Christfried

[Rheinbund]

The Rheinbund has the reputation of a very liberal country, thanks to Fehrbellin’s reputation as a progressive art and party city where everything is possible, and thanks to other progressive cities like Scharmbeck, Würzwald, Cöllen, Weissenfels and Grefrath. And maybe also thanks to Carnival and the Oktoberfest.
But the Rheinbund is more diverse than that. Parts of the country are conservative. Tirolstein is. Heilbach is. Disoriented after Pope John-Joseph’s liberalisations last Summer, especially Heilbach still doesn’t know what to do with itself. The very conservative Tiburanisch-Katholische Partei (TKP), with 60% of the votes by far the largest political party in Heilbach, suddenly sees its right to exist eliminated—suddenly the teachings it is based upon are similar to the teachings forming the basis of its biggest competitor: The Christiandemocratic CDV. Following the Catholic Church’s new teachings will turn the TKP into a clone of the CDV; an alternative could be to present itself as the purely Catholic CDV, but doing so would make the CDV too small to claim the position of Chancellor at national level—if that strategy would succeed from the TKP’s position. Still positioning itself as a very conservative party would mean that the TKP would remain recognisable, but that would mean deviating from the teachings of the Church, and it would be questionable whether the voters would follow the Church to the CDV or would stick to conservatism. Or should the TKP admit its obsolescence and merge with the CDV?
But it goes further. Würzwald is a progressive city, but it is the capital of a traditionalist sovereignty. Hot dance clubs giving the city its metropolitan aura are combined with traditional events letting the city look like a provincial town, reinforced by the typical Rheinian habit to preserve old city centres and banning high rises to the outskirts of the cities.

The biggest contrast is in the North though. The conservative Emsland borders the liberal Scharmbeckerland and Wetterau, and the ultraconservative Bramsfeld borders the liberal Wetterau and the ultraliberal Lotharingen. During the reformation, Lotharingen, Scharmbeckerland and the northern part of Wetterau went Lutheran, and Bramsfeld went Calvinist. Emsland went partly Lutheran and partly Calvinist. The problem with Calvinism is, that it can develop into several directions. It can develop into a very liberal direction, but also into an extremely conservative direction, and everything in-between. Calvinism encourages its followers to read the Bible and discuss about it with others. As a result, Calvinists, especially the more devout ones, know large parts of the Bible by heart. As another result, the discussions about the Bible led to differences in opinion regarding certain bible theses. Five of those differences in opinion led to schisms in the 19th and 20th century. In the Rheinbund, there is one Evangelic-Lutheran Church (the Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche), one Tiburan Catholic Church, and six Calvinist Churches (in order of conservatism the Reformierte Kirche, the Reformatorische Kirche, the Befreit Reformatorische Kirche, the Christlich-Reformatorische Kirche, the Reformatorischer Gemeinde and the Reformatorischer Gemeinde unter dem Kreuz).

The Rheinbund did liberalise during the second half of the 20th century up to now, but did not secularise. Religion still plays an important role, largely thanks to the Catholic and the progressive Lutheran Churches reading Mass and holding Services also at Saturday and Sunday evening so that young people can party at Saturday night without skipping church visit, as well as other initiatives to involve young people in the Church. People also identify themselves with their religions. They send their children to schools of their religions (mostly also paid by the government). In the case of a mixed-religion marriage, one of the spouses usually converts to the other spouse’s religion; this is mostly not seen as an issue. In earlier days, society was more segregated by religion, but that is not the case any more.

The only religions that keep themselves segregated, are the Reformatorial Churches and Reformatorial Communities. Members of those Church Communities only marry people belonging to their religion, send their children to schools belonging to their religion and only join sport clubs belonging to their religion. They also tend to live close to each other, mostly in Bramsfeld, but also in Emsland, while some cities with 10 to 20 thousand inhabitants elsewhere in the Rheinbund are reformatorial bullwarks as well.

There is another distinction among the Reformatorials: The Orthodox Reformatorials (the Reformatorische Kirche and the Befreit Reformatorische Kirche) and the Experiencing Reformatorials (the Christlich-Reformatorische Kirche, the Reformatorischer Gemeinde and the Reformatorischer Gemeinde unter dem Kreuz). The difference is, that Orthodox Reformatorials consider Baptism and Confession enough to receive God’s Grace in the absence of sin, while Experiencing Reformatorials believe that God chooses the individuals He grants His Grace to among the people who have been baptised, have done Confession and are free of sin, and that having been baptised, having done Confession and being free of sin are not a guarantee to being granted God’s Grace. The reason why Experiencing Reformatorials are called such, is that they believe that you cannot say that you received God’s Grace unless you feel that you have been chosen.

The Reformatorials are also the ones who consider vaccines unauthorised interference in God’s Plan. As a result, easily preventable diseases rage among the Reformatorials from time to time.

It is in this community, to be precise the Reformatorischer Gemeinde, that Christfried Wexner was born and raised.

 

[Rheinbund]

24 December 2022
Vrijpoort
16:00

The sun was sinking in the sea strait west of Vrijpoort, and created a light show of orange, red and purple in the sky and on the water. The 43 year old Raimund Wexler looked at the spectacle while standing at the top deck of the ferry that would take him to Holtenau, a harbour city at the northern coast of the citizenry Emsland. It was close to 0 degrees Celsius, but Raimund didn’t want to go below deck. He had to think about the events of last week. He knew that he had to take action, but he did not like it at all.
The polio outbreak was a clear sign that God was angry according to Raimund. And he thought he knew one of the reasons why God was angry: Sin. OK, he knew that nobody was free of sin, and he was aware of that. He prayed every day for forgiveness of his sins and for help to not sin. But it looked like there was too much sin among the Bramsfelders at the moment, so God punished. This was also the explanation that the Pastor had given during both Church Services last Sunday. The Rheinbund had the tradition to read two Masses or hold two Church Services on Sunday, but while the Tiburan Catholic Church, the Evangelic-Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church required the people to attend only one of those masses or services, the Reformatorial Churches and Communities required the people to attend both services.
Meanwhile, the Synods of all the Reformatorial Churches and Communities had declared all Wednesdays days of prayer so that God would take the Polio away, and Raimund prayed extra prayers on other days for the same reason. He also had another concern regarding sins: His 16 year old son Renold had been caught in the showers of the school sports hall while making love to a guy. Making love even! To a guy! Within a couple of hours, it was the talk of the town. Quakenburg was a town with 10,000 inhabitants, so rumours go fast there. Raimund’s parents knew it sooner than Raimund himself. So he was astonished to see his parents when he returned from work. He was more astonished when he heard that his parents wanted to hold a family council. His astonishment levels reached a peak when he heard the reason.
Raimund proposed to discuss the matter with the Pastor; maybe there was a kind of exorcism for this, or maybe the Pastor could help Renold overcome his inclination. But then his father started to talk. For the first time in his life, Raimund heard that his father had a younger brother: Christfried. Nobody had ever talked about this Uncle Christfried; this uncle had been hushed up by Raimund’s parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandaunts and granduncles. Not even the people outside the family had talked about him. For a reason. Also Christfried had been caught red-handed making love to a guy.
Raimund’s father told how his parents took action. Christfried was sent to the Pastor for intensive prayer sessions, but then it appeared that Christfried was still dating the guy in question. Christfried and his boyfriend were sent to boarding schools; Christfried in Plaggenburg and his boyfriend in Grömitz. Christfried and his boyfriend had foreseen that something like this could happen. In that case, they would escape and meet each other in Grevesmühlen, a city just on the other side of the border with Lotharingen. Their attempts to escape failed: Christfried was caught on time. His boyfriend lost his balance while climbing over the fence, was stabbed by the sharp points on top of the fence’s bars, and died. One year later, Christfried did another attempt to escape. Also this attempt failed, but this time the reaction was different. Christfried was 18, so legally an adult according to the law. The boarding school expelled him, and his parents told him only to come home when he would not be gay any more. Christfried disappeared.
“I’m afraid we must take bolder action in Renold’s case,” Raimund’s father said after having told this story. “But something has changed since Christfried. There are therapies to cure sodomites. Unfortunately, those therapies are forbidden in the Rheinbund, but I know that a formerly Bramsfelder institution offering these therapies moved to Vrijpoort. Indeed, the Sodom and Gomorrah on the other side of the Bramsfelder Bucht, but the fact that you can do in Vrijpoort whatever you want as long as you offer money also has advantages. So now it is possible to cure yourself from sodomy in Sodom and Gomorrah. I think we must follow this path. Especially because God is currently punishing us with the Polio, we must take swift action to remove the sin.”
That was last Tuesday. The family council decided to send Renold to this facility in Vrijpoort. All the paperwork was arranged. Today very early in the morning, Raimund woke up Renold, and together they went to Vrijpoort. With pain in his heart, Raimund took Renold to the institution where he would be cured, and took the ferry back home.

Raimund also took another decision. He decided to try to find his uncle Christfried.

 

[Rheinbund]

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

The Reformatorials often use the phrase “Sodom and Gomorrah” to express their rejection of too much sexual freedom, but the Bramsfelders use it for two cities in particular: Grevesmühlen and Bocholt. They share two characteristics with the cities Ratzeburg, Holtenau and Templin: They are just outside Bramsfeld, and the Bramsfelders go there to exercise sexual behaviours that are forbidden in Bramsfeld (a.o. prostitution and homosexual intercourse). But Grevesmühlen and Bocholt have the reputation of sexual freeplaces much more than Templin, Ratzeburg and Holtenau. Templin didn’t earn the reputation, because it is too small, too remote and too sleepy. People set up brothels there, but didn’t manage to set up a well-functioning entertainment branche with pubs, clubs and restaurants. Ratzeburg and Holtenau didn’t earn the reputation, because they are located in Emsland. Homosexuality is allowed, but frowned upon. Prostitution is still illegal here, although brothels are unofficially tolerated in the bigger places when they are not too noticeable (this in contrast with Bramsfeld, where prostitution is not only forbidden but also vehemently fought against).
So Grevesmühlen and Bocholt were the only places that could really thrive on the cocktail of legalised prostitution, legalised homosexuality, loose sexual morals in general and horny Bramfelders who see their sexual urges curbed in their homeland. And then Grevesmühlen is the real special story. Bocholt is an old city that goes back to the middle ages, and has always been a lively city, also inspired by the Catholic vibes of the southern part of the Fürstentum it was located in: Wetterau. Grevesmühlen was a provincial city that was even smaller and sleepier than Templin, but contrary to Templin it managed to take the curve. Riding on the vibes of the sexual revolution, vibes that were boosted by the legalisation of prostitution in the Fürstentum Lotharingen in 1969, Grevesmühlen grew. Between 1960 and 1980, Grevesmühlen grew from 30,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. And contrary to other cities that grew explosively during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it became a lively city, a city where late-modernist and postmodernist buildings came to life.
How could this happen? Although it looked from the outside that the sexual revolution of the 1960s left Bramsfeld unaffected, things also happened there. Divorces are only possible in Bramsfeld when the marriage was not “consumed”, but the number of people who wanted to end their marriages also grew there. And the counterreaction was more vehement in Bramsfeld than everywhere else in the Rheinbund. People who left their spouses were shunned, disinherited and bullied out of the places they lived in. They moved to Grevesmühlen and Bocholt, more and more from the 1960s onwards. Bramsfelder youngsters who fled the oppressive athmosphere joined them, as well as Bramsfelder gays, lesbians, bisexuals and later on transsexuals. Strange enough, more to Grevesmühlen than to Bocholt, something that history does not explain.

As said, the legalisation of prostitution in Lotharingen and Wetterau also gave a boost to Grevesmühlen and Bocholt. With the brothels and the red light districts came the pubs, the restaurants, the theatres, and the nationwide reputation of cities of leisure.