Party of Bible-abiding Christians

The Party of Bible-abiding Christians (PBC, Partei bibeltreuer Christen) is a minor German evangelical political party. The party was founded in 1989 and has around 3,500 members. The party is well known throughout Germany for its (most insane) election posters and quoting of the Bible in each one of them.

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“”Unbelief, the pursuit for self-fulfillment and wealth are the dangers of our time to the spiritual substance of our people.
—Party Program, Page 3

Geography and elections

The party grossed only 0.2% of the vote (108,605 votes) in federal elections and 0.4% (98,651 votes) in the 2009 European Parliament election. On regional (Länder) level the party never came over 0.7% and has its strongest following in Baden-Württemberg (South-West) and Saxony (Central-East).

Political program

The party is extremely socially conservative for German measures and would easily meet the standards of social conservatives in the United States. Economically, the party is centrist with a lean toward social democracy.

Views of Germany

The PBC tries very hard to link all bad things in Germany — and generally in the world — to a lack of religious morality, preferably the Christian "bible-abiding" version. The party likes to link the godlessness of modern society to crime rates and, in its latest form, to all financial crisis.

The PBC employs a slightly revisionist, "the good ol' days" view of the German nation. They emphasize the supposedly Christian roots of the German nation and see the German constitution as a present from God.

Views on Europe

The PBC is neither eurosceptic nor pro-European, but emphasizes a peaceful European Union of sovereign countries. The PBC demands a "shout-out" to god for any future European constitution (or other fundamental treaties) and sees not mentioning God as "discrimination of bible-abiding Christians".[1]

Views on Islam and Israel

The views and positions the PBC holds on Islam and the Arabic region are almost entirely rooted in in their staunch support for Israel. That support is rooted in the typical German argument of "we owe 'em this much" and a "support" of the state of Israel by the Bible. In this way, Islam is not held in contempt as long as it supports the existence of Israel. As this isn't very often the case, the party usually comes off as critical of Islam, even though this is only "the enemy of my friend is my enemy". The PBC supports development aid for islamic countries as long as they provide equal rights for Christians as for Muslims[2] — while it's commendable to demand tolerance for minority religions, it's less so when by omission, apparently Hindus and Buddhists are SOL.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, the PBC was critical of the developments mostly because of the poor Christians in that region that might now be more suppressed than under military rule (the Muslims obviously don't count enough for a revolution to be justified). The PBC employed a "the mainstream media aren't telling you everything" strategy to overemphasize the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood and the danger Christians were and are in. This went so far as to copy agree with American fundies that the Arab Spring would only lead to Arab world-spanning, sharia law using, anti-Israeli fascist Islamic states willing to declare war on Israel and the West.[3]

Education

The PBC wants to make Bible classes and teacher guided class prayer compulsory for all pupils — even atheists and "children of foreigners" (code word for Muslims). Ironically it also wants to strengthen the weight of parents' opinion within schools and lift the ban on homeschooling. One can only guess that parents of other or no faith would not be given such liberties. It also supports creationism being taught in school, although it is not clear if this would substitute evolution, as it is possible in Germany to teach creationism outside of biology.[4]

Privacy, media and conspiracy

They are anti-abortion including demonstrations to outlaw it, and they link this topic with their fear of being persecuted as Christians.[5] Hand in hand with this also goes a belief that homosexuality is a mental disorder and can be cured. While they don't outright speak of a homosexual agenda, the notion of something like that swings with it and the party declares that it will not be silenced on this matter.[6] The party is strictly opposed to euthanasia.[7]

The PBC would like to outlaw porn, "glorifications of violence", children or teenagers touching each other ("Kuppelei") and homosexuality being seen as normal.[8] Of course they also support outlawing blasphemy in the media, and for giving Christian churches seats in councils controlling public media.[9]

Ecology

Against expectations, the PBC is also a green party. The argument goes that as God has given humans dominion over all species of creation and such creation is holy, destroying life without the imperative to care for it, or to exploit it purely for profit, is seen as a crime against creation, against God and therefore a sin. The party therefore opposes nuclear energy, energy from fossil fuels, animal testing and cloning. On most of these topics the party is willing to make concessions, though.[10]

gollark: PotatOS doesn't spread like a virus. This is ridiculous.
gollark: Also macOS.
gollark: RubenKnijn: did you know Windows is malware?
gollark: I was looking at offering CraftOS-PC/CCEmuX "clouds" but never got round to it.
gollark: Bragos: fair point actually, but chunkloading isn't a huge obstacle or very necessary.

References
  1. Kommt die Diktatur Europa? Kommt eine Verfolgung bibeltreuer Christen? ("Will the dictatorship Europe come? Will there be a persecution of bible-abiding Christians?"), source in German, Google Translate
  2. Party program, Chapter 11.2
  3. Großosmanische Bestrebung vom türkischen Ministerpräsident ("Greater-Osmanian Endeavor of Turkish Prime Minister"), source in German, Google Translate
  4. Party program, Pages 6-7
  5. http://www.pbc.de/index.php?id=standpunkte_lebensrecht
  6. Ausstieg aus der Homosexualität? ("Exit from Homosexuality?"), source in German, Google Translate
  7. Party program, Chapter 7.2
  8. Party program, Page 7
  9. Party program, Chapter 15
  10. Party program, Chapter 9
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