Churches and AfD: Amen and Alerta

The AfD is demonstrably ethnic, says Heiner Wilmer, wearing a pink hat and pink waistband, on Wednesday evening in Berlin - he says it calmly and calmly, as if such clarity were a matter of course for the highest of the German bishops. “There is no place for this ethnic ideology either in or outside of houses of worship,” says Wilmer. Applause.

The annual reception of the Catholic Church in Germany took place on Wednesday in the Katholische Höfe in Berlin-Mitte. A few hundred people from business and politics came and the mood was depressed - despite the tortellini in cheese sauce and the white wine.

A few hours earlier, a few minutes' walk from here, in the Reichstag building, Alice Weidel had complained about the "hatred against Christians" in Germany. After the AfD's election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Christian representatives in the state are more afraid of the hatred of Alice Weidel and her party.

“We will not look away when human dignity is violated and the rule of law is attacked,” says Heiner Wilmer, whom the German Catholic bishops only elected as their chairman in February. Federal Family Minister Karin Prien from the CDU sits directly in front of the lectern, with ex-ministers (Gröhe, Hendricks, Paus, Karliczek) listening to the senior shepherd, ex-parliamentary presidents (Lammert, Thierse) and members of various stripes (Frei, Miersch, Ramelow).

If a party attacks individual religions, says Wilmer, not only looking at the Jewish family minister, but also the representatives of Islam and the Baha'i religion in the room, "then we stand together." Applause again.

On election Sunday, the Catholic bishop of Saxony-Anhalt's capital Magdeburg, Gerhard Feige, spoke out against the election of the AfD and called on a pilgrimage to “resist the nationalist and xenophobic evil spirit”. Nevertheless, almost 44 percent of those eligible to vote voted for the right-wing extremist party, which narrowly missed out on an absolute majority.

Before the election, Senior Bishop Wilmer, together with the Chairwoman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Kirsten Fehrs, and the Chairperson of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany, Reverend Christopher Easthill, said: The churches' concern is primarily with the coexistence and coexistence of the people in Saxony-Anhalt. “But it also applies to the free, democratic basic order in Saxony-Anhalt.”

This shows a new clarity in the churches towards the AfD. Until now, Christian representatives have warned against misanthropy in a rather abstract way. Until two years ago, AfD representatives were still welcome at the Catholic Church's annual reception.

But the election program of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt this year finally revealed that the party is more anti-church than any before in the history of the Federal Republic. Since their own organization has come into the focus of the AfD, it has been easier for the clergy to speak out specifically against the party.

This is met with applause in the democratic parties, not only at the reception in the Catholic Courts, but what about those community members who voted for the AfD themselves or want to vote for them in the future?

Anne Gidion wears a black frock coat and a large gold cross over it. Gidion is the representative of the Evangelical Church in the Federal Republic of Germany and immediately after Heiner Wilmer's speech exchanged a few words with his Catholic colleague, then with the minister and a few members of parliament. It is of course clear to her that there are also AfD members and voters of the party in the Catholic and Protestant parishes, says Gidion to the taz over a glass of wine, that's what it means to be a “people's church”.

She also sees a new clarity in the churches facing the AfD. “And it needs this fundamental clarity,” says Gidion. At the same time, the church must remain in touch with AfD sympathizers. And the communities must be turned into “places for the struggle for the truth”.

“Truth” was also the leitmotif of Heiner Wilmer’s speech shortly before. “It’s not technology and growth that sets you free,” said the new bishop’s chairman, taking a swipe at Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, “not even majorities make you free.” It is the truth that sets you free, Wilmer quoted the Gospel of John. The church stands up for the Gospel and the dignity of every human being, says the bishop, his gaze lifts, “and yes, we can and must sometimes offend.”

Then follows music from a string ensemble in which people with and without disabilities play together. It is called Utopia.