Blog: The Waterkamps Declare Independence - 2012-08-08

The Waterkamps Declare Independence August 8, 2012, Marty Rathbun, Moving On Up a Little Higher

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Gerhard Waterkamp and his family are living testament to the power of the Code of Honor. They stood up to the German government and now they are standing up to its latest alter ego - corporate Scientology.

The Waterkamps

I was born and raised in Germany in a roman catholic family. At age 14 I cognited that the Roman Catholic church was in the majority not a spiritual organization concerned with the advancement of the spiritual aspects of humanity, but an organization with the purpose of controlling populations. There were a lot of good Christian people in the church and I loved some of the monks in the Dominican order I where I served as an Altar boy and ran youth groups for the church. But really, the church was just there as a control operation. So I forfeited my life in heaven and exchanged it for an eternity in hell - at least that is what my priest told me when I told him I was quitting his operation. I hurt my mother as she was a strong believer in catholic doctrines and I am sorry for that. But it was more important to me to act on my principles and convictions than to take heed of other's feelings, not to mention threats of eternal fire and other scary stuff. As a young kid in postwar Germany you were still very directly confronted with the horrors of war and the holocaust. And there was one question on my mind: How in the world could good and decent people stand by when their jewish neighbors were put on a transport and killed? The answer eluded me for more than 40 years.