I received this article today, and called to talk with the Guenthers about the validity of it. It's all true (except that they don't live in Paderborn themselves, not even in the same state!), but I did find it helpful to clarify that they have NOT given up the fight (which I thought some quotations indicated) in Germany, but have instead decided to fight at a more international level, as the Germans are simply not listening, nor are the German courts handling things legally. Schuzh's strategy at the moment (besides trying to organize for families to emigrate) is to move legal cases to a European level (to the court in Strassburg) as quickly as possible.
Anyone intersted in helping families emigrate (or rather, imigrate to where YOU are!) is welcome to contact the Guenthers at info@schuzh.de .
--Sheila in Germany
_German Homeschoolers to Flee to America?_
/Lee Duigon// /
Immigrants fleeing Europe to escape religious persecution, coming to
America to find religious freedom -- we think of that as an image from
our past: the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, William Penn, Lord Calvert.
But it's happening today. German Christians are trying to find a way to
emigrate to the United States to preserve their faith and their families
from persecution by an aggressively secular German government.
"We probably can't get political asylum, so we'll have to find another
way," said Richard Guenther, director of "Schulunterricht zu Hause," a
German homeschooling association. "Regular immigration isn't so easy,
either. One application to immigrate can mean two years of paperwork,
and we need something a lot faster. But we're working on it."
Why?
Persecution
Claims of anti-Christian persecution in our country usually involve such
matters as discrimination in the workplace, court-ordered removal of
religious symbols, or bigoted TV shows.
In Germany, persecution means fathers and mothers jailed for trying to
homeschool their children, Christian children taken into custody by the
state and placed in orphanages, and government officials telling
"fundamentalists" to get out of Germany.
But even getting out of Germany sometimes isn't enough. Germans who have
fled to France and Austria -- where homeschooling is legal -- remain
under pressure to send their children to secular schools. Although
living in foreign countries, they are still coerced to obey German
compulsory schooling laws.
"Germany is the financial power in the European Union," Guenther said.
"France and Austria are anxious to please the German government."
To Americans, some of the goings-on in German public schools may seem
incredible.
"I can only assure you that the content of much of the curriculum is of
a pornographic nature," Guenther said. "School authorities are
encouraging the parents of two- or three-year-olds to sexually stimulate
their children and to have the children touch them in a sexual way. They
have children touch each other's private parts during nap time in the
classroom. This aggressive emancipatory sexual education without norms
... is against human dignity."
Naturally, Christian parents try to remove their children from this
environment. But when they do, the state steps in to punish them.
Guenther, American-born and raised, moved to Germany in 1995 with his
German wife, Ingrid. The problem with Germany, he said, is that it's
been a socialist country for two generations.
"German culture was already subservient to state authority, and
socialism reinforces this," he said. "Socialism makes people think in a
box: everyone has to be the same. If you think differently, you're not
accepted."
Christian children are not accepted by their socialist schoolmates, he
said -- leading to ostracism, mockery, even beatings, and school phobia.
Russian Germans: Victims
The main target of the German state's anti-Christian campaign, Guenther
said, is a population of some 3 million recent immigrants from Russia --
Germans from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Siberia, and elsewhere. Many of those
from Kazakhstan are Baptists.
"We don't know how many of these families have already fled to other
European countries or to Canada," he said. "Here in Paderborn [where he
and Ingrid live], there are eight Russian German families who have been
threatened with imprisonment and loss of their children. A few parents
have already been jailed for trying to homeschool their children."
The county administrator of Paderborn, Sven Adenauer -- grandson of West
Germany's first postwar chancellor, Konrad Adenauer -- recently said,
publicly, "fundamentalist Christians should leave the country."
Grandfather Konrad Adenauer was imprisoned in a concentration camp by
the Nazis for his beliefs.
"Sven Adenauer is a very wicked man," Guenther said, "but he's only one
of many German government officials who say things like this."
Can They Get to America?
Fueling Germany's new anti-religious policies is fear of Islam. Turkish
and other Muslim immigrants to Germany now number in the millions and
have been slow to assimilate into the German culture. Indeed, many
Muslims vehemently reject European secularism. The government's policy,
Guenther said, is aimed at forcibly "integrating" Muslims into Germany
society -- and Christians who reject secularism.
As one of America's major foreign allies against Muslim terrorists,
Germany's political relationship with the United States is an obstacle
to the German Christians being granted political asylum here.
Another obstacle to immigration, he said, is the large size of some of
the German Russian families: "Some of them have 12 children. It's not
easy to find an American sponsor for such a large family."
Guenther praised Houston, Texas, attorney Bruce Shortt for his ongoing
research into the immigration laws and his search for a way to bring the
German Christians to America. The aspiring immigrants have also received
support in America from the Home School Legal Defense Association.
"America is vital to the preservation of Christianity," Guenther said.
"The fight in Germany is pretty much over; we don't think there's
anything more we can do in Germany. But America has resisted socialism
and secularism. It's still a country of religious freedom."
"I and many others have tried over the last year to bring pressure on
the German government to get them to respect the rights of Christian
parents in Germany," Shortt said. His efforts included an email campaign
directed at the German Embassy. He told Guenther in an email that "there
are various strategies on immigration ... I think there may be some
families here [in Houston] who would be willing to provide temporary
help to immigrating Germans."
The experience of the German Christians, he said, "ought to be a
cautionary tale for all Christians and homeschoolers."
------------------------------
Lee Duigon is a Christian free-lance writer and contributing editor for
the Chalcedon Report. He has been a newspaper editor and reporter and a
published novelist.
Copyright 2005 The Chalcedon Foundation - _http://www.chalcedon.edu_
Reserved Worldwide.
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