But, but...aren’t they also supposed to maintain special cuisines for religious festival days too? Once the fangs are gone, I thought that that was one of the central purposes of a nominal religion… :-)
I found an interesting article which contains a summary of what people in the Nordic countries think are the most important functions of the church:
This makes the Nordic position even more of a paradox. Most uncommitted or marginal Norwegian Lutherans knowingly pay to maintain an organization they do not attend terribly often and to support spokesmen for beliefs they do not hold. The explanation can be discerned from the fascinating material in the Religious and Moral Pluralism (RAMP) study. Respondents were asked to rank the importance of various church activities. There was a surprising degree of agreement between the four countries. The activities rated highest in all four countries were funerals, baptisms and weddings. Next, and surprisingly close, came the preservation of old church buildings and the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Those all came above the mid-way level. Below and in declining order of importance came ‘church music and singing of the choir’, the celebration of Easter, ‘well-known hymns’, and ‘ringing in of the Sabbath’. The two least important occurrences were ‘regular Sunday services’ and ‘holy communion’! The most important things the church could do were to give a religious gloss to significant personal and community events and to maintain the national heritage by preserving historic church buildings. Marking the Sabbath, regular worship services and what (even for Protestants) should be the most important part of church life, holy communion, were ranked lowest.
Another question asked people to rank ten activities on which the church could spend its resources. The most popular was social work with the old and sick. Second came upkeep of cemeteries. Third was ‘keeping churches open for private prayers’. Fourth was international aid and emergency relief. Fifth was the preservation of church buildings. Arranging activities for children and young people was sixth, then came ‘arranging services in the national language abroad’. Eighth was aid to Christians abroad, ninth was holding services every Sunday in all parishes, and last in the list was international missionary work. With the exception of keeping churches open for private prayers, there is a very clear ordering here: what have traditionally been regarded as the principle activities of the church — trying to spread the Christian message and regularly worshipping the Lord — were the last two items in order of preference and secular community activities came at the top.
Interestingly, the article also concludes that simply having a state church isn’t enough, if the population is too heterogeneous:
The difficulty of interpretation is to know what things would have been like otherwise. Viewed from the USA, it may seem obvious that state support kills religion; from Britain a different interpretation suggests itself. In the Nordic countries and Britain ‘demand’ for the ideological core of religion is weak. However, the established status of the Lutheran Churches and their tax base allows them to provide social and liturgical services to the population at large. The homogeneity of the societies allows the national churches to be truly national while the multi-national character of the UK prevents its churches playing such a role.
The activities rated highest in all four countries were funerals, baptisms and weddings.
Sounds like the state churches should look for a way to inject themselves into graduation ceremonies… Tricky balancing act, keeping them banal and toothless, but not fading into oblivion...
Interestingly, the article also concludes that simply having a state church isn’t enough, if the population is too heterogeneous
Ouch! So innoculation via state religion has the same heterogeneity problem that personalized medicine has...
I found an interesting article which contains a summary of what people in the Nordic countries think are the most important functions of the church:
Interestingly, the article also concludes that simply having a state church isn’t enough, if the population is too heterogeneous:
Many thanks!
Sounds like the state churches should look for a way to inject themselves into graduation ceremonies… Tricky balancing act, keeping them banal and toothless, but not fading into oblivion...
Ouch! So innoculation via state religion has the same heterogeneity problem that personalized medicine has...