Yes and no. The term evangelical used to just mean protestant, just as evangelisch does in Germany. And the EKD still uses this translation in their own official documents.

Just curious, what are Calvinists called? In Hungary, which is mainly Catholic, the two main reform churches are the Lutherans and Calvinists.

I was thinking of this. Evangelikal and Evangelisch is not the same. They are two types of religious and even have their own Wikipedia pages. Evangelisch is a normal protestant church in Germany while this is more true for Evangelikal in the USA. Evangelikal is much more fundamentalistic: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelisch#Abgrenzung_zu_%E2%80%9Eevangelikal%E2%80%9C

I would understand „Calvinist“ the same as „reformed“ but, maybe theologians can tell if there still is differences?!

@@minnaerd4412 Calvinist is a type of reformed. During the time of reformation Calvin, Luther, Zwingli and the other reformers of early modern Europe had very different personal interpretations of the bible. What united them was that they were the first wave of Christian thinkers who refuted the Catholic doctrin and started large movements that could no longer be suppressed. Before the reformation the Catholic church just simply eradicated any kind of "heresy".

😉 I was thinking the same thing while watching

The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament (deuterocanotical books included). John 1, 2 and 3 as well as the Book of John are in the New Testament, so they aren't in the Septuagint.

its better to use easy words in English, thinking isnt their strong side, if it comes to religion!

@@biggi3502 Oh yes, sorry for the little accident there and thanks for the correction. The letters were of course their own texts written in the local Koine of the respective congregation and had nothing to do with the Jewish Septuagint. I was mistaken there.

Yeah, prime example of american defaultism^^.

They have been even nutjobs for the former Christian authorities in Europe...! 🙈🤣

So only the German answer is correct...

@@Naikomi603 Ich neige auch zur zweiten Antwort.

So, where exactly is the difference? ;)

@@MartinaSchoppe The english answere is framed as positive while the german isn´t . Fundamentalisem is the same word we would use for the Taliban .

I was just about to write the same! 9% of income would be 10 times the amount they get now. That would be a huge church. They could build a Kölner Dom every year!😂

Technically, it's not even a tax. The Churches in question are just paying the Finanzamt for providing the service of collecting the tithe. Any other faith could request the same service if they wanted to.

@@Llortnerof That's not true. It is an actual tax, and a faith needs to be officially recognized as a state-affiliated church (more precisely: öffentlich-rechtliche Religionsgemeinschaft) in the state (Bundesland) to be able to make use of this (and other privileges such as offering religious education in schools). The precise rules vary between states, but generally constitute a relatively high bar. For example in Berlin, the only (arguably) Muslim community that has this status are the Alevites. As far as I know, in many states there have been efforts by various Muslim communities to get this status, but they have often been denied it based on the argument that they didn't represent the entire religion. Here is one effect of it being a real tax: If you don't pay it, you are treated by the state exactly like any other tax dodger. If you are caught dodging your tax, the church tax (if applicable for you) will be part of the sum you _must_ pay and will be punished for. After the German reunification, there were even a lot of cases of people who could not prove that they had left the church when East Germany still existed. (Apparently, they made it very easy for people to leave the church, but often didn't document the fact to the standard required by West German and now unified German authorities.) As a result, when the churches in former East Germany started going through baptism registers a few years after unification, these people were hit with demands for back payment of many years of church tax. They were forced to officially leave their former church once more in order to avoid having to pay for the future, but that didn't help them to get around paying what they supposedly owed the church (via the state). Here is an example of a more recent case of this kind of injustice: hpd.de/artikel/konfessionsfreie-muss-kirchensteuer-nachzahlen-17530 The application of the state machinery to force the unwilling 'faithful' to pay their church taxes is part of the service that the churches pay the state for.

Thanks then it make more sense, in Sweden it is up to 1% but that is of the income not the income tax.

@@Llortnerof It is a tax, it stems from the tithe, but is since the last days of the HRE a real tax. Adding to that we have what is called "Kollekte" ( = Collection), which is collected seperately after each service, some churches even ask for another regular levy on top of it all called "Kirchengeld". The tax is non-negotiable if you want to be recognized as a member of the church and community, the other levies are up to you like tips at a restaurant.

Yes, I noticed that when I talked to an evangelical german pastor. We had three long conversations. She did not mention God or the Church with a single word.

@@hjs6102 protestant not evangelical, we don't have those nutters here. ;) you could talk to a priest in Germany and don't even know that he is a priest until he mentions it if he does so. More and more people in Germany don't belong to any confession at all and even if they do belong to and confession they barely go to church. Non religious people make up 43% of the German population and this number is rising every year.

@@althelas Oh, we have those nutters here. It's a very ugly topic. German religiosity is not prepared for them, because most people here equate being christian with being a good person.

​@@althelas yes we do have those "nutters" as you call them. Also, I don't think it is a Thing to Pride ourselves in if we will Not know AT ALL when we are talking to someone who has dedicated their whole life to a certain "higher" cause.

@@chronischgeheilt No surprise you have those nutters because those are the decendants of the religous nutters which we sent from Europe (or which ran from Europe because they couldn't live their extrem religious type in Europe any more) to North America to create Merica. If you look at the original settlers this is what came from Europe. Similarly funny like white Australians being proud of their race and being decendants from prisoners or deliquents. Just accept in Merica that your roots are from the scum of Europe, nothing to be proud of. Which also explains the direction Merica evolves towards third world country and laws from the dark ages.

Amen, praise the Lord

You mean, it seems to be a strange concept of the most American hard core Evangelicals.

does not only count for christians.. a little humbleness would do wonders for some

Imagine how Jesus would have been welcomed/treated in the most "religious" place.... Or like how the Pope put it on Twitter: "Christians builds bridges, not walls". I think saying Americans are religious/Christians is just wrong. It's not about the religion. It's a specific American culture thing.

@@user-lv6rn9cf8m They abuse religion as a justification for their actions or warped beliefs you mean?

this is completely fine. But people need to keep in mind that the religion they were raised in is more than a believe system but a great part of their culture. Irreligious people feel some kind of spirituality in themselves as well but have no connection with the actual organised religion and therefore fall for esotericism and conspiracies. It is the job of the church organisation to protect and cultivate the religion passed down, so that when people some day might be interested in believing again, they have the chance to be taught instead of mixing something together themselves.

​@@deutschermichel5807that is complete bullshit. most people who fall for conapiracy theories are in fact very religious people.

Same here in the UK. My mum wanted me and my brothers to go to the local Catholic primary school, so we got baptised in order to gain admittance. We learned about faith alongside our other subjects in school, sang hymns in assembly, and had the occasional school trip to the church to partake in mass and help around with basic jobs, but the moment I left to go to a comprehensive (state run) high school, I immediately stopped practicing any faith at all. I had a quick run in with Buddhism as a teenager, but beyond that I’m entirely atheist now. Christianity has only really had a role in my life past the age of 11 when other people have practiced it around me. The closest thing to any real religious culture in my town seems to be groups like Jehovans and a few proselytising Muslim sects handing out flyers and preaching in the street. As much as Europe is seen as a Christian continent, most people, especially in Western Europe, don’t practice faith at all, and don’t really discuss it either outside of certain contexts. It must be really weird to see as an American - the culture around faith over here is just so much more chill than in the states.

​@@deutschermichel5807not all irreligious people do feel spiritualit. That's an incorrect assumption. Especially those (yet not exclusivel) committed to the scientific method often enough don't feel the need for any spirituality. Most conspiracy ideologies are based on arguments by authority, arguments by naturality, arguments by tradition and many similarly not logically sound arguments. Thus, people who are religiously or spiritually *thinking* are in general more *likely* to fall for conspiracy ideologies or hoaxes.

Did you see that red catholic spot in lower saony at the dutch border? Catholics are going in church every sunday. Evangelists go to church like easter and christmas. I was studying in Hessen amongst evangelist people and they were irritated when I prayed before lunch in the eating hall. Actually when I signed the cross so many looked weird at me like I were dacing on the desks. But when I was a kid, when I did not eant to go up early on sunday for the church, I had to stay in bed the WHOLE day, because only illness may prevent you from attending church ( in the eyes of my parents). Another lifestyle difference: we were 7 siblings, but most evangelistic friends had only one sus or bro.

Note: I never asked anyone in 40 years of my life if they were Catholic or Protestant, neither was I ever asked, not that I could remember. I generally don't care, because religion is a private matter, and most of the times if you know someone long enough you can guess by the holidays and practices they actively observe. I think this question really only comes up if you are introduced to the system like in your case, or if you want to marry someone.

I think that a main reason is that most protestants in the USA believe in hell. At least in our Evangelisch class in school we were taught that after Jesus's resurrection, and him defeating death, hell was a destination was abolished and everybody will go to heaven. Edit: Nevermind, the German Lutheran church still officially believes in hell, but not as a place of eternal torture, and it's kinda complicated (or should I say: I don't get it) and there is no consensus about it among theologians.

so you meet some not so strong believers in Texas... i have meet people who would scare the shit out of you....after they finished their pro Jesus speech of 1 hour, i told them i will stay atheist, because i like to have a easy life and because i dont believe, no hell is waiting for me...!

@@angela_merkeI I was taught something very different, entirely opposite even. I was taught that before Jesus died, nobody could go to heaven, which is the reason why Jews don't belive in an afterlife. Could it be that Christians have no clue what Jesus is supposed to have died for?

​@@1983simi why don't you care? It shows that you're not comfortable with the subjects. Not caring simply does not exist,ignorance and discomfort do. People do things for a reason and If you don't care it shows that you have an issue with the questions that there should be no issue with. I don't see it as a big deal to ask, it's a beatiful meaningful questions to ask someone there faith and to discuss it even if ye disagree. If the person doesn't want to discuss it,then that's fine(when that's the case the person usually does so due to pride or ignorance or both). There's no shame in being wrong and we should honestly ask each other questions in order to learn more about the world and ourselves and to try and get closer to the truth. If someone gets angry,bitter,hateful,prideful,insulting or acts in any other toxic way about this questions then they are the problem. All faiths have levels of truth to them,even if they are not equally true.

Growing up in Germany, I'd consider presentation the main difference. In Germany, you are expected to keep religious beliefs to yourself, unless someone asks you about it. In the US, you get the idea that people discuss religion daily.

Absolutely NOT. Germany is a secular state and people are living humanistic values as defined in the Grundgesetz, the declaration of human rights, and so on; regardless of what the CDU and CSU might tell you. Many of those values may be derived from the abrahamic religions Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but it's important to understand that in cases of contradiction, humanism always takes precedence over religion (or at least should -> Tanzverbot).

@@NeovanGoth As a former atheist turning back to be a christian I can agree. Still had the same values as an atheist as I have now. And CDU, CSU is christian in name only. There are so many things they demand, like the politics about refugees, that stand in conflict with christianity. If you think of the cristmas story, Maria and Joseph and Baby Jesus were refugees too, due to Herodes wanting to kill baby Jesus.

oh lord have mercy on those living literal "christian values"

@@NeovanGoth I agree with you, but you'll always have to keep in mind how ... screwed the "christian values" of many americans are. For us it's clear that humanistic values can't be claimed by any one religion and that everything boils down to the golden rule. But to make it understandable to highly indoctrinated, so-called christians in the USA you'll have to explain it to them in words they can start to understand. If you try to explain it via humanistic values, they'll shut down, after all you are an "evil commie". Try to explain to them that sharing with each other was one of the mainstays of early christendom and you MIGHT get them to listen. And only once they start to understand how far from even basic christian values their mammonistic world-view is. Only then will you be able to start showing them, that other religions and un-religious world-views have a lot in common. And that their over-materialistic practices are neither christian, nor humane, nor sane in any way. And only then your explanation will make sense to them.

Actually Luther was not the first one to translate the bible. But he had the advantage of the printing press and the church failed to ban his translation as had happened with the translations that came before him. Also, for about 300 years until Luther, the bible was listed on the index of prohibited books by the (catholic) church, which didn't make the bible "forbidden to read", but reading the book without a member of the clergy present was not allowed to make sure the reader would not make up some heresy. But you are absolutely right about the style and high quality of Luther's translation, he did a great job, especially when you consider that he managed to use the language of the people.

You're half right, illiteracy was in fact wide spread, but the definition was different. If one could not read/write Latin specifically, they were considered illiterate. The ability to read/write the local language was common but not taken into account for this.

@@shadow_phoenix_alex for todays purposes literacy is defined as the ability to read and write in one language. It is the definition i will use. I am no historian so i do not give a damn about any other.

Not to foget that the original bible was not written in Latin...it was in ancient greek, then translated to Latin...and then....so...they text went through several translations from translations

​@@TheTrueLeaflessactually only the New Testament was completly written down in Greek, the Old Testament was mostly written down in Hebrew and a small part in Aramaic. Later the Old Testament was translated into Greek as well, then into Latin and then into other languages. Also it's important to keep in mind that until all was written down (starting at the beginning of the 9th centuary) everything was verbally transmitted for hundrets of years, so who knows trough how many languages/dialects certain parts had passed before being written down in one of the three initial languages.

I think the idea behind it is different. While the origin of it is certainly religious tradition, the main opposition to any shops being open on Sundays in Germany nowadays are workers' rights concerns. The churches, as far as I can tell, don't really care all that much. And that's just not a big thing in the US, particularly not in red states.

It started as a christian tradition (don't work on the seventh day), and was just kept later on.

Kaiser Wilhelm II actually defined Sunday specifically as a day for "seelische Erhebung" (upliftment of the soul) and for relaxation independent of its religious meaning.

Of course the church cares about ni work on Sundays. I've heard several sermons on the matter and I only attend church a few times a year.

The more Christian in the US, the more capitalistic. From the perspective of American Christians, it’s the decision of each business on whether to be open or not. I’m an American evangelical and I go to church twice a week. I live in a state that is more religiously devoted than the average in America, not quite as devoted as the south. Our state has about 1/3rd of its population attending church weekly, about 40% if you include almost weekly. Yet, I had to work Easter. The only religious holidays I get off are thanksgiving and Christmas, and many non-religious/non-christian Americans celebrate those holidays outside of a religious context. Secularism and religiosity have an odd relationship in America. In the ways that Europeans are secular, Americans are religious. In the ways Europeans are religious, Americans are secular.

Funny thing, people who felt insulted by the dancing ban on Good Friday could accept a dancing ban over many weeks when justified by health care. Other religion, not a problem anymore.

True.

💯!

It's not father's day that makes the day a holiday officially.... it's the feast of ascension/Christi Himmelfahrt, the day Jesus went to heaven to his father. Father's Day just happens to be on an official religious holiday. 😅

@@kolli7150 considering the cultural shift with most people in the east effectively being non-religious this day really just is dads-partying-with-their-bros-day for most. Gotta go with the times.

Since when is Fathersday a holiday? Like My Teacher also always told me Fathers created the holiday because there was a Mothersday already. Which was apperantly the reason why we never made stuff for our fathers but for our mothers

​@@kiterkun1606well carrying out a baby is much more difficukt and painful and heath harming than giving a little protein. So mother's day makes sense. Women's day is more about the patriarchy in germany and most countries with femizids etc.

That's because you're a Catholic. They're called "books of Moses" in the Protestant translation only.

​@@couchpotatoe91 I had protestant lessons at school and we called them both Genesis (1. Buch Mose), Exodus (2. Buch Mose), ... But i never really paid attention to which ones were used in the bible.

@@p.k.893 hello I’m a Catholic we had „ Religion“ at school but I never ever had a Bibel in my Hand till I was an adult an slept in a Hotel where one was lying on the Nightstand

Because the 5 books of Moses is only used in protestantism. In the Einheitsbibel, which is a catholic bible, it should be Genesis and Co.

@@siggim5681 oh, i read a bible at 10, printed in old German letters, bible been from 1864.... i used it to learn how to read my Granny letters from the time between the 2 wars! she been to school in the Kaiserzeit, so she wrote different to my mom, Hitlerzeit and me, Brandt/Schmidtzeit...lol

For my mom and her folks it was a big deal - didn't change the fact I went to become an atheist when she failed to justify even the most basic things ... to a pre-schooler. When I got out of church, it was on an April 1st, dude thought I'm joking.

You don't go to the city hall, but to the courthouse, to cancel your church membership.

@@BirteK1975 Depends on the state. Some even make you go to the church themselves to get out.

They do? I don't know who of my friends, coworkers or even extended family is member of a church. And I don't care

Here in east Germany you don't ask about that at all.

We don't ask about it specifically but so far it is rarer to find someone who left church than to find someone who just stopped going to church. I was raised catholic in a rather catholic area (Paderborn) but the priest in our church was pretty progressive and open to new thing. I actually really liked it even though I only attend services during the holidays since I moved after finishing my Abitur.

That is no question you might encounter. But I had the question a short while ago from a friend. But it was the question if I'm still at it because I don't get an additional holiday anymore since some legal changes and therfore I could just leave the church - which is a legitimate thought...

People never ask about religion. If I get to know someone new, they ask me where I am from, what job I have and how I like it, but I have never ever in my life heard someone talk about their religion.

Stimmt nicht, daß das ganze Osterwochenende Tanzverbot ist. Das Tanzverbot beginnt in Bayern am Karfreitag 0:00 Uhr und dauert bis Karfreitag 24:00 Uhr.

@@reichsritter8955 Mein Fehler. Bei Beiträgen, in denen kontrovers über das Tanzverbot diskutiert wird, habe ich von bayerischen und baden-württembergischen Clubs gehört, die sicherheitshalber das ganze Wochenende dicht machen.

Also the list of banned movies for silent holidays Like don't do The Life of Brian on Easter xD

@@Hanmacx In public venues though. Private consumption without bothering the neighbours is fine.

Das Tanzverbot steht im Reichskonkordat. Nachlesen (guter Artikel bei Wikipedia). Es wird deutsches Recht bleben, solange der Vetrag bestehen bleibt, und die Bundesregierung wird einen Teufel tun, den Vertrag aufzukündigen.

That must have been quite the accident if they were able to make a hospital from you.

@@Llortnerof edit: I guess I see what you you mean. The word "turn" was my mistake. Or should I have written "turned me in to" instead of "into"? You know, the feelings came back again, and I felt like turned and tossed around, and that's probably why I lost my grammar. Forgive me if you can.

It's ime for Extreme Unction.

@@eisikater1584 turn in to, not turn into

@@eisikater1584 "turning into" means to become something else. In this case, you said you became a hospital. Like "I was turned into a vampire."

They have no idea what secularization means, otherwise they wouldn't make such a nonsensical claim. The state pays the salaries of the bishops with the tax money of all citizens. The churches sit on the supervisory boards of the broadcasting corporations. In no other country are church and state so closely intertwined as in Germany. In addition to church tax, the state contributes to the costs of church institutions such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, etc. For the expropriation during the secularization under Napoleon, the German state still pays billions extra every year.

yeah it used to be a huge issue, my aunt nearly wasn't allowed to marry my uncle because she was catholic and he protestant

> Without the church tax, they couldn't finance all the kindergartens, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. That's not true, the church gets paid separately for these services. It's not paid for by the church tax.

Churches are not fully compensated for these services so church taxes are needed to provide social services.

it´s not even necesarily a deciding factor for school courses. I´m not a christian but the first 9 years I went to the religious lessons (opposit to philosophie) mostly because everybody I didn´t like went to Philosophie. And we were A mix ov anything but muslim in the christian lessons.

@@nijos.7811 It... depends. Religious education is done _in_ schools, but provided by the religious groups that want to offer it. And while your views or wishes should be respected, it is still mainly both you denomination as well as your parents' decisions that determine what kind of classes you will get. So I would say it heavily depends on your state, your region... and your era.

@@Groffili Not just who wants to offer but also who´s lobby is big enough that the state allowes it. (Not just as teechings in school but also as courses in the university so that teachers can actually graduate as for example hindu teachers accepted by the german state)

Still a long way to go for true "Laizismus" here in Germany. - As long as the state collects taxes, finances Kita's and elderly care etc. the separation of church and state is a myth.

@@RenePatrique The main problem is not the collecting of church taxes by the state (for which the state charges a commission), but the exemption of the churches as employers from some of the labour law rules.

"Evangelisch" (lutheranian-protestants) and "gibberish" talking evangelicals alongside self-entitled prophets talking "in tounge" are NOT the same.

@@RenePatrique yea that's what i'm talking abt. Its so weird how slmething can have a similar name and be something else completely in a different cultural context

I don't even know anyone my age, well above 40, who ever goes to church, except for cultural, art historical reasons.

@@magmalin The people I know who are going to church every Sunday: I only know them because they are from my village and they are the only ones in my village that go to church every Sunday (and some old people). There are no "Bibelstunden" or other religious activities in my village and I don't know anyone else who is this religious. The only time where people go to church here is maybe christmas and maybe easter. But 80% are not even going to church for christmas or easter. So Donnie in this video would be considered very religious in Austria and in Germany too.

And we, neighbours, Emsland, were 90% catholic in my days. 😄

Moin I was born in Ostfriesland and lived there for the majority of my life. I can say that everything near Norddeich always felt really athiest and I was raised that way by my parents and the school. I knew a couple of kids who had confirmations though and got envious because they got a huge amount of money if they passed. I would still say that there are very few openly religous people living anywhere north of Bremen.

The only time I am in church is the Friday after Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), but not because I am religious, but because it is part of Schützenfest. Our town has it starting on Fronleichnam for the children and friday + saturday for everyone else. The friday just starts with a short "church service" (if you even can call it one) for everyone, no matter the faith. It is more or less just a meetup/starting point with some words from the catholic and protestant pries of our town and them wishing us a great party and they pray for us not having too much of a hangover later on.

They can only be abolished by at least n+1 secular holydays that could be more strategically distributed around the year too.

Nope. They are not "Cunningly devised fables."

Well, one can say that up until the 1970s/1980s, the generation of parents and grandparents often had strong antipathies towards the other religious community and its members. My partner and I each come from a religious "mixed marriage" and, funnily enough, our Catholic relatives were much more relaxed about the relationship and about us children than our Evangelical Lutheran relatives. * Other Christian religious communities are so small here in percentage terms that they are hardly noticeable and one is surprised that there is actually community x or y.

I would love to know why people who belong to a faith, reply in a survey that they don't believe in god. Maybe they just like to part of a community, and that's the only way they know how? Perhaps an aspect is how are the laws pertaining to blasphemy different in USA and Germany. Here in Vienna, the largest group are non-believers, AKA ohne bekentnisse, aside from a fast growing muslim community.

Germany has a special list for Movies that are banned on silent Holidays like Easter Movies like "the Life of Brian" :p

Christianity is *a parasite* which does NOT belong to West-EU. >> In fact *everything* they did was *HATING* what is germanic, starting with one of the biggest lie: *Christmas* is a *stolen germanic Fest* orginal name *Yul(e) Fest.* The church stole, renamed and put all oer their symbols over this *germanic winterfest* dedicated to *Odin & Frau Holle/Frigg(a).* >> The chruch even tryed to hide their lie by changing the germanic meaning of "Yul(e) Fest", but *failed* to do so in this case. Yes the fairytale about *"Frau Holle" or "Mother Winter"* was a *Coverup name* and place were germanic people did hide their *forbiten goddess* to protect her for coming generations. >> Frau Holle, Hola (die Waldfee), Hulda, *Hel(l),* Perchte/Perchta are all *coverup names for:* >> *Frigg(a)* >> By death forbiten by church to speak out. >> Witchhunt? Hunting & Mass mudering germanic people/women going on with their germanic religion. >> 723 did the church fell the *Donar oak* of the germanic tribe *Chatti.* Chatti is also the german federal state name of *Hessen* modified meaning! Hessen = Chatti, germanic tribe, CH was h in germanic and spoken as [x] so: Xatti spoken, "the angry". >> Frau Holle/Frigg(a) is *the wife of Odin!!* >> Her holy animals are: *Pigeons* & Owls --- *"Aschenputtel"* fairytale pigeons, send by *Frau Holle/Frigg(a)* to protect the hard working girl. >> In winter times to the *Rauhnächte* opens up the gates to *Anderswelt/Asgard* and Odin with Frau/Holle leading the *Wildhunt/ Wildejadg* -- Which to this day is the tradition in germany NOT TO HANG UP washed clothes outside, bc Frau Holle/Frigg(a) was watching out who was lazy, bc in THIS time, it was time to rest, and who ever did hang up stuff outside had not worked enough to now rest. Also since the *Wildhunt* was a pack of magical beeings, which were allowed to do what they want. So also bad spirits could be fanged b clothes outside and brought inside the (long) houses if done so. To prevent it, do not hang cloths outside as long the *Wildhunt* is going on. >> Weihnachtsbaum, Fir-branches aaare also *germanic traditions and based on them.* For germanics the Fir was the symbol of eternal life, bc it is evergreen. *>> There was NO date NO fest in wintertimes fr christianity* > Thiefs & liars!! In Germany is a lake named *"Titisee"* _Titi_ is in old germanic *Kindchen/ lil child* >> It is said, that Frau Holle/Frigg(a) gave children as gifts or higher changes to get pregnant if bathing in a *forestlake.* >> If a child died to early, Frau Holle/Frigg(a) took directly their souls and brought them fast into her *womb (Mutterlaib)* bc *She is MOTHER EARTH* Goddess of Life, Death and Rebirth. >> The church took her aplegarten into the sky (symbolic stolen to stand above them), and declared *who ever eats from the GERMANIC aples, goes down to *Hel(l)* / *Hölle> Hoelle < *Holle.* *Demonizing the highest germanic goddess* >> Everything the "church liars" said is evil was germanic... So why should i with germanic roots, say my ancestors are EVIL/bad,..wtf?! gtfo In English is *The Elderbush* still named how in german it was *"Busch der Ahnen"* >> Der *Hollunderbusch* is Frau Holle/Frigg(a) holy plant. Back then every germanic long house had one, and it was greeted when walking by or used to pray to the goddess. Frau Holle/Frigg(a) besides all her things she did, also *weaved the strings for the 3 Nors* to bind our *human string of fate.* >> Since she was long time before Odin here, and even it is said Odin has with his 2 ravens allseen abilitiy,..the truth is SHE was ahead everyone else,..bc she weaves th strings,... Sorry for my lil rant and there is so much more to say about it,.. but THOSE points were one of the reasons i kicked the church out of my life as ex christian, ashamed to say so.

@@conniebruckner8190 That is such a contradiction I don't think I can trust DW anymore. The definition of Christian is someone who believes in Christ (and the resurrection) so why not just be honest and admit you're agnostic?

Exactly, the kids even have to memorize that in school (Deuteronomium - not even I could remember that word without looking up!)

I enjoy Bible study in both Germany and America, and my mom recently started hosting one in her living room and it has given so much joy to her and her guests.

When I am in Bavaria or Austria I tend to stick to the Servus, its short and succinct and actually pleasing to the ears, at least more than moin. still i will move to the north and thus endure the relentless onslaught of moin moin moin

“The money goes to the church including things like kindergarten”. Some of it. While many kinderagarten and schools are run by the church, the majority of their financing comes from the states. At best they get *some* additional money from the church.

With all respect, "thousands of evangelical churches" and "American style mega churches" sounds a bit like a stretch.

@@jensraab2902 check die Organisation der dt Freikirchen.. Tausende Mitglieds-Kirchen. Und nachdem bei jedem Sonntagsgottesdienst in alten Landeskirchen 200 Leute max sitzen.. Ich war eine Zeit lang in einer Kirche in Bw ( eine von dutzend dieser Art), wo jeden Gd 2000 Leute kommen. American style bedeutet Bethel idea based, worship heavy, nicht iwas stereotyp amerikanisches 😇

​@@robertbaltha3371 I'm going to respond in English as to not exclude people from the conversation. (For those of you intimidated by the amount of text, jump to the end where the meat of my argument is found by crunching some numbers putting the situation in perspective.) I am aware that there's a comparably high number of evangelicals in Baden-Württemberg. I've been a Christian for a while in my teenage years and early twenties (call it born-again if you will) and a disproportionately high number of folks I met at various places came from there. I wasn't aware that there are also a significant number of evangelical parishes in the Harz or NRW but I have no reason to not believe you. I must admit that my idea what counts as a mega church was mistaken. On the respective Wikipedia page it says that the "Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance". I thought the number would be higher so I'll grant you that there are several megachurches under this definition. To my defense, I'll say that I though that your original phrasing ("thousands of evangelical churches, worship youth camps and American style mega churches") implied that there are also thousands of youth camps and thousands of megachurches when this apparently isn't what you wanted to say. A dozen megachurches obviously is a very different statement than thousands of them! My bad. 😉 All that said, I think that your characterization of these regions as a "German Bible Belt" is very wrong. The evangelical presence is maybe significant compared to other regions but it is nowhere near like it is in the US Bible Belt. Not by a long shot. You mention the Organisation der dt Freikirchen. I didn't find this organization but suspect that you have the Vereinigung Evangelischer Freikirchen (VEF) in mind, an association consisting of a whole number of smaller organizations (among them the much smaller Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden). I don't want to strawman you but since this seems to be the largest umbrella organization of evangelical churches, I think it makes sense to use their number. Let me know if you otherwise. According to the Wikipedia article, the VEF consists of 2695 parishes/churches with a total number of some 237,100 members. These figures are from 2007 which is why I doublechecked on the VEF's website where it mentions that they have around 280,000 members. The number of churches is not listed; I'll use the Wikipedia figure as I don't think there'll be a huge change. Let me know if you have an updated figure. Now let's do the math! (I like math. 😀) - Using these figures, the average size of a church would be around 104 people. This being an average, there's likely a broad spectrum of some large congregations on one end (these would be the few that draw thousands of churchgoers) and tiny ones on the other end. - According to latest figures of the Statistischen Bundesamts, Germany had a population a hair over 84¼ million. That means that only 0.33% of the German population is an evangelical Christian. If their share is significantly higher in what you call the "German Bible Belt" by a factor of ten, no, let's be generous and make that a factor of twelve, then in this very evangelical regions, we still only get a share of 4% of evangelicals. (And that's being generous with the numbers, I think.) That's hardly comparable with US Bible Belt, is it? I'm told that the first question people ask you over there is "Which church do you go to?" implying that it is taken as a given that you're a member of a church, it's just not clear which. This question would be unthinkable in Germany as a conversation starter because even in these "heavily" evangelical regions you mentioned, evangelicals are still only a small fraction.

@@jensraab2902 wow, nice effort.. Of course, things are more complicated. That's kind of a given. But just as you wrote as disclaimer, mine was just a comment, not a verifiable, scientific explanation of the situation in all aspects. I perceived the statement in the video as suggesting there were no real Christians ( reborn, not just on xmas) in Germany and wanted to suggest otherwise. So you are correct in all of it. 👌 Although, I would not disregard people in the more organized churches with a 'Staatsvertrag' who go to church every Sunday, do volunteer work with kids, women, elderly or refugees or whatever as non Christian, not to say that you do. I think there about 40-50 million Christians in Germany. Who are we to say they're not real enough? So, yeah I concede to your effort and argument. But as you said, it's complicated👌

I'm from Bavaria but from a large city and I don't know anyone who is really religious. Maybe people in rural areas still are.

As he stated in the video, it goes back to the "Gretchen-Frage" from Goethe's "Faust". While reading the thriller "Herz, klopf" by Agnes Hammer, I was very surprised by a few lines which lamented that Düsseldorf schools don't teach Goethe anymore.

Not only the church Services, the church es themselves are different. If it looks Like a church it is catholic. Protestants have more modern looking buildings as church es.

@@vorrnth8734 Also regional. In the north you have older churches that are protestant, in the south old churched that are catholic. And in the middle you might have both.

​@@noahluppeyes. But remember that old looking protestant churches really were catholic in the past

@@deutschermichel5807 true dat

Zur Innenausstattung mancher Kirchengebäude ist zu sagen, daß manche aufgrund ihres Alters schlicht mehr Zeit hatten, "Kulturgerümpel", das immer noch brauchbar ist, anzusammeln. Nicht despektierlich gemeint.

Can I ask you when you left the church? I did so about 20 years ago at my local municipality (Rathaus). To be precise, there was one older guy, an ex-administrator (probably to make a little money to add to his pension) who did this exclusively, i.e. filling out the forms for people who wanted to "austreten". He didn't ask me about my reasons at all. It was purely (boring) administrative business. It took maybe 15-20 minutes, from start to finish, most of which was spent on the guy filling out the form by hand. Same for my dad. Actually, he seemed to be somewhat disappointed that nobody asked for his reasons as he left in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal and he would have loved to vent his anger with the church's actions (and inactions) - but nobody asked him! 😅

We had a German visitor, from Saarland, to our home in England and he ask what our village church was. I did not understand the question, so he wanted to know was it Catholic or Protestant. In England the vast majority of village churches are Church of England, Protestant, very very few are Catholic.

@@frankmitchell3594 makes sense, you fought litteral wars to condense all authority in your crown vs. the papal crown in Rome. One more reason you clashed so often with France.

There are protestant regions in Bavaria as well, just think of Augsburg or Franconia!

@@anitapenkert389 In Augsburg there used to be a protestant majority but with all the catholic fugitives after WWII there are more catholics here now. I would say more registered catholics though - "auf dem Papier", not people who really believe in anything the church proclaims.

@@anitapenkert389 Franconians accept the fact that by law they belong to Bavaria, but never ever call a Franconian a Bavarian. I lived in Erlangen for a year, and - one can't imagine - they are like still having a common ptsd from the annexion 200 years ago.

Yes, really interesting. I wouldn't want to give up Christmas here in Germany either. Just love the atmosphere, decorations, christmas markets, etc. I don't believe in all that religious crap. Christmas for me is a time to gather together with family and friends, who often live in far away places and have a good time.No more, no less.

Niemand denkt soviel über Gott nach, wie die Atheisten! 😂

Nur jeder Republikaner in den USA

Yup and to me this is in part the reason for this kind of schizoid idiocy in the US also resulting in these political dramas; fascination with fairytales, entertaining freak shows, in some part dangerous lacks of education for whole great areas, people therefore believing word by word like 2nd-graders, bigots, not able and willing to understand the basic messages behind simple words from the bible and Jesus Christ...! Sad and disgusting! But we also have these loonies here in Germany e.g. calling themselves Zeugen Jehovas.

You are woefully uninformed. There were two Wycliffe translations done a century before Luther was born. Those two translated the entire canon. But the Gospels were done around 950. That was known as the Lindisfarne Gospels. About the same time The Wessex Gospels were also done in Old English.

Zwischen 44% bis 70%. Ist zwar sehr viel, aber nicht nahezu jeder.

@@martinschulz326 offical numbers say 75% of saxony are atheist and many of the 25% left would not consider them selfes really believing in church or god

How many hundreds of years back can you understand German?

There were portions of the Bible, specifically the Gospels that were done in English back in the 10th century. Old English to be sure, but English nonetheless.

@@timcarr6401 the first german translations of the Bible were around 300ish AD, Charlemagne ruled in the 800s who was german btw not french like some people think, he was born in Aachen who was officiated by the pope himself ofc the Bible was also translated for a long time

Hi, you never heard of the Bible Belt?

@@arnodobler1096 No, I have not 😬 I know which states are more religious, but I have never heard the term. Have you?

@@AmericasGotGermans Ja, der Bibelgürtel ist auch bei uns ein Begriff. Sah schon einige deutsche Dokus darüber. 🙋‍♂

@@arnodobler1096 Da hatte ich scheinbar eine Bildungslücke😬😅!

@@AmericasGotGermans Man lernt nie aus! 😉😂