by Marc Hays
It comes as no surprise to hear that the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Romeike’s continued asylum in these United States. Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, a George W. Bush administration appointee, said, “Germany is not forbidding home-schooling … It’s not like saying you can’t teach them at home in the evenings.” This is, of course, utter nonsense, but that is not surprising either. “W” appointed him. Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association related this type of thinking to telling a Jew that their children could eat kosher at home every evening even though the state will be feeding them bacon for 6 hours per day for 180 days per year. How is that eating kosher? How is forcing Christians to subjugate their children to the religion of the German state not religious persecution? If you think Germany does not have a state religion, you can read more about that here.
This news comes to us as bad news, and it is. Anytime a God-ordained liberty, like a father raising his children (Deut. 6), loses to tyranny, it’s bad news, and it’s bad news for all of us. This ruling is indicative of our court system, our attorney general, our president and his administration, but worse yet is that they don’t define us. We define them. The people of the United States elected Barak Hussein Obama to four more years. President George W. Bush appointed Judge Sutton to his bench. We granted them these powers, so they are indicative of us as a nation.
So, this is bad news, but this is not the end of the story. When the Captain of the Lord’s Army came to Joshua with his sword drawn, Joshua asked Him,
“Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15) ESV
Joshua asked Jesus, “Are you for us or against us?” The answer was “no”. Perhaps this was not the answer Joshua was expecting. The Romiekes might be tempted to ask God if He is for them or against them today. We, Christian Americans, who are seeing another actual human right get flushed down the Obaman commode, might be asking God if He is for us or against us, and the answer to both questions is still a resounding, “no”. We have been drafted into the Captain’s army and grafted into His vine. It is still the root that supports us, not we who support it. The Romeikes are still supported by the root, and so this bad news will not ultimately be bad news, for them or for Christ’s Kingdom. Remember Psalm 2,
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Psalm 2, ESV
Pray for the Romeikes today. Pray that they would take refuge in King Jesus as they have been denied refuge in these United States. The U.S. has run amok and her bulwarks are crumbling. She may not be the place they want to be when His rod of iron falls. Pray they would find refuge for their family. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
You can read more about the court’s ruling against the Romeikes here.<>
“How is forcing Christians to subjugate their children to the religion of the German state not religious persecution?”
It may be worth noting that the Romeikes’ legal argument was not that they were being persecuted for their religion (which is very vaguely defined, since they don’t belong to a church), but that they would be persecuted for being homeschoolers. I don’t suspect the court’s logic, as to why they’re not being persecuted as homeschoolers, will satisfy readers of Kuyperian Commentary, but it can be reviewed here: http://danielsilliman.blogspot.de/2013/05/us-federal-court-homeschoolers-arent.html
Daniel,
Thank you for your clarification and the link to your article. The quote from Justice Alito was especially helpful in better understanding the limitations of asylum law. Here’s a portion of Daniel’s article for KC readers, though I appreciated the entire piece:
“The court cited Samuel Alito, now a conservative Supreme Court Justice, to support this argument. In the 1993 case of Fatin v. INS, where a woman wanted asylum from Iran on the grounds she was upperclass, educated, a feminist and a not a Muslim, Alito wrote,
‘the concept of persecution does not encompass all treatment that our society regards as unfair, unjust, or even unlawful or unconstitutional. If persecution were defined that expansively, a significant percentage of the world’s population would qualify for asylum in this country — and it seems most unlikely that Congress intended such a result.'”
I guess I don’t understand why it is that we make people from Cuba who are in a worse situation wait and apply for a green card while we are somehow okay with the German family getting asylum when all they had to do was drive over the border and live in another country of the EU. It just doesn’t add up.
[…] Here is what made it “click” for me: […]
This case stands in stark contrast to the many who enter our country illegally. One of my twitter friends though the family should have a baby here in the US.
But I heard the Home School Legal Defense Association plans to continue its appeals.
We can’t seem to send criminally offending illegal aliens back to their home country but this family for whom the initial judgment was that they could stay in the US, must not find asylum here in the US.
Indeed, I am praying for them. And for us.