Leo van Doesburg

  On the 9 th of March, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on ‘foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation’ . Although the issue of foreign interference in EU politics is an important topic, the resolution contains some problematic passages which might have serious consequences for Christians and organizations advocating pro-life and family values. These passages pertain to the depiction of opposing opinions on controversial issues as disinformation and hate speech. Furthermore, the resolution calls for measures against religious institutions when instrumentalized to promote foreign states’ interest. Without proper and irrefutable evidence, this risks to harm religious freedoms. Necessary awareness on these matters is advised.

After a bit longer sleep than the days before I had an interesting discussion with two representatives working in the parliament. We discussed about the ways for collaboration. It was a long but constructive and friendly discussion. Many opinions about the current political situation were shared. It will be an interesting time because both Putin and Medvedev will probably candidate for the next year's presidential elections. They suggeste d to organize a conference in the Russian Parliament, an interparliamentarian conference to discuss human dignity within the Russian context. If there is central approval, they would like to organise this in collaboration with the ECPM. In the afternoon I had a meeting with the majority of members of the newly formed movement. First they discussed the working name of the movement. This discussion was led by Ekaterina. The working name became "Christian Civic Movement". After this I explained shortly the already famous "hour glass mo...

The second day of the conference started with a lecture from Dutch Senator Roel Kuiper. He spoke about the important fact that Christians historically are wise focused on creating communities. The new movement that will be started is an example of this. He also mentioned that the main founders of the Christian social thinking can be laid by Pope Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper. Interesting was that here in Moscow also a Leo and a Kuiper explained the basics of Christian Democracy. Christians always have been focused on the creation of communities and he wondered if the societies have become not too much based on contracts and less on covenants. The difference between a contract and a covenant is that the latter is focused on an agreement and a commitment for a longer sustainable time. Contracts are business like, short time oriented. In his eyes, moral capital is more important than social capital. Christian justice should be therefore be based on "shalom" and "cheset...