Church

[cdybedahl]

On my way to work today, I looked through a paper that someone left behind. It had an article about the upcoming elections in the Swedish Church (which was the state church until a few years ago). The article said that according to an internal survey made by the church, a third of their members doubt the existence of a god and a tenth self-identify as atheists. The official comment on this from the church leadership is "A belief in God is not a requirement for membership in the church."

And somehow they still wonder why they don't get taken very seriously.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Didn't some Danish (Lutheran) pastor say something similar awhile back ?
...
Yep: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2963648.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3795411.stm

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my type of church. Better than those who believe "belief" can be substituted for "faith" and that a religious claim needs to be historically accurate in order to be true. I mean, they want to teach intelligent design in the classrooms here.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Probably my translation at fault here. Swedish does not really make a difference between "belief" and "faith". I think the quoted priest actually means the latter.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's your translation at fault--the distinction between belief and faith is fuzzy at best for English speakers. It's more or less the pluralistic liberal theologians--like your quoted priest?--who make the distinction (or at least make the distinction the way Imake the distinction). If you asked the random evangelical if belief was a prerequisite for faith, s/he'd say "yes."

[grumpoldusenaut.livejournal.com]

It is possible to be an agnostic and still believe at least one of, a) the world might be a better place if you behave as if there definitely is a god (for certain values of god), b) the church does useful things. Ditto atheist, although it takes a bit more reconciling. It's certainly how the Church of England gets along nowaday -- it's moving from being the Protestant wing of the Catholic church to being the agnostic wing of the Catholic church....