The queer.de reporting on the Görlitz fundi Anselm Urban and the Baptist church Reliable Word in Pforzheim has led to reactions from the media, politics and the church. Last week we reported on the branch of the Faithful Word Baptist Church, which was started by the Görlitz fundi Anselm Urban from exile in the US.
The evangelical dean of Pforzheim filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor. SPD member of the Bundestag Katja Mast called Anselm Urban’s statements “appalling”. And the country’s anti-Semitism commissioner has also been informed about the anti-Semitic orientation of the US parent sect.
Dean files criminal charges
In the past, Anselm Urban had repeatedly called for the murder of queer people – first through a hate film distributed on the Internet, then in a hate speech broadcast on the Internet at a Fundi event in Pforzheim (queer.de reported).
At the opening service of the Baptist Church in Pforzheim on March 5, he renewed his agitation via the Internet, despite a penalty order for insult, hate speech and incitement to commit crimes that has now become final: Queer people are “society’s walking garbage”, “dirty animals” and “dogs”. , “pedophiles” and rapists. They would have to be killed – also to fight HIV.
The public prosecutor’s office responsible for Pforzheim in Karlsruhe confirmed to queer.de through their spokesman Henrik Blassies that a complaint had been lodged there. She is currently being examined. The ad is directed “in substance against the community”, i.e. the Baptist Church Reliable Word Pforzheim, based in Zerrennerstrasse.
But: “However, the public prosecutor’s office is generally not bound by the content and scope of criminal charges, but can also extend their examination to specific or other people.” An indication that the investigations could still be directed against Anselm Urban in the future – even if he escaped the first criminal proceedings in Görlitz, Saxony, by fleeing to the USA.
On Thursday, the Badische Latest News reported that the complaint to the public prosecutor’s office came from the evangelical dean Christiane Quincke. Quincke, she told the newspaper, did not want to accept the “accusations and death wishes against queer people”.
She also informed the country’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Michael Blume, about the matter. Background: The parent sect in Tempe, Arizona, is led by Steven Anderson. In the past, the pastor, who is married to a German, has not only publicly celebrated Islamist terrorist attacks against queer and other people. Sometimes he denied the Holocaust, sometimes he threatened Jews* with a second holocaust if they didn’t convert to Christianity.
The SPD member of the Bundestag Katja Mast, who has her constituency in Pforzheim, also told the newspaper: “The statements made by this self-proclaimed preacher are appalling. They are repulsive and inhuman statements.” Anyone who agitates against individual groups in this way is “simply outside of our democratic discourse”.
Pforzheim offshoot stands behind Urban
The Pforzheimer Zeitung (Paywall) has meanwhile taken on the story and reported in its Wednesday edition. “Of course” the Pforzheim group “closely” stands behind Urban’s statements, the Fundi claimed to the local newspaper. And: Urban is “responsible for the work of our offshoot community Baptist Church Reliable Word in Pforzheim”.
This is also made clear on the sect’s social media accounts, which commented on an article about the complaint there with the following words: “What hypocrites. Going before a secular court as – alleged – Christians against their brothers. But the corresponding Bible verses Of course they don’t care.” She also posted a picture of a dog in rainbow colors with the words “We have to stay outside” underneath.
It also becomes clear that the sect, which has premises in downtown Pforzheim, is behind Urban when you look at other sections of the opening sermon published on the Internet. According to one clip, the listeners would already notice “that you have not ended up in an average Baptist church here”, but in one “that will offend”. Other Baptists held that the Jews were God’s chosen people. They taught a “false gospel,” were “damned,” and were “going to hell.”
“If you have a problem with that: you know where the door is,” Urban makes it clear how there is scope for having different opinions in the Pforzheim group. Why? “Because if you have a problem with that, you have a problem with the Word of God.”
Jesus is also called the “stumbling block,” which is why Urban rejects criticism that his sermons are “offensive.” Jesus offends and insults, “or the other way around: people allow themselves to be insulted by Jesus.” You could also believe in God’s Word instead. The listeners* of his sermon “landed in the stumbling-block community.”
According to the Pforzheimer Zeitung, the penalty order against Urban, which became legally valid at the beginning of March, has now been paid. In addition to setting 85 daily rates – and thus below the threshold from which someone is considered a criminal record – Urban only had to pay 1020 euros. Money that will probably come from the group fund in the end.
In the spring of last year, Anselm Urban fled to the United States after the opening of the criminal proceedings triggered by the reporting by queer.de and ads by queer.de users (queer.de reported). Before that, on March 16, a house search had taken place at Urban in Görlitz, Saxony, during which data carriers had been taken away. Urban later recreated this house search in a video published online (queer.de reported).
