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Skybird · 12-27-22, 06:10 AM

Deutsche Welle (German editon):
--------------------------------
The demolition of Christian churches

Oh, what the churches will be full again at Christmas. May the heating stay cold in the energy crisis, people are crowding in and singing themselves warm. But that is a deceptive snapshot, says Christoph Strack.

Tradition and warmth - is that enough?

Sometime in the summer, the point was reached statistically where every second person in Germany no longer belonged to one of the two major churches, the Catholic or the Protestant. Now there are still 41 million - significantly less than half the population. Long after German reunification, the Federal Republic was still considered a Christian country.

An unspeakable bloodletting of believers

But what is happening now is no longer a mere statistical change. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation's "Religion Monitor," published in December, one in four church members in Germany is thinking about leaving, and one in five is determined to take this step. And 81 percent of all those willing to leave said they had lost their trust in religious institutions because of scandals.

Scandals and stubbornness in the churches

If churches were companies on the free market, their products would have disappeared from the shelves long ago and the management would have filed for bankruptcy. But what does the presence of the church in public look like today? There are cumbersome processes of coming to terms with sexual abuse in both large churches. Church, it seems, on the Catholic side is mostly older men who look worried and often seem unredeemed. All of this is toxic.

The Catholic Church is skilled at discussing yesterday's issues. The "Synodal Way" has been painfully wrestling for years with the concerns that were sent to the Vatican from Germany 50 years ago. They remained unanswered then, and even today Rome categorically holds to its position. The bishops have now only been able, after a process lasting many years, to agree on a new labor law that is no longer necessarily fixed on the sexual lifestyle of employees. In 2022.

The committed in the churches

What is tragic is that the crises and the loss of prestige are dragging down the reputation of those who, hundreds of thousands of times and often quietly, perform their service to society: the ambulance driver of church sponsors such as Johanniter or Malteser, care workers and educators, helpers in clothing chambers, food banks, in the telephone counselling service. "I am aware that a hundred Caritas offers cannot make up for what has been done in terms of injury and alienation from a church that closes itself off to the consecration of women and in whose thousand-year-old gowns sexual repression has found a safe hiding place in some places," said the president of the German Caritas Association, Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa.

Secularization on the rise

What is this disappearance of majority religion doing to society? This breakdown of religious tradition and familiarity. Secularization is not a bad thing at first. The country will remain religious and yet become more secular. There are Christian, Jewish, Muslim communities, Buddhists, free spirits, humanists. Competition.

The lived religiosity will be less organized and more diverse, it will depend on the individual or smaller groups. This process will change the country with its cultural imprint. And there will be other concepts of ultimate justification.

But the core issues of society will remain. Justice, equality, solidarity, even love of one's neighbor ... These are motives that are at least also shaped by the Christian religion. However, they compete with an unconditional individual concept of freedom.

The country, the world, will need voices that counter the defiant "I" with the "we." Will the churches be heard once again for such a service to society? Full churches on one evening a year are certainly not enough.
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In the Catholic church, the main reason for people turnign away seems to be the massive children abuse scandals, also greed of certain priests and oficials, in the Protestant church it seems to be an issue that it has moved so much to the left that it has turnd into an auxiliary of the woke, the pro gay and lesbian, and the capitalism-critical environmentalist and anti-nuclear power lobby scene. When I compare the chirhces to their cliamkj of what they want to be by their message, I can not help but miust brust in laughter. They are carricatures of said claims onlky. They are the traders and barterss who have been driven out of the temple by Jesus in that in that famous metaphoric Gosple story - and they do not realise it.

For me and my parents, church and Christian dogma play no role anymore, indeed we all dispise it - the church - very much. Beside church stuff, on faith alone I live by the rule "live and let live, push me for your faith and see me pushing back in force". Christmas for us is a purely individual family and memory festival, and we gather on christmas eve only and have our traditional family raclette, we do so since 20 years. I have wonderful childhood and youth memories of christmasses back then, including tree and decorated apartment. These are warm and precious memories for me that I hold in very high esteem. But the church I was already hostile to when I was at school and had courses in "religion". Christmas to me is a family thing foremost and in the first. And over the years, my parents have turned this way, too.

There are intact Christian communities in germany, however, these you mostly find more in the south and then the rural places, say in Bavaria, that direction. Here it is also mixed with a healthy dose of "Heimatliebe", a strong sense of community and a desire to preserve customs and traditions - sometimes with and sometimes in spite of the church, and that doesn't mean the show put on for tourists. These regions are more Catholic than Protestant, the north and west of Germany are more Protestant, and therefore more "barren", self-caste, "Calvinist". Last but not least, the differences in mentality of the native regional populations can also be explained by a denominational shift running roughly in a north-south direction. The south is "saner". So, even if I am against the churches, I am aware of the integrating and defining value of cultural, historically grown contexts, and I would be stupid to deny its importance. The fact that today we claim all kinds of individual uniqueness is also the reason that our sense of community and even more: forour own identity and origin has become dramatically fragmented.

12-27-22, 06:10 AM	#1835
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,584 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Deutsche Welle (German editon): -------------------------------- The demolition of Christian churches Oh, what the churches will be full again at Christmas. May the heating stay cold in the energy crisis, people are crowding in and singing themselves warm. But that is a deceptive snapshot, says Christoph Strack. Tradition and warmth - is that enough? Sometime in the summer, the point was reached statistically where every second person in Germany no longer belonged to one of the two major churches, the Catholic or the Protestant. Now there are still 41 million - significantly less than half the population. Long after German reunification, the Federal Republic was still considered a Christian country. An unspeakable bloodletting of believers But what is happening now is no longer a mere statistical change. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation's "Religion Monitor," published in December, one in four church members in Germany is thinking about leaving, and one in five is determined to take this step. And 81 percent of all those willing to leave said they had lost their trust in religious institutions because of scandals. Scandals and stubbornness in the churches If churches were companies on the free market, their products would have disappeared from the shelves long ago and the management would have filed for bankruptcy. But what does the presence of the church in public look like today? There are cumbersome processes of coming to terms with sexual abuse in both large churches. Church, it seems, on the Catholic side is mostly older men who look worried and often seem unredeemed. All of this is toxic. The Catholic Church is skilled at discussing yesterday's issues. The "Synodal Way" has been painfully wrestling for years with the concerns that were sent to the Vatican from Germany 50 years ago. They remained unanswered then, and even today Rome categorically holds to its position. The bishops have now only been able, after a process lasting many years, to agree on a new labor law that is no longer necessarily fixed on the sexual lifestyle of employees. In 2022. The committed in the churches What is tragic is that the crises and the loss of prestige are dragging down the reputation of those who, hundreds of thousands of times and often quietly, perform their service to society: the ambulance driver of church sponsors such as Johanniter or Malteser, care workers and educators, helpers in clothing chambers, food banks, in the telephone counselling service. "I am aware that a hundred Caritas offers cannot make up for what has been done in terms of injury and alienation from a church that closes itself off to the consecration of women and in whose thousand-year-old gowns sexual repression has found a safe hiding place in some places," said the president of the German Caritas Association, Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa. Secularization on the rise What is this disappearance of majority religion doing to society? This breakdown of religious tradition and familiarity. Secularization is not a bad thing at first. The country will remain religious and yet become more secular. There are Christian, Jewish, Muslim communities, Buddhists, free spirits, humanists. Competition. The lived religiosity will be less organized and more diverse, it will depend on the individual or smaller groups. This process will change the country with its cultural imprint. And there will be other concepts of ultimate justification. But the core issues of society will remain. Justice, equality, solidarity, even love of one's neighbor ... These are motives that are at least also shaped by the Christian religion. However, they compete with an unconditional individual concept of freedom. The country, the world, will need voices that counter the defiant "I" with the "we." Will the churches be heard once again for such a service to society? Full churches on one evening a year are certainly not enough. ------------------------- In the Catholic church, the main reason for people turnign away seems to be the massive children abuse scandals, also greed of certain priests and oficials, in the Protestant church it seems to be an issue that it has moved so much to the left that it has turnd into an auxiliary of the woke, the pro gay and lesbian, and the capitalism-critical environmentalist and anti-nuclear power lobby scene. When I compare the chirhces to their cliamkj of what they want to be by their message, I can not help but miust brust in laughter. They are carricatures of said claims onlky. They are the traders and barterss who have been driven out of the temple by Jesus in that in that famous metaphoric Gosple story - and they do not realise it. For me and my parents, church and Christian dogma play no role anymore, indeed we all dispise it - the church - very much. Beside church stuff, on faith alone I live by the rule "live and let live, push me for your faith and see me pushing back in force". Christmas for us is a purely individual family and memory festival, and we gather on christmas eve only and have our traditional family raclette, we do so since 20 years. I have wonderful childhood and youth memories of christmasses back then, including tree and decorated apartment. These are warm and precious memories for me that I hold in very high esteem. But the church I was already hostile to when I was at school and had courses in "religion". Christmas to me is a family thing foremost and in the first. And over the years, my parents have turned this way, too. There are intact Christian communities in germany, however, these you mostly find more in the south and then the rural places, say in Bavaria, that direction. Here it is also mixed with a healthy dose of "Heimatliebe", a strong sense of community and a desire to preserve customs and traditions - sometimes with and sometimes in spite of the church, and that doesn't mean the show put on for tourists. These regions are more Catholic than Protestant, the north and west of Germany are more Protestant, and therefore more "barren", self-caste, "Calvinist". Last but not least, the differences in mentality of the native regional populations can also be explained by a denominational shift running roughly in a north-south direction. The south is "saner". So, even if I am against the churches, I am aware of the integrating and defining value of cultural, historically grown contexts, and I would be stupid to deny its importance. The fact that today we claim all kinds of individual uniqueness is also the reason that our sense of community and even more: forour own identity and origin has become dramatically fragmented. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 12-27-22 at 06:55 AM.