German government vs. Christian converts

German government vs. Christian converts January 24, 2017

refugees-B-INThe German government is mistreating ex-Muslim immigrants who have converted to Christianity, according to Rev. Gottfried Martens (a Lutheran pastor in fellowship with the LCMS) who has evangelized and baptized over a thousand of them).

He says hearing boards on their immigration applications are testing their Christianity by asking them questions such as “what are the names of the two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son?” and “What did Martin Luther die of?”  And they are mocking what they say about Christianity, about how Christ has died for their sins.

Pastor Martens has written a letter detailing his charges.  Read what he is complaining about after the jump.

From Christian Pastor Slams Germany’s ‘Kangaroo Court’ Hearings Into Migrant Conversions | Christian News on Christian Today:

Germany is rejecting applications for asylum from Iranian and Afghan converts to Christianity following “kangaroo court” hearings, according to a Berlin pastor.

In a letter to supporters of his ministry sent before Christmas and reported by World Watch Monitor, Rev Gottfried Martens, who has baptised more than 1,000 former Muslims accused the “almost exclusively Muslim translators” in the hearings of deliberately falsely translating the converts’ responses to jeopardise their applications.

In a damning indictment of the working of the Ministry for Immigration and Refugees (BAMF), he said: “Almost all congregational members and candidates for baptism are having their hearings scheduled well-nigh simultaneously, and yet the only qualification of those charged with hearing their cases has often added up to no more than a three-week course; many are manifestly clueless about the situation of Christians in Iran and Afghanistan, and worse yet they are utterly clueless concerning questions relating to the Christian faith.

“But all of this does not prevent them from assuming the role of self-appointed experts, whose questions ‘unmask’ the supposedly deceitful Iranian asylum applicants one after another, even when those hearing the cases don’t even know the difference between the Creed and the Our Father.”

He said applicants were asked questions such as the names of the two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son, or what Martin Luther died of.

“In this way Christians who learned the first elements of the Christian faith in their house church in Iran are well and truly hung out to dry,” he said. “Many hearings are more like kangaroo courts in which our congregational members and candidates for baptism have absolutely no chance of presenting what is important to them. And then they must repeatedly undergo being mocked and laughed at when they relate how it is important to them that Jesus Christ died for their sins on the Cross.”

[Keep reading. . .] 

 

Photo:  Pastor Gottfried Martens baptizing a Muslim immigrant.  LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford.  LCMS News & Information.

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