A family court in Germany will decide this afternoon whether the children of Christian couple Dirk and Petra Wunderlich should be taken out of state care and returned home to their parents.
At the end of August a ‘Task Force’ of 20 police and social workers raided the Wunderlich home and took the four children (aged 7-14) away by force.
Why? Because Dirk and Petra were giving their children a Christian education by homeschooling them. In German law, home education is banned.
Why we should care about this in the UK
Not all Christian parents will want to homeschool their children. But it remains an important Biblical principle that parents have the final say over what their children are taught, not the state.
The action of the German authorities is state intrusion of the worst kind. This kind of intrusion is becoming a pan-European problem and it’s being manifested in different ways in different jurisdictions.
Here in Britain, a Scottish head teacher was redeployed recently because she allowed a Christian group to teach the Bible to children. The chaplain was also suspended.
Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern and Christian Legal Centre, was in Germany earlier this week to discuss with other lawyers what can be done to stop this worrying trend. She also met Dirk and Petra Wunderlich whilst she was there.
Pray
Dirk and Petra’s children have been in state care since the end of August. Today the family court in Darmstadt will make a decision whether they can return home to their parents. Needless to say, this has been a heart wrenching time for the whole family.
So please pray for the Wunderlich family today, remembering that their struggles are part of a wider hostility towards Christian faith:
- That the children would be allowed to return home
- That this case would highlight the state intrusion that is taking place so that the law can be changed
- That the family would know the peace of God at this time
Video report coming soon…
We have one of our staff over in Germany at the moment covering this story because it’s so important. We’ll have a video about this case ready in the next day or two. Look out for it in our Christian Weekly News email which we will send tomorrow.