Obama Admin Wants to Deport Christian Home School Family

Mar 5, 2013
By Todd Starnes

The Romeike family fled their German homeland in 2008 seeking political asylum in the United States – where they hoped to home school their children. Instead, the Obama administration wants the evangelical Christian family deported.

The fate of Uwe and Hannelore Romeike – along with their six children – now rests with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2010 an immigration judge granted the family political refuge, but the  Dept. of Homeland Security objected and argued they don’t deserve asylum.

Neither the Justice Dept. nor the Dept. of Homeland Security returned calls seeking comment.
“The Obama administration is basically saying there is no right to home school anywhere,” said Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “It’s an utter repudiation of parental liberty and religious liberty.”

The HSLDA is representing the Romeike family.

The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.

“They are trying to send a family back to Germany where they would certainly lose custody of their children,” Farris told Fox News. “Our government is siding with Germany.”

Farris said the Germans ban home schools because “they don’t want to have religious and philosophical minorities in their country.”

“That means they don’t want to have significant numbers of people who think differently than what the government thinks,” he said. “It’s an incredibly dangerous assertion that people can’t think in a way that the government doesn’t approve of.”

He said the Justice Dept. is backing that kind of thinking and arguing ‘it is not a human rights violation.”
Farris said he finds great irony that the Obama administration is releasing thousands of illegal aliens – yet wants to send a family seeking political asylum back to Germany.

“Eleven million people are going to be allowed to stay freely – but this one family is going to be shipped back to Germany to be persecuted,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

The fear of persecution is why an immigration judge granted the family political asylum in 2010.
German authorities demanded the family stop home schooling. They faced thousands of dollars in fines and they initially took away their children in a police van.

German state constitutions require children attend public schools. Parents who don’t comply face punishment ranging from fines to prison time. The nation’s highest appellate court ruled in 2007 that in some cases children could be removed from their parents’ care.

“Families that want to have an alternative education can’t get it in Germany,” Farris said. “Even the private schools have to teach public school curriculum.”

After authorities threatened to remove permanent custody from the Christian couple – they decided to move to the United States.

Uwe, a classically-trained pianist, relocated their brood to a small farm in the shadow of the Smokey Mountains in eastern Tennessee.

“We are very happy here to be able to freely follow our conscience and to home school our children,” he told Fox News. “Where we live in Tennessee is very much like where we lived in Germany.”

Uwe said he was extremely disappointed that their petition to seek asylum was appealed by the Obama administration.

“If we go back to Germany we know that we would be prosecuted and it is very likely the Social Services authorities would take our children from us,” he said.

Uwe said German schools were teaching children to disrespect authority figures and used graphic words to describe sexual relations. He said the state believed children must be “socialized.”

“The German schools teach against our Christian values,” he said. “Our children know that we home school following our convictions and that we are in God’s hands. They understand that we are doing this for their best – and they love the life we are living in America on our small farm.”

Farris said Americans should be outraged over the way the Obama administration has treated the Romeike family – and warned it could have repercussions for families that home school in this nation.

“The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children has been at the pinnacle of human rights,” he said. “But not in this country.”

With reporting from Associated Press
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/obama-admin-wants-to-deport-christian-home-school-family.html

10 Ways to Raise a Leader

Simple ways to teach leadership skills to our children - skills that are about personal leadership and sticking to it in life. Personal leadership needs to come first as one must know how to lead themselves before leading others. Here are just ten ways to raise a leader.

1. Model the Positive. We live in a glass is half empty type of world. It's easy to notice what isn't right and to lost focus on what is working. Even if you tend to lean towards the pessimistic side of viewing the world make an effort to model the positive with your children. This is a choice - a finding joy type choice - in life.  It doesn't mean being faux happy, but rather means choosing to be positive or see the good first in a situation. I like to call it giving the situation the benefit of the doubt.

2. Set Goals. Work with your children in all ages to set goals. When they're little the goals can be as simple as I'm going to make my bed in the morning or put all my books on the shelf at night. As they get older the goals can be more complex, more focused driven, but just as critical. As you set the goals make it a point to work with them to achieve their goals. Everyone needs someone behind them motivating them.


3. Motivate. Again. Motivate. This goes along with seeing the positive and setting goals. Sometimes kids move away from the consequence - you don't clean your room you don't go outside - but they also move towards rewards - you keep your room clean for one week and on Friday we'll get icecream. Figure out what motivates your child. But, in that motivation make goals that your child can work towards. And stick with the plan. Don't fudge on awarding when they job isn't done. That doesn't teach leadership.

4. Let them Fail. Funny coming from me the mom who wrote the Dear Mom Who Feels Like She is Failing letter. The truth is that our children need to not win at everything because it is essential that they learn the skill of pulling up their bootstraps and trying again. I've learned the greatest lessons in life in the moments where I feel like I've failed. This teaches lessons - trying again, what didn't work - and it cultivates strength and character. Be there for them, motivate them to try again, and encourage them to see those moments of not winning as learning times.  Then put out your hand, dust them off, and help them try again. And remember just as I write to you about not defining yourself with the words "I'm failing" do the same for your children. Words are power.

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