Why Sweden Doesn't Have Any Faith In Itself

by Daniel Nord


Sweden wasn't always so secular. Go back less than 400 years to the early seventeenth century and this was a place where you ran the risk of being persecuted unless you were a Lutheran. That is, you could have proclaimed yourself a Protestant, but still be unwelcome to make your living on the King's soil if you belonged to another sub-branch of Protestantism. Not to mention if you were Jewish or Catholic. There was no need to try to come up with things to do on Sunday mornings as they were decided for you; churchgoing was obligatory. If you were one of the many tens of thousands who went away to fight holy wars in Poland and Germany (ironically on Calvinist-built warships), you better believe there would be a priest somewhere down on the lower decks to make sure you were paying tribute to the Almighty morning and evening.

In 2011, several polls point into the direction of a Swedish population that has declared itself 80% non-believing. This puts Sweden in the top spot as the world's currently most secularized country (just ahead of Vietnam).

What happened? It's not as if the early decades of the 1600's where the peak of any religious extremism in Sweden. Picture going back to the 60's and 70's of the same century and see innocent peoples' bodies being burned on the stakes during the witch-hunts (in Sweden, somewhat more mercifully compared to a number of its neighbors, these claimed-to-be followers of Satan were first decapitated). Think of watching this madness taking place in front of your eyes, and imagine if it was up to you to turn the country around to what it is today. Even if you could go to work straight after the last fire had been put out, wouldn't you feel a bit stressed?
What makes it even more profound is that any proper first steps towards secularism seem to have come much, much later. For example, as late as at the end of the 19th century, the Swedish Church would still apply the practice of husförhör (literally "house interrogation"), where the local priest would visit every household to make sure its members were sufficiently educated in the Christian teachings. Commonly explained away as a means of keeping track of how literate and able to write citizens were, it has been made clear through research that this was very much of secondary importance (priests did not even bother putting down notes regarding the writing abilities). Instead it really isn't until as late as at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century that there appears to be a wave of serious change materializing. The rise of social democracy in the 1950's and the strongly individualized and modernized society that followed with it is generally considered to have had a massive impact on what Sweden is today. A post-war phenomenon, it turns out, that did not leave any room for collective superstition.


One could think that a country like Sweden, precisely because of its history and current relation to religion, should be on the forefront of a healthy discussion on the implications of it. Such is not the state of things. Whereas it is admittedly true that in Sweden you might have more to explain if you are a believer rather than if you are a non-believer, this is something likely to be restricted to a half-drunk conversation in the kitchen during a dinner party. In public discourse, the tone is cautious at best.

There are several reasons why, and some of them are not unique to Sweden. Even if the small number of believers means you typically won't find yourself in a situation where you are being reminded about it, the basic argument that religion, because of its private character, should deserve a "free pass" in public discourse remains as relevant in Sweden as everywhere else. As has been pointed out before by people like Richard Dawkins and many others, one is allowed to be almost as brutal as one wishes when it comes to telling people they have the wrong ideas about music, art, or politics. But, apparently, when it is down to faith, even raising the topic is considered off-limit.
Also just as present is a widespread idea that religion is inherently something noble. You won't have to go out of your way to find people who will state things like "I can't bring myself to believe in this, but I admire people who do". This is a very revealing statement. As religion has largely come to play out its role in the society, it is a notion that implies that the few who hold on to it are in possession of some sort of admirable persistence (in something that presumably must be a genuine force of good). This only goes on to show that there is a thorough ignorance underlying peoples' idea of the actual content of religion. Good actions done by believers are usually credit to their faith; bad actions for which they are responsible and for which they many times have support in their holy books are instead carried out "in the name of" religion (in itself a patronizing position, where one declares to understand the believer's faith better than he or she does).

But then there is also the Sweden factor.
What you have to know about this little Scandinavian democracy, is that it doesn't pride itself on a whole lot. There is however this one thing Sweden can account for, and that is being at the forefront of social development. Topics like gender equality, education and tolerance are to Swedes not only important matters, but the type of ones that almost seem to substitute a national identity. Certainly nothing Swedes would want to find themselves being backward at should it be only to one other nation on the planet. The idea alone is as unplausible to Swedish people as it would be to Americans to know that there was another country that had a more pure version of the American Dream. Now, since monotheistic religions are largely made up of values that are diametrically opposed to the above mentioned, it ought to be fantastically easy to a modern, liberal human being to make up the mind about them. And still, and pathetically, it is not.
In a combination of ignorance and a mad idea that tolerance means tolerating everything - including intolerance - Sweden has become a country where critique of anything means the breaking of the illogical rule system set up in silent agreement. Sure, slavery is disgusting. Murder is wrong. And genocide is absolutely terrible. But Christianity, to some extent promoting all of these? Let's not go there, someone could be offended. And should someone blow himself up in the streets in an attempt to get to paradise and get 72 virgins (a view that may not be disbelieved by a true believer as the Koran is the holy word of Allah), just make sure the first part of the aftermath discussion is centered around how a bunch of xenophobic crackpots don't profit from it. This has all of course been made infinitely worse by the entrance of the extreme-right Sweden Democrats into the Swedish parliament. With its root in the 90's neo-nazi movement, the party has promoted itself as a truth-speaking element that wants to halt (Muslim) immigration. Commonly given the very problematic label of being "islamophobic" (a term that can be compared to "judaismphobia" in relation to antisemitism), this in part has allowed a group with filthy intentions to in many respects gain a patent on questions not only of immigration, but a third of all iron-age mysticism still practised today.

The situation as it presents itself is that of a country that should be leading on the religion debate, but that through ignorance on the topic of faith and a very misdirected ambition of coming across as tolerant, doesn't find itself ready to criticize the type of dogmas that make up the very opposite of what it holds dear. Change can only come from greater knowledge on the subject, knowledge that must not and cannot be a tireless attempt to rid religion of all of its responsibilities. But also from a realization that saying yes to the good, also means to say no to the bad.