They Wouldn’t Let Our Sons Be Friends

I’m Arnd, and I’ve been in Scientology for 36 years. And I was born in Krefeld. I currently live near Frankfurt. 

So my son had a friend in kindergarten, and then we got to know this other family—we actually liked them a lot, too, did things with them, went places, went out to eat, went on excursions—to the zoo, for example. And I told them that I’m actually a Scientologist. That led to the fact that a few days later they told us they no longer wanted any contact with us because we are Scientologists. So it made me a bit sad at the moment because my son didn’t understand that at all. Then I told him the truth. I told him, “Okay, listen. His parents don’t want to have anything to do with us because we have a different religion.” And then he understood that somewhat, but in reality, I don’t think he understands it to this day. Because that’s simply not understandable.

So, after kindergarten, primary school starts and we looked for a school for our son. We had three options in Dietzenbach, one was public and two were private. We informed ourselves about them and went to info nights. And we decided that the Montessori school in Dietzenbach would be the best fit for him. It sounded very promising until we got the application. I read the form, looked at my wife and said, “That can’t be.” It said that you can’t be a sympathizer, nor a member of the Church of Scientology. That was a shock for me. Because—what does that have to do with the child? My son is not allowed to go to school just because I maybe read a book about Scientology? I found that very, very, very far-reaching and very, very, very discriminatory.