Vom restlosen Entfernen alter Wachsflecken

Ulrike Heitmüller grew up in a Christian fundamentalist environment: The world was created in seven days; extramarital sex sends you to hell; most people in the regional church are “lukewarm,” and God will spit them out; and the present age is under Satan’s rule. But soon the trumpet of God will sound from heaven, and Jesus will appear in the clouds. He will take His own to Himself and acquit them at the Last Judgment. The unbelievers, on the other hand, He will leave behind on earth, where the Antichrist will terrorize them. The girl absolutely had to believe in God! Otherwise, she would be left behind on earth, without parents, with her classmates—a terrifying prospect. Evangelicals and fundamentalists are not all the same: not all believe in the creation of the world in seven days, not all hold beliefs about the “end times,” and not all preach that extramarital sex sends you to hell. But many do. You wouldn’t know it just by looking at them. That’s why Ulrike Heitmüller tells her story: First, the lonely child who believes everything and wants to proselytize her classmates. Then the college student who discovers contradictions in this system, flees from it, takes up boxing, and fights to ensure that women, too, are allowed to compete in amateur boxing. Finally, the young woman who has freed herself and built a life for herself.