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Merkel urges Germans: stand up for Christian values
Reuters ^ | November 16, 2010 | Tom Heneghan

Posted on 11/17/2010 7:30:02 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

(Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans debating Muslim integration to stand up more for Christian values, saying Monday the country suffered not from "too much Islam" but "too little Christianity."

Addressing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said she took the current public debate in Germany on Islam and immigration very seriously. As part of this debate, she said last month that multiculturalism there had utterly failed.

Some of her conservative allies have gone further, calling for an end to immigration from "foreign cultures" -- a reference to Muslim countries like Turkey -- and more pressure on immigrants to integrate into German society.

Merkel told the CDU annual conference in Karlsruhe that the debate about immigration "especially by those of the Muslim faith" was an opportunity for the ruling party to stand up confidently for its convictions.

"We don't have too much Islam, we have too little Christianity. We have too few discussions about the Christian view of mankind," she said to applause from the hall.

Germany needs more public discussion "about the values that guide us (and) about our Judeo-Christian tradition," she said. "We have to stress this again with confidence, then we will also be able to bring about cohesion in our society."

References to the CDU's Christian roots and "Christian view of mankind" are standard in party convention speeches, but the phrases have become more frequent in recent months as Germany has been gripped by a heated debate over Islam and immigration.

DEFINING CULTURAL IDENTITY

The debate began last summer when former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin published a bestselling book arguing that Muslim immigrants were simple-minded welfare spongers who threatened the country's economy and its long-term future.

(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: angelamerkel; assimilation; catholic; cdu; christianity; csu; culturalidentity; greens; immigrants; immigration; islam; judaism; leitkultur; minorities; multiculturalism; muslims; obama; religion; resolution
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1 posted on 11/17/2010 7:30:07 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Politics aside, I love this woman....what a great beacon she is for modern Germany.


2 posted on 11/17/2010 7:33:09 PM PST by Victor (If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert." -David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Wow. First France, now Germany.


3 posted on 11/17/2010 7:40:16 PM PST by Christian Engineer Mass
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Germany, like most of Europe, has become incredibly secular-socialist. They abort their own children and import Muslims for labor. Will Europe return to Christianity before it is too late?


4 posted on 11/17/2010 7:42:47 PM PST by iowamark
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It’ll be interesting to see how much traction Merkel’s view gains outside of the CDU in Germany. If Germany gets serious about this issue will other European countries follow their lead?

No doubt zer0 finds all this very disturbing.


5 posted on 11/17/2010 7:46:26 PM PST by bereanway (I'd rather have 40 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It is interesting to read the comments of a world leader I have some respect for, instead of the Obama lama dingdong.
6 posted on 11/17/2010 8:10:04 PM PST by dog breath
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Germany needs to understand the Muslims are not the Jews and this is not 1940.

Islam is an evil, predatory cult out to dominate the world, and its membership is composed of maniacal, ignorant savages who mutilate their own women and murder non-Muslims.

Its as simple as that.


7 posted on 11/17/2010 8:16:01 PM PST by ZULU (No nation which tried to tolerate Islam escaped Islamization.)
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To: wagglebee
"Of course, we're for freedom to practice one's faith," she said. "But that also means religious freedom cannot stop at our borders. That applies also for Christians in other countries around the world."

This sounds like a moral absolute, hence the ping.

8 posted on 11/17/2010 8:16:28 PM PST by aposiopetic
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To: Victor

She is no beacon at all, she is just a slimy politician. Her phrase (”not too much Islam, but too little Christianity”) is an attempt to have her pie and eat it too.

No wonder her nickname is Jerckel.


9 posted on 11/17/2010 8:25:02 PM PST by Neophyte (Nazis, Communists, Islamists... what the heck is the difference?)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Did Merkel just loose her Medal of Freedom?


10 posted on 11/17/2010 8:33:19 PM PST by depressed in 06 (The only thing the ZerO administration is competent at is bad ideas.)
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To: Neophyte

Just to remind you: she didn’t spare any effort to fire Thilo Sarazine last year from his Bundesbank directorship after he published his book in which he said that Moslem immigrants dumb down the nation.

The pretext was of course ‘racism’, though Islam is not a race. And he clearly points in his book that second generation Vietnamese, among others, do much better at school and professions than native Germans.

Jerckel is a Romney’s look-alike: any flip-flop is good when she needs votes.


11 posted on 11/17/2010 8:34:38 PM PST by Neophyte (Nazis, Communists, Islamists... what the heck is the difference?)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; Quix; Alamo-Girl; Amityschild; AngieGal; AnimalLover; Ann de IL; ...
I don't know what Angela Merkel believes, so I write with a disclaimer that I may not necessarily agree with her definition or take on Christianity.

Nevertheless, the general theme of her comments at least parallel what we have been saying and writing for a long time about the situation in the United States.

Ultimately, the best way to prevent Sharia law in the USA is for Bible-believing Christians to go out and win Muslims to Jesus Christ by the preaching of the Gospel of the Grace of God.

We are on a foreign field winning people to Christ from Pagan religion (as well as from distorted Christendom). If I were to again be planted (that is, my labors planted) within the USA, I would be spending several hours a day initially preparing a ministry to win Muslims to Jesus Christ by personal evangelism and public preaching, and I would then be going after it hard.

I suggest going particularly to Muslim young people who have put themselves in a public atmosphere. College campuses and public gathering places would be a place to begin.

I'm sure there are a few already doing this, but it is far from enough. The Gospel of Christ is their need, just as it is the need of all people.

And the general Christian testimony of the churches in society needs to be enhanced and strengthened.

Now I speak to those fundamentalist churches which have pushed “soul-winning” and church bus ministries for the past forty years: . . .

The weakness in our testimony and the obvious failure of our Christianity to be a restraining influence (morally, ideologically) after forty years and millions of dollars spent on buses, balloon's, clowns, “Friend Days,” “Fill a Pew Days,” and all of the Sunday School contests, . . . .

. . . is the motive behind it all! Head counting and facility building for the glory of our ministries and bragging rights among the brethren has not gotten the job done, has it.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God is worthy to receive man's praise, adoration, and obedience to Truth. He is worthy to be believed upon by sinners. He deserves the fruits of His sufferings.

The motivation undergirding our labors matters before our Holy God. The “super church” and the bragging in denominational, associational, and fellowship periodicals over the values of our properties only makes God sick. And certainly there are enough “reverend doctors” in the churches to make some think that perhaps God is sick and needs a doctor.

The fundamentalists that give lip service to missionary endeavor (”We are a missionary church—missions is the mission of the church”) would rather increase the worldly property values of their church plants than use the resources for Bibles, literature, and supporting Gospel-preaching evangelists.

The world, its standards, and its methodologies have so inundated the churches, that there is no room for the Holy Spirit do do his work in the midst-—churches carry on building with a corporate board and entertainment mentality, and what numerical growth they have is said to be the Holy Spirit's work.

But step outside and look at just how little the churches claiming to be the Lord's churches have been a restraining influence against evil in the world around us.

In fact, the lack of spiritual revival, the lack of spiritual influence in the world has left a void; a void for Islam and false religious cults to fill.

“Not enough Christianity” said Angela Merkel. In the USA there is not enough genuine, spiritual Christianity.

12 posted on 11/17/2010 8:56:28 PM PST by John Leland 1789 (Grateful)
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To: John Leland 1789

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear John Leland 1789!


13 posted on 11/17/2010 8:58:20 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: ZULU
Germany needs to understand the Muslims are not the Jews and this is not 1940.

Nazis were big fans of Islam, especially Himmler.

Islam is everything that the Nazis said about "International Jewry."

14 posted on 11/17/2010 9:04:01 PM PST by dfwgator (Texas Rangers -Thanks for a great season.)
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To: iowamark

Abort your own children and import muslims to take their place. Leftist logic at its most absurd.


15 posted on 11/17/2010 9:13:10 PM PST by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: John Leland 1789
have pushed “soul-winning”

We weren't told to 'win souls' but make disciples.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit",
16 posted on 11/17/2010 9:21:16 PM PST by presently no screen name ("Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.." Mark 7:13)
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To: John Leland 1789

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

THX THX.


17 posted on 11/17/2010 9:44:37 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: dfwgator

VERY true.

And the Arabs actually helped the NAZIs in WW2


18 posted on 11/17/2010 9:59:44 PM PST by ZULU (No nation which tried to tolerate Islam escaped Islamization.)
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To: John Leland 1789
Eggsellent insights.

Tanks 4 the ping.

19 posted on 11/17/2010 10:40:33 PM PST by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: John Leland 1789
I suggest going particularly to Muslim young people who have put themselves in a public atmosphere.

You'll get your throat slit doing that.

20 posted on 11/17/2010 10:48:11 PM PST by steve86
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