Religion in Sweden

After a week in Stockholm, I thought I should write about my initial impressions of religion in Stockholm. Yesterday, I traveled to Uppsala, Sweden for a meeting and interview with Goran Moller, a theologian in the Church of Sweden--Svenska Kyrkan. He was an older man, probably sixty five, with a very thick Swedish accent (when Swedes speak English, they sound very British). He made some interesting points about the Church's position on many social issues. As a Church, they follow the sentiments of the majority in the country.

On my way home from Uppsala, I met this guy, Johan. He works as a particle physicist in Lucerne, but grew up in Sweden. He told me that most people in Sweden don't really go to Church. Johan suggested that people "liked" the Church of Sweden, but that it had become to watered down. It didn't provide anything structured for their lives. There is no reason to dislike the Church, but no real reason for it to be an important part of their life.

As far as I can see, there is a traditional Swedish religious life. Children are baptized into the church and go through confirmation classes, before paying taxes to the Church. By paying taxes to the Church, they are allowed to vote for representatives in the parliament. As a tax paying member of the Church of Sweden, Swedes can get married in the Church and get buried in the cemetary. Other than that, there is really no other benefit to membership.

Despite all this supposed religious indifference, there are still those in Sweden who think that the Church has too much power on the government. In the metro station near my apartment, there was a sign funded by the humanists. The billboard reads: "God probably does not exist. Yet He still affects most people's decisions." Humanists want to minimize the affects that "God talk" have on social issues. Despite most people not believing in God or the Church, the Church still becomes the way to define themselves. The Parliament is divided into several different religious parties, and non-religious people (like Johan) vote in elections in order to prevent "conservative" parties from gaining to much power in the country.

I think Church's inability to divorce itself from the state's decisions is an interesting topic that I will investigate further in the future.