The
Norwegian agency for child welfare services, the Barnevernet, has seized all
five children of Marius and Ruth Bodnariu, and put them up for adoption,
allegedly, because the children were being “indoctrinated” into Christianity.
As reported by Christian News Net, and other internet sources, on Monday Nov. 16 2015,
officials from the Barnevernet, went to Vevring School in Naustdal to
interrogate the two Bodnariu girls, Eliana (9) and Naomi (7). The visit was at
the instance of the Principal who was concerned that the brilliant and active
girls risked being psychologically “handicapped” through the Christian “indoctrination”
they were receiving at home.
Specifically, the girls, who sometime sing
Christian songs at school (a practice apparently not expected at a public school in
Norway) were being taught by their parents and grandmother that God punishes
sin! In inviting the Barnevernet, the
Principal clearly expressed her conviction that the children were not being
subjected to any physical abuse at home.
She requested only that the parents would be counselled and corrected
with respect to what she considered their “radical” Christian teaching on sin
being offensive to God.
However, the Bodnarius only learnt about the whole issue when officials
of the Barnevernet arrived their home, together with police officers, to also
take into custody, the two younger boys (Mathew – 5yrs, and John – 2yrs)! The Barnevernet returned yet again the next
day to pick up 4 month old baby Ezekiel into custody. Indeed, Marius and Ruth themselves were
temporarily put into custody, but were released when they were deemed to be
non-violent.
On Nov. 18, the Barnevernet announced to
Ruth Bodnariu that the children had been split up and were being cared for by
three different families.
When the school principal saw that the
actions of the Barnevernet were far in excess of her complaints, she stopped
cooperating with the officials. However,
that was too late, as apparently, she was no longer needed for the Barnevernet
to continue with their agenda.
Marius Bodnariu’s brother, Daniel, who is
a pastor, has written a statement providing more details relevant
to the case. For instance, it is quite
clear that Marius and Ruth were loving parents who especially love
children. In fact the couple first met
while serving (Ruth as a volunteer) at a Foundation for homeless children.
Their house was full of various toys and musical instruments bought to
facilitate sound development of the children, and they regularly took their
children on foreign vacations, including to the Disneyland in the US. It is
utterly preposterous suggesting they were abusive or psychopathic!
So far, all legal efforts by the Bodnarius
to have their children returned have failed, while the Barnevernet stridently
goes on with procedures to have the children taken up for adoption. At the
hearing on November 30, the judge ruled that the Bodnarius may visit baby
Ezekiel for two hours twice a week, the
older boys once a week, but never to visit the girls at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Welfare_Services_%28Norway%29#Bodnariu_case
However, actually it wasn’t until 3rd
December that Marius and Ruth first got to know the actual, official nature of
the charges against them. The careful and extensive medical and physical checks
on the children (including X-ray and CT scans) had failed to produce any iota
of evidence that the children were being abused. Nevertheless, the Barnevernet
latched onto the supposed statements by the two girls that on occasions when they
did wrong, their father has had cause to spank them with his “fist and
feet”.
As for baby Ezekiel, the Barnevernet cited
a statement supposedly made by one of the girls alleging physical abuse on a
particular occasion. According to the
Barnevernet: “the baby was shaken by the father as a rag, the mother didn’t
react nor report the father’s actions, as such there is no support for the
children and they are in danger.”
Marius very well recalled the incident. An otherwise joyful occasion for him, as baby
Ezekiel made his first moves at grabbing objects. He reached for his daddy’s glasses, and the
man responded with joy over the child.
Perhaps one of the girls, under intense probing referred to that as violence,
and the Barnevernet has latched on to that, discountenancing the reasonable
explanations from the parents. Of
course, it is instructive that in “civilized” countries, the citizens are
deemed so irresponsible that government officials would demand of them
explanations of how they even play with their own babies!
Subsequently it was suggested to a highly
traumatised Ruth that she might be able to get her children back quite quickly
if she would give a written declaration reporting Marius as violent and
physically abusive! Ruth firmly rejected
the obnoxious but meant-to-be-helpful suggestion!
It’s encouraging that many outraged people
all across the world are protesting the ugly developments. International
protest on behalf of the beleaguered Bodnuri family is building via
Facebook while physical demonstrations at the Norwegian embassies are planned
in 24 countries so far, including Russia, Poland, India, Slovakia, Denmark,
Ireland, Romania, England, Czech, Belgium, Germany as well as in the USA and
Canada.
Church Arise! urges readers in Nigeria to
kindly take the time to send in a note to the Norwegian embassy at Abuja to
express their dismay at this development, and request for the immediate return
of the Bodnariu children to their family. Your polite but firm letter should be
addressed to The Ambassador, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Abuja, 54, T.Y. Danjuma
Street, Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria. Emails
may be sent through: emb.abuja@mfa.no.
(see a sample of the one we sent in on our blog, http://churcharise.blogspot.com.ng/2016/01/appeal-to-ambassador-of-norway-in.html)
In the meantime, the Romania Insider
reports that Norwegian authorities have opened the adoption process for the
children – even while the case is yet to be properly heard at Court. In a similar case some two years ago, the
Radulescu family, won their case against the Barnevernet at the Supreme Court
of Norway. Barnevernet however, allegedly is still keeping the children at
fosters’ while going ahead with the process of adoption. The agency is
reportedly arguing that “such a long time has passed and now it is going to be
traumatic for the children to be returned to their parents." They might be hoping for a similar argument
in this case.
According to Wikipedia,
“Norway, like most
of Scandinavia, is very liberal in
regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
(LGBT) rights and it indeed was the first country in the world to enact
an anti-discrimination law protecting homosexuals in certain areas “ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Norway. Transgenders are required to be
sterilized and so, with increasing numbers of transgenders and homosexuals
getting married, the only avenue for them to get children (mainly for
indoctrination into LGBT lifestyle) is by adoption. There is clearly considerable pressure to get
highly intelligent children like the Bodnariu’s in the adoption market. Hence,
despite the large international outrage generated, this case might still take a
good while and a good fight before Marius and Ruth would get back their
children.
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