In a letter to the members of the state parliament in Kiel, the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, called on them “not to vote for any preamble in the new state constitution that explicitly and clearly refers to the existence of a supernatural or superempirical being (“God”, so-called reference to God).”
At its session from October 8 to 10, 2014, the state parliament is expected to vote on the new constitution, which will include a preamble for the first time. The controversial issue is whether the preamble should include a reference to God. Representatives of the churches in Schleswig-Holstein have repeatedly called for the inclusion of such wording. However, numerous members of the parties represented in the state parliament, with the exception of the CDU, have spoken out against the inclusion of a reference to God. Two weeks ago, an inter-party motion (Drs. 18/2268) was submitted, which is intended to have a mediating function.[1] This also contains a reference to God. The appeal to the members of the state parliament therefore once again highlighted the most important arguments against the inclusion of a reference to God:
- A national constitution without reference to God avoids the misunderstanding that the constitution is religiously predetermined,
- A national constitution must appeal to all citizens of the country as a point of reference, regardless of their faith, religion or world view. Non-religious people therefore find it difficult to identify with a constitution that refers to God,
- References to God in (national) constitutions have (…) repeatedly been used in political disputes to put the interests of representatives of religious communities before the interests of people without religious convictions. In contrast, no case is known in which the lack of an explicit reference to God in a liberal-democratic constitution has been used to place the interests of non-religious people above the interests of religious people. This is because Article 2a of the state constitution states that the fundamental rights formulated in the German Basic Law are part of the constitution and directly applicable law, which means that the protection of freedom of religion and belief is fully guaranteed.
The denominational composition of Schleswig-Holstein’s population is not a suitable argument in the debate. “Instead, we are focusing on the fact that, from the point of view of non-religious citizens, a reference to God reduces the inclusive nature of the new constitution and creates a relevant potential for abuse and discrimination,” explained the President of the Humanist Association of Germany in the appeal. In order to invalidate the numerous reservations, the association is therefore in favor of a modified version of the inter-party mediation proposal: “The state parliament, in representation of the citizens of Schleswig-Holstein, in awareness of the religious, philosophical and humanistic heritage and on the basis of the inviolable and inalienable human rights as the foundation of every human community…” In their deliberations on the reform of the state constitution, the members of parliament should make a decision “that takes into account and appreciates the interest of people without belief in a god to be equally welcome citizens and not to be disadvantaged because of their ideological or non-theistic religious convictions.”
Individual references:
[1] http://www.landtag.ltsh.de/infothek/wahl18/drucks/2200/drucksache-18-2268.pdf
