Pagans in Iceland object to missionaries in schools

Iceland Review ^ | 11/16/2006 | 12:14

[Leifur]

The Pagan Society in Iceland, Ásatrúarfélagid, has objected to the State Church offering school children social support in form of so-called “soul watch interviews.”

The interviews are part of an initiative called Vinaleid (“Path of Friends”), which is open to all school-age children.

The program enables students to visit the deacon in the local church to talk about their problems, and do not need allowance from parents to do so, as reported in Fréttabladid.

Jóhanna Hardardóttir, a pagan priest on Kjalarnes peninsula, southwest Iceland, told Fréttabladid that she has noticed considerable discontent among parents with Vinaleid.

She says children who are not raised Christian feel misplaced, which, she believes, could lead to bullying. In Hardardóttir’s opinion, social support should be in the hands of “professionals, not missionaries.”

Viktor Gudlaugsson, principal of elementary school Varmárskóli in Mosfellsbaer, southwest Iceland, told Fréttabladid that he had not noticed any dissatisfaction with Vinaleid, which has been offered in his school since 1999.

Gudlaugsson says Vinaleid is only one of many ways for children to seek help with their problems – there is also a psychologist and a tutor working at the school – and no one is obligated to take part in it.

[Leifur]

We have had Christian Education classes in our schools forever, but recently some of it has been changed into Education about religions.

My little brother had to take a test about buddism recently and so on.

I feel a christian society as ours should be able to defend its christian heritage by teaching about christianity in our schools. I am though not a member of the state church, my family left it generations ago to build the pentacostal church of Iceland.

I am afraid that the state church has become less and less christian, completely unable to stand for anything.

[rmlew]

Ping to the Swedish Ping List.

It's not actually Swedish, but there is no Scandinavian ping list.

[GoLightly]

I am afraid that the state church has become less and less christian, completely unable to stand for anything.

That seems to be a trend in nations with national churches. It's part of the whole multicultural garbage that's pushed to eliminate any kind of national pride.

[Leifur]

Yes, and national identity. That seems to be big portion of the Europeanism that follows the EU. Thankfully that process is not as fast here though as on the mainland as we are not part of the EU, although we are in the European Economic Area, the deal between EFTA and EU.

But the process in the state church comes from the dechristianation that came here in and around the 30´s and then even more with the hippies. In the 30´s it was on one hand the spiritism that entered the church, but also the national revisionism that came with the nationalism that swept Europe in that time.

Sometimes that resulted in a new sense of national pride that was often higly irrespective of the old traditions, but wanted to replace them with new, and better ones.

[GoLightly]

I hadn't heard about the de-Chrisianization of the state churches as early as the '30's, though it seems to fit. In the cases of Germany (German states) & Russia, the state became the de facto church, so the church hierarchy had to be demoted. That would be part of the "nationalism that swept Europe", which you mentioned, right?

Didn't the French Revolution & Napoleon account for much of the mess on the continent? The French Revolution made the church a puppet of the French government. Wherever France went, she brought along her new form governing. In effect, it's a government which happens to have people, which it is supposed to serve. Bureaucracy isn't an afterthought, a symptom. It is the government's delivery system, so the more there is of it, the more it is seen as the government making good on its promise.

I know this is taking us elsewhere, but I have to ask, are tings or things used anymore? It's rare for me to run into any of your countrymen & I'm afraid that much of what I know about your culture is terribly dated.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Its a difficult thing once multiculturalism takes over. If every belief is equally valid then what is the point of believing in any of them? That it the point, of course, to eradicate any vestige of Christianity. People want to ignore reason and follow their desires. Desires may be good or bad, but only reason can evaluate which.