Walking Therein

Homeschooling Trials Across the World

2:51 PM, Tuesday, September 26, 2006 .. Posted in In These Last Days .. 1 comments .. Link

I have been wanting to put information on here about the homeschool families across the world who are struggling to do what we are privileged to do daily: Homeschool their children.
I receive the Homeschool Heartbeats from HSLDA as well as their r-lerts, and they have been focusing on the families who have been fined, imprisoned and have had to flee their homes to avoid these crimes against them.

Religious Freedom in China
Volume 70, Program 6 9/25/2006
The workings of international governments may seem distant to American homeschoolers, but thinking globally will help you and your children protect the freedoms we enjoy in our country. Today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Smith is joined by Michael Farris, who shares his insights on religious freedom in China.
Mike Smith:
This week we’re talking with Mike Farris, Chairman and General Counsel of Home School Legal Defense Association. At the end of July, Mike traveled to China with a small delegation to get a glimpse into the legal and economic climate of one of the world’s largest and most influential countries. Thanks for joining us, Mike.
Michael Farris:
Glad to be with you, Mike.
Mike Smith:
Mike, your visit included a meeting with China’s deputy director-general for religious affairs. What did you learn about the state of China’s laws relative to religious freedom?
Mike Farris:
China practices religious toleration, if you use a classical definition of that term. In 1688, William and Mary passed a law through the Parliament of Britain called the Religious Toleration Act that allowed people to practice faith different than the Anglican Church, as long as you didn’t differ too much and as long as you were licensed by the government to preach and to hold a worship service. That’s essentially the case in China. You can get a license to have a church; you can get a license to be a pastor, but there are strict and wide-ranging controls on those opportunities, and that creates a lot of conflict. They claim that no one’s in jail in China for their faith, which is probably true in a technical sense—it’s not their actual beliefs, but their actions. So meeting in an underground church, meeting in a way that’s not sanctioned by the Chinese government, will land you in big trouble, despite their claims on religious freedom.
Mike Smith:
Thanks, Mike, for sharing that eye-opening insight. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.

China’s Control of Family Life

Volume 70, Program 7 9/26/2006

As homeschoolers in America, it can be hard for us to grasp what life is like for families in China, where the government controls much of everyday living. Today on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Smith interviews Michael Farris about his recent visit to China.

Mike Smith:
This week, Mike Farris is joining us to discuss his recent trip to China. Mike, I understand you were able to visit the vice minister of population control services. Tell us about that meeting.

Michael Farris:
It was very interesting talking to this warm, personable lady about the one-child policy in China. She seemed the exact opposite of what we would expect, on a personal level. Yet she admitted that there still are coercive abortions in China, and when I asked her what the policy should be on abortions, she stated that there should be only economic sanctions, which are stiff. If a person has a child in excess of the amount allowed by the government, the fine imposed is two to three times the annual salary of the person involved, which is an incredibly extreme economic sanction.

China has relaxed a little bit its one-child policy. There are several exceptions—if you live in the country and you have a girl first, you can have a second child; if you are an only child and your spouse is an only child, you can have a second child. The average population birthrate in China right now is 1.8, and there’s every reason to believe that China, as a developing economy, would voluntarily choose a birthrate that would be about the replacement level of 2.0, if they would simply let people make their own choices.

Mike Smith:
Mike, this makes us thankful for our freedom we have here as Americans. Next time, we’ll discuss Mike’s visit to one of China’s villages. Until then, I’m Mike Smith.

9-22-06 From the HSLDA E-lert Service...

The German government is persecuting homeschoolers like never before. Armin Eckermann, president of Schulunterricht zu Hause (School Instruction at Home--SIH), the homeschool legal defense association of Germany, states that there are over 40 homeschool families in court in Germany!

The families are being heavily fined; the parents are being jailed; the children are being threatened with being seized and placed in the custody of the state; and families are being forced to flee to Austria and other surrounding countries.

Here are a few current and frightening situations:

1) The Rudolph family: They are diligently homeschooling their six children in Hamburg. The father, Andre, was jailed for a week for refusing to send his children to public school. Like many of the homeschool families in Germany, they are evangelicals. What is even more surprising about Andre Rudolph being put in jail for homeschooling is that he has a degree in teaching! He and his wife have been fined 840 euros ($1,090) for homeschooling.

After Andre's jail time the authorities tried a new weapon and began to forcibly take the children to public school each day. Their plan was take custody of these six children and make them wards of the state.

One day, however, the authorities came to take the children to school, but no one answered the door. The Rudolphs fled to another country in order to homeschool their children according to God's ways.

2) The Plett family: If you recall, last year we asked you to pray and contact the embassy about the seven Baptist homeschool families of Paderborn. One of the families, the Pletts, have continued to homeschool their 12 children. Last week, a female plainclothes police officer rang at the Platt's house. When the mother opened the door, other police officers who were hiding in the bushes forced their way in. The mother was able to inform her husband by cell phone before the police took her to jail. The husband then fled to Austria with the children. She was given a 10-day prison sentence and is facing heavy fines and more jail time.

Of the seven Paderborn homeschool families from last year, two have fled to Austria and five have enrolled in a Christian school in Heidelburg. They all still have pending cases against them.

3) Three homeschool families from Saxony have been taken to court and convicted. One was fined 3,000 euros, one 6,000 euros, and another 10,000 euros.

4) The Bauer family: This family in Hesse are American missionaries for the last 15 years. They were prosecuted about five years ago and have exhausted their appeals and have sought review by the Human Rights European Court that covers all of Europe.

There are now eight cases pending before the European Court, most of which the SIH organization has brought, along with Ronald Richert, a renown Constitutional law attorney who has handled some of the SIH members' cases. The problem with the European Court, is that it all cases are discretionary: there is no right of appeal. If the Court decides not to rule on them, the case will not be heard. Another problem is the Court has no particular deadline of when they have to decide to take the case or not, so some of these cases have been sitting for three to four years, with no resolution in sight.

5) The Herrmann family: This family from Baden-Wurttemberg was facing prosecution for homeschooling their twins who have many medical problems. They have been forced into hiding and are seeking asylum in the United States and other countries.

The Maisch family, also from Baden-Wurtemberg, has been convicted of homeschooling. For the past three weeks they have faced increasing fines.

Schulunterricht zu Hause (SIH), the legal association that HSLDA helped establish, is being worn out with defending all these families in court. They have approximately 150 in their association that are all homeschool families, many of whom are underground, and almost 40 in court.

Be Blessed!

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