Mom Jailed for Living a Holy Life

Mother of twelve jailed in Germany for refusing to enroll children in sex ed classes

BY MATTHEW CULLINAN HOFFMAN

• Wed Feb 23, 2011 14:26 EST
• Comments (3)
• Tags: Christian, Germany, Homeschooling, Sex-Ed

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GERMANY, February 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A mother of twelve has been sentenced to 43 days in jail in the German town of Salzkotten for refusing to enroll her children in the sex education program in a local elementary school, according to two German Catholic news sites, Kath.net and Katholishes.info.

The woman, whose name is not revealed in the articles, is reportedly a Baptist who is opposed to the program based upon her religious convictions. The couple says that their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Germany is a signatory, are being ignored.

They cite article 2 of the convention’s first protocol, which states: “the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” The local elementary school has reportedly ignored this right since 2005, and is being supported by the judiciary.

The woman’s husband says that “his wife has really missed her family, but finds her solace in God” according to Kath.net, which also reports that the younger children “miss their mother,” but that suffering injustice is part of the experience of being Christian.

The persecution of Germans who homeschool or reject government sex education is an ongoing phenomenon. In April of last year the website Kopp Online reported several cases of German mothers who reside in Salzkotten spending up to a week in jail for refusing the local sex ed program for their children. Similar persecution was reported in the same town, which is located in the district of Paderborn, in December of 2009.

In January of 2010 a German family was granted asylum in the United States after years of harassment by the German government for homeschooling their children.

The above story uncovers the lie that democratic countries will protect the religious freedom of its citizens. The secular state will tolerate religious belief as long as it doesn't interfere with the values of the state. We in Canada must be wary of what the state is trying to impose on us in terms of sex education programs. It's shocking that a mom is in jail for not sending her kids to school. But it could never happen in Canada, right? Don't be too sure. If the jackboots are marching in democratic Germany against helpless moms, who's to say they won't soon march elsewhere. We must be vigilant. We must speak to protect the freedoms we now have.

Said Musa Should Not Be Allowed to Die

National Review Online – February 18, 2011
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/260050/america-quiet-execution-afghan-christian-said-musa-paul-marshall
America Quiet on the Execution of Afghan Christian Said Musa
By Paul Marshall

A terrible drama is unfolding in Afghanistan: There are reports that Said Musa, whose situation I described at Christmas, will soon be executed for the ‘crime’ of choosing to become a Christian. (For background, see here.)

Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, and now has a prosthetic leg. His oldest child is eight and one is disabled (she cannot speak). He worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent as an adviser to other amputees.

He was forced to appear before a judge without any legal counsel and without knowledge of the charges against him. “Nobody [wanted to be my] defender before the court. When I said ‘I am a Christian man,’ he [a potential lawyer] immediately spat on me and abused me and mocked me. . . . I am alone between 400 [people with] terrible values in the jail, like a sheep.” He has been beaten, mocked, and subjected to sleep deprivation and sexual abuse while in prison. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and authorities denied him access to a foreign lawyer.

Any and every human being who is imprisoned, abused, or tortured for the free and peaceful expression of their faith deserves our support, but Musa is also a remarkable person and Christian. In a letter smuggled to the West, he says, “The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head.”

He added a thing much more important to him, that they “mocked me ‘he’s Jesus Christ,’ spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. . . . Please, please, for the sake of Lord Jesus Christ help me.” (View the full letter here)

He has not, in fact, even appealed to be released, only to be transferred to another prison. He has also stated that he is willing to give his life for his faith. “Please, please you should transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers. . . . I also agree . . . to sacrifice my life in public [where] I will tell [about my] faith in Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, [so] other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith.”

Newspapers in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe have reported the story, but with, the exception of the Wall Street Journal and, of course, NRO, American outlets have not found it worthy of attention. The Journal reports that “Afghan officials have been unapologetic: ‘The sentence for a convert is death and there is no exception,’ said Jamal Khan, chief of staff at the Ministry of Justice. ‘They must be sentenced to death to serve as a lesson for others.’”

The U.S. government — reportedly including Secretary of State Clinton — and other governments have pushed for his release, but to no avail.

But the president has been silent, even as we fight a war that has among its goals the creation of a government that conforms to international human-rights standards.

An American president certainly needs to guard and shepherd his political capital, and should not speak out about every prisoner. But Musa himself has appealed to “President Brother Obama” to rescue him from his current jail. And when an obscure and aberrant Florida pastor, Terry Jones, threatened to burn a Koran, not only President Obama but much of his cabinet, as well as General Petraeus, weighed in on the matter.

If the actions of a Florida pastor who threatened to destroy a book holy to Muslims deserved public and presidential attention, then the actions of the Afghan government, ostensibly a ‘democratic’ ally, to destroy something holy to Christians, a human being made in the image of God, also deserve public and presidential attention.

— Paul Marshall is the co-author, with Nina Shea, of Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide, forthcoming from Oxford University Press in October 2011.

Christian World View Shows Why Jesus Came

A few weeks ago, I met a fellow at a local gym. The man was intrigued upon discovering that I was a minister, and commented that it must be a hard time for me these days, with the recent senseless killing of the cop in Toronto with the snowplow, and the equally senseless slaughter of those six people in Arizona.

Then he asked how I provide answers and help people cope in the face of such tragedy.

“I don’t have any difficulties at all,” I told him. “We Christians don’t have the common secular mindset that people are basically good. In fact, we find that notion laughable given all the evil going on in the world. No, we believe that man is fundamentally flawed, and needs fixing. So when people commit acts of evil it doesn’t catch us off guard, it just confirms our view of reality.”

This brief interchange underscores the tremendous gulf between the Christian world view and that of the average person.

It also directly points to the reason why Jesus came in the first place. In Matthew 1:21 it is recorded of Jesus: “ … for he will save his people from their sins.” For thousands of years, Christians have faithfully taught the message that Christ died to pay for the real guilt of our sins, and that he came to transform us by delivering us from the power of sin.

Many are comfortable with their guilt being removed and obtaining some kind of “heaven insurance” that will kick in on the day they die. But increasingly, the idea that Jesus transforms lives, delivering us from the power of sin is seen as intrusive. Some go further and suspiciously view it as an oppressive concept that cannot be allowed to stand.

So what changed? How did the 2,000-year-old notion of Christ transforming a life become offensive? One key factor is the now widely popular idea that truth is relative. The man on the street has become convinced that he alone has the authority to decide what is right and wrong for him. Consequently, the very concept of absolute truth with a universal morality is flatly rejected. Furthermore, countless people now view all outside authority, including God, with suspicion, for they harbour the conceit that they and they alone decide what is good and what is evil.

A good many Canadians now think that premarital cohabitation, for example, is perfectly OK. Many others have explicitly given their stamp of approval to same-sex relationships. Some others promote abortion as totally OK. And there are even others who go so far as to promote adultery. (Note the incredible success of the Ashley Madison website that encourages people to commit infidelity, and the growing acceptance of the so-called swinger groups.)

It is within this cultural framework that Christians must speak today. It is hardly surprising then that when we share the teaching that Christ forgives, but also calls for transformation, that we often run into a brick wall of judgmentalism and intolerance. For the secular world view, though priding itself on tolerance for opposing viewpoints, is remarkably intolerant to the Christian view that there is a right and a wrong. Astoundingly, some even accuse Christians of unchristian behaviour, not because their teaching is false to the Bible, but because they don’t like Christ’s call to change and transformation.

Christians, if we are honest, are often stung by the epithets and slander that are hurled our way by those who object to our message. Tragically some are backing away from, or softening the message so that they will be more acceptable to the nonbelieving community. But the point is this: the message calling for transformation and change is not our message to alter. It has been given to us to faithfully guard and teach.

I hope and pray that Christians today will not prove to be an unfaithful generation. May we compassionately and boldly speak the full truth of the good news. Christ, in fact, loves us too much to leave us alone; to leave us trapped and unchanged in our many sins.

Published in The Guelph Mercury, February 19, 2011

Good, But Not Great

The following is from Mark Cahill's newsletter found at www.markcahill.org

February 2011

Good, But Not Great

As you know, I really enjoy talking with people. I didn’t use to be that way, so I am very thankful that God has given me an interest in people. Remember when you read your Bible what it says in the book of Genesis 1:26:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

Only mankind—and nothing else—is made in the image of God. That right there makes people the most interesting and special creation that God has put on planet earth! It is so much fun to talk with folks and see where they are coming from; how they got to this certain point in life; the things they can say to you that can help you in life, etc.

Well I was in one of those conversations with someone when I was speaking over in Hawaii last year. As we were chatting, it was obvious he was a very good athlete. One of those tri-athletes! Someone who is a much better athlete than let’s say a basketball player!!

He let me know that he trained for two hours each day before he started the rest of his day. Of course, that sounds to me like the day has already started!! He would do his training, and then get on with his job. Sounds like a good, hard working, dedicated man who wants to accomplish things in life.

He then told me that when he told his pastor about this, his pastor’s response was, “Good, but not great.” As they delved a little more into the conversation, the ‘what ifs’ began to pop up. What if you read your Bible for two hours each morning? What if you prayed for two hours each morning? That statement from his pastor really got me thinking.

We do need to take care of our bodies. It was one thing I talk about with men when I speak at men’s conferences. Here God gives us a temple to house the Holy Spirit, and we don’t eat right, exercise right, sleep right, etc. And then we begin to wonder why we are so sick. We sometimes want to put the blame somewhere else instead of the person that we see in the mirror.

1 Timothy 4:8 says,

“For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

Bodily exercise does so much for our total well-being. I love studying health and have learned a lot about it through the years. One study I’ve seen shows that by exercising regularly, you reduce your chances of getting a cold by 50%. Regular exercise can also slow down the aging process. Studies are also showing that exercise can cure insomnia, increase energy levels, lower pain, relieve pain and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Wow! What a list!

Now all of this is good, but is it great? You see that godliness is profitable for all things!

1 Corinthians 9:24,25

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”

Sports are such a big part to our culture here in America. For many people, it seems like their lives revolve around it. I was reading about people who are winning medals and awards for being the best in their age group in certain sporting events as they get older. So many folks are striving for a crown that will rot in the dust bins of history, but are we striving for that eternal crown that only Jesus can reward us with?

Hebrews 12:1 likens life to a race:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

We are all actually in a race towards death. We are actually hurtling towards death. And after I take my last breath on this earth, only what matters on the other side will be important. We can’t let any sin or anything cut in on us as we are heading towards the throne of God.

So what is truly great compared to what is good? There is only place to find those answers: Your Bible.

2 Timothy 2:15 says,

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

I do hope that many of you are continuing on with reading your Bible front to back this year. I am doing it again. As you study your Bibles, not just read it, truths are going to pop out to you left and right. The question is: What are you going to do with those truths?

I am not going to give you an exhaustive list of what is good compared to what is great. What I want you to do is examine yourself. Hold your life up to the light of God’s Word. How will it look before the throne of God? I have people tell me all the time that they plan on hearing “well done my good and faithful servant” when they die, but are they really living a life that gives them cause to hear that in front of Jesus?

2 Timothy 4:7 says,

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”

To everyone reading this newsletter, the challenge is to finish well! To finish your life to your last breath for the Lord! To be like Jesus sharing His faith all the way to the end! You don’t know how many thieves on crosses will be next to you as you enter eternity. And make sure when you stand in front of God, that He won’t say to you, “Good, but not great.”

Until the nets are full,