Put No Confidence in Princes: The Romeike Asylum Case

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/03/supreme_court_wont_hear_german_home_school_case/

I feel terrible for the Romeike family. While I do not agree with those that they've thrown in with or those that have taken up their cause, I still empathize with their situation.

In no way do I mean to 'defend' the US government, but realistically if they recognize homeschooling as a universal human right worthy of asylum it would open a Pandora's Box of sticky situations. It wouldn't stop with homeschooling. It would quickly expand into a host of other areas.

And frankly the government's unwillingness to support homeschooling is not terribly surprising. They can't stop it, all the more since their own system is in collapse. But the idea that they would support it would actually be detrimental to society. Most homeschoolers I've interacted with want to bring down the public school system. They need to re-think this. It's not realistic or probably even helpful to the Babylon in which we live. And though the schools have proven to be a complete joke at this point, the complete removal of any kind of public schooling would lead to social collapse.

This isn't to say that massive reforms aren't needed and right away or we're going to face that anyway.

I have no interest in sending my kids to public school where they will be taught a demonic self-affirmation, social values, patriotism and propaganda. I don't believe young covenant children can be thrown to the wolves and survive. If they do, they will be deeply wounded.

I don't believe in isolating my children by any means, but our society has reached a point that if we don't play an integral part during the formative years, we will be fighting a massive uphill battle. The Spirit is the ultimate decider of our children's path, but the Spirit uses means such as the family and the Church.

It's much easier when we quit thinking in terms of our children having successful careers and getting in to the good colleges. If those things don't matter we can look at our definitions of 'success' quite differently.

I want my children to be productive members of society. But what I really care about is that they are Christians. Beyond that, if my sons drive tow-trucks or dig ditches, it matters not. The Elitism that rests in our churches, particularly in the Reformed world, is rooted in bad theology.

I wish Christian homeschoolers would just take a stand and refuse to conform. If all of us would refuse to comply, the government would back down and leave us alone. But we're too divided and large denominations are still filled with those who are part of the public school system and committed to its methods.

I lament the use of the courts and the threat of litigation. The state of the Church in Germany is obviously a shame. Most of the Christians there, and there aren't many, are not willing to go against social norms. While homeschooling is growing in places like the UK, there are still many Christians that cannot fathom breaking with social norms and expectations.

Of course you must understand that with Germany's history as well as the current tensions regarding immigrant communities the government is very fearful of clandestine sub-cultures and counter-cultural groups.

The Christian Right needs to realize they are viewed in political terms. I don't think a lot of Christians realize this as they interact with the public. They're thinking in terms of values and religion. The public and the international community see their movement in terms of political power...power which spells doom for their opponents.

I pray for this family but I also pray that the Church would quit going down to Egypt looking for aid and justice, and to put no confidence in princes nor depend on them for help.

We don't fight back. We speak the truth, pay the price and if need be flee. I would hope at this point the Christian community would provide the funds and means to help this family flee to another country where they will be left alone.

The arm of US power is long but in this case the State Department is unlikely to put pressure on other countries for the German government. That's assuming the German government would even pursue them. And there are many European countries that would happily do anything they could to irritate Berlin.

I think the German government is more than happy for them to just go away.

I bet Eastern Europe has some good options for them. That's where I would go. In addition there are a lot of encouraging things happening right now in Eastern Europe. I'm not speaking of Ukraine. I'm speaking of the spiritual growth in Biblically minded congregations. God willing they will not look to emulate the American patterns of Christian Sacralism.

It is cheap enough to live in a place like Hungary or Romania that American churches could easily support this family while they worked out residency so that the father would be able to work. The costs of living are low enough that what a handful of churches spend on lawn-care could actually support them for several years.