For Christians and Jews, Germany's Alternatives to Merkel Are Equally Unpromising

The American Conservative ^ | 2017 | Rod Dreher

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Germany has much more severed itself from God and Christian tradition than the US. The culture is deeply anti-Christian. AfD and PEGIDA [German nationalist, anti-Islam movement] for example long for a return to the days of a thoroughly Christian culture only in as far as “personal peace and prosperity” is concerned as Schaeffer put it way back when.

Unless there is a bottom up moral cultural renewal in this country/on this continent, parties such as AfD or movements such as PEGIDA will be hapless, romantic attempts to impose some well-meant principles/policies on a people that have given up on God.

On the other hand, the Evangelical/charismatic landscape here is deeply anti-intellectual/anti-worldview. Within that part of the church over here, Angela Merkel’s policies concerning the refugee crisis, for instance, are considered the only possible Christian perspective. If you’d argue (as I did once and never tried again) that yes, there is at least another possible/viable Christian perspective debatable, you’ll be relegated as pariah into the far right/Nazi shelf. The same with EU policy, or Brexit for example, and the list goes on and on.

This is why I am entirely pessimistic about the forthcoming election. In the US you had two bad choices whith one choice though the possibility of at least doing something good for the courts, there ain’t nothing like that here.

As an orthodox Christian you’re left to choose between pestilence and cholera — or abstain from voting altogether. Unless there is revival in the land, our land and continent is lost. The AfD is a false messiah.

[Spok]

Sorta like the 1930’s.

[Robert DeLong]

In the US you had two bad choices

Stopped reading right there.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I disagree with him there too but I think the writer would have voted for Trump. The leader of German’s “Right Wing” is a Lesbian mother of two and ex-Goldman Sachs. Which I don’t think automatically discounts someone per se...but you can understand people’s skepticism.

Not only is anti-Semitism a problem among the “right wing” in that part of the world but anti-Americanism. And being against all religions, not just Islam.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

"Meet the Lesbian Goldman Sachs Economist Who Led Germany's Far-Right to Victory"

She is Alice Weidel. Age 38. Intriguing to say the least.

[Monterrosa-24]

All of Western Europe has a trendy-set mentality and skepticism regarding the teachings of Christ. They are just too cool for school. And it has led to the death of European culture. They care about culture in principle but not their own culture.

[golux]

“Your land” was lost long ago.
The United States of America is largely a welfare state.
Citizens are too stupid to oppose toll roads, while their taxes go - via welfare and unlimited refugee programs - to destroying schools and neighborhoods.
Police departments are obsessed with purchasing the latest military vehicles and weapons,
while even TSA agents are praised as “heroes...”
Jews can no longer walk down the street in France with kippa on: they live in isolated neighborhoods or risk attacks.
Pre-teen girls are gang-raped on the streets of Stockholm and “social misunderstandings” are blamed.
Like Kapos, silly American men think liberal “concealed carry” laws and special ID cards granted them by post-2A overlords will protect them from the loss of everything their forefathers won.

[Nextrush]

Not sure what to make of this, but I guess its the Neocon view of the situation in Germany.

The AfD offers an alternative to be sure with an eclectic mix of leadership, the male nationalist co-leader Alexander Gauland and the female co-leader who happens to be a lesbian Alice Weidel.

They are speaking for German tradition and opposition to the Islamic cultural invasion of their country.

Traditional Germans and LGBT Germans face a common enemy with the migrant invasion of Europe.

I guess one can hearken back to the days of a party that had nationalists and gays in it seeking power in Germany (Ernst Rohm the brownshirt leader being the gay part of it).

Their grievances were related to WW I and the harsh penalties the Versailles treaty imposed on Germany with Jews being pumped up as an enemy but a false one as we all know.

Once that group reached power horrible things happened.

However, the enemy the AfD speaks of today is not a scapegoat enemy like the Jews were to the Nazis.

The Islamic migrants are a real enemy doing real harm to real people in Germany.

But

[Meet the New Boss]

Sadly, Rod’s globalism is an attack on American self-government and a modern Tower of Babel-type heresy.

[rrrod]

Germans are like mussies, child molesters and Democrats...none are good.
No apologies.

[Monterrosa-24]

“...Like Kapos, silly American men think liberal “concealed carry” laws and special ID cards granted them by post-2A overlords will protect them from the loss of everything their forefathers won...”

Concealed carry and the right to bear other arms (including AR-15s and 50 caliber Barretts) is a manifestation of the rights our forefathers won. It may be an all-odds-against-us, last-line-in-the-sand bit of freedom but it counts. Now how are we like Kapos? I haven’t hit anyone with a truncheon lately.

[piytar]

Me too.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Hi New Boss: Rod Dreher is pro-Brexit and anti-unmitigated Islamic migration.

[Robert DeLong]

Alice Weidel

Weidel has stated her opposition to discussion of sexuality prior to puberty saying that "I don’t want anyone with their gender idiocy or their early sexualisation classes coming near my children".

She has also expressed her opposition to legalization of same-sex marriage, stating that she supports protection of the "traditional family" while also supporting "other lifestyles". She has said she supports civil partnership for gay and lesbian couples, noting she is a lesbian herself.

So not a radical lesbian I see. In other words she is not pushing her "preference" as a religion that needs to be upheld in glory. I like her already.

[Mariner]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Weidel

[metmom]

Why is it that the left takes it on themselves to decide what Christians like and will do?

They seemed hell bent on convincing Christians that Trump was evil and they shouldn’t be voting for him because he wasn’t what the left thinks Christians would support.

They failed to see beyond their own prejudice.

Just because Trump is not the left’s idea of what a Christian should be like, they don’t get how Christians think.

And it shows in this article, too.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

-metmom, I disagree with Dreher’s take on US elections, but still think he would have voted for Trump. That was his point. That in America there are still options even if the candidate is not completely to one’s liking. Germany’s options are not as clear cut.

Europe’s problems did not just suddenly birth with the migrant crisis. So it’se vital that Christians be cautious not just to latch onto whoever says the most trendy anti-Islam /anti-Merkel statement of the day. It is important to pray for discernment.

I am not saying this is the case with Alice Weidel. She may very well be a worthwhile leader - but her party has a track record of anti-Semitism and Nazi-revivalist tendencies. The point of Rod Dreher’s article is that we can’t project American political realities onto Germany or onto Europe in general. Each country has a very different context. Especially spiritially speaking.

Poland is not the same as Germany. Germany is not the same as England. Ukraine is not the same as Russia.

Part of the reason why average Americans on both sides have trouble relating to places like Germany or even Russia has to do with wrongly thinking history remains in textbooks and that events as recently as a few decades ago should be long behind us.

They’re not.

And more importantly, each country has their own version or interpretation of history to contend with. This is partially why the European Union has proven to be so futile. It was a bandage designed to prevent another outbreak of World War...but bandages cannot fix broken bones. And the migrant crisis was not the cause, it only served to reveal what was already broken in these societies to begin with.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

One conservative who is on the right track though is 28 yr old Marion-Marechal of France. She is Marine Le Pen’s niece, but dropped the “Le Pen” name and is founding a new party because the “Front National” has too much baggage. She started a school to train young, up and coming conservative leaders. The emphasis of the courses is on French cultural identity. She’s also Catholic and pro-Life unlike her aunt.

[golux]

I agree, but maybe I have the wrong definition. “Concealed carry” is asking for permission to keep and bear. I believe in concealed carry, but not by permission. Our rights are inalienable: they do not appear when we are granted cute little ID cards by the State. That is what so many Americans seem to have forgotten.

[SJackson]

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