The U.S. government is set to deport a Christian homeschooling family who obtained legal asylum, while letting millions of illegal immigrants stream freely across its southern border.
Did you know that it is illegal to homeschool in Germany? If that sounds crazy, it’s because it is. But it is also sadly true.
The country passed mandatory schooling laws in 1918, but after the war and during the Weimar Republic, “homeschooling was still legal and practiced, particularly by the upper class,” according to Thinking West. Then came 1938, “when a new political party was in full control of German affairs: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known infamously as the Nazis.”
The Nazis passed the Reichsschulpflichtgesetz (Compulsory Schooling Act of the German Reich), which completely banned homeschooling and implemented harsh penalties for any parents who tried to keep their kids out of state schools.
This law is one of the very few Nazi laws still followed in present-day Germany. And, although homeschooling is allowed in many other European countries, the European Court of Human Rights has consistently upheld the German ban on homeschooling, ruling most recently in 2019 against a family that had their four children forcibly removed by state authorities.
Now, another German Christian homeschooling family that fled to the United States for refuge and the freedom to homeschool their children is facing deportation back to Germany — where they will be forced to put their kids into public indoctrination camps.
“In 2006, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike became convinced that they needed to homeschool their children. ‘Our oldest children were in school in the German public schools, and their personality literally changed. We wanted to help them to grow up in what they believed in and what we believe in and not get basically indoctrinated with something we don’t want,’ Uwe said.
Specifically, the Romeikes, who have seven children, possessed two core beliefs: ‘a deep conviction” that they were ‘responsible to God for their children’s education,’ and a growing concern that ‘the content of the German public school’s curriculum — particularly anti-Christian and sexual elements — threatened to harm their children.’”
Given the German ban on homeschooling, the Romeikes suffered persecution at the hands of the secular German government, which “fined the Romeikes an oppressive amount that actually exceeded their income” and even “removed the children forcibly and took them to public school. The family was threatened with the permanent removal of their children if they did not comply by sending the children to public school.”
So, in 2008, the Romeikes applied for asylum and legally immigrated to America. In this act, they were simply following in the footsteps of the Pilgrims, in search of the “land of the free, where they could homeschool their children and raise them as Christians.
Or so they thought.
Now, 15 years later, on September 6, 2023, they “were informed at a routine check with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they must secure German passports and be deported. The Romeikes claim no documentation or reason was given, only that there had been a ‘change of orders.’”
It is truly staggering that our government would seek to deport a Christian homeschooling family, who still have school-age children, back to a country that will most likely forcibly remove their children from their custody, all while millions of illegal immigrants stream freely across our southern border. Talk about straining gnats and swallowing camels.
Even worse, such an act flies in the face of the very founding principles of America.
The early American Pilgrims, also known as the Separatists, initially moved from England to the Netherlands in 1607 due to religious persecution. They settled first in Amsterdam and later in the Dutch city of Leiden. While they enjoyed religious freedom and peace, they faced economic hardships. More importantly, they became increasingly concerned that their children were being corrupted by the Dutch society and school system.
They feared that their children were being drawn away by the “manifold temptations” of Leiden and were losing their English identity. William Bradford, a leader of the Separatist congregation, noted that many of their children were succumbing to these temptations.
To address these concerns, the Pilgrims took several steps, including maintaining their own religious congregations and schools, conducting English-language Christian worship services, and attempting to preserve their English identity and culture within their community. Despite these efforts, they eventually decided to leave Leiden and embark on the Mayflower journey to North America in 1620, seeking a place where they could have more control over the upbringing and education of their children according to their Christian beliefs and English heritage.
While economic reasons certainly were a factor for the Pilgrims, their greatest concern was for Christian religious freedom — and to secure the unfettered ability to raise their children according to their Christian beliefs and English customs.
Now, over 400 years later, the current federal government in America is about to completely backtrack on one of our most important founding principles — the freedom for Christian parents to raise their children according to biblical beliefs and Christian standards.
There is no doubt that America’s current immigration system (if one can even call it that) is destructive. But if there are any immigrants deserving of a chance to live in America and to enjoy the freedoms our country was founded on, freedom to live out their Christian faith and homeschool their children, it’s families like the Romeikes.
Deporting the Romeikes would be a massive betrayal of our historic, American, Christian values. Pray that they would be allowed to stay — and that America will endure as a beacon of hope, and a land of refuge, for families like theirs.
Because that’s exactly what the Pilgrims meant for it to be.
Collegiate education is saturated in woke narratives and progressive agendas. Sadly, this secularistic intrusion is happening in America’s grade schools as well. But this doesn’t have to happen to your children! Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.
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