657,000 People Left the Church in 2025. NIUS Blames “Wokeness.” The Real Problem Remains Unspoken.#
657,000 people left Germany’s two major churches in 2025 — 350,000 Protestants, 307,000 Catholics [1]. Since 2019, the churches have lost over 4 million members. From 44 million down to under 37 million. An exodus of biblical proportions.
NIUS published a commentary: “Stay in the church, even when it’s hard sometimes!” [2]. The commentator identifies the problem: wokeness, rainbow flags, political sermons. None of that is wrong. But the decisive factor is missing.
What NIUS Won’t Tell You#
“Vaccination Is an Act of Love”#
August 2021: Pope Francis records a video for an international vaccination campaign. His exact words: “Getting vaccinated is an act of love — for yourself, for your family and friends, and for all peoples” [3].
The Vatican went even further: mandatory vaccination for all employees and visitors to Vatican City. The option of a negative test was abolished — only proof of vaccination or recovery [4].
“Give Yourself a Push”#
November 2021: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), publicly calls for vaccination: “Give yourself a push.” Those who refuse vaccination, he claimed, endanger children and people who cannot be vaccinated [5].
2G at the Church Door#
Christmas 2021: EKD Council Chair Annette Kurschus declares: Everyone is welcome at Christmas — “however, subject to 2G or 3G rules, including verification of vaccination certificates” [6].
Congregations across Germany implement 2G. Healthy, untested, unvaccinated people are barred from worship. On Christmas Eve. On the day the church celebrates the birth of the one who said: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, ESV).
The Ethics Council Gives Its Blessing#
November 2021: Alena Buyx, Chair of the German Ethics Council — simultaneously a member of the WHO Committee on Human Genome Editing — declares 2G “ethically justifiable” [7]. She actively promotes vaccination for children. The Ethics Council, supposed to be the moral authority of the republic, legitimizes the exclusion of millions.
What Jesus Would Actually Have Done#
The question “Would Jesus get vaccinated?” was seriously discussed in 2021 — by pastors, bishops, theologians [8]. The intended answer was obviously “Yes,” designed to build moral pressure.
But let’s look at what the Bible actually says:
Jesus didn’t sit with the healthy. He went to the lepers — the unclean, the outcasts, the ones nobody wanted to touch (Mark 1:40-42).
Jesus didn’t exclude anyone from the temple. On the contrary — he drove out the merchants who had commercialized access to prayer (Matthew 21:12-13).
Jesus stood against the Pharisees — the religious elite who placed rules above people, form above substance, purity above mercy (Matthew 23).
So what would Jesus have done in 2021?
He would have stood at the church door and said: “Let them in.”
Instead, there were ushers with QR code scanners.
The Chronology of Betrayal#
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan 2021 | Vaccination campaign launches. Churches offer themselves as vaccination centers. |
| Aug 2021 | Pope Francis: “Vaccination is an act of love” |
| Sep 2021 | Bedford-Strohm: “Give yourself a push” |
| Nov 2021 | Buyx/Ethics Council: 2G is “ethically justifiable” |
| Dec 2021 | 2G church services at Christmas — unvaccinated locked out |
| 2022 | Vatican: mandatory vaccination for employees, no negative test as alternative |
| Dec 2021 | Prof. Helmut Hoping (Freiburg): “Neither the state nor bishops may lock out the faithful” — isolated criticism |
| 2022-2025 | Millions leave. No reckoning. Not a word of apology. |
| March 2026 | NIUS writes: “Wokeness” is the problem. COVID? Not worth mentioning. |
Why NIUS Stays Silent#
Rosenbusch puts it bluntly: “COVID only gets covered when it’s impossible to avoid” [9].
NIUS — the flagship of Germany’s “alternative” media landscape — treats COVID like a hot potato. Criticize wokeness? Sure. Immigration? Always. But the most anti-Christian act in postwar history — barring the faithful from worship based on their vaccination status — that’s taboo.
The Numbers Speak for Themselves#
| Year | Departures (total) | Members (total) |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | ~540,000 | ~43 million |
| 2020 | ~440,000 | ~42 million |
| 2021 | ~640,000 | ~41 million |
| 2022 | ~900,000 (record) | ~39.8 million |
| 2023 | ~720,000 | ~38.4 million |
| 2024 | ~672,000 | ~37.7 million |
| 2025 | ~657,000 | ~36.6 million |
The 2022 record falls exactly in the year after 2G Christmas. Coincidence?
The churches lost over 6 million members between 2020 and 2025 — through departures and deaths. In five years. This is not a trend. It is a collapse.
What’s Missing: One Word#
A single word would have been enough. A word that has been spoken countless times in 2,000 years of church history when the church got it wrong:
“Sorry.”
Sorry that we locked you out. Sorry that we placed the state above the Gospel. Sorry that we called it “an act of love” when it was an experimental medical product. Sorry that we didn’t take your fears seriously.
That word never came. And that’s why people are leaving. Not because of rainbow flags. But because an institution that preaches forgiveness cannot bring itself to ask for it.
Sources#
[1] DIE ZEIT (March 2026): Church Exodus: More than 600,000 people left the church in 2025. zeit.de
[2] NIUS (March 2026): Stay in the church, even when it’s hard sometimes! nius.de
[3] katholisch.de (August 2021): Pope calls for COVID-19 vaccination — An act of love. katholisch.de
[4] uncutnews.ch: Pope Francis denounces “vaccine skeptics” — Vatican introduces mandatory vaccination. uncutnews.ch
[5] evangelisch.de (November 2021): “Give yourself a push” — Bedford-Strohm calls for vaccination. evangelisch.de
[6] katholisch.de (December 2021): EKD Council Chair Kurschus with a clear message to vaccine refusers. katholisch.de
[7] elizaonsteroids.org: Alena Buyx — 73 Plagiarism Instances, Ethics Council, WHO Genome Editing. Buyx article
[8] david-brunner.de (November 2021): Would Jesus get vaccinated against COVID? david-brunner.de
[9] Henning Rosenbusch, Telegram (March 2026): Commentary on the NIUS article. t.me/Rosenbusch
[10] Merkur (December 2021): Must the unvaccinated stay outside during church services? — Prof. Hoping: “Neither the state nor bishops may lock out the faithful.” merkur.de
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 (ESV)
Apparently only with a QR code.
