Delicious Wingnut Outrage: Team Obama wins fight to have Christian home-school family deported

[JDPriestly]

58. Very odd, since religion is taught in German public schools.

Most of the federal states of Germany, which has a long history of almost even division between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, have an arrangement where the religious bodies oversee the training of mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religious education teachers. In one of the federal states this includes Orthodox Christian teachers as well. The training is supposed to be conducted according to modern standards of the humanities, at mostly state-run colleges and universities. Those teachers teach religion in public schools, are paid by the state but answerable to the churches for the content of their teaching; however they must not teach behaviour widely considered to be against the law. Children who are part of no mainstream religion or wish to opt out for another reason must usually attend neutral classes in "Ethics" or "Philosophy" instead. From the age of 14, children may decide on their own if they want to attend religion classes and if they do, which of those they are willing to take. For younger children it is the decision of their parents. The state also subsidizes religious schools by paying up to 90% of their expenses. These schools have to follow the same curricula as public schools of their federal state, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_education

In some places, Muslims can even participate in courses in their religion.

Germany’s Constitution stipulates that religion be part of school curriculum. The initiative was born out of the atrocities of the Nazi era, and aimed at giving young people an ethical foundation and a sense of identity. Roman Catholics and Protestants have conducted such classes (publicly funded) for decades, and Jews were given similar rights in 2003.

Muslims, however, have faced roadblocks. But some observers argue such classes could help Muslims, some 6 percent of the population, better integrate their religious and German identities. Now, pilot projects that are chipping away at the barriers represent the latest evidence of Germany’s changing attitude toward its booming Muslim minority.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0120/Why-German-public-schools-now-teach-Islam

Someone is really reaching to make a point. When I was a child, we attended an off-school-property after school class in religion. My father, a minister, did not agree with the theology of the fundamentalist teacher, but we had fun anyway. This family is simply inflexible in dealing with mainstream religion. They want to raise their children to think that everyone believes the same stuff their parents believe. It's a lie, and kids need to learn about diversity early.