As a followup to my recent post about how Americans feel a need to exaggerate their religiousness while Europeans are ashamed of their religiousness, I ran across this article from the Danish national broadcast network's website. The original article is in Danish, although you can run it through Google Translate to get an English translation, albeit with some awkward constructions here and there. The title of the article is "God is naughtier than sex", and it describes a Danish man who wrote a children's Bible. Here a cleaned up text of the Google Translate version of the article:
"If I had said something about my marriage or my sex life to the reporter from a newspaper, then it would almost be less taboo than my disclosure that I believed in God." Such is what Sigurd Barrett experienced, when once during an interview he answered "yes" that he believed in God. The day after he could read in a double spread in the newspaper : "Sigurd believes in God!"I think that this once again illustrates the point that just as there is a kind of cultural stigma in the US against not being religious, there is an opposite stigma against being religious in many parts of Europe. By calling attention to this, I am not implying anything about whether being religious is good or bad--but I do think the cultural difference is interesting, and it says less about whether the people in a country as a whole are actually more or less religious than it does about how people in a given country want to present themselves. This also once again raises the question--why do Americans frequently want to make themselves out to be more religious than they are, and why Europeans frequently want to make themselves out to be less religious than they are?
Sigurd Barrett finds that Danes are reluctant, almost afraid of the Christian faith, even though 80.9 percent of us are still members of the Church. This is partly why he agreed to make a children's bible. Not because he wants to proselytize or moralize, but because he wants it to be possible to talk about God without people responding nonsensically.
Not least, the kids need to be able to talk about God. Sigurd Barrett believes that it is our duty to speak with them about what faith is. And they should not be scared about wanting to talk with and about God:
"If we as parents put a lid on this impulse of fear to indoctrinate or brainwash our children, I mean really, we deprive them of the opportunity to found a spiritual dimension to their understanding of themselves. Praying a prayer is not an extreme or fanatical action. It is a natural desire to communicate with a higher power," he says.
5 comments:
...why do Americans frequently want to make themselves out to be more religious than they are, and why Europeans frequently want to make themselves out to be less religious than they are?
None of us wants to look like a fool or like we missed the boat.
Cynthia, I think you are right, but it seems like Danes and Americans somehow ended up on different boats. And I wonder how that happened.
Australia is the same as Denmark. I think it has a lot to do with the 'intellectual' media who tend to portray anyone with religious belief as some sort of moron who believes in fairy tales. Anyone admitting religious belief in Australia in a public sphere is usually subject to some sort of cynical response or ridicule from some quarter. Maybe its a symptom of Dawkins & co as the aggressive atheists reduce tolerance and respect.
I think many Australians also see religion as the cause of destruction, wars and conflict and belief somehow aligns you with the extremists who destroy life.
On the other hand up until this year we've had politicians who seek out the 'Christian' vote and who openly profess religious belief. The Christian vote might be worth 1-2% swing - which can be enough to get you into power.
Then again - we now have our first atheist prime minister.
Surely though for the USA its all tied up in the constitution and history. Isnt there a underlying belief that God blesses America ? Implying that is how the USA became the superpower of the world ?
Mystical, I would think the different boats are the different response both America and Europe had to the Enlightenment. Our nation might have been founded on, in part, religious freedom, but it was a matter of what one believed, belief meaning a stated set of doctrines.
Over the years it seems Europe has rejected both that aspect of believing as well as the loyalty/trust aspect of believing, as in faithfulness to God/trust in God. Yet it seems that Europe, on the whole, does a much better job at equality and care for all.
No matter how old you are, family history is important. While you might not think so at the time, as you get older there will be things you and your grandchildren will want to know. Most of us don't realise it until the older generations are gone and you can't replace first hand comments. Don't just put in about the good times, add in the harder times and how you overcame those trials. Another thing to remember is what caused the deaths of those you loved. There are many things that have been found to continue into future generations that knowing it runs in the family can be helped with now or possible in the future. prevention starts with knowing where to start. I wish someone had taken the time to write these things down for mew to be able to go back to. My Grandmother and my mother told us many stories of what things happened in their lives and about the people in their lives. I now wish someone had written those things down since both have passed now. But I never thought at that busy point in my life that I would one day want to remember all those things. So much family history is lost when the older generations are gone. Please pass it on to your family while you can. You can even just do it digitally so it can be accessed by family later on.Family pictures are something to cherish also. Just be sure to write down who is pictured in them, where they are taken and when. I have found family pictures that no one now even knows who is in them.
AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com
or
call/whatsapp:+2349057261346
Post a Comment