Comment: Silent heroes with political force | Comments | '
A big Christian meeting in times of social insecurity: The German Protestant Kirchentag in Dortmund offered around 2,400 events in just over four days. Not only is the program colorful and varied, it also offers side-effects in addition to church core topics. It was criticized that it was confusing, ridiculous, too secular, too political or too unpolitical.
But often the criticism seems louder, the farther the critics – internally or externally – are removed from the Kirchentag. It overlooks the fact that church days certainly always have a core theme and a spiritual thread, but that they have always been an exhibition for decades, a folk festival, a funfair.
"What confidence" was the motto of the Kirchentag. The Bible word was debated, celebrated, lived in these days. Trust gives rise to solidary help, to one another, to one another, to interference, to protesting injustice and exclusion, to (as it likes being called) civic engagement. Confidence seems a scarce commodity in one of the most prosperous countries in the world, a stable democracy. The motto and the translation fit into current topics.
The climate issue, the help for refugees in the Mediterranean, the commitment against right-wing extremism and xenophobia dominated.
Role models for courage and determination
The large podium of the Kirchentag can resolve resolutions. These are inputs that call for the leadership of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on concrete issues to act. In Dortmund, there were more such resolutions than in past church days. If so, the EKD will soon send its own ship to rescue refugees to the Mediterranean. And on the issues of climate protection and sustainability, the (long-active) Protestant church is supposed to appear even more committed.
‘ editor Christoph Strack
The Kirchentag had heroes. No, that does not mean politicians, not the Protestant Margot Käßmann or the Catholics Anselm Grün – both clergymen with charisma – or Germany's most famous physician Eckart von Hirschhausen. They were all important here.
But there were actors whose courage and determination were celebrated in such a way that it made them almost speechless. The Congolese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Denis Mukwege, for example, who as a doctor helps terribly raped women. Former President Liberias, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, also Nobel Peace Prize winner. Or the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, who tore the city from the mafia and now wants humanity for refugees. And the crew member of "Seawatch 3". They all stand for something. They do not cultivate the usual church or political language.
Appeal to credibility and action
And the young people became heroes of "Fridays for Future". In the program of the Kirchentages they were mostly announced only nameless. But when they came for a few words on panels on environment and climate, the mood changed promptly. "My name is Merle, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Dortmund, and every Friday I skip school." Thousands of people stood up and applauded standing up. There were always a few words. Objectively, without polemics. But if the 17-year-old then said that she has no confidence in government parties that has not acted for years or decades, despite announcements or decisions on climate change, that says more about politics than about a supposedly panicked or moralizing youth. It's about credibility. And it's about overdue action.
Scientists and older environmental activists appealed to the actors of "Fridays for Future" and to the many who applauded them, to take their breath away. They should carry the will to change their minds, to preserve the creation, to their churches and neighborhoods, to their workplace, to trade unions or to parties.
The Christians in Germany, still the largest civil society-committed group in Germany, are in the duty. They are natural allies in climate protection and in the preservation of creation.
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