Uniting in advocacy

Reflections on the Schwäbisch-Gmünd Congress 2009

Authors

  • Christof Sauer
  • Michael Hausin

Keywords:

congress, advocacy, declaration, policy making, evangelicals, Schwäbisch-Gmünd

Abstract

Ten human rights organisations and Christian mission agencies met in Schwäbisch-Gmünd/Germany for a congress ”Remember the martyrs – persecution of Christians today”. For Germany this was unprecedented and it has succeeded in uniting mainly evangelical Christians in advocacy. The participants issued a call, addressed to the German government, to maintain and strengthen religious freedom in foreign policy. The call is predominantly positive and affirmative rather than demanding. The congress indicates that German evangelicals are starting to take an increasing number of political concerns seriously. Political initiatives developed in American evangelicalism are being contextually emulated in Germany.

Author Biographies

Christof Sauer

Prof. Dr. Christof Sauer serves as Research Director of IIRF in a part time position, being retired early for health reasons. He is one of two founding directors of the IIRF and served in that capacity until 2021. He also serves as director of the Cape Town Bureau of IIRF, where he lived from 2000–2020. He developed the International Journal for Religious Freedom.

Michael Hausin

Michael Hausin attended the Congress in Schwäbisch Gmünd and wrote the first draft of the article, which was then expanded in cooperation with the co-author. Whenever the first person is used, it reflects Hausin’s opinion. Hausin is the editor of the journal of Hilfsaktion Märtyrerkirche (HMK, Voice of the Martyrs) in Uhldingen, Germany since 2002. He has studied political science, history, and sociology in Freiburg and Rostock, Germany and completed his doctorate in politics at Rostock University in 1999. Previously he has worked as a lecturer in adult education among others at the Institute for Psychology and Pastoral Care. He has published articles for Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen, Idea-Spektrum and other publications. He is a member of the Commission for the Research of Totalitarianism and Democracy and a Member Religious Liberty Commission of the German Evangelical Alliance (AKREF).

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Published

2023-01-14

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2009): Volume 2, Issue 2

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)