German lesson: Religion in Germany
a report written by Nkosinathi Bhengu

To write about my experience in the class of Religion in Germany is one of the most honorable privileges I can ever have. Since I’m a very religious man, I believe the South African group was chosen selectively from our school because God himself wanted that to be that way. I believe there’s something special about each individual. This is a short piece of my experience on the 16th January 09 where Nicki Schaepen presented the ‘Religion in Germany’ class:
Nicki first asked the group what we mostly wanted to know and that was good of him since I learned about some figures. It was nice to know that Christianity takes 73.14% of the Germans. There were other important figures presented, too. I also learned about history of the entire German Religion. The history was very interesting; especially that religion also involved some elements of politics (emperors and kings and invading in the church, popes, etc). This also clarified to us South Africans on how we received Christianity.
What was disturbing was that sometimes the Emperors’ or Kings’ view affected the church itself, what changed the correct teachings of Christianity. I am sure their opinions still affect us today and the way some churches are run. I felt that the fact that the topic was presented in that interesting way also helped us, especially by someone who’s young and still a student (Art & Modern History) was well planned by the organizers.
We were also shown historical rooms of the place we were in, all having some holy elements. Nicki told us that the place is their home too. I was interested in what challenges Nicki faces. But the greatest challenge of the whole Germany; as a religious place is that the number of people going to church is decreasing, but I say, as long as we don’t decrease the quality of the church (the truth told) just to keep people coming to church; things are better.
Overall, the day was truly nice and amazing. It was also spiritual. As a Christian I learned so much about originality and can’t wait to tell my pastor some things I think he doesn’t know about; hopefully he won’t be disappointed. But clearly Christianity has been fought for many centuries and I pray we don’t take advantage of it.

Nkosinathi ‘Nathi’ Bhengu