Christian Youth Festival in Germany Under Attack

Country: Germany

Date of incident: March 19, 2008


January/March 2008: “Christival” – a large Christian youth festival is protested by “anti-sexistic forces” due to its “conservative” contents such as its opositon to pre-marital sex and abortion. Organisers currently discuss with police how to protect participants and the festival.

Jan-March 08: The “Christival” (www.christival.de) is scheduled to take place in Bremen, Germany, from April 30th to May 4th. More than 15 000 youth are expected to participate. The youth festival faces hard opposition of the leftist political party Bündnis90/die Grünen as well as “Anti-sexistic Forces”. The reason given are its “conservative” contents such as its opositon to pre-marital sex and abortion. The first critizism arose because of a workshop scheduled to explain different forms of therapy for homosexual desires. After this workshop was cancelled, the protests continued on other grounds. The CDU (Christian Democratic Party) and the EKD (Protestant Church) endorse the festival. Nevertheless, the organisers feel the need to ask for police protection to secure safety for particpants and the indisturbed conducted of the programme. Detailed report in German: http://www.idea.de/index.php?id=917&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=62780&tx_ttnews[backPid]=18&cHash=37325c6b09