russia: Radical Islam, not each other

Interview with Don Hank: Interpreting What is Happening in the U.S., Europe and Russia today

Brazilian Families Want Legal Homeschooling

By Julio Severo

A group of families made a 12-hour trip to be in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital city, to attend a vote in the Brazilian Congress on homeschooling. The vote was postponed, but the presence of these families and their children touched the hearts of many congressional representatives.

Homeschool families in the Brazilian Congress

These families, who were sponsored by ANED (Associação Nacional de Educação Domiciliar, National Home Education Association), promise to be in Brasilia again next Wednesday, when there will be a possible new vote.

Congressmen touched by homeschool families

The current Brazilian government is controlled by the socialist Workers’ Party, and it is hostile to homeschooling. The past social democratic government, of the Marxist, former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, was similarly hostile.

The ideological opposition by the Workers’ Party is reminiscent of the Workers’ Party in Germany some 80 years ago. In fact, this was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known as Nazi Party, which banned homeschooling in Germany in the 1930s. After the ban, national socialist dictator Hitler said, “The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”

Hitler’s ban is in place in Germany even today. Germany, which is tolerant of many kinds of radical Muslim practices and customs from its Islamic immigrants, has been radically intolerant of every homeschooling practice of Christian parents.

Germany is a long way from one of the most important founders of the modern German language, Martin Luther, who said, “I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth.”

About the Brazilian government, why should it imitate the German government behavior against Christian parents? About the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was an admirer of the Soviet Union, why should she keep a ban on homeschooling? Why should her administration persecute Christian parents who homeschool in a Christian way?

The Soviet Union no more exists. In modern Russia, homeschooling is legal. In my pro-life and pro-family meeting in Moscow two months ago, one of the most prominent homeschool leaders in the world told me that Russia has several homeschool curriculums. In today’s Russia, it is not a crime to homeschool. Why in Brazil is it?

CBN News, of Pat Robertson, reported that Russia “is one of the freest nations in which to homeschool.”

“We have complete freedom of home education in Russia, in terms of legality,” Pavel Parfentiev, a family rights advocate in Russia, said.

“The Russian Federation is sort of a champion of human rights in this particular area, so of course I think it is a good example for both Germany and Sweden where home educators are persecuted,” he said to CBN News.

If Rousseff admired the old Russia much, why should she admire new Russia less? She should allow homeschooling and even imitate a Russian ban on gay propaganda to protect children.

She should not imitate Germany, which is intolerant of homeschooling by Christian parents, but extremely tolerant of Islamic radicalisms.

Rousseff should make a trip to Russia and learn basic lessons of freedom, protection and educational choices for children.

She should ban homosexual propaganda, not homeschooling, to minors.

Portuguese version of this article: Famílias brasileiras querem legalização da educação escolar em casa

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

A New Reformation to Counter-Attack the Great Gates of Hell?

Americans Warned: Home-Schoolers Stripped of Rights

Triumph of the state over the family: Brazilian Congress reinforces ban on homeschooling

Americans Warned: Home-Schoolers Stripped of Rights

Dale Hurd/CBN News

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that homeschooling is not a parent's right. It is a statement some are saying should frighten American parents.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike (right) began home schooling in Germany because they didn't want their children exposed to things like witchcraft and graphic sex education, which are taught in German schools. (CBN News)

Nations like Germany and Sweden show that when governments take away homeschooling rights, it's a slippery slope to no parental rights.

America the Refuge or Not

The Romeike family came to the United States from Germany five years ago hoping to find refuge. They wanted to homeschool their children in freedom and a federal judge granted them asylum.

But now the Obama administration has been trying to deport them, arguing that homeschooling is not a right. The case is currently before a federal appeals court.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike began homeschooling in Germany because they didn't want their children exposed to things like witchcraft and graphic sex education that are taught in German schools. 

"There were stories where [school children] were encouraged to ask the devil for help instead of God and actually the devil would help (in the story)," Uwe said.

"When we found out what's in the textbooks, it's exactly the opposite from what the Bible tells us and teaches us, and we wanted to protect [our children]," his wife, Hannelore, added.

But homeschooling is illegal in Germany, except in rare cases. And many homeschooling parents are persecuted with fines, jail or the loss of their children.

Homeschoolers Going Into Exile?

Most homeschoolers in America are left alone. But what if state politicians and the federal government started to move against it?

Two of the worst nations for homeschoolers are Germany and Sweden. If you want to see what things might be like if homeschooling was banned in America, travel to Sweden, where the government controls education and the homeschooling movement has been crushed.

In fact, the head of the Swedish Homeschooling Association, Jonas Himmelstrand, had to take his family into exile. They fled to Finland.

"We're in exile. We were forced out of our country and that makes a stronger impact than I can imagine," he told CBN News. "This was our country. This was where we had our friends and business relationships and a whole lot of things and now we're pushed away from it."

Attorney Michael Donnelly, of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, called the situation "incredible for a nation like Sweden that calls itself a free nation, a democracy, so to speak."

Ruby Harrold-Claesson, president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights, went even further, branding Sweden a dictatorship where social workers tell parents what to do.

"Sweden claims to be a democracy but it's far from it. It's a dictatorship," he said. "You have the social workers dictating how people are to live. You're not supposed to be different. You're not supposed to be different from anyone else in Sweden. Everyone is supposed to be uniform. They want to have these cookie cutter children."

Claesson is also the lawyer representing Christer and Annie Johansson, who have lost custody of their son Domenic, because of homeschooling. After Domenic was abducted by Swedish officials, Annie's health began to fail.

Christer said the stress of the ordeal is killing his wife.

"If we cannot solve this issue soon, Domenic won't have a mother anymore," he said.

Russia, A Homeschooling Haven

Nations like Germany and Sweden could learn a thing or two about parent's rights from, of all places, Russia, which is one of the freest nations in which to homeschool.

"We have complete freedom of home education in Russia, in terms of legality," Pavel Parfentiev, a family rights advocate in Russia, said.

"The Russian Federation is sort of a champion of human rights in this particular area, so of course I think it is a good example for both Germany and Sweden where home educators are persecuted," he said.

Among the persecuted, German homeschooler Juergen Dudek has been taken to court every year for the past 10 years by the German Jugendamt, or Youth Office.

"The Youth Office, I used to call it the 'Gestapo for the Young.' As soon as they step in, as soon as they get hold of you, you've really got problems," Dudek said.

German homeschooler Dirk Wunderlich and his wife have lost custody of their children, although they are still allowed to live with them. He also told CBN News he expects to be sent to jail, but said he will never stop homeschooling.

"But I'm not afraid of this. I'm only sad for my family. I will go (to jail) laughing. You can do what you want but my children will not go to school," he said.

America Safe for Homeschoolers?

In America, a red flag went up earlier this year when the Justice Department argued in the Romeike case that homeschooling is not a fundamental human right.

A source close to the case said the White House cares more about relations with Germany than about a family seeking political asylum.

Asylum for the Romeikes might open a floodgate of refugees from Germany, further embarrassing the German government.

Uwe Roemike, who makes his living as a piano teacher, knows what to expect if they're deported.

"First they would fine us with increasingly higher fines and they would threaten to take away custody," he explained.

"There might be jail time, too, but the main threat is the aspect of custody because then, of course, the children are taken away from you completely and that's what no family wants," he said.

Uwe said the fact the White House would be willing to deny homeschooling freedom to his family, should make all American homeschoolers concerned.

Source: Charisma News, via Julio Severo in English: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

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Homeschooling Family Face Deportation by the US Government