Gerrit Hendrik Kersten

Gerrit Hendrik Kersten was a Dutch Calvinist minister and politician. After briefly working as a primary school teacher Kersten was inducted into his first pastorate in Meliskerke 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. Eleven years later, in 1918, he established the Reformed Political Party to realize his vision of "a Calvinist Netherlands ruled on a biblical basis without cinema, sports, vaccination and social security". 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.