Tolerance Limited for German Christians

By Dale Hurd
CBN News
February 9, 2007

CWNews.com – COLOGNE, Germany - Today’s Germany likes to think of itself as “tolerant.” All sorts of lifestyles are embraced by their society: homosexuality, trans-genderism, even radical Islam.

But some say that tolerance has a limit, and it apparently stops at the door of one Bible-believing church.

The church, called Christliche Gemeinde Köln or Christian Church of Cologne, says it has had to endure years of government harassment and discrimination, even having its tax-exempt status temporarily revoked.

The church and the homes of several church leaders were raided by tax police last year. And the church now stands accused of tax evasion.

Germany is where Protestant Christianity began. And yet this spirit-filled, Bible-based Church, which would be commonplace in America, is looked upon with suspicion as a dangerous cult, and a sinister influence.

The church is led by American Pastor Dr. Terry Jones.

Jones said, “If you’re a part of this church, you can lose your job, you could have your kids taken away from you.”

American attorney Joel Thornton is helping defend the church.

“If you called and asked someone in the government here in Cologne, ‘What do you think about this church?’ -- they would tell you that this is a ‘sect,’ which in Germany means a dangerous cult, which means you’re in danger of losing your life here in some way,” explained Thornton.

This local newspaper story about the church accuses it of “psycho-terror.” This article says the church “perverts the biblical message,” and uses “psychological tricks” that can lead to health problems.

An undercover news investigation on German national television once compared the church’s charismatic worship service to the film The Exorcist.

This, about a church that is one of the largest private charities in Cologne, donating food, clothing, and furniture to the poor, through its charitable arm, the Lisa Jones Haus.

Pastor Rob Robinson said, “We have 200 to 300 people that line up every morning to get free bread.”

Robinson says that the various Lisa Jones Haus locations donate about five million tons of furniture each year, and serve 50,000 free meals. But the church still accumulates so many donated items that it set up a for-profit taxable company to sell unwanted items on E-Bay.

German tax laws are so stringent that even a church bookstore in Germany must be taxed. So to make sure they obeyed the law, the church set up a taxable for-profit company.

“God has blessed us so much we’ve had to take the money and invest it,” Robinson said.

But Germany is a country where the churches are not supposed to be successful. In fact, the state churches are mostly empty, and get most of their operating money through government handouts.

And when tax officials thought the church was intentionally evading taxes, they launched a massive simultaneous morning raid on the church, the Lisa Jones Haus locations, and even the homes of the church workers.

Robinson said, “I’m standing there at 7:30, I’m on the phone, and I’m getting one telephone call after another from panicked Church workers wondering why German tax agents were looking through their files, under mattresses, even removing carpeting.

Pastor Rob’s wife Erica watched agents ransack her home, seizing the family’s computers and financial records, even going through their underwear drawers.

Erica said, “They were convinced…they were convinced that we were criminals.”

“We’ve given 22 years of our lives for this country,” she said. “We’ve held nothing back. We’ve raised five children to serve God in this country, for this country. We have laid down the best years of our lives for this country, and this is what you get.”

Ronald Reichert is an elder in the church and also a noted German attorney who is representing the church in court.

Reichert said, “There is a culture of suspicion because it is a church, a religious organization that does not fit normal patterns and normal expectations of German society. There’s this feeling there must be something wrong about this…and they’re trying to prove this. They were trying to do so from the very beginning.”

But the case against the church is apparently not going well, because the tax authority of North Rhine Westphalia has already dropped one of the charges of tax evasion. Reichert expects the church to be completely exonerated, after which it intends to sue the tax authority for breaking the law.
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This doesn't surprise me at all. The sentiment described in the article is the same here in France. Spirit-filled churches are considered suspicious and cult-like. You can access this article here.