Gerrit Hendrik Kersten (6 August 1882,

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

– 6 September 1948, Waarde) was a Dutch

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

minister and politician. After briefly working as a primary school teacher Kersten was inducted into his first pastorate in

Meliskerke Meliskerke is a village in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 8 km west of Middelburg. History The village was first mentioned in 1235 as "Hughenkerke que modo Meliskercke dicitur", and ...

in 1905 without formal theological training. In 1907 Kersten was instrumental in achieving a union of two groups of disparate, low-church groups of small secessional congregations, resulting in the formation of the

Reformed Congregations The Reformed Congregations (in Dutch: Gereformeerde Gemeenten, abbreviated GerGem) is a conservative Reformed church with 152 congregations in the Netherlands, 1 in Randburg, South Africa and 1 congregation in Carterton, New Zealand. The ...

(Dutch: Gereformeerde Gemeenten). Eleven years later, in 1918, he established the

Reformed Political Party The Reformed Political Party ( nl, Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) is a conservative CalvinistThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist political party: * * * * * political party in the Netherlands. The term ''Reformed'' is not a refere ...

(Dutch: Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij) to realize his vision of "a Calvinist Netherlands ruled on a biblical basis without cinema, sports,

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

and

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

".Parlement.com biography
/ref> He was the party's first member of the House of Representatives, being elected in 1922. He would remain in parliament until his debarment in 1945. On the evening of 10 November 1925, Kersten, ever opposed to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, proposed an amendment to the 1926 budget for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Kersten's proposal would result in ending financial support for a Dutch diplomatic office at the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

. The amendment was adopted the next day with support from one of the government parties Christian Historical Union, which in turn led to the resignation of four Catholic government ministers and the fall of the first coalition-government of

Hendrik Colijn Hendrikus "Hendrik" Colijn (22 June 1869 – 18 September 1944) was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP; now defunct and merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from ...

. The fall of the first Colijn cabinet after only three months became known as the

Night of Kersten Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on ...

. Kersten was a staunch critic of the policies of Colijn. The speaker of the Dutch parliament had parts of Kersten's contributions to debates edited in the Proceedings no less than thirteen times between 1922 and 1940. Kersten feared the rise of

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

in the inter-war period, but assessed fascism's authoritarian tendencies favourably, seeing

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and Catholic Christianity as greater evils. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Kersten denounced resistance against the Nazis, claiming the occupation of The Netherlands was a deserved divine punishment for desecration of the Lord's Day (Sunday). He also refused to sign a 1941 protest of the Convent of Dutch Churches (Dutch: Convent der Kerken) against the persecution of Jews during the war, and even went as far as to cooperate with the Nazis to keep his newspaper, ''Banier'', in business. After the war, a government committee branded him a collaborator and barred him from returning to Parliament. He focused on writing theological works. Kersten died three years later, in 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kersten, Gerrit Hendrik 1882 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Christian fundamentalists 20th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians Dutch educators Dutch political party founders Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Chairmen of the Reformed Political Party Leaders of the Reformed Political Party People from Deventer Reformed Political Party politicians Dutch collaborators with Nazi Germany 20th-century Dutch journalists