On this quiet evening in December of 2000, a sudden phone call interrupts the peaceful silence. An unimaginable story is about to unfold, which we have not documented until now. But it is blatantly real.
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Bianca is desperate. With a faint voice, interrupted by sobs, she tells of her terrible situation, which has grown worse and worse over the past months and climaxed that evening. She wants to leave and escape the nightmare in Unterschwaig with her three girls. At this time they are 5 years, 3 years, and 16 months old.
Since the birth of their youngest daughter, 16 difficult months have passed. The joy of watching and helping her girls to discover their world is fading under the load of exhaustion and despair. Despite being emaciated, marked by years of anorexia, Bianca manages kitchen, housework, and shopping. Doing the entire laundry, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of three small children was no easy task after the last pregnancy. Added to the load were fasting and “praying” at night, for the battle against demons was not to be neglected. To make matters worse, the family income consisting of child benefits had grown insufficient. Pasta and ketchup were on the table for days. About once a week, grandma Paula would send a meal for all.
However, it was her husband Christian’s escapism that drove Bianca to total mental despair. Day after day he dodged into the basement, an irresponsible loser, whose religion was tormenting her constantly.
But Christian Scharnagl pretends to be a hero.
He sees himself involved in a war, on a battlefield with demons and imaginary enemies. He needs an enemy to support his existence. If one has no enemy, they create an enemy image and thus deflect attention away from themselves. That earns them sympathy and funds.
There, in his own world, he is the hero. His alleged calling changes between king, priest, and prophet – depending on what seems to be most profitable for him. He lives in a glimmering parallel universe of extreme “spirituality” and a legalism that he imposes on others, but fails to live up to himself.
He does not occupy himself with the profane issues of life. Feeding and bringing up his children are realities that he does not feel to be his calling. Such issues are simply beneath him. After days of fasting on the basement floor, he sees in his slightly hallucinated kingdom twelve children who will one day convert China under his leadership. Unfortunately, China is not prepared for the grandeur of Amberg!
His plan includes a clever agenda for provision and upbringing: the older children will take care of the younger ones and raise themselves while doing so. The necessary means will be provided by the government – child benefits times twelve and all expenses are covered.
The fact that people around him do not agree with this grand perspective for his life makes him furious. These are the critics. A paranoid fear of them and of his “spirited” plans being stolen from him keep him trapped in his basement – drenched in sweat.
Like an impostor, Christian conducts, commands, and realizes very accurately how he can manipulate others to serve his interest. Nothing, absolutely nothing is by coincidence.
Getting a job to feed his family is something he completely refuses to do. He, Christian, doesn’t want to! He sees no contradiction in the fact that others earn money to pay for his electricity, his water, his fuel. He also takes for granted that his father Konrad pays half of the rent with his disability pension.
He avoids taking his broken car to the garage. After all, Jesus takes care of everything! Through prayer with laying on of hands, Jesus is expected to fix his car as well. Christian ignores the fact that he endangers other road users. It is indeed no funny task if one has to teach a grown, married man with three children when he has to get his car fixed.
Besides, he does not feel responsible for issues like his wife’s hardships, fears, or natural needs and sees no need to take care of them. Those are caused by demons and enemies which have to be dethroned in his imaginary spirit-world. His logic for battle tells him that such “natural needs” only exist because the spiritual summit has not been climbed yet, because the thin air of spiritual heights has yet to be reached – to the point of fainting.
In such a trance he often spends days in the basement of his kingdom.
One could compare him to a kamikaze pilot, glued to his cockpit seat in “prayer”, sure of an illusionary destination and headed for the crash. Those around him he carries into trouble, if not into destruction.
But this December night, Bianca and the three small children get delivered from this hell.
The History
Amberg
A group of religious people gathers around Herbert Remdisch and Michael Gut in the 90s. The group calls itself “BGG Amberg”. A “missionary” from Ukraine by the name of Michael Jaffray King visits several times. Remdisch must have liked Michael King very much. King used to live in a sexually open commune and therefore understands pastor Remdisch’s habit of visiting lonely ladies in the evening to perform “counseling”. We are talking about actual sexual abuse here! Bianca, too, is abused by Remdisch, while Christian’s blind flight has taken him to some “higher” orbit. He claims to have learned of the abuse only years later. Really?!
Michael Jaffray King has conceived at least twelve children – probably more, but that’s hard to tell. King, too, lives in a parallel world, which is all about the “plan of God”. His alleged calling is to be a missionary, but also a prophet. Some of his children grow up in a ghetto without running water. No need for King to provide for the kids – thanks to government benefits, they provide for themselves. Joanna, his third wife, takes care of the basic needs. Five of his children have to perform in his missionary stunts in the streets. The 8-year-old accompanies his father with instruments, while the smaller ones toddle on the pavement, holding a cardboard heart and passing out tracts. The spectators, moved by pity, readily give alms, thus providing the Kings’ daily bread. Little do the children realize that they are abused and instrumentalized to support their fathers lifestyle under the guise of “evangelism”. It is obvious that the practices that are termed “evangelism” in these circles are nothing short of fraud.
Work for the purpose of earning a living is scorned by King for all of his life. Work is for unbelievers, for the world. Living an orderly life and being responsible for one’s own provision? To him, such ideas are a result of apostle Paul’s theology, which he holds in contempt. Churches and organizations along his path present a welcome source of money to him. Other than that, he considers them to be “Paul’s foolish product and opium for mankind”.
He claims that only Jesus’ “direct speech” is valid and is the word of God – the “red letters”.
Michael Jaffray King is welcomed in Amberg. He stays in one house with Christian’s parents, Konrad and Gabi Scharnagl, or with Konrad’s relatives in Eglsee; at either place he is permitted to practice his lifestyle and ideology. The latter becomes a blueprint for a drifted, detrimental existence based on theft. Christian Scharnagl follows this ideology. The structure of the church according to Paul’s letters is a red rag to him. He prefers to indulge in a religious, slipshod life.
In the meantime, scandalous things happen in BGG Amberg. A woman puts her baby into the washing machine to make it “clean” for the Lord. To make matters worse, the church’s pastor has been busy sexually abusing many women. Eventually, the group around Herbert Remdisch and Michael Gut falls apart.
Bayreuth
A true center of revival has been developing in Bayreuth since 1991. In the many meetings during the week, the Holy Spirit is working strongly and the word of God is interpreted in a powerful way. The fire of revival is burning!
In December of 1997, many churches from the surrounding regions receive invitations to the Revival Meetings of Rhema Christian Center. The famous Charity James, her mother Linda, and her sister Rebecca, who minister in the world-famous Brownsville Revival in Pensacola/USA at the time, have come to Bayreuth, following the invitation to be guest speakers.
Alert in the religious scene! “Bayreuth” is the epitome of revival. More and more people from Amberg attend the meetings. The terrible conditions they come from are at this point unknown to us. Some of them seek solutions and orientation for their lives, others yearn for the fire of the Holy Spirit, others are curious, others are scoffers.
From the side of the CCR, much effort is made to help these people resolve their situations in Amberg. But nothing can be resolved – too powerful is the religious corruption, too deeply rooted is the chauvinism which is typical for Upper Palatinate. Eventually, some decide to break away from the chaos and religious swamp of Ambergs’s BGG and attend the revival meetings in Bayreuth on a regular basis. Among them are Christian and Bianca. In the months that follow, the enormous extent of the sexual abuse committed by Remdisch, the dysfunctional marriages, and the disastrous family relations become evident.
In May of 1998, CCR launches a bible school in Amberg to give these people an opportunity to found, establish and put their lives in order with the truth of the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Some of them are saved from ending up in a psychiatric clinic.
Christian is given the opportunity to play guitar in the “open heaven” band of Rhema Christian Center. It is a probationary opportunity and based on the condition that he gets his private life in order and assumes his responsibility as a man, husband, and father. Filled with contempt, he tramples over every form of patience, kindness, and mercy that is offered to him. Due to his inability and reluctance to integrate into a team and work together with others, the probationary period has to be terminated prematurely.
Christian continues to hold the doctrine, ideas, and goals of Michael Jaffray King. The situation begins to escalate.
In December of 2000, Bianca leaves the family home with their three daughters and has to apply for welfare. The CCR provides for her livelihood in the following years to help the girls establish a basis for healthy social relationships.
Marriage of Convenience, not Love
When Christian wakes from his religious trance in the basement, his T-Shirt is drenched in sweat. Bianca is gone, the kids are gone. Strategically he realizes that the option of establishing a following of people who confirm and praise him and work for his benefit is no longer available. His emotional roller coaster changes between envy, hatred, and anger. Plus the pressing questions: Who will do the laundry, iron his clothes, do the cooking? What about his polished spiritual image without wife and children?
Ever since the unbearable situation that led to Bianca taking the kids and leaving has come to light, Christian is not permitted to attend the meetings at CCR. First he is required to provide for his family and deal with the most basic issues of natural life. For him to reunite with his wife and children, work becomes an obligation for the first time in his life – whether he likes it or not.
However, the precarious situation that his wife and three daughters are living in remains the same. In the summer of 2001, Christian generates an income for himself with his salary as salesman in the studio department of a music house. Meanwhile, Bianca is forced to live on welfare. On top of that, the CCR provides financial support and helps by supplying food, household assistance, and childcare, thus enabling her to create a new, ordered, and livable home in the country.
After a while, it begins to dawn on Christian that he has to show remorse toward Bianca. Talks are held with him in the CCR. Their aim is to establish socialization and skills for living in a family. Christian, however, participates in the talks without any apparent passion for his wife. The process of breaking up his dogmatic ideas is tough and laborious. Many intense talks are needed to teach him the basics of practical life. His primary goal seems to be the reunification with his family so that he can climb the “spiritual” ladder.
Thanks to the labor, prayers, and dedication of CCR’s leadership, Christian and Bianca are ready to celebrate the reunification of their family – one and a half years after their separation, on July 27th, 2002.
Christian now has permission to attend the meetings at CCR again. He is suggested to participate in children’s ministry to help him develop a serving heart, empathy, and grow closer to his own children as well. Actually, it should have been his own will to take an interest in his children’s lives and wholeheartedly assume his role as father. Instead, he feels degraded in children’s ministry and gets bitter.
Some time later, he is allowed to help among the technicians and operate the mixing console for the band. However, he shows aversion since he “does not want to turn buttons”, but rather be on stage. His behavior shows that he believes to be inappropriately deployed according to his imagined calling. “God”, he thinks, had told him that he should be the leader of the band “open heaven”. The only problem was that the band already had a leader, a pastor, and thus no need for him.
Christian’s blasphemous talk about the faith movement, his chauvinism, and his contempt for others continually surface in his behavior. Bianca’s “duty” is to be subordinate as a wife and show obedience – to the point of emotional dependency. Her character, made up of a multi-layered web of lies, shares common ground with Christian: rebellion and the lust for power! She refuses to support and help to develop the team for evangelism, because she wants to be its leader instead. Naturally, this doesn’t work.
Both of them lead several parallel lives and explore different positions in different places in order to finally find the place in their universe where they can display their “spiritual level” and get people under their control.
Unauthorized, they roam the streets at night as “missionaries” to reach the mailboxes with different tracts. To make a long story short: Without asking permission, they grab evangelistic literature with the CCR’s stamp, such as Reinhard Bonnke’s tracts from his “From Minus to Plus”- campaign, and flood the mailboxes. All the while they disrespect that many mailbox-owners expressly want no promotional literature. Respect for other people’s will is simply non-existent in their minds. As a consequence, many residents complain to the CCR, which then forbids them and “missionary father” Konrad to distribute tracts and pamphlets in the name of the CCR. Christian and Bianca stubbornly continue their tours and try to gain control in the churches of the region. Troubles follow everywhere.
For the sake of preventing damage to the children’s well-being caused by their parents’ arbitrary and detrimental lifestyle, the CCR continues to provide a safe space for the three daughters to promote their abilities and their development and facilitate a stable social environment for them.
Christian and Bianca don’t succeed in practicing their megalomania in the CCR. In 2007, they suddenly disappear. The flight that they keep secret in their paranoia takes them to China, but China doesn’t want them. The children stay in the care of grandma and the church.
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How can one grasp this inexplicable, outrageous behavior? Is there a methodology behind these repetitive patterns of action?