Who Is Marianne Thieme?
Marianne Thieme (pronounced “tea-EM”) is a Dutch politician, animal activist and publicist. She is the chairwoman and political leader of the first animal rights party in history that is represented in a national parliament. Since last November, her Party for the Animals has won 2 seats in the Dutch National Parliament, 9 seats in the Dutch Provincial Governments and 1 seat in the Dutch Senate. She was voted Political Talent of the Year 2006 by the Dutch parliamentary press, Most Spicy Politician by women’s magazine Viva and Most Influential Woman for Farmer’s Incomes by the leading Dutch magazine on agriculture. Marianne has published a book on animal rights (’The Animal’s Century’) and dozens of articles in Dutch national & regional newspapers on factory farming, hunting, animal testing, bird flu, ritual slaughtering, fur, fisheries and vegetarianism.
She also happens to be a Seventh-day Adventist. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia entry on her.
The following is a presentation that she made at the Animal Rights Conference held on July 19-23 in Los Angeles:
Also, watch this hilarious commercial for the Party for the Animals:
August 7th, 2007 at 2:51 am
This is great…I wish we could see more young Adventist politicians. And she seems to be making quite an impact too.
August 8th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Thank you for posting this. We do need more people involved at all levels in public life. There seems to be an aversion to it despite the biblical examples we have. I have been involved in local politics for a while now and have felt the pressure from fellow Adventists and have considered leaving many times. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be involved and, in fact, it is there that we can do some great work, make contact with our communities, meet people who we may not otherwise be able to and, if we are doing it right, there is not telling them impact we can have.
I would love to be able to connect with like minded adventists involved in front line politics and am still considering how best to do it. If you have any suggestion please do tell.
August 12th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
The senator for the dutch party for the animals is seventh day adventist too. His name is Niko Koffeman. He’s married to the dutch TV-anchor Antoinette Hertsenberg who is a SDA too http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niko_Koffeman
May 6th, 2008 at 2:57 am
This is very inspirational, especially seeing the passion and the drive associated with it.
I am a woman in Ministry in the SDA Church in Australia.
It is discouraging here, very patriarchal. You are wonderful!!!
Bless you Heidi