Germany to Ban Sex with Animals

Germany is about to ban sex with animals, including the ‘pimping’ of farm animals for sex.

Stand Firm:

Like I’ve said, The Episcopal Church has voted to purport to bless the sexual activities of those who have two currently faddish, minority sexual attractions, and ignored others who also hold minority sexual attractions—scores of different minority sexual attractions—which are not so popular.

Read it all over at the Telegraph:

Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner has agreed to change the law to make it illegal for people to “use (animals) for their own sexual activities or sexual acts of third parties” – which also bans the ‘pimping’ of animals to others.

However the move has aroused the ire of zoophile group ZETA.

Lobbyist Michael Kiok, who lives with his dog Cassie, told the newspaper there were more than 100,000 zoophiles in Germany.

“Mere morals have no place in law,” he said.

Mr Kiok said he was worried that if the law took effect the authorities would try to take away his dog.

Disgusting.

 

Chancellor Angela Merkel: Islam Is Part of Germany

Huffington Post:

Berlin – Chancellor Angela Merkel says Islam has become a part of Germany and she is urging her fellow citizens to show tolerance for Muslims.

She told members of her conservative Christian Democratic party Wednesday the great majority of Muslims in Germany have distanced themselves from the recent violence during protests against an anti-Islam video that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad.

Merkel said about Islam that Germans “should be open about it and say, `yes, it’s part of us.’” She added that Christians should maybe start thinking and talking more about their own religion again “rather than having fear of Islam.”

Germany is home to an estimated 4 million Muslims.

Merkel’s comment follow former President Christian Wulff’s remarks who surprised many in 2010 by saying that “Islam now also belongs to Germany.”

Rabbi in Germany Prosecuted for Performing Circumcisions

I saw this over at First Thoughts:

The entire Catholic community—in Germany and throughout the world—must stand with Rabbi Goldberg and speak out against his prosecution for performing circumcisions of male infants in compliance with their parents’ wishes and Jewish law.  The threats to religious liberties and to religious people whose beliefs and practices are regarded as intolerable by those who preach the supreme importance of tolerance know no borders.

 

Former Lutheran Pastor, Joachim Gauck, Elected German President

(Reuters) – Germans resoundingly elected  Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights  activist from communist East Germany, as president of the  European Union’s largest country on Sunday, posing a potential  headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the largely ceremonial office of president, Gauck   presents no threat to Merkel’s domination of national politics.  But his moral authority, independence of mind and lack of party  affiliation could make him an awkward partner for her government  as it struggles to overcome Europe’s economic crisis.

Gauck, 72, won 991 votes in the federal assembly comprising  members of parliament and regional delegates. His main rival,  veteran anti-Nazi campaigner Beate Klarsfeld, got 126 votes.

Germans hope Gauck, a prominent player in the peaceful  protests that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, can  restore dignity to the presidency, tarnished by financial  scandals that felled his predecessor Christian Wulff.

“I take up this post with the endless gratitude of a person  who, after a long trek through the political desert of the 20th  century, has finally and unexpectedly found his home again and  was able to witness in the last 20 years the joy of shaping a  democratic society,” he said after taking the oath of office.

His victory was never in doubt after all the main political  parties, including Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats,  threw their weight behind his candidacy.

Merkel played down suggestions that the feisty theologian  would use his office as a pulpit to harangue Germany’s  politicians or that they might clash over policy issues…

Unlike career politician Wulff, Gauck – who describes  himself politically as “a left-leaning, liberal conservative” -  likes to speak his mind on controversial issues, and he does so  with an eloquence forged in the pulpits of East Germany…

Source (and rest).

 

A Church Built Entirely of Ice and Snow

http://connect.facebook.net/rsrc.php/v1/yD/r/GL74y29Am1r.swf

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?api_key=79439656165&app_id=79439656165&channel_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df2a1cbfae9e345%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffrstephensmuts.wordpress.com%252Ff14e12120451aa8%26relation%3Dparent.parent%26transport%3Dpostmessage&client_id=79439656165&display=none&locale=en_US&origin=1&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df3a509d57e8eb14%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffrstephensmuts.wordpress.com%252Ff14e12120451aa8%26relation%3Dparent%26transport%3Dpostmessage%26frame%3Df25e8290acb1772&response_type=token%2Csigned_request%2Ccode&sdk=joey

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?api_key=79439656165&app_id=79439656165&channel_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df390796e4eabe2%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffrstephensmuts.wordpress.com%252Ff14e12120451aa8%26relation%3Dparent.parent%26transport%3Dpostmessage&client_id=79439656165&display=none&locale=en_US&origin=1&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df29dc7399ace26c%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffrstephensmuts.wordpress.com%252Ff14e12120451aa8%26relation%3Dparent%26transport%3Dpostmessage%26frame%3Dfdc826b40508d5&response_type=token%2Csigned_request%2Ccode&sdk=joey

Has opened in Germany:

Germany – A church built entirely of ice and snow has opened in Bavaria — a century after villagers first built a snow church in an act of protest.

The church at Mitterfirmiansreut, near the Czech border, is more than 65 feet in length and boasts a tower. It’s made up of some 49,000 cubic feet of snow.

The structure was bathed in blue light as it opened Wednesday evening with a blessing from Dean Kajetan Steinbeisser.

But when the ancestors of today’s villagers built the first snow church in 1911, they weren’t thinking just of architectural achievement.

Steinbeisser says: “It was meant as an act of provocation — believers from the village got together and built a snow church because they didn’t have a church here.”

 

German Speed Bump

This is a very funny video that someone showed me at tea today. I had to share it (if you, like I, haven’t seen it yet).

 

Three Nuggets from Pope’s Germany Trip

The National Catholic Reporter has them:

It probably says something about the low-key nature of a papal trip when its biggest news flash involves the shooting off of an air gun – not even a real gun, mind you – two hours before the pontiff’s arrival, in the vague direction of two security agents stationed in the central square of Erfurt in advance of an open-air Mass.

The thirty-year-old who fired the air gun was quickly apprehended, and nobody who attended the Mass was even aware there had been a brief security scare. Nonetheless, media outlets jumped on the story, largely because the Sept. 22-25 trip itself did not generate the sort of immediate political excitment that drives talk shows and news pages.

Benedict XVI warned Germans in advance not to expect a “spectacle” or “sensations” from his third homecoming but first official state visit, and the four-day swing seemed to deliver on those expectations.

For the most part, the pontiff steered clear of commentary that could have been given a political spin, such as reflections on Germany’s role in Europe, which is a matter of controversy these days given the continent’s fiscal crisis and perceptions of German unwillingness to bail out weaker economies, or the hot-button cultural issues that swirl around the Catholic church, such as abortion, gay rights, and the family.

Benedict did draw protestors, including an opposition demonstration in Berlin estimated at some 9,000 people, but for the most part his message didn’t give them much to work with.

Instead, Benedict focused on what German theologians call the Gottesfrage, or the “question of God.” His basic argument was that beneath the pressing issues of the moment lies a deeper question: Is there space for God, for a reality beyond self-interest and the human will to power, in the ultra-secular cultural milieu of the 21st century?

Only by replying “yes”, Benedict implied, will the other problems of the day become soluble.

Beyond that core point, there were three nuggets worth lifting up from the trip’s record…

They are:

Inter-religious relations

Ecumenism and Christian Geography

Small Christian Communities

Read more on these here.

 

Pope Visits Martin Luther’s Convent

And participates in an ecumenical ceremony in the Lutheran Augustinian Convent:

 

Pope: I Came to Germany to Speak About God

The Pope Visits German Homeland

The Telegraph reports:

In his first official engagement of a four-day visit to Germany Pope Benedict XVI was welcomed to the residence of German President Christian Wulff.

Benedict’s predecessor John Paul always met rapturous crowds in his Catholic Poland. The pope from Catholic Bavaria can expect less deference from the Protestants of old Prussia or the atheist generations raised in communist East Germany.

He plans an open-air Mass today in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, which was built for the 1936 Games meant to glorify Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, as well as meetings with Germany’s Jewish and Muslim minorities.

Benedict will end his German tour in the mostly Catholic south-western city of Freiburg.

The Papstbesuch 2011 website is here.