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Category Archives: History of the Twelve Tribes

How Can Obeying God’s Direction Become Illegal?

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by commonpurse in Controversial Issues, Court Decisions, From the parents, History of the Twelve Tribes, Homeschooling, Honoring the Previous Generations, Jugendamt Lies, Letters to the Judges, Witness of Creation

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Child Rearing, Common Sense, Honoring discipline, Jugendamt, Justice, Love is not Abuse, welfare of the children in the background

Here’s How…

Some lawmakers believe the way the Baby Jesus was raised should be illegal.

Noerdlingen_28_Nov_13-1As this holiday season progresses, we hope all those who know about the 16 children of the parents of the TwelveTribes communities in Klostezimmern and Wornitz will also understand that these children are not with and will not spend the holidays with their parents. Instead they continue to beg the courts, the Jugendamt and the foster parents to let them go home. But their voice is ignored. At times they almost lose hope that this will ever happen, but they have a strong bond with their parents and live for the day they are released from captivity.

chaninah an Prexl

Translation

Your honor Mr. P.

I want to go home!

I can not endure here any more.

Please understand me!

Without my parents I can not live!

You cannot just take me away from my parents, that goes against the law.

I will not give up until I am home!

I was doing the best with my parents.

Let me go Home!

Many thanks,

Chaninah Schott, age 11

The officials must suppress their consciences very deeply to continue to hold these children against their will when they have no evidence of any abuse.1 Aside from being illegal, it is also inhumane and disregards the dignity of these children. There are three misconceptions that we have heard officials use that are misleading, prejudicial and narrow minded, but very powerful to justify their actions against the vulnerable children of these Twelve Tribes parents. The three misconceptions are:

1. The Twelve Tribes is a minority religion that deprives its children of the “opportunities” of the larger German society. This carries a negative connotation of a “parallel society” that will not fully integrate into the larger society;

2. The Twelve Tribes community in Germany is a “subculture” and therefore not entitled to constitutional protection of their human rights; and

3. The teachings of the Proverbs and the Fifth Commandment in the Bible are outdated and antiquated, no longer relevant for today’s modern society.

The Twelve Tribes communities have their roots all the way back in the Screenshot from 2014-03-31 07:50:56foundation of their patriarch, Abraham, 4,000 years ago, who heard God speak to him to leave his country and go to the place God promised him. So he left the larger society he was raised in, and began a new society on a foundation whose architect and builder was God (Hebrews 11:10).

The life of the Twelve Tribes that came from him was based on obedience to God’s Word as recorded in the Bible. And by obedience to His Word, a culture would emerge on the earth that would be a light to the nations—what life would be like when people obeyed God’s commands. This culture was intended to be a new and living way for people to live and relate to one another by, one based on love for God and for your fellow man and on forgiveness. In no way was it envisioned to be a “subculture” that deprived people of the opportunities of the larger society, but rather to be a way of life that is a light to the nations.

Over the centuries that followed, Israel became divided and scattered due to their disobedience to God’s commands. And then the new spiritual Twelve Tribes was born as a result of the miraculous birth, death and resurrection of Yahshua or Jesus in the Bible. The result of his life was a new beginning of a brand new culture where all the believers lived together and had all things in common. (Acts 2:44) They shared all their possessions as any had need and there was not a needy person among them. Isn’t that what all humanity that celebrates this holiday season cries out for…a world where people can live together in peace and share what they have with one another?

Sadly, this new culture of twelve spiritual tribes waned and their love for God and each other declined and the fruit of their disobedience to God’s commands resulted in the dark and divided history of the last 1900 years of Christianity. But now in this time of history (Daniel 2:44), God has chosen to restore the life that was present back then when the new spiritual Twelve Tribes was inaugurated.

Our Twelve Tribes communities around the world are striving every day to obey the commands that God made clear in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Individuals voluntarily do this so that this emerging culture of all believers being together and sharing all things in common could bring this light to a brightness such that it would truly be a light to the nations of how God intended for his children to live. The fruit of this light is our children, bonded to their parents in a covenant love where the children take on the heart of their parents. Even though we have made many mistakes over the last 40 years, our life together has produced amazing children with an amazing bond between them and their parents. Almost everyone who has ever seen our children has this testimony about them.

cropped-pfeiffer_01.jpg

We hope the courts and other officials involved in holding our children captive will do the right thing…the right thing for the children, their parents and for Germany. That is, return these children to their parents.

Let them come home! Remember that on the day they were seized, the doctors and psychologists who examined them found no evidence of abuse on any of them!

But the authorities keep these children as if they are pieces of evidence hoping to find reasons for them to turn against their parents. They keep digging and looking for evidence they don’t have by trying to undermine the parents’ authority and to indoctrinate their children against the way they were raised. Not only is this wrong and illegal according to the standards of the German Basic Law and the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, it is morally wicked and despicable! These actions violate human rights, family rights, and human dignity. It is in violent disregard of these rights.

It seems that the German government does not want ethnic or religious minorities who do not fully integrate into mainstream German society to exist in their country. Yet their Basic Law and the European Convention to which Germany is bound guarantees these basic rights to individuals and minorities. So, which is it? What prevails in Germany – the laws of the land protecting human rights or the actions of the Jugendamt and courts which deny these rights to members of the Twelve Tribes communities? Who will decide? These precious children hang in the balance…

Germany outlaws spanking and homeschooling, but both are promoted IMG_0988and commanded in the promises to Abraham in Genesis and in the Proverbs and elsewhere throughout the Bible. Is the German state asking us to replace the commands of God clearly written in the Proverbs with the laws of Germany that outlaw God’s Word? True Christians in Germany have no place to practice their faith, if they believe in the foundation of their faith, the Word of God.

The commands and promises to Abraham still stand and are valid today for people of faith. A culture that accepts all through faith in our Sovereign King, Yahshua, the Messiah, need not be outlawed but welcomed. The purpose of the Proverbs is so people can learn the Wisdom and Understanding that was with the Creator in the beginning. Humanity would be blessed if people listened to the instruction of Wisdom who was there when the heavens and the earth were brought into being.

If God’s Wisdom laid the foundations of the universe, can we listen to his instruction how to raise children?

…the Lord disciplines the one He loves and he chastises everyone he accepts as His son. (Hebrews 12:6)

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 29:15

Is this advice not true? Can the Jugendamt or Family Court Judges disprove it? Can the Parliament of Germany undermine it? People of conscience all over the world have followed that instruction since the beginning of time.

DSCN1698

Chaninah in Children’s Home.

It is only the modern nation states that make laws to deprive parents of their rightful authority over children – not to abuse, but to teach and discipline. Is it any wonder that parents all over the world are being robbed of their children? Are the children any better off? We think not, because governments were not created to raise children. Everyone knows that they do not do a very good job of it. They cannot. It is not the purpose of government.

How could these precious commands from God be irrelevant in today’s world? How could obeying God’s Word be automatically equated to abuse? A correct interpretation of God’s Word does not rob one’s human dignity. Only a misunderstood and mistaken application of the law could result in such an absurd conclusion. More oppressive laws and measures that come directly against God’s Word will only produce futility and further breakdown in German society and in any country that makes spanking and homeschooling illegal. Those practices are not the root of the problem.

We want to make clear that when we use the word “spanking”, we are not talking about frustrated, angry parents venting their hostility on their children. For that certainly should be considered child abuse. When we say “spanking” we are talking about parents who love their children enough to teach them that their actions have consequences, and to strengthen their sense of moral responsibility in how they relate to other human beings and the world around them. Spanking a child in peace for their misdeed and lovingly restoring them to fellowship would be a normal part of this kind of true parenting for any person of conscience, and certainly for those who follow God’s prescription set forth in the Bible for raising children.

  1. For the situation before the 5 September 2013 raid, see such posts as the “Open Letter to the Bavarian Senate,” the “Open Letter to Herr Kanth” (the Jugendamt leader), and “The Master Builder’s Most Treasured Possession.” For the health and well-being of our children when taken into captivity by force, see posts such as “Abused Children? Not by us!” and “My Fellow Citizens.” ↩

Something old is new born

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by commonpurse in From the parents, History of the Twelve Tribes

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A life together, Food for Thought, Raised in the Twelve Tribes

The History of the Twelve Tribes, Part 1

“The History of the Twelve Tribes”

In California the Jesus Movement of the early 70’s was in full swing. There was an excitement there which Gene had never seen in all of his religious childhood. It was easy to get involved — praising the Lord, witnessing on the streets, and passing out Jesus tracts along with many others. He volunteered to work in a rescue mission, met many Christian celebrities, and developed a special burden for alienated youth.

The little brown house where Gene and Marsha lived became known as the Light House, and the little band of believers began sharing their faith through an “underground” paper called the Light Brigade Freepaper. They were excited about experiencing love, a clean conscience, and a new life. Whenever there was a concert or other public gathering, the Light Brigade would be there handing out papers. The response was amazing. Teenagers showed up at all hours of the day and night. Some had nowhere else to go and needed a place to stay.

Gene and Marsha wouldn’t have time to care for these people if they YellowDeliFlowercontinued working their regular jobs. And they needed a bigger house so they could fit everybody in. But how would they make ends meet? Asking for donations was out of the question. The Bible taught them to do “honest work with their own hands to have something to share with those in need.” That’s just what they wanted to do — work together and share everything they had with each other. Thus was born the “Yellow Deli” restaurant.

VineHouseAt the same time, for a reasonable price they were able to find a big house in need of much repair, which they fixed up and began living in. It just happened to be on Vine Street. The name reminded Gene of the Bible verse he had come to know so well: “I am the vine, you are the branches… apart from Me you can do nothing,” so they called their new home “The Vine House.”

They still attended services at various churches, but problems were beginning to surface. Some people in the congregations complained about the “hippies” and Black people who were invading their respectable gatherings. And it was very hard for Gene and Marsha to find fancy enough Sunday clothes to outfit everyone who stayed with them.

The young disciples were starting to ask difficult questions, too. They wondered how these people that they went to church with could be so wealthy when there were so many poor people around. And why did they act so cold and distant? Hadn’t Gene told them that Christians were called to live a life of selfless love for their neighbor?

Then one Sunday it all came to a head. The church they were attending cancelled their evening service because the Super Bowl was going to be on TV. Even though the preacher had many good things to say in his sermons, it didn’t seem to make a difference in the lives of the people. Their priorities were not affected.

WernerParkCriticalMassFrom that day on, the little band of disciples stopped attending services. Instead they just went to a nearby park on Sunday mornings to sing and worship. After all, the Bible never said there had to be a preacher in a pulpit and everyone else listening quietly in pews. On the contrary, 1 Corinthians 14 taught that everyone should bring something to say or a song to sing.

That choice was very significant. When they stopped “going to church” and started being the church something wonderful began to happen. They began discovering who they were, and what God wanted to happen on the earth.

They began discovering who they were, and what God wanted to happen on the earth. Verses in the Bible that they hadn’t really noticed before began to stand out. With excitement they discovered that the disciples in the first century A.D. lived just like they were living. Acts 2:44 said, “All who believed were together and had all things in common.”

And Acts 4:32 was even clearer:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

Meanwhile, Dieter and Martin, two Germans who had become disciples while visiting the United States, had come to the end of their visas and needed to return to their native land. The Communities in America couldn’t imagine those two young disciples thousands of miles away trying to make it on their own, so they sent a few people to help them. It was not easy to find a place to live, but when Martin visited his old “alternative” friends in the little town of Steinenberg, something unexpected happened. Most of Martin’s friends fell in love with the Savior they was talking about, the Man who loved them enough to take their place in death. They wanted to live their lives for Him.

BibelkreisAlmost instantly, the little communal house in Steinenberg changed its flavor. A few of the former residents who didn’t want to give up their dope or their politics moved out, and so the house filled up with lots of new disciples to be cared for, not just two. During that time they were faithful to look for others in Germany who were open to the message they had received.

In the year 1982, the owner of the Steinenberg house decided to tear it down, and suddenly they were without a home. Neither they nor their friends in America had the resources to buy a house, and it was not clear where they should relocate. They found a landowner who let them camp on his land, but it wasn’t long before the authorities told them to move. Looking a little like a gypsy caravan, they set out in search of a home.
For a year they wandered — out of Germany, through France, into Portugal and Spain. All the while, they, as well as their friends in America, were praying daily that they would find a big house.

LittleFlockCampingEverywhere they went they asked people if they knew of a big house that wasn’t being used — or if they knew of people that loved God with all their hearts. Every lead they followed turned out to be a dead end.

Finally, the breakthrough came in December 1982, with the seemingly miraculous encounter with a kind woman who owned a hotel on the coast of Spain. She offered them an old run-down chateau in southern France that belonged to her family.

The price was out of their reach, but she said the “little flock” could stay TabithasPlacethere as caretakers of the property until the family had to sell it. It was the perfect spot.

In 1985 the time had come for the friendly hotel owner in Spain had to sell their property. The communities in America wanted to help their friends in Europe with the financing. Therefore, all able-bodied men left their families behind for three months to work in Boston for it. The women had to “stand their ground” along at this time. At exactly the right time came the money arrived in France and finally the community had its own home. Little Flock Sus

Gradually, more and more people joined the already existing communities in the United States, and France. The houses were filled and they swarmed like bees do when it is too narrow in their hive—to Canada, Australia, South America, Spain, England and returned to Germany.

Just as we never had the intention to become a global movement, we would have never imagined that we would one day experience the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. But over the years, it became obvious that something new was in the making, and that we live in a historically very important period of time.

As it says in Isaiah 49.6: “It is too small that you return my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I have also set up a light for the nations to be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. “

Many movements have come and gone over the last 1,900 years, but they have not yet expressed the rich life of the Son of God in its fullness and carried it to the ends of the earth. We see the way clear ahead of us and our children after us to follow on and long to see further growth of this life and culture.

The challenge is to let ourselves be guided by the spirit of love and not rely on our own natural abilities. Otherwise we will fall because of pride, our own selfish desires, and the compromises that have overcome so far every movement of the past two millennia.

Everything, literally everything, depends on it…

 

For more on the history of the Twelve Tribes in Germany, see the posts, “Can Two Walk Together Unless they Agree?” (Part 2) and “You Cannot Change a True Conviction with Fines or Imprisonment” (Part 3). For what we were set free from that day in the park, when church was cancelled for the Super Bowl, read, “Are we a Cult?”

 

 

 

 

You cannot change a true conviction with fines and imprisonment

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by commonpurse in Court Decisions, From the parents, History of the Twelve Tribes, Markeli Family, Religious Freedom, Schüle family, Shadow of the Past

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A life together, Child Rearing, Education, Food for Thought, have we not learned from the past?, welfare of the children in the background

More on the History of the Twelve Tribes in Germany, Part 3

Seven fathers imprisoned in 2004 for their beliefs

On October 18, 2004, seven fathers from our Community in Klosterzimmern, Germany were taken to prison for their beliefs. They refused to send their children to public school. Their wives were awaiting imprisonment for a time, but were never arrested. Part 2, about the 2002 Raid that sent our children to public school for one day, to follow.

2004 Arrest-Boaz-daughter-crying

This is Boaz Markeli and his oldest daughter, Tsel-Shaddai Markeli. Her younger brothers and little sister would be caught up in the 5 September 2013 Raid on Klosterzimmern. They have known the painful nature of confronting a state that will not let its people be free…even free to educate their own children. 2004 Arrest-Boaz-Media

Surprisingly, when the State comes also comes the media. Or maybe it is not surprising — there seems to be a close connection.   2004 Arrest-Yehezkel-Media

This is Holger Röhrs and some of his family speaking to the media before being taken away.

2004 Arrest-CalebYerusha

This is Caleb and Yerusha Schüle that day.

2004 Arrest Caleb-Family

And this is Caleb and his youngest daughter, Zipporah.

And here we have the reason for their arrest — they were parents who loved their children and wanted to educate them. They did not want to send them to public schools. It was a matter of conscience and of their rights as citizens and as parents. Mr. Rohrs speaks with the same conviction as a German long ago, unconsciously using nearly the same words, certainly expressing the same sentiment. Is there Liberty of Conscience for All in Germany?

Press Conference on Homeschooling in Germany (Oct. 15, 2004)

Holger Röhrs speaking.

The Presentation by Holger Röhrs

A few words about myself: I am married, my wife is American. We have four children of which the two older ones are of school age. Being an American, my wife certainly cannot comprehend the German jurisdiction, just as little as Mr. Guenther. Americans have a concept of freedom that is very different from that of Europeans and especially Germans, because of their tradition. On the license plates of the state of New Hampshire it says, for example, “Live free or die.” So this is the American concept of freedom which almost no German can comprehend.

So, now we have been introducing ourselves a little bit. We are families, we live together. We are not out of touch with the world. We run an organic farm; we supply health food stores and restaurants in the area. We are one of several organic farms in the central Ries area. Every year, we have several hundred guests with us on the farm estate who either work with us or only stay for the day. Some stay for a week, some for several weeks straight. We are not afraid of people by any means, we enjoy meeting people. We enjoy showing anyone our life.

Two weeks ago, we had a Thanksgiving celebration here where several families from the neighboring villages participated. It was very nice. We had activities for the children. Last year, we celebrated three large weddings. At some of them we had more than 100 guests. We want our way of life to make God’s love a little bit more real to people, and we want people to be able to find something here which they do not find in society at large — something that you do not really sense there.

Are we really out of touch with life or the world? Our children speak fluent English. Very many of them grow up speaking English, just like my children since their mother tongue is obviously English. But all our children grow up bilingually. They have all sorts of cultural experiences. We have a lot of international contacts. My family and I have lived in France for a year, in Israel for half a year. And one year ago, a Brazilian family spent several months here. Also, an American family lived here with us for a year. These are real-life experiences. Our children do not need to have them in classrooms or get them out of books. There are Americans, Hungarians, Dutch, and Swiss people living in our Community in Klosterzimmern. All these afford us with cultural enrichment. We are not interested in isolating ourselves. On the contrary — we like interacting with people.

We have our own income, our own industry. We have a crafts business. We do not receive any unemployment benefits or welfare money; we support ourselves. We do not have a whole lot of money; we live a simple life. And whatever children’s benefits we do receive, we use for special projects which profit our children and youth, e.g., training projects, special jobs that we do with our children where they can really learn something. [The money] actually goes where it is supposed to go, that is, to our children.

We did not desire or cause the current escalation or the pending coercive detention. The school law, or the punishment for non-compliance with it, really was designed for truants — for the parents of children or youth who simply do not feel like going to school, but who would rather hang out in gambling dens or department stores, wasting their time. This is what the law was made for. The purpose of the compulsory education law is, was, and should still be for children to get an education — that their education would not be neglected, but that they would get prepared for their adult life and become a productive element of society, so that they would not have to say afterwards, “I cannot do anything, I do not know anything, I cannot read. State, please help me.” However, if this law is satisfied otherwise, e.g., by our daily classes, in the parents’ own initiative, if our children are going to reach the level of a basic secondary school, then the purpose of the law is fulfilled.

If I think of Konrad Adenauer for example — most people are aware of this — Konrad Adenauer was home schooled. Konrad Adenauer did not go to public school.

The great statesman from America, Abraham Lincoln, was taught in a log cabin and wrote speeches which the average American today can hardly understand, so beautiful was the style in which he wrote English. Albert Einstein was a brilliant failure in school. So compulsory education is not a guarantee for success in education. We do not belong in the mainstream; that means we are a small society within the larger society.

And we have different values. This morning, we have heard of a few values that we live for and which our life is all about, which also we want to pass on to our children foremost of all. And we do not want to get sucked into the mainstream values. Society at large has to be able to tolerate minorities and must not just impose its own values on small minorities and dictate these values and educational goals to parents. You do not have to live with us in Klosterzimmern; you just have to keep your eyes peeled and your ears tuned, and you are quickly going to realize that there is a lot in public schools that is going awry. For months and even years there have been reports in the media about the public school system almost every day, and most of the time it is bad news.

What bothers us a lot as parents is the moral decline of modern society; that very few values are being passed on to children and youths, that values have become optional, that there are no more standards. As Mr. Markeli already mentioned, we take offense at sexual education in the classroom. For instance, Sigmund Freud spoke about early sexualization, and sexual education by the state is an early sexualization.* If seven- or eight-year-olds may not even be interested in such things yet, if they do not even have those kinds of questions yet naturally, but they get stimulated, then it sets a process in motion. This is how Sigmund Freud explained it:

Children who get sexually stimulated are no longer educable. The destruction of natural shame causes the breakdown of inhibitions in every other area. Brutality and disrespect for the personality of man.

This is Sigmund Freud saying this. The result of this moral decline is that nowadays, every third child that is conceived in Germany gets aborted — every third child. Over the last 30 years, eight million children have been aborted in Germany. And these things are interconnected; they are not independent from each other. Among youth there has been an increase in the readiness to resort to violence. This is documented in studies by the Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation. These are available on the Internet. The misuse of alcohol and drugs also is on the increase. Why is it that laws are being tightened more and more? Because the government realizes that [the situation] is sliding out of its control.

Fines and coercive detention are the wrong methods. You cannot change a true conviction with fines and imprisonment.

The word fine [in German] connotes penance, repentance, change. The district court judge of Nördlingen wrote that coercive detention became necessary if a fine [in German carrying the meaning of penance, repentance, change] did not accomplish a re-education with a view to a future lawful behavior, meaning that we parents would send our children to school afterwards. This is the purpose of the fine. For reasons of conscience we could not, still cannot, and never will pay these fines. Fines connote change. We are not going to sell out our conviction. And the state, the Government of Bavaria, knew this. That we were going to be true to our conviction is what we already told them years ago, and we re-emphasized it time and time again and testified it in court. And nevertheless, the state has acted in this way, knowing that this would result in an escalation. This was calculated.

It should all be about our children, about their wellbeing. This is why we teach our children at home. It should all be about our children, but unfortunately they are the ones to suffer. As I said at the beginning, it is not only about fathers or men going to prison, or [mothers or] women going to prison, but it is about families. It is about children. There are a lot of parents, and of course a father and a mother want the best for their child. But there are many other families in Germany in desperate straits; they know they will be able to pass something of greater value on to their children by teaching them at home. Here you can see a map.

It is well-known that more than 600 children in Germany are being taught in this way. So there are many more than the thirty or forty children we have. And these families are in desperate straits. And we will not give up our conviction. The government needs to see how it treats people who are able to think for themselves and want to pass something on to their children in their own initiative. We will not give in to the state’s threatening us with imprisonment to make us pay the fine. We will not do that.

We are not looking to be martyrs. Some accuse us, saying, “Well, now you are just letting it all happen to you.” This is not what it is about. This is a conscience-based decision.

It is not about an opinion we have, or about obtaining a privileged status, or about what we might prefer. It is a matter of conscience. We cannot act any other way.

From the beginning, the state adopted a hard line. And from the beginning, we sought a dialog. In the other states [of Germany] we had found sensible officials, especially in Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg. Here in Bavaria the doors to the Ministry of Education have been closed to us so far. The state of Bavaria insists on its monopoly on education, and really it wants to scare off other citizens. After all, who wants to go through what we are having to go through right now? Who wants to go to prison? [Some may say,] “All things considered, I’d rather send my child to school, even though it hurts in my heart and in my conscience, because I do not want to risk my job, my income, or my house.”

The state of Bavaria wants more than 150,000 Euros’ worth of fines from us — unjustly. It wants to get rich. And I want to make this very clear — the Jugendamt (youth department) in Donauwörth knows that our children are doing well and that this coercive detention is against the wellbeing of children. If anyone thinks that our children are not doing well — and you have just seen them — you are welcome to visit us and get your own idea of our children. Our children are happy children. They grow up secure, they have confidence, and they are looking forward to their adult life; they are not afraid of the future.

The pending coercive detention also has overtones of some other things, shameful details. I think there are other fathers and mothers here that are affected and might want to talk about these things themselves afterwards. But let me just mention the case of a young woman from our community. She is married by now, she is Portuguese, and as a Portuguese citizen she has filed for German citizenship. Her husband is German, was born and raised in Germany; she does not know Portugal at all, she speaks no Portuguese, so she is as German as German can be. However, her application for naturalization has been rejected because she did not go to German school for eight years. So much for that.

Also, the state of Bavaria is going to throw a mother in prison who is severely ill with rheumatism, whose doctor has attested to her unfitness to undergo detention. But the forensic pathologist does not agree, and so this woman is supposed to undergo detention. On top of that she has a five-month-old nursing baby.

[Mr. Krumbacher, father of three children, gets up and explains his situation.]

Holger Röhrs, continued

I think that what this is really about is to come to one’s senses. Where is common sense? We are not lawless people. We pay our taxes. We abide by the law. We do not have anything against the state. We are not subversive, we are not hostile towards democracy — we stand firmly on the [German] constitution. The state does not need to fear us. On the contrary: Many policemen tell us, “If everybody lived as you do we would be out of work.”

But in that one point, the law of compulsory school attendance, where it is about our precious children and their education and upbringing, we cannot make any compromises. Just as we do not pay and will not pay our fines for reasons of conscience, we parents are not going to turn ourselves in today [to begin this prison sentence].

What is the solution? What is going to happen next? Is the solution to send us to prison twice a year? Is the solution really to hit us with fines two to three times a year? Meanwhile, these fines amount to more than 150,000.00 Euros, which we could not ever pay. What shall we do? Shall we flee Germany? Do we not have rights anymore? Are we citizens with no rights in this country? This would expose Germany, Bavaria, and democracy. We like it in Bavaria, we enjoy living here. We enjoy living in the Ries area. We have met with a tremendous amount of support from the people here. But we cannot and will not give up our children’s education. So, what is the solution?

We still hope that there is democracy — a democratic state under the rule of law. I have a map here which shows the educational landscape of Europe [see map here]. Yellow means there is compulsory education [in most European countries other than Germany], that means it is tolerated if parents teach on their own initiative unless it is explicitly ruled out by the constitution or the educational laws. Germany [in red] really is the only country in the European Community — and we did not just present it that way — that takes massive and brutal action against parents, even here in Bavaria. These are reprisals which are unworthy of a democracy. And it all fails because the Ministry of Education in Munich does not answer the many letters we have written over the past years, and some colleagues of Mrs. Hohlmeier’s [the Minister of Education here in Bavaria] threw us out when we tried to talk to her personally early this year.

Mrs. Hohlmeier has lost connection to the electorate, she lacks the sensitivity to deal with our situation. She takes a hard line and throws good sense overboard. We want to talk to Mrs. Hohlmeier. We want to find a way to live together and get along with each other. We are interested in having a good relationship with the authorities. We are thankful for the government which maintains order. We are thankful for the police who care for our security so that I can sleep in peace, without having to be afraid of dangerous people breaking into my house.

In the United States some of our communities are simply recognized as private schools — as initiatives of parents that joined together to teach their children. We offer the state of Bavaria to conduct transparent classes. We have always invited the Civil Servants to get to know us and our children, our teaching methods as well as our curriculum materials, and to view our students’ records complete with our own tests and test results. We have nothing against constructive criticism, on the contrary — we are glad to increase in our learning.

*We invite the state of Bavaria to have a good conscience [about us] and supervise our classes. But we do not want them to determine what our children learn, or when, or how, because we as parents take responsibility for this. We want our school in Klosterzimmern to be recognized and legalized. We do not like being regarded as lawbreakers. This is embarrassing to us. We hope and pray every day to find Civil Servants here in Bavaria to whom children matter more than regulations.

Thank you.

For Part 1 of our history of being persecuted for cause of conscience – because of our religion – see Can two walk together unless they agree?

This report was originally published on our main website: Press Conference.

* Sigmund Freud, whose genius was a pioneer of the sexual revolution, recognized that “any early sexual activity affects the educability of children” (Ges. Works, Vol V, p 136).

Can Two Walk Together Unless They Agree?

22 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by commonpurse in History of the Twelve Tribes, Main Page, Shadow of the Past

≈ 5 Comments

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Common Sense, Food for Thought, have we not learned from the past?

Some insight from the History of the Twelve Tribes in Germany, Part 2

In February 1994 several German families who are members of the Messianic Communities moved to a little village called Pennigbüttel in the state of Lower Saxony in the north of Germany and set up a household. These families came back to Germany after many years in France because they loved Germany, wanted to raise their children there, and wanted to demonstrate their common life of love in their homeland.

2000.09_ITN_PennibbuttelWedding

A wedding celebration in Pennigbüttel in the summer of 2000.

Before too long the fact that their children were educated by their parents at home became a concern of the local officials and school board, as it should be. Community parents welcomed them in, to see and observe the children. The parents continued the teaching of their children at home but at the same time respected the educational authorities. They made every effort to explain to them their beliefs. While everything was not perfect, there were peaceable and civil relations between the two. A mutual respect was established and continued to increase. (See note 1.)

Shortly after they arrived in Pennigbüttel, an evangelical pastor, Mr. Gert Glaser, began attacking the community in the media as well as distributing anti-religious and inflammatory information about the community to government officials. It is an ancient strategy of religious people to incite the governing authorities to suppress or destroy those they consider ‘enemies.’ Such behavior is the opposite pattern set by the Messiah. (Matthew 5:43-44 — “You have heard it said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, ‘Love your enemies…”)

The education officials as well as the family judge involved with the Community did not respond to his efforts, stating that they were not interested in what supposedly happened to other Messianic Communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Thus, at this point, those authorities and that judge properly kept church and state separate, not allowing one man’s prejudice to affect their judgment.

In the meantime, a custody contest ensued between a couple when the woman joined the Community. The couple had already split up before she met us. While the mother had actual custody of the young girl, the father became concerned and fearful, based on things he did not understand about the mother’s faith and communal lifestyle. In his desire to find out the truth about the Community, he sought the advice of anti-religionist, Michael Kropveld of Infosecte Montreal. He provided the father a three page letter stating that his daughter would be subject to “serious emotional, maturational, educational and physical risk if she continues to be exposed to the Community.”

{Quoted below are the findings of the court in Germany from April 1994 concerning Inga, the couple’s daughter. The contrast is startling. It is the contrast between prejudice and fact.}

This letter, written in March 1994, is full of unsubstantiated misinformation about the practices and beliefs of the Community, not to mention lists of libelous statements claimed as fact attaching criminal liability to group members that are totally erroneous and contrary to available court records. (See note 2.)

Both the father and his lawyer trusted the “expert” opinions of Mr. Kropveld, using his letter, a letter from a Vermont state’s attorney, and a letter from a German anti-sect information agency in Stuttgart as “evidence” in the custody proceeding. (See note 3.) The result was that the father was given custody of the girl, even though the judge could find nothing wrong with the mother except that she did not send her daughter to public school. In fact his finding refuted the accusations against the community:

“Up to now, Inga did not incur any damage in her soul or deficits in her personality. Also, no evidence was found of ’psychological brainwashing’ of her mother. The court has no right to judge the beliefs of the mother. This can obviously be contributed to the positive child rearing practices of her mother. In this aspect, she cannot be accused of any omissions.” {Schwiebert v. Schwiebert, 19th Civil Senate for Family Affairs, Superior District Court, Cello, 12 April 1994 (19 UF 131/93).}

In August of 1995 some members of the Community in Pennigbüttel moved to a small village in southern Germany called Oberbronnen. As soon as pastor Gert Glaser found out about this, he wrote a letter of warning to the local mayors, Evangelical and Catholic churches as well as the police. (See note 3.)

Herr Glaser was the “Commissioner of Worldviews” appointed by the Lutheran Church. Here again religious zealots sought to enlist the state in their fighting cause against “heresy.” Here again they sought to break down the necessary and essential barrier between church and state! If this barrier is not kept upright the inevitable result has always been persecution for cause of conscience, which always leads to tragedy and bloodshed.

Amazingly, the “sheep” of the state churches always eat the “wolves” of the heretical churches. Those with the “right doctrine” persecute, even to the point of bloodshed, those with “wrong doctrine.” How often this has marred the history of European nations, including Germany!

In spite of this unwarranted distribution of documents to stir up suspicion, fear and paranoia on the part of the local officials, the members of the Community in Oberbronnen contacted the local education officials, seeking to find a way to achieve official recognition of their parental rights and religious convictions to educate their children at home.

Rachel_2001.08.03

Summer of 2001 in Oberbronnen.

Community parents found the social service officials in their district open minded. The relationship was good, friendly, and there were visits. In time, media reports produced mounting pressure on the German officials in Oberbronnen and led to an investigation by the local Social Services/Youth Office (Jugendamt).

The report of this office was one which praised the Community stating: “the people at Oberbronnen are ’very sensible parents’ and (have) ’happy and lively children’ who live in a family-like situation that is next to exemplary.”

The local media report of this visit…

Translation:

Best Reference by the Jugendamt for the relationship between parents and children in the religious community at oberbronnen.

“All you can see is happy children”

[Concerning Oberbronnen] “…As the county youth welfare department of the Ostalbkreis county confirmed to the SchwaPo, the people at Oberbronnen are “very sensible parents” and have “happy and lively children” who live in a family-like situation that is next to exemplary.

In a dilemma

“From the point of view of the authorities, the only problem is compulsory education: the community in Oberbronnen refuses to send their children to public schools but insists on homeschooling them.

“Of course, this creates a dilemma for the Jugendamt theoretically, the children could be forced to attend school only if parents and children are separated — of course, this is absurd because the parents and children live in outstanding harmony. The authorities are trying hard to find a solution that would be acceptable to both sides. One “branch” of the religious Community located in Osterholz-Scharmbeck already carried this lawsuit over the District Government of Luneberg as far as the Department of Education and Art in Hanover — and the problem has still not been decided yet. The parents refuse to send their children to school on the grounds that they live a life that is strictly obedient by the bible and that the Old Testament says that father and mother are called to teach the children.

Rather open

“Aside from this however, according to an employee of the Jugendamt, the members of the religious community are known to be “rather open”, polite and friendly, you can only hear “positive things” about them, their doors are open to any visitor.

“The employee ended saying that, in his opinion the death of the children in southwestern France can only be “an unfortunate event” that has no connection with the community at Oberbronnen.

“By the way, the community in Oberbronnen when asked permitted the Schwäbische Post a visit, but wouldn’t give further information or even allow photos to be taken.”

(Translation ends.)

Both the education officials and the media report make it clear that the only problem with the Community is their non-compliance with the compulsory education law.

Just days after this favorable report in the media, a zealous reporter from the same newspaper decided to “investigate.” His ensuing series of negative articles relies heavily on anti-religious information, especially from A.D.F.I. of France, Michael Kropveld of Canada, and a letter from the American state of Vermont, from a State’s Attorney, Susan Davis. The information from Kropveld and Davis are verbatim quotes from their letters to Mr. Schwiebert in the custody proceeding in 1994. (See note 4.)

It is noteworthy of her open and official display of bias that as the State’s Attorney for Essex County, Vermont, where Island Pond sits, she states to Mr. Schwiebert “Most of these custody battles are decided against the parent who is a member of the cult….” (emphasis added)

 

She writes a two page letter offering her interpretation of members’ religious beliefs and practices which are misleading and inaccurate, and mostly prejudicial in their slant. The judicial thrashing Judge Frank Mahady gave state officials and prosecutors for Vermont’s “grossly illegal fishing expedition” (the 1984 Raid on Island Pond) was obviously still stinging! Sadly, some officials seemed to learn nothing from the Judge’s stunning, clearly reasoned, and constitutionally-based decision.

Indeed, taking vengeance in these petty but significant ways (because Attorney Davis was a public servant) crosses several professional and ethical lines, such as the separation of church and state, but always has the potential to devastate the little children, as Germany’s 5 September 2013 Raid would do.

It is interesting to note that the negative media reports came just two days after the same newspaper reported a very positive article about the Community in Oberbronnen. This change of position by the paper from “exemplary community” to “cult” did not come about by direct observation of the life of the Community members in Oberbronnen. Instead, it came about by the anti-religious, unsubstantiated information gathered by the reporter in his “investigation” of the community. These news articles served their purpose to put pressure on local officials to act.

The Jugendamt (Social Services/Youth Office) asked the Community to voluntarily submit to a medical examination of their children in order to quiet the public outrage and put to rest the flurry of accusations that were beginning to crescendo. The parents of the Community complied and even though the social services wanted the doctor to require the parents to sign a blank document that would allow the state to take custody of the children should any medical problem arise, the doctor would not require such a thing. He had never in his 30 year career as a medical doctor been asked by social services for such action. Instead, he examined the children and issued an excellent report on the health of all the community children.

1991.01-ITN_Oberbronnen

Community in Oberbronnen in 1999.You can see why the doctor had a good report!

During this same time period, a member of Parliament, Dr. Mauz, from the State of Baden-Württemberg addressed the Parliament and asked if the government is aware of the “activities of the sect” and if the answer is “yes,” what were they planning to do about it. (See note 5.) The Ministry of Education responded with a Parliamentary report relying on information from people such as pastor Glaser.

The Parliamentary response endorsed Pastor Glaser’s letter to them on this subject and was then published in the media, putting increasing pressure on local officials to take action. (See note 6.) These letters show how government officials in the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports and a member of Parliament relied on an Evangelical pastor for “expert” opinion concerning the Community in Oberbronnen. This is not very veiled religious persecution.

At the end of July 1997 one of the largest German TV stations (ZDF), presented the community as a sect. The German public was already sensitized to this subject due to the reports of the deaths of the Solar Temple members. One of the accusations was a piece entitled “Children in Sects,” which implicated the Community by association, but had no factual basis relevant to the Messianic Communities. It applied pressure by stating that the government was doing nothing. With these events, the pressure on the social services in Oberbronnen became unbearable.

So, in August of 1997, the Social Services took action and sent a letter to the local family court, asking if the children in the Community in Oberbronnen were in danger and if custody should be taken away from the parents. (See note 7.) Media pressure had changed the Social Services opinion of the Community from praising them in April 1997 to believing the anti-religious information and wondering if the Community is a child abusing, apolyptic sect by August of that year. Lies have amazing power, don’t they?

The fact that all the parents of the Community were under investigation by the family court reveals that it was not a school issue with the Community any more, but that the Community had become a “problem” to the government based upon the anti-religious distribution of untruthful data about us. Social Services, who had stated that the children were “happy and lively” and lived in an “exemplary environment” now asked the Family Court to have the children psychologically examined, raising the question of whether the parents should retain custody of their children, even after the medical doctor had given the children a clean bill of health.

At this point the Family Court Judge took responsibility for the issue and instead of trusting the Social Services to conduct a psychological examination of all the children, paid a surprise visit to the Community himself in August of 1997. He rendered a very positive report about the children and the living situation within the Community. (See note 8.) He did not see the need for a psychological examination but ordered an academic evaluation of the school aged children, thus putting the issue back to the question of compulsory education and the Community’s non-compliance. Since the judge is aware of the communication between the Community and government school officials, he is waiting to see how this situation is developing and has not made a final decision concerning custody of the children.

One set of parents sent a copy of the judge’s report to the Ministry of Education. He, in turn, gave these parents a meeting at which he gave them opportunity to talk about anything they wished. They made an appeal to this man from their heart and found him to be a man who listened to his conscience.

Very quickly he realized from the conversation that the issue was not whether children of the Community would be able to get a job if they left, as the social workers had claimed, but rather one of control: who has been given the ultimate right and responsibility of the child and therefore has the ultimate right and authority to control his or her education.

The official explained that, not only did the German government assume the right of compulsory education over the right of the parent, but also because of the history of Germany, which has left many people with great fears of any repetition of uprising from a charismatic leader (either political or religious) that could plunge Germany once again into ruin, the government takes the position that they have the responsibility to avoid such demagoguery in the future by educating “its” children to be critical thinkers and aware citizens.

In other words, he explained why the state ‘owns’ the child.

HitlerWithYouth(Girls)2Remarkably, other leaders of Germany have said the same thing before him!

How is it then that very different governments, allegedly espousing very different philosophies, come to such similar fundamental conclusions about how the state rules over families, individuals, and education?

Something must be working in Germany that is not easily seen…maybe no one wants to see it. But as the prophet Amos asked long ago, ‘Can two walk together except they be agreed?’ (Amos 3:3)

No one denies, including us, that German values are different than they were seventy years ago. But is the spirit different? There’s the rub: the values change…but the spirit remains the same! The children belong to the state…not you, the parent.

The same spirit leads very different governments to the same conclusions about what makes Germany secure. This shadow lies heavily on the nation…

but it is more pleasant to ignore it than to think about it.

The response of the parents then was that it is a shame that those parents who are conscientious and who have conviction and purpose in laying hold of their parental right and responsibility to educate their children, would have to leave the country. This would leave behind only those who have to be forced to go to school. And why would a nation resort to force, as Germany does, to get its children to go to its government-run schools?

The parents asked the official, “How could such a policy be good for Germany?” A week later, the Supreme School Board in Stüttgart gave Community parents one year to come up with a solution. So the legal issue of the parents’ right to follow their conscience and educate their children according to their religious belief versus the extent of control the state can exercise over that education continued in the courts and between the parties.

Community parents acknowledge the State’s right to know that their children are educated and have no problem submitting to state supervision to that extent.

Then the court allowed a time interval during which both sides can communicate and work towards a solution that would accommodate the needs of both the state and the families involved, so as not to trample their religious liberty. Such liberty needs to be safeguarded for those who practice a religion other than the two favored state dogmas of Evangelicalism and Catholicism.

So with the Twelve Tribes we have the state favoring religion by persecuting a minority group, one whose devotion to Messiah exposes the deadness of mainstream German religion. And we have religious figures, so-called “anti-cult experts” aiding the state in the past by passing on sensational, religiously-biased testimony against us, too. And this they repeated even in hearings of September 2013 about our children and parents. And they believe in this they do the children and God a favor (John 16:3).

Church and state work well together in Germany keeping everyone lukewarm…

Lukewarmness

Translation: “I am in your midst.”

One could say that lukewarmness is the purpose of the marriage of church and state.

 

This comes from the larger paper, “The Messianic Communities in the European Union: An Issue of Parental Authority.” Refer to it for sections on the Twelve Tribes in France as well, using examples from Canada and the United States as further examples of illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral collusion of church and state.

Notes

Note 1: “Letter from Mrs. Scholl, Regional Director of County of Lünenburg, to Klaus and Annette Schüle; re: education in the Community in Pennigbüttel, 9 September 1995; “Children Are Kept Away from School,” Weserkurier Bremen, 10 September 1995, article reports that authorities are “looking for compromise” to avoid forceful measures…” School officials “have hope that a solution for the good of the children will be found.””

Note 2: “For example, Kropveld cites six named cases of kidnappings and promotes the concept that it is an acceptable practice in our Communities and advocated, which it is not. The fact is there has never been even one kidnapping conviction of a community member. In any case that has made it to the court, the Community member has been found to have had custody at the time, and law enforcement had been persuaded by the anti-religious propaganda fed to them by the non-community parent. See The Queen v. Dawson (Section IV, and to see the decision itself, connect here) for a graphic example of the damage done.”

Note 3: Letter from Pastor Gert Glaser to Evangelical and Catholic parishes in Wört and Stödtlen, 30 September 1995.

Note 4: Letter from Michael Kropveld to Volker Schwiebert, March 18, 1994; Letter from Susan Davis, State’s Attorney for Essex County, Vermont, 7 January 1994; Expertise on Children Growing Up in Cults, Evangelical Central Office for Worldview Questions, Stuttgart, 22 March 1994.

Note 5: Letter from Dr. Mauz to Parliament of Baden – Württenberg, “Minor Address,” 22 May 1997.

Note 6: Response of Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, “Response,” 11 June 1997.

Note 7: Letter from Landratsamt Ostalbkreis District Youth Office (Mr. Fisher) to the Custodial Court, District Court, Ellwangen, 5 August 1997.

Note 8: Letter from Family Judge, Custody Court, District Court, Ellwangen, 5 August 1997.

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