Evangelical Tour Aims to Stop Infighting between German Christians

Hanover, Germany - On April 24, evangelical leaders will go on tour through 8 German cities. The drive is initiated by the German Evangelical Alliance in view of promoting Christian unity in Germany.

Peter Strauch, chairman of the German Evangelical Alliance explained, “Nowadays, Christians publicly criticise fellow Christians with differing theological views, this shows their self-centredness and dogmatism. This threatens unity among Christians.”

However, Strauch believes in the multitude of existing denominations and he rejects the building of an 'Alliance Church'. He encourages communication between denominations. Evangelical leaders will go on tour through eight German cities in order to urge Christians to stop infighting and increase cooperation across denominational lines.

The "Impulse Tour" will start in Hanover; the German Evangelical Alliance represents approximately 1.3 million evangelicals. United together they urge Christians to stop infighting and increase cooperation across denominational lines. The whole trip will last til 3rd July with the last stop at Frankfurt. The journey will also cover Hamburg, Essen, Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Berlin and München.

During the tour Christians will be invited to commit themselves to a fair exchange of views instead of degrading one another or talking behind each others' backs.

Strauch says he knows from experience that Christians often transform personal opinions into questions of truth. "How can we expect people to believe in God when Christians are always fighting one another?" he warned.

As Apostle Paul teaches in Romans to the Jews, “you are a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth - you then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?... do you dishonour God by breaking the law?”

Yet, Strauch reminds us that the commitment to refrain from infighting should not lead to a tolerance of “false teachings”.

“The Bible should remain the only authority. One should also be able to distinguish the centre of Scripture - Christ - as the only mediator between God and man and other secondary issues, such as the different practices of baptism.”

Some conservative evangelicals alleged that the Alliance has become more and more liberal. Strauch defended the association with individual Catholics who subscribe to the Alliance’s statement of faith.