Uwe and Hannelore Romeike family vs. Biden

The Biden administration is deporting a Christian family from Germany who legitimately fears persecution and should qualify for asylum, while allowing 99 percent of illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S., most of whom likely do not qualify for asylum.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike reportedly fled Germany in 2008 because they were threatened with prosecution and $9,000 fines for homeschooling their five children. The couple and their family have lived in Tennessee and filed for asylum. The family has thrived in the U.S., including having two children who are American citizens and two other children who married American citizens. Unfortunately, the U.S. authorities denied their asylum claim in 2013. After the Obama administration intervened, the family had been able to stay in the U.S. under an “indefinite deferred action status.”

Biden Admin Deports A Christian Family, But Not Illegal Immigrants (thefederalist.com)

New Data Reveal Biden Administration’s Failure to Remove Over 99% of Released Illegal Aliens, Fueling Border Crisis Concerns | House Judiciary Committee Republicans

Ideology of power

 Remember when Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s blamed all Germany's problems on Jews? The U.S. went to war to stop him. Now we have a fascist group in power in all areas of our culture from government to corporations to teachers unions who are blaming all their problems on a race, particularly white Christians. Was Hitler wrong because of the group he chose to hate, or because his ideology of blame was used to expand his power base? We can examine three civil wars going on right now in 2022--Ukraine/Russia, South Sudan and Ethiopia--where the same ideology is put forth about "otherness" to create dissension, division and disaster among those of the same nation/people/religion. But at the base is lust for power.  #TruthMatters.

2022 is the 500th anniversary of Luther's New Testament, 1522-2022

"German translations of the Bible have been around since the Middle Ages. After Gutenberg printed a Latin Bible in Germany around 1465, vernacular Bibles in German quickly followed. A Bible in High German was issued by Johannes Mentelin in Strasbourg in 1466. Low German vernacular Bibles were issued in Cologne in 1478 and 1479. In all, before Martin Luther issued his famous translation of the New Testament in 1522 (Luther’s full translation of the Bible was published in 1534), there were at least 18 editions printed of the complete Bible in German and several dozen editions of portions of the Bible, such as Gospel books and Psalters." https://scblog.lib.byu.edu/2013/04/24/german-bibles/

So, I suppose you could say this is a Brigham Young University Library (Mormon) source, but that's not the only source that reports on the many Bibles available in German before Luther's famous translation. Here's another one:

"By the time of Luther's birth in 1483, no fewer than nine such editions of the complete Bible in High German and two in Low German had appeared, with further ones still to come before the publication of the Reformer's "September Testament" in 1522. In fact, by the latter date, the total had increased to fourteen High-German and four Low-German editions of the entire Bible, to say nothing of editions of portions of Scripture and manuscript copies." https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/books/86/

Excerpt from the book, "German Bibles Before Luther, The Story of 14 High-German Editions," by Kenneth Strand, 1966. So why do I open a magazine from Fall 2022 (Lutheran Bible Translators Messenger) and read:

"Five hundred years ago, the German people lived in darkness. They needed relief and deliverance of the Gospel message. The church used a Latin translation, something only the educated understood. Some translations were available in other languages, but they were not very good."

Here's my take (and I'm a Lutheran in NALC, one of the newer synods):

1. To the victor belong the archives (this is a librarian axiom). All the easily available church history books are published by Protestant scholars and publishers, each of which has its own bias on the Bible and history,

 
2. Misinformation and disinformation is not a feature of just the 21st century. What we read, hear and "know" is cumulative, paraphrased, folded in on itself and sometimes just gossip. I read a few paragraphs in the Strand book (you can download it), and it would seem that before the early 20th century, no one even looked for older German translations.

3. Technology was changing lives and creating revolutions in the 15th century also, and Gutenberg did more for our learning and making information available quickly than Zuckerburg.

Just my thoughts.

Yon and Peterson discuss Pandemic, Famine and War

Sri Lanka used to be a food exporter, had a thriving economy. The government decided they needed to go "green" to save the planet (i.e. grab more power and control) and now people are starving and rioting. Netherlands was the 2nd largest exporter of agricultural products even with a population of only 17 million--that tiny country not only fed itself, but others--now truckers and farmers are rioting because power hungry greenies are going berserk. They are trying to demonize the farmers--killing their golden goose and the impact will be starvation for other countries. Yon and Peterson discuss that war creates war, and famine creates famine, and well, we all know about that pandemic. Yet smart intelligent American Democrats support the climate change lie which is trying to destroy agriculture and transportation, not only in developing countries, but in wealthy, well-fed countries.

https://youtu.be/R7gAEkzIgvw YouTube discussion July 28, 2022

https://aboutthenetherlands.com/why-does-the-netherlands-export-so-much-food/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/emotion-and-pain-as-dutch-farmers-fight-back-against-huge-cuts-to-livestock

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/20/what-is-behind-largest-protests-in-panama-in-years-explainer?

https://www.dw.com/en/german-farmers-eye-poor-harvest-urge-freeing-up-fallow-land/a-62650482?

Here's a moving comment on the discussion by a Dutch citizen:

"As a Dutch man I must admit that all the praise and applause for our country brought tears to my eyes. So much I actually paused the video (especially the part at 1:02:19 ). We live in a time where every sense of pride or patriotism is considered a bad thing, so much, in fact, that when other people acknowledge the accomplishments of your nation it (apparently) brings up incredible strong emotions. The cliché mentality of a Dutch person is: stop whining and do your job. Our mothers creed is: "bad weather does not exist only bad clothing". We usually shrug our shoulders and carry on with our lives. This no- nonsense mentality is the strongest within the farmers community. They withstand the horrible Dutch weather with lots of rain and howling winds that blow over the flat lands to feed everybody. Literally. Not just their community, or their country.... no a large part of the world. They are the sort of people that, until a couple of years ago, were characterized as more or less "emotionless". Now their land, their family business, that was so carefully built over generations is taken away from them. It is a bloody shame. They truly are the canary in the coalmine. I stand with them for 100%."

Hallelujah. Jesus is Lord

I can't verify the Hallelujah story, but it's a good one.

Erling Olsen in his Meditations in the Book of Psalms writes in 1937 (on Ps. 147, p. 1013) that the word Hallelujah (Praise the Lord) was taboo in Germany because it is a Hebrew word.

His book is enjoyable not only for all the history and analysis of the Psalms, but because he was living in and comments on the era of terrible economic depression, a time of terrible drought and crop loss, and the build up to WWII.

Hitler tried to blame all Germany's problems on the Jews and diminished them as human beings. Forbidding certain words is not new to our era--like stolen election or even an acronym like MAGA. It's typical in power grabs. Hitler considered Jews inferior to the German master race. He convinced many Germans that Jews weren't worthy of the rights enjoyed by other Germans even thought they'd been neighbors and friends for decades and centuries. That power enhancing trick is being used today by certain totalitarians in government, entertainment, business and education aided by Big Tech. Demonize Trump supporters and then on a larger scale, all white people, and on to Western Civilization and its core values. It's been a growing crescendo for at least 3 decades, maybe more. It's in "studies" curricula, "woke" speech, intersectional group speak, behavior demands, shadow banning and cancel culture. It's in the 1619 myth and in the climate change hysteria. We've been here before. The House Un-American Activities Committee lasted from 1938-1965, then got a name change. If you look at a list of the committee members in Wikipedia, by far the majority were Democrats.

Olsen says (it was a radio show later published in book form) Hallelujah is the language of heaven. Brush up on it now, he says, so you will be fluent when you get there. Olsen also warns us not to forget our knee exercises--don't forget to pray and praise. Our hearts can grow cold without praise.

The candy bombers; the untold story of the Berlin airlift and America's finest hour

Our book club (on Zoom these days) will be discussing "The Candy Bombers" by Andrei Cherny this Monday. It's an absorbing book, and the author is a beautiful, graceful writer and consummate researcher.  At first I thought I'd found someone who knew the similarities between Fascism and Communism--the flip sides of the same pancake, but after reading his bio (he's a Democrat and progressive with time in the Obama administration) he seems to be unaware of the dangerous path we're going down. Perhaps because this was published 12 years ago.  He's the son of Czech immigrants. 

It's frustrating that today's totalitarian Democrats keep referring to President Trump as a fascist, but perhaps they are just the CNN muddle brained social media arm chair historians, since Trump fits none of the check marks for a fascist.  Our newest president who seems to be a stand-in for Barack Obama's third term is locked arm in arm with Big Tech--a much better fit the classic definition.

That said, I do remember the airlift that saved Berlin, and America's finest hour, as the subtitle claims. That's how we learned it in school. We were the good guys.   I even remember some of the post WWII review Cherny provides and a few of the names who figure in this story, like Lucien Clay and James Forrestal.  But I can't imagine how I remember.  I was only 6 when the war ended, I didn't go to movies that much in the late 1940s that I would have seen news reels, and my family didn't have a TV.  Perhaps we did read about it in American history classes as seniors, about a decade later. In any case, reading about what happened between the closing of the war and the beginning of the airlift in this book can certainly leave a bad taste in the mouth.  Americans, and the other victors, were certainly not behaving in "the finest hour" image I learned in school. Germans were starving and dying of malnutrition while the victors were doing little about it, fulfilling Roosevelt's idea that they needed to be punished more severely than what happened after WWI in order to "learn a lesson."

Harry Truman has always been one of my favorite presidents, perhaps because he's the first one I remember.  On p. 183 the author describes March 1948 after the Communists seized control in Prague.  Truman was in the Florida Keys, and of course, the press was being critical for his being on vacation.  Cherny notes a letter he wrote to his daughter, Margaret (another president who confided in his daughter), that "the situation was just like when Britain and France were faced with in 1938-9 with Hitler.  A totalitarian state is no different whether you call it Nazi, Fascist, Communist or Franco Spain."

He wrote:  "A decision will have to be made.  I am going to make it.  I am sorry to have bored you with tis.  But you've studied foreign affairs to some extent and I just wanted you to know your Dad as President asked for no territory, no reparations, no slave laborers--only peace in the world.  We may have to fight for it.  The oligarchy in Russia is no different from the Czars, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Charles I and Cromwell.  It is a Frankenstein dictatorship worse than any of the others. Hitler included. "

And that's what we're slipping into with the Biden administration. A sycophant media. Hold overs from the Obama administration who've been strategizing for 4 years to take us back to being government dependents. An oligarchy composed of powerful Big Tech companies who are closing down all expressions of conservative thought while the political parties seem helpless to control them. 

Also, the inside negotiations and personality conflicts between many key players and the military and the politicians in DC which Cherny masterfully portrays are disturbing to read.  I suppose that is common to every government with the petty disagreements, party loyalties, and idiosyncratic behaviors. I just haven't read that much and found it difficult.

There were 3 conventions that summer of 1948--the third was the "progressive" (Democrats) with Henry Wallace, who had been Roosevelt's v.p. in his 3rd term, but was pushed aside (thankfully) by conservatives in the Democrat party.  I loved the description of the Progressives in 1948--nothing has changed:

 "The delegates were young--the average age was 30 and many were in their teens. 3/4 of the delegates were new to politics (McGovern was 26). 2 out of 5 were labor union members . . . the mood was merry. Each day began with a sing-along of folk music. (Pete Seeger). . . at any moment during the proceedings, there would be numerous huddles on the convention floor forming around young men and women who had spontaneously begun strumming a guitar. . . The party platform called for an increase in the minimum wage, a strong action against racial discrimination, national health insurance, a Dept. of Peace, higher levels of farm supports, guaranteed pensions for older Americans. . ." p. 315

The U.S was already having problems with the Communist threat inside, and Wallace didn't have the slightest complaint about Soviet Communism, but found fault with the American government 's attempt to move against domestic communists. Any delegate at the progressive convention who wanted to slip a word into the platform that might be anti-Soviet, was shut down.

Yes, it does all sound very familiar.

Hitler and the disabled—the slippery slope of the left

https://www.lifenews.com/2019/09/13/before-the-nazis-killed-jews-they-euthanized-hundreds-of-thousands-of-disabled-people/

The article he refers to appeared in the NYT in 2017, and there's a pay wall, but this is a decent summary--if there can be anything decent about the Nazis. The Democrats, Antifa, BLM, Occupy movement and pink hat Trump haters and Hollywood celebs have cheapened that word and its memories. I had read about this years ago, but many people don't know that methods were tested on the disabled. Germany actually had some outstanding facilities for children and adults with challenges. Imagine the horror of the parents and siblings who came to visit or look for them! Hitler also learned from the Turks who slaughtered many thousands of Armenians. It's the power of the state--National Socialism (aka Nazi)--and it's the very thing President Trump is resisting. But Trump's enemies are clever--they know that most people don't know history, don't know the meaning of words, even, and that the big lie can be repeated and repeated until their minds are mushy. Hitler's socialist model first killed his own citizens before moving beyond the borders.

German immigrant Sandra came after 9/11

“I am very much for immigration as I did this. I did the paperwork. I did the doctor visits. Blood work, chest x ray and physical. My mother had to give her financial info and so did my husbands family. Not really a pleasant thing to go through but I wanted to move here so I did all that was necessary to get it done. I stayed a “legal alien” for many years until I felt home was the US and not Germany anymore.

To see people cut in line and totally ignore the laws of this country really bothers me. It’s unfair and quite frankly super disrespectful to the people that you claim you want to live with.
America first is long overdo as I heard the “Ami get out” during the times I lived in Germany. They want your money and protection but not your presence or opinion. When crap goes down they want the US to come and clean it up. For free.

No, enough is enough.

I am tired of the lies told every day. We Trump supporters are not racist. As a matter of fact I only hear and see rich liberals pointing out skin color.

It’s a plan orchestrated for 2020. Let’s paint Trump as a racist and all his supporters will be ashamed and sadly frightened to wear their MAGA hats. It’s started people and the media only shows what they want us to see.

Stay positive, be kind, talk to family and friends. Lead by example. But call out the liars and expose them.”

From her Walk away post.

White hoods and black hoodies--who are the real fascists?

"At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."" (Wikipedia)

"Yes, there is a fascist threat in America—but that threat is from the Left and the Democratic Party. The Democratic left has an ideology virtually identical with fascism and routinely borrows tactics of intimidation and political terror from the Nazi Brownshirts." (Dinesh D'Souza)

D'Souza in his book The Big Lie says to implement the Nuremberg Laws used the laws implemented by Democrats in the U.S. to determine racial identity, except they modified the "one drop" rule--the Nazis thought that was excessive.

Today Progressives suppress their nasty, vile history, and have moved fascism to the right wing column and distance themselves. If they admit it, it is simply "America," and not the Democrat party of the 19th and 20th century who imposed Jim Crow.  Today, we have Antifa--which is basically fascism, and Democrats won't denounce them. No free speech for fascists, right? Word play and twisting. And increasingly, Trump's Jewish children are being attacked, as bankers were in the last administration, because "everyone" knows who controls the banks. The Jews. The pattern continues.

The leftists who got tired of crying "Russia, Russia, Russia" and now realize Obama hacked the election, have turned to KKK smears, white supremacist links, nationalism, etc. Do Democrats remember the KKK was their terrorist organization and how many years Republicans fought their lynching terrorism? Democrats also know, from electing Donald Trump with constant negative publicity, they can do the same with the KKK. Encourage its growth by giving them free advertising. They are the modern fascists--who else would require citizens to purchase a crappy product and then fine or jail them if they refused?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9YRmWFPZH0

Germany's school system gives parents no out

 “What is happening in Germany [in sexualization programs in state schools], and in many other EU countries, goes way beyond what we have witnessed so far in our own country. It’s a particular problem in Germany where parents have no escape, other than leaving the country. Germany has a highly restrictive, mandatory education law, which effectively forces parents to send their children to schools run mainly by the state. Moreover, the law absolutely forbids homeschooling. Parents are trapped into exposing their children to the most degrading sexual education imaginable.”

According to this author, the German Catholic Church has been no help in stopping this usurpation of parental rights. I would assume the same is true for Lutherans and evangelicals in Germany.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/11/15/destroying-freedom-in-the-name-of-freedom/

German Muslims join ISIS, then return to Germany

“Former militants who used to fight in the ranks of so-called Islamic State (former ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist groups against the troops of the Syrian and Iraqi governments are now coming home, raising the threat of potential terror attacks to a new high, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told Bild am Sonntag.

The number of potential attackers currently living in Germany is “higher than ever before,” de Maiziere said, estimating the number of German citizens joining terrorists at 760 people, about one-fifth of them women, who usually do not fight among jihadists, but rather “assisting” the terrorists “in other ways,” de Maiziere said.

The vast majority of Germans fighting in Syria and Iraq are men in their 20s who were raised in Germany and had German or double citizenship, De Maiziere added.

According to the minister, some 120 German citizens have died in the conflict in the Middle East; while about 200 have managed to return back home. The rest is still somewhere out there, participating in terrorist activities, he added.”

Europe closed its eyes—all countries, not just Germany—to the dangers of their insipid multiculturalism, where all cultures are of equal value, and the U.S. is going down that path.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/23112015-germany-760-citizens-have-joined-islamic-state-200-returned-home/

The irony of Obama’s speech in the former East Germany—behind a very thick wall

From the east side of the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama gave an extraordinary speech today sketching out his plans for a new global order in which traditional national security interests will be replaced by a collective approach to everything from global warming to nuclear weapon capability.

The irony, of course, is that President Obama was free to stand on the formerly-Soviet side of the Brandenburg Gate and opine about global peace with justice because of the strength of the very nuclear arsenal he now proposes to dismantle. While the President claimed today that at the end of the Cold War, “Openness won. Tolerance won. And freedom won here in Berlin,” the reality is that the United States of America won. The Berlin wall did not come down simply because the German people dreamed of freedom. The Berlin came wall down because an American President distilled his policy towards the Soviet Union into a simple formula: “We win, they lose.”

If history be our guide, although the notion of “peace with justice” that the President mentioned ten times in his speech may sound appealing, we will be far better served by President Reagan’s policy of “peace through strength,” which cannot be achieved by appeasement or yet another round of nuclear cuts by the Obama administration.

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Stalin and Hitler were both rulers of socialist nations, just a slight difference of opinion on who should be killed. I've never forgotten the simple little museum we visited in Estonia. They really, truly thought the Americans would come any day and free them from the Soviets after WWII. In Finland the wounds are still not healed.

What the author Timothy Snyder "calls the bloodlands were the territories of eastern Poland and western Soviet Union, including the Baltic states, which had the misfortune to be controlled at different times by two of the most murderous leaders in history: Stalin and Hitler. As a result 14 million people were deliberately murdered in that zone between 1932 and 1945, until 1939 almost exclusively by Stalin and afterwards by Stalin and Hitler together." . . .

"Stalin could not admit that collectivization of the farms had failed in the early 1930s and so millions had to die for his refusal to face this reality. His commissars on the ground even saw peasants dying of starvation as saboteurs undermining the Soviet economy. And Stalin’s paranoia about foreign plots drove the Great Terror and his attitude to returning Soviet prisoners of war, most of whom were sent to the Gulag.

Hitler, in turn rather, than accept the folly of his war policy, blamed the Jews for the circle of enemies around him: Britain, the USA and Russian and therefore made their annihilation the only remaining war aim once he was on the defensive."

From the blog Creativeconflictwisdom

I won't read this book; I just began reading last week the Prologue and first two chapters of Bonhoeffer by Metaxas and that's about as much evil and demon possession I can handle for now. Those of you who fancy yourselves do-good humanists or socialists/progressives will continue to blame two crazy, psychotic sociopaths, and never examine the political system that allowed them to create their killing machines.

Could this be why attendance at German Mass is so low? They're Protestants?

"In anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI's forthcoming visit to his homeland, more than two hundred German theologians -- men and women who have earned doctoral degrees in theology and teach in German universities -- have issued a manifesto, "The Church in 2011: A Necessary Departure." The manifesto itself does not identify the destination for which the Church is to depart, but the terminus ad quem seems reasonably clear from a careful reading of the document: Catholicism is to transform itself into another liberal Protestant sect by conceding virtually every point at issue between classic Christianity and the ambient culture of the post-modern West.

It is, perhaps, no surprise to find German Catholic theologians publicly supporting the ordination of married men and women to the ministerial priesthood (overtly), same-sex "marriage" (slyly), and full communion within the Church for those in irregular marriages (subtly but unmistakably). These causes have been espoused for years. German theologians dissented en masse from the 1993 teaching of Veritatis Splendor on the nature of moral acts and from the 1994 teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis on the Church's inability to admit women to Holy Orders. What was particularly striking about this new manifesto was its attempt to address serious problems with tried-and-failed solutions. That bespeaks a remarkable lack of intellectual creativity and historical sense." Continue reading here

Volga Germans--The Mennonites

One of the languages of the German Mennonites of Russia is Plattdeutsch, also called Low-German . I first came across this story reading the Wycliffe Bible translators page about translating scripture for Germans from Kazakhstan resettled in Germany, who didn't know German. Most of us scattered around the world who have German roots trace back to pre-Germany days--i.e. there was no country known as Germany when my ancestors arrived in the United States. In fact, there was no United States in the 1720s, and they'd all pledged loyalty to the King of England. My Mennonite roots go back to Hannah, the brave widow of Hans Wenger, a weaver of Bern, Switzerland, who with the help of friends and family, emigrated to American for religious freedom in 1749.

Here is an account of the wanderings of the Mennonites who ended up in Russia. "The Mennonites occupy a special place among the Germans [of Siberia]. When the Mennonites left the Netherlands in the sixteenth century and resettled in Prussia, they did not see themselves as sharing a common origin. Among them were people of Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, and Lower Saxon ancestry. Two basic types of speech had been maintained by the Mennonites— molochnenskii and khortintskii. However, they took as a common language a Low German dialect (Plattdeutsch). As a result of their religious isolation, the Mennonites did not mix with the local peoples and thus maintained their traditional customs. At times they joined their different confessional groups into one ethno confessional unit. During and since the resettlement the Mennonites have been officially registered as Germans; most scholars think of the Mennonites as Germans. The Siberian Mennonites themselves trace their ancestry to Germans, although they also emphasize their Dutch origins."

Siberian Mennonites extend welcome to visiting Americans


Freedom has done what the Soviet Communists couldn't: "In the Germanic language family, Plautdiitsch claims a special place. Its long isolation from other German dialects and its close contacts have given it a specific character, which to some extent can be compared to that of Yiddish. The Plautdiitsch language, the sole descendant from the many West Prussian Low German dialects once spoken in the Weichsel delta area, is now spoken by Mennonites in many countries and has partly taken over the religious factor as the main identity marker. It is a pity that a language, that managed to survive centuries of isolation and many years of prohibiti­on, should now disappear where it has long had its most speakers - in Siberia. The increasing emigration to Germa­ny has left many Mennonite villages russified more than decades of Soviet Russification policy could accomplish. The Plautdiitsch speakers who choose to stay find it more and more difficult to provide their children with a Plautdi­itsch speaking environment, and in the long run it must be feared the language will lose much ground to Russian. In Germany, the children of Russian Mennonite immigrants will almost certainly only have passive knowledge of Plautdi­itsch.

One can only hope the language will survive in North America and in the isolated colonies in South America, where a revival can be observed." From the article "Plautdietsch, a Germanic language related to Dutch and Frisian, spoken in Siberia"

Canada has a Plattdeutsch radio station. You can listen here--pod cast. I listened to a poem in Plattdeutsch from Russia, and the rhythm was definitely Russian/Slavic; this sounds English.

The Volga Germans--still on the road after all these years

Immigration is always in the news. Borders open and then close--mostly for economic and political reasons, only occasionally for humanitarian. Ethnic minorities clash with nationals whose families arrived maybe 300-400 years ago. Somalis in Finland have to learn Swedish, the 2nd language of Finland due to the Swedish control of centuries, and returning Finns from Russia don't speak either Finnish or Swedish. It happens in all countries in all ages. In our typically self-centered way, Americans believe we are either the best or the worst at assimilating and resettling new peoples within our borders.

Several centuries ago, Catherine the Great of Russia (a German) invited Germans to resettle in Russia with their skills and thrift. Much like the European who immigrated to the United States around the same time, these Germans took their language, religion, customs and culture to Russia for a fresh start. They became known as the Volga Germans. They flourished economically and culturally, maintaining their German ways, until Stalin became worried about their loyalties to Germany (where they had never lived), and gave them 24 hours to relocate in Kazakhstan, USSR. In less than month one million were deported like animals and dumped in a strange country. They lost their possessions, and many lost their lives in forced labor camps. Most were Protestants, many were Lutherans, but a large number were Mennonites.

After the reunification of Germany in the 1990s, ethnic Germans were given the right to return to Germany, and so many Kazakhtan Volga Germans resettled in Germany. The older people who returned in the 70s still spoke high German, but recent arrivals speak "low German," or the younger Germans only know Russian. Some have now reversed this decision and returned to their "homeland" in Kazakhstan (where they are the second largest minority) rather than be outsiders in Germany who speak the language with difficulty, or don't want to learn it. The Wycliffe Bible Translators has a ministry to the ethnic Volga Germans in their own low German dialect, keeping with their mission of creating the Good News in the "heart language" of the people.

Meanwhile, in the 19th century, many Volga Germans moved to middle west and western United States to work in farming, particularly the sugar beet industry. In the 1970s before the memories and traditions of these scattered Germans whose ancestors had wandered all over Europe and Russia were lost, oral histories were recorded and are available at the Colorado State University archives in Ft. Collins. I've been reading through a few of the accounts by older members of this group (born in the late 1800s), and after you establish the rhythm of the stories, you come away with fresh appreciation for immigrant groups in the United States, who gave up everything (often very little) to start a new life (also with very little).

MAR data as of 2006 on Kazakh Volga Germans

FEEFHS stories Family Histories of Survivors of Stalin's Labor Camps

Whatever happened to the Ideal City?

The people have moved away. "Today (2005) no one in Germany refers to . . . suburbs as "monotonous." This term is instead reserved for the grey slabs of concrete that most people are abandoning as fast as they can. Throughout Europe, high-rise apartments are increasingly becoming ghettos for Muslim and other foreign "guest workers."

Read a fascinating article about Halle-Neustadt (referred to as Hanoi by residents), a high-density, soviet-built city in East Germany that some urban planners once rated “the most sustainable city in the world” by the Antiplanner. Terrific photos.

Unity, social action and the weakened church of Europe

So what was happening to the church in the early 20th century that allowed it to be mowed down like wet grass by the National Socialists? (see previous entry) My grasp of 20th century history is pretty much limited to what I was taught in school or saw in the movies (i.e., FDR was our savior even though he extended the Depression 8 years; we were the good guys in WWII and bad guys in all following wars) and what I lived through. Keep in mind, I was either a humanist or a Democrat most of my adult life, or too busy raising a family, and working toward academic promotion and tenure to pay much attention to anything beyond the campus and home on Abington. Here’s a brief summary of about the first 40 years of the European Lutheran church in the 20th century from History of Lutheranism by Eric W. Gritsch (Fortress, 2002).

1) Ecumenism
2) Doctrine divides, service unites

Now, I realize it was a bit more complicated than that, but the leader of the ecumenical movement and all the cleverly named organizations and conferences that mushroomed (mostly in Europe with some participation of American churches) was a Swedish Lutheran, Nathan Söderblom (January 15, 1866-July 12, 1931). He was a man of deep longing for unity among Christians, a goal to which he devoted his life and studies, while pursuing eastern religions and dabbling in Marxism. Just skipping through the highlights of his life in Chapter 7, "New Ventures, 1918- :

1890 International Student Conference (New Haven)
1901 Young Church Movement, with links to Swedish socialists; studies Persian religion in Paris
1908 Proposal for Christian unity with Anglicans and mission work in India
1912-13 Professor at University of Leipzig, Germany
1914 Appointed archbishop of Sweden; Declaration of Peace and Christian Fellowship
1914 Unity efforts set aside by WWI with focus on helping orphaned German and Austrian children as head of World Alliance of Churches for Promoting International Friendship as a way to unite Christians in social action despite national and doctrinal differences
1917 Manifesto signed by leading clerics of Europe calling for a durable peace;
1917 International Christian conference--hand picked delegates; unity, life in society, international law were the topics
1919 World Alliance International Committee, 60 attendees from 14 countries (Netherlands)
1920 Negotiations for Ecumenical Council/Conference for unity and renewal of society (Geneva)
1925 Universal Conference of the Church of Christ on Life and Work (Stockholm) with six topics: 1) church’s obligation to the world, 2) church and economic and industrial problems, 3) church and social and moral problems, 4) church and the mutual relations of nations, 5) church and Christian education, and 6) methods of practical and organizational cooperation between Christian communions
1927 World Conference on Faith and Order (Lausanne); seven topics many doctrinal on sacraments, gospel, nature of the church--much tension--no vote taken
1930 Received Nobel Prize for peace
1931 Gifford lectures, honoring his work on world religions and the mystical unity of humankind

With his life, the chapter parallels what was happening in Germany to the church (mostly Lutherans, since this is a book about Lutherans) who have been participating all along in these calls for unity, cooperation, and mission to social causes

1932 German Lutherans who support Hitler (Reichskirche) and “heroic piety” call for a revival of inner mission and a platform to fulfill the intentions of the Reformation of the 16th century
1933 Hitler elected during economic crisis with the Jews blamed for all of Europe’s economic woes (i.e., evil, greedy, capitalist CEOs); he promises a new Germany; rise of secularization, churches lose influence; the government coordinates all sectors of public and private life.
1933 The Nazis first affirmed support of religious freedom, except when public security was threatened, and ties with ecumenism in other parts of Europe are halted
1934 German confessing church (bekennende Kirche) putting the gospel first, repudiates the false teachings of the government and many eventually go to prison camps and death.
1937 Second Conference for Faith and Order (Edinburgh)
1937 Conference on Life and Work (Oxford) Hitler barred Germans from attending
1938 German pastors are required to sign a loyalty oath or lose their ministry and salary
1939-1945 (World War II) The rise of German National Socialism (and Italian Fascism) during which the believing churches are suppressed; those who support the government (majority) allowed to continue.
1945 Surviving leaders of the German Confessing church establish Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany

In an effort to save the environment, I think the churches of today could just dust off a few of these documents (if they can find them), especially that one in 1925 with the 6 main topics has a very familiar ring, don't you think? Works for PAJAMA Christians.

European media are much worse than ours

I might go on and on about Katie, Charlie and Chris, but visits to Germany, Finland and Italy in the past three years actually made me feel a tingle (ala Chris Matthews) for our American Media. I think I wrote that while in Finland (where you can't even figure out the street names unless they are in Swedish) I got so desperate for something to read while drinking coffee, that I actually bought a Time Magazine, about half of which covered sports. It had probably been 40 years. Germany was hopeless, as was Italy. Even if you found an "international" edition, the Bush bashing was beyond anything we see or hear (unless you can tolerate the cat littering in the Kos Kids sandbox). There is a German blog written in English on the German media bias. Not too many years ago, about 20% of Americans had German ancestry, far more than English, although that is our language. In my family tree, my German ancestors used a form of German for about 100 years, before really getting the hang of English in the early 19th century. I think that has changed, reflecting our deplorable border protection, and the tinkering done during the Great Society with our ethnic quotas.Click to enlarge

A shrill yet influential segment of the German media has repeatedly sought to exploit and exacerbate transatlantic differences. This weblog is a watchdog site dedicated to the documentation of anti-Americanism in German media and the negative influence it has on Germans’ perceptions of the United States. German media coverage of the United States is frequently marked by one-sidedness, ideology, stereotypes, clichés and factual errors Davids Medienkritik is a collection of critical postings written by those who run this blog (David and Ray) on the German media. Occasionally we also publish political postings that have no connection to any particular media organization, particularly if the topic is current and plays an important role in public discussion.

American liberals, progressives and Democrats should stop running after the European popularity vote. They don't like us, and except for a few years in the 1940s, never did. We didn't really help all that much in WWI, jumping in at the last minutes. We're always dabbling, then running away like we did in Korea and Vietnam, and like the Obamanationals wanted us to do in the middle east. I think they know that.

We are them--we are the descendants of the people who were kicked out, run off, starved out, bombed out, or sent on prison ships who built a new society where people of hundreds of ethnic groups, religions and cultures did what Europe's little city states and kingdoms were never able to do until the Euro and the threat of Islam forced them in to it--we worked together and built a country. We hung it all on a Constitution and Bill of Rights that the candidate the Europeans admire so much disrespects as being a collection of negatives, and wants to edit. Gosh, no wonder they will bow to him for a few weeks or months. He's one of them.

American Daughter recommends

"Look to Germany for extreme media bias regarding the upcoming US presidential election. Two astute German/English bloggers at Davids Medienkritik keep a watch on the German media’s commentary on the American scene. They have just documented an astounding instance of negative bias."

HT American Daughter