Dispute over migration policy: Bedford-Strohm: Democracy needs independent churches

The chairman of the World Church Council, Heinrich Bedford -Strohm, emphasizes the independence of the churches according to Markus Söder’s controversial demands – and finds clear words. “Churches do not have the task of talking to the politically responsible after the mouth. They would essentially reveal the matter for which they stand,” he said at a conversation evening on “Escape, Asylum and Migration” in Stendal in Saxony -Anhalt.

“To make the rights of the churches dependent on their well -being towards those who have political power would be almost absurd. From my work on the World Church Council, I know such attitudes from autocratic -ruled countries. They have no place in democracies,” said the Former Bavarian state bishop and long -standing council chair of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

“Society needs churches that speak publicly”

Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder (CSU) had suggested more political reluctance to the churches after criticism of the Union’s course in migration policy and, in this context, pointed out that the Free State is paying the salaries of the churches – and that the Union was the only party Still at the side of the churches.

“If there are tones from the ranks of politics these days who want to deny the church the right to critical statements on basic orientation issues in the current debates, there is a fundamental misunderstanding,” emphasized Bedford-Strohm.

“A democratic society needs to speak to churches that speak publicly, which are particularly committed to the weak and vulnerable and that participate in social cohesion exactly through the pronouncement of truths, also uncomfortable truths, and thus contribute to social cohesion.”