Christine Dietrich
| Christine Dietrich | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 💼 Occupation | Pastor |
| 📆 Years active | 2007-present |
Christine Dietrich is a Swiss Protestant pastor and former church councilor of the Evangelical-Reformed Church of the Canton Basel-Stadt.
Biography
Christine Dietrich has been an evangelical reformed pastor since 2003, in Altdorf Uri, Grenchen and Siselen.[1][2] She holds a doctoral degree in theology from the University of Basel. Her doctoral thesis Asyl: vergleichende Untersuchung zu einer Rechtsinstitution im Alten Israel und seiner Umwelt was completed in 2008.[3][4]
Writings on Politically Incorrect
Allegedly, a lecture given by the conservative author Henryk Broder in Basel in February 2007 inspired Dietrich to her anti-Islamic positions. A few days later, she gave a sermon in her parish in the canton of Uri with the title "Hurra, we are going to die" (based on Broder's book Hurray, We Capitulate!). Among other things, she predicted: "Our system is slow, cumbersome. Islam, on the other hand, has pace, style, and authority. (...) If things continue like this, we may all have to go through our answering machine again soon - in Arabic."[5] Soon after, Dietrich began writing for the right-wing extremist platform Politically Incorrect.[5] After the affiliation became public, the blog announced that "the brave Christine" was no longer editing guest posts.[6] According to research by German newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, she continued to write articles by the pseudonym "Jeanne d’Arc" or "Thorin Eichenschild".[5]
Dietrich has called these actions a "mistake".[6] She was initially reprimanded by the Reformed Church, but a later investigation by the Synodal Council determined that she was not responsible for "hate preaching", and defended her. However, she was instructed to stay away from anti-Islamic and xenophobic platforms and demonstrations.[7] Criminal proceedings were initiated against her in 2012, but later dropped.[8]
Church councilor of ERK
In 2015, Dietrich took over a pastor's office in Basel. In September 2019, she was elected as a church councilor to the leadership of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Basel-Stadt. The Synod's election preparation committee had held several talks with Dietrich, but saw no reason for deletion from the list of candidates. There were public protests only a few months after the election.[9] Dietrich filed charges against a journalist from the Basellandschaftlichen Zeitung and Markus Ritter, the longtime president of the Elisabethenkirche, for quoting and writing, respectively, that she was "involved in the same murderous extreme-right milieu" as Anders Breivik.[8]
While the ERK in its first statement on the defense of Christine Dietrich had referred to Dietrich's sermons, which "never gave reasons for complaints", this statement could not be kept. The bz had shown Dietrich general statements about Islam. The ERK then justified itself: "Freedom of speech applies in the pulpit (within the applicable Swiss laws). In the Evangelical Reformed Church there is no authority that checks the sermon of a pastor."[10]
In March 2020, Dietrich announced that she was stepping down from her position as church councilor and pastor. From July 2020 she performed "special tasks of the cantonal church".[11] However, as of May 2021, she again became a Reformed pastor, this time in Messen.[12]
Reception
The religious scholar Oliver Wäckerlig from the Pastoral Sociological Institute in St. Gallen said in 2019 regarding Dietrich's usage of the cross pattée: "Christine Dietrich is actually a Christian Zionist with anti-Islamic positions. After criticism, she only distanced herself very slightly from them."[5]
References
- ↑ website of erk-bs-intern.ch and OG-Inform.[full citation needed]
- ↑ Mirzaie, Ario Ebrahimpour (2011-07-27). "PI-News: Das Hassblog der Rechtspopulisten". Störungsmelder (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ↑ Dietrich, Christine (2008). Asyl: vergleichende Untersuchung zu einer Rechtsinstitution im Alten Israel und seiner Umwelt (in Deutsch). W. Kohlhammer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-17-020523-9. Search this book on
- ↑ Otto, Eckart (2009). "Review of Vergleichende Untersuchung zu einer Rechtsinstitution im Alten Israel und seiner Umwelt, Christine Dietrich, Asyl". Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte / Journal for Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Law. 15: 456–458. ISSN 0948-0587. JSTOR 10.13173/zeitaltobiblrech.15.2009.0456.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Hoskyn, Benjamin Rosch, Jonas. "Hetzportal betrieben - Denn sie weiss, was sie tut: Islamgegnerin neu im Basler Kirchenrat". Aargauer Zeitung (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mustedanagic, Amir (2011-09-21). "Vater, vergib ihr!". 20 Minuten (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ↑ "Pfarrerin wird ermahnt". www.bielertagblatt.ch (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Basler Kirchenrätin reicht offenbar Strafanzeige ein : ref.ch". www.ref.ch (in Deutsch). 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ↑ "Wegen islamfeindlicher Vergangenheit der Pfarrerin: Aktivisten stören Gottesdienst". www.rnd.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ↑ Rosch, Benjamin. "Kirchenratspräsident - In der Kirche ist die Hölle los: Skandal um Basler Pfarrerin geht weiter". bz - Zeitung für die Region Basel (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ↑ Rosch, Benjamin. "Überraschend: Die umstrittene Basler Pfarrerin Christine Dietrich tritt ab". bz - Zeitung für die Region Basel (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ↑ Byland, Urs. "Messen - Messen hat eine neue Pfarrerin". Solothurner Zeitung (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2022-02-04.
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