German Court's Decision May Bode Ill for U.S. Home-Schooling Families
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
October 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An official with a pro-family organization is shocked at a recent decision by a European court, which upheld a German ban on home schooling. However, he suspects the ruling may be an indicator of an unfortunate anti-family trend in courts worldwide.The case in Germany centered on Christian families who objected to lifestyle indoctrination in public schools in the form of sex education. The matter was sent on appeal to the European Human Rights Court, which sided with the German government.
Larry Jacobs, vice president of the U.S.-based World Congress of Families, says European families are under attack by a bureaucracy and court system that are decidedly not pro-family. "It's clear that there is an anti-Christian bias and an anti-family bias throughout much of the court system in Europe," he notes, "and as we even see in our own country as abortion and other family issues have been brought before the courts."
One of the key reasons for concern about court decisions worldwide now, Jacobs says, is the "unfortunate tendency" of many courts, including America's own Supreme Court, to cite international law and international rulings when ruling on domestic cases.
And now, in the wake of the German court's ruling on home education, the pro-family leader has a dire prediction for American home-schooling families. "We can expect that liberal judges who don't like home schooling will be using this decision in cases in the U.S.," he says, "so that brings it close to home."
Jacobs points out that Germany's ban on home schooling was originally instituted when the Nazis were in power. Today, the total number of home-educated children in that nation of some 80 million inhabitants is estimated at around 500, but the practice of home schooling remains illegal.
As one European official, Belgian Member of Parliament -- and a home-schooling mother -- Alexandra Colen, observed last year in an article on the case in Germany, the parents involved in the matter are Christians who claim the right of mothers and fathers to educate their own children. The MP remarked on the fact that these conscientious Christian parents are not only opposed by their government but also lack the support of the official, state-funded churches in their country.
"Six decades after Hitler," Colen noted, "German politicians and official church leaders still do not seem to understand what true freedom implies: that raising children is a prerogative of their fathers and mothers and not of the state, which is never a benevolent parent and often an enemy."
