 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 and national socialism in the inter-war period, but saw fascism's authoritarian tendencies as a positive aspect and kept seeing socialism and Catholicism as greater evils.During the Second World War, Kersten denounced resistance against the Nazis, claiming they were sent by God as punishment for desecration of the Lord's Day (Sunday).