{"id":1244,"date":"2007-07-17T09:22:57","date_gmt":"2007-07-17T09:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/07\/from-the-mailbox.html"},"modified":"2007-07-17T09:22:57","modified_gmt":"2007-07-17T09:22:57","slug":"from-the-mailbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/07\/from-the-mailbox.html","title":{"rendered":"From the mailbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take a look at the blog of Msgr. Kevin Codd of the Spokane diocese , who is making the pilgrimage<\/a> from Leuven (where he has just finished up a term as rector) to Compostela. He is blogging when he can.<\/p>\n

From Saturday’s WSJ – a long piece on Christianity in Europe, focusing on the issue of state funding, and particularly on Sweden:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Now even Europe, the heartland of secularization, is raising questions about whether God really is dead. The enemy of faith, say the supply-siders, is not modernity but state-regulated markets that shield big, established churches from competition. In America, where church and state stand apart, more than 50% of the population worships at least once a month. In Europe, where the state has often supported — but also controlled — the church with money and favors, the rate in many countries is 20% or less.<\/p>\n

"The state undermined the church from within," says Stefan Sw\u00e4rd, a leader of Sweden’s small but growing evangelical movement.<\/p>\n

Consider the scene on a recent Sunday at Stockholm’s Hedvig Eleonara Church, a parish of the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran institution that until 2000 was an official organ of the Swedish state. Fewer than 40 people, nearly all elderly, gathered in pews beneath a magnificent 18th-century dome. Seven were church employees. The church seats over 1,000.<\/p>\n

Hedvig Eleonara has three full-time salaried priests and gets over $2 million each year though a state levy. Annika Sandstr\u00f6m, head of its governing board, says she doesn’t believe in God and took the post "on the one condition that no one expects me to go each Sunday." The church scrapped Sunday school last fall because only five children attended.<\/p>\n

Just a few blocks away, Passion Church, an eight-month-old evangelical outfit, fizzed with fervor. Nearly 100 young Swedes rocked to a high-decibel band: "It’s like adrenaline running through my blood," they sang in English. "We’re talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."<\/p>\n

Passion, set up by Andreas Nielsen, a 32-year-old Swede who found God in Florida, gets no money from the state. It holds its service in a small, low-ceilinged hall rented from Stockholm’s Casino Theatre, a drama company. Church, says Mr. Nielson, should be "the most kick-ass place in the world." Jesus was "king of the party."<\/p>\n

snip<\/em><\/p>\n

One factor now spurring religious competition in Europe is the availability of state money that traditionally flowed almost entirely to established churches. It still does, but the process is more open.<\/p>\n

In Italy, the state used to pay the salaries of Catholic priests, but in 1984 it began letting taxpayers choose which religious groups get financial support. The proceeds of a new "religious tax" of 0.8% are now divided, according to taxpayer preference, among the Catholic Church, four non-Catholic churches, the Jewish community and a state religious and humanitarian fund.<\/p>\n

The result is an annual beauty contest ahead of a June income-tax deadline, as churches try to lure taxpayer money with advertising campaigns. Catholics get the lion’s share — 87% of nearly $1.2 billion in 2004, the last year for which figures are available. But according to a 2005 study by Italian lawyer Massimo Introvigne and Mr. Stark, the system "reminds Italians every year that there is a religious economy."<\/p>\n

Sweden has also overhauled church financing. In 2000, the government gave up formal control of the Church of Sweden. With great fanfare it replaced what had been a church "tax" with an annual "fee," still collected by tax authorities, levied on Church of Sweden members.<\/p>\n

For the first time, taxpayers were told what they owed in cash — instead of being given just a percentage figure, which is typically under 1% of household income. Church of Sweden membership dropped abruptly, and the church launched a publicity drive pitching religion. Membership stabilized, though church-going continued to decline. Still, the established church last year received around $1.6 billion in membership fees via state tax collectors. The church also brings in some $460 million in funeral-and-graveyard administration taxes.<\/p>\n

A government-run commission provides money to 28 registered religious groups outside the Church of Sweden, but these funds totaled only $7 million last year. Passion Church and other such ventures rely mostly on voluntary donations by their worshippers. This, says Kjell-Axel Johanson, an evangelical priest, keeps upstarts more in tune with their flock. He recently set up a new church that, unable to afford a permanent home, rents a bar for a few hours. "God doesn’t care about packaging," he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From First Things:<\/p>\n

Robert George looks at the Neo-Blanshardites v. the Evangelicals<\/a><\/p>\n

and Nicholas Frankovich of Fordham University Press has an interesting take on Judaism and the Tridenitine liturgy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Take a look at the blog of Msgr. Kevin Codd of the Spokane diocese , who is making the pilgrimage from Leuven (where he has just finished up a term as rector) to Compostela. He is blogging when he can. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. 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