High-ranking members of both the Catholic and Evangelical churches in Germany have joined the left-liberal ‘traffic light’ coalition, its intelligence service, and the globalist press in their campaign to discredit and isolate the ascendent Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and its members.
At the four-day German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) held last week in the city of Augsburg, Catholic Church prelates urged Christians to actively oppose the AfD, with some like Georg Bätzing, DBK’s chairman, referring to AfD’s positions as incompatible with the basic values of biblical teaching.
Bishop Bätzing lauded the anti-AfD demonstrations that unfolded earlier this month following a disinformation piece published by the Soros-backed, state-funded Correctiv media outlet—and subsequently spread by the mainstream press—that falsely claimed that the party had plans to deport millions of German citizens with migrant backgrounds.
It is worth noting that 11 of the conference attendees who were named in the disinformation article are now seeking legal recourse against Correctiv to defend themselves against alleged violations of press law. They have announced their intention to submit affidavits in court refuting claims made in Correctiv’s reporting.
Bishop Bätzing urged German prelates to send a “unanimous signal against extremism,” meaning an explicit denunciation of the AfD, at the end of the conference, which they ultimately did in an official statement. They referenced the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s politicized domestic intelligence agency, which has labeled three state associations of the AfD as ‘extremist,’ as evidence supporting the claim that the AfD holds right-wing extremist positions.
Describing right-wing extremism as “the greatest extremist threat to our country and to Europe” at the moment, the bishops said that the ideology has “become widespread in society in recent years.”
“Right-wing populism is the shimmering edge of right-wing extremism, from which it is ideologically charged,” the bishops claimed. “In both cases, stereotypical resentments are given free rein: against refugees and migrants, against Muslims, against the alleged conspiracy of the so-called global elites, and increasingly against Jews.”
“Right-wing extremist parties and those that run rampant on the fringes of this ideology cannot be a place of political activity for Christians and are also not electable,” the clergy wrote, noting that although this doesn’t categorically exclude AfD members from the Catholic Church, “the dissemination of right-wing extremist slogans is incompatible with full-time or voluntary service in the church.”
“The irony that an institution that preaches universal love and acceptance is now closing the door on a group of believers is as thick as the book of Psalms,” Christian Steffens wrote in a commentary piece for Junge Freiheit on the Catholic Church’s push to exclude AfD members.
Coincidentally—or perhaps not—five Evangelical Academies in East Germany last week also urged churches to unequivocally separate themselves from the AfD, claiming, like those at the German Bishops’ Conference, that the positions held by the party are “incompatible with the ethical core of Christianity.”
Unlike the bishops in Germany’s Catholic Church, however, Evangelical academy directors did make a point to underscore the significance of “discussing conflict issues within the framework of a democratic debate in the middle of society.”
The Saxon Academy Director Stephan Bickhardt said there is ample room for diverse viewpoints within the church, spanning from foreign policy disputes to climate change and migration.
