A German school district's demand that Christian parents submit their 9- and 10-year-old children to a mandatory four-day state-run sex education program that violates their religious beliefs is being challenged now by a second family before the European Court of Human Rights.

The newest challenge is being raised by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Willi and Anna Dojan, who have eight children and are active in the Christian Evangelical Baptist Church.

WND reported earlier when the ADF launched a case brought by Eduard and Elisabeth Elscheidt, who challenged Germany's authority to violate their rights by demanding their child attend the indoctrination classes.

At the time, ADF attorney Roger Kiska told WND the case provides a good opportunity to further challenge Germany's opposition to parental influence in their children's education and the government's totalitarian-type ban on homeschooling.

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Now the Dojans are bringing a similar challenge to the German law after they were convicted of choosing to educate their daughter at home on the subject of sexuality instead of having her participate in the four-day school session and a play, both of which violate the family's Christian beliefs.

"Parents, not the government, are the ones ultimately responsible for making educational choices for their children," Kiska said. "These parents were well within their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights to opt to teach their children a view of sexuality that is in accord with their own religious beliefs instead of sending them to a class and stageplay they found objectionable.

"These types of cases are crucial battles in the effort to keep bad decisions overseas from being relied upon by activists who attack parental rights in America," he warned.

The Dojans were worried about the requirement that their 11-year-old daughter, Lilli, attend the "sexual education" course and a required "interactive play" called "My Body Is Mine."

The parents removed Lilli from the offensive play and accompanying lessons, although they did not withdraw their daughter from any other school programs or classes, the ADF said.

The lessons and plan, they said, contradicted their religious beliefs and violated their rights under Protocol 1, Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

They cited the school teachings that if something feels good sexually, then it is acceptable to do it.

After an extended court process, they were convicted and fined, and two subsequent appeals were rejected, so the ADF filed the petition to the European Court.

In the appeal, lawyers explain, the family objected to teaching children to become sexually active "by instilling in them that they are to observe their inner feelings on sexuality."

"Protocol 1, Article 2 … enjoins the state to respect parents' convictions, be they religious or philosophical, throughout the entire state education program," the appeal said.

"That duty is broad in its extent as it applies not only to the content of education and the manner of its provision but also to the performance of all the 'functions' assumed by the state. The verb 'respect' means more than 'acknowledge' or 'take into account,'" the appeal said.

"The failure of the German authorities to make reasonable accommodations in allowing applicants to educate their daughter at home on this very sensitive subject violates the substance of [EU precedent] and subordinates religious freedoms to other Articles of the Convention. In its essence, the punishment of the Dojans under the compulsory schooling laws creates an unnecessary clash of convention rights founded upon the state overstepping its supervisory authorities."

WND reported in 2006 when the ECHR affirmed Germany's nationwide ban on homeschooling, a leftover from its Nazi era that essentially said parents' desires for their children's education didn't matter.

But a higher branch of the same court a year later created an exemption allowing parents to withhold their children from mandatory religious teaching in public schools in a case that came from Norway.

Norway's requirement on religious teaching was ruled in violation of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Human Rights Convention and overturned. The ECHR said at the time, "The State must take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner. The State is forbidden to pursue an aim of indoctrination that might be considered as not respecting parents' religious and philosophical convictions."

It noted at the time that its finding would "have effects extending beyond the confines of this particular case, since the violation found stems directly from the contested legal framework and not from its manner of implementation."

Since the 2006 affirmation of Germany's ban on homeschooling WND has reported on numerous cases, many handled by the Home School Legal Defense Association, in which penalties and fines have been imposed against parents who object to permissive sexual teachings and objectionable material in public schools, prompting them to homeschool their children instead.

Several hundred families are believed to be homeschooling Germany. Virtually all are in some type of court proceeding or living underground.

One family even fled to the U.S. and has a request for asylum pending because of the persecution they would face if they returned.

Kiska told WND the ECHR already has admitted in the Norwegian case that parents have the right to decide what their children are taught and the right not to have them indoctrinated with mandatory religious classes in school.

The Strasbourg, France-based court in its 2006 decision said the parental "wish" to have their children grow up in a home without liberal sexual influences "could not take priority over compulsory school attendance." The decision also said the parents do not have an "exclusive" right to lead their children's education.

Germany's homeschooling ban dates to its Nazi era. A website for the Practical Homeschool Magazine noted one of the first acts by Adolf Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools and school-related issues.

In 1937, the dictator said, "The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."

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