Finland Role of Religion
Helsinki Cathedral
Courtesy Embassy of Finland, Washington
Religion was a part of public life in a variety of
ways. The
celebration of the gaining of Finnish independence on
December 6
had a religious component, as did the annual opening of
the
Eduskunta. There were three religious holidays when public
entertainments were not permitted. The state churches kept
the
official records of their members' civil status, and the
vast
majority of marriages were performed in the state churches
and
had the same legal status as a civil ceremony. Church
members
paid a church tax that was collected and paid to the
churches by
state authorities. Persons wishing to leave one of the
state
churches had to do so formally, and records of this
decision were
maintained. Religious instruction was a regular part of
the
schools' curricula, and children wishing to be excused
from it
had to request the right to take a substitute course. The
armed
forces had chaplains, the highest of whom was a bishop,
and their
services were, in practice, usually obligatory for
recruits.
Chaplains' salaries were paid by the state, as were those
of the
higher clergy of the two state churches. The oath
generally used
in court had a religious content, though nonbelievers had
the
right to one that made no reference to a deity and instead
was
only a solemn affirmation of the truth of their testimony.
Although it was rarely invoked, there was a Finnish law
against
blasphemy. Numerous religious programs and services were
broadcast on the country's state radio and television
networks.
Much of this religious influence was based in Finland's
past,
however, and did not correspond with attitudes of most
Finns,
because by the 1980s the country had become a highly
secularized
society. Polls revealed, for example, that about 70
percent of
the population believed in God, a good deal fewer than the
90
percent who belonged to the state churches. About 40
percent of
the population believed that the best place to find God
was in
the Bible, but only about 10 percent read it at least once
a
week, striking figures for a Protestant country. Frequent
church
attendance was unusual. Surveys conducted during the 1980s
found
that perhaps as few as 4 percent went to church every
Sunday,
about 12 percent went once a month, and 43 percent went at
least
once during the course of a year.
These figures did not give a complete picture of
Finnish
religious life, however. Finland's pietist traditions
meant that
there was much private prayer as opposed to public
worship; about
one-third of Finns under the age of thirty-five and more
than
half of those above this age reportedly prayed every week.
In
addition, the Lutheran Church touched the lives of many
Finns
through its considerable social work and counseling,
although
these activities were often not strictly religious in
nature.
The role the state churches played in life's key
moments made
them, for reasons of tradition, important to most Finns,
even to
those who were not religious. More Finns were baptized,
married,
and buried with church rites than were members of the
churches. A
very important rite of passage for adolescents was
confirmation,
which signified a coming of age even for those from
freethinking
families. For this reason, more than 90 percent of
15-year-olds
were confirmed, despite the several weeks of lessons this
entailed. Although church membership was a routine affair
for
many, polls conducted in the 1970s and the 1980s
consistently
found that only about 10 percent of those interviewed had
given
any serious thought to leaving a state church, even though
freedom from the church tax would mean a small financial
gain.
For many Finns, leaving their church would be too great a
break
with family and community traditions. In addition, some of
the
values that churches had traditionally stood for had been
internalized. Observers noted, for example, that although
Finland
had undoubtedly become more secularized since World War
II,
particularly in the urban areas, the traditional Lutheran
virtues
of hard work and self-discipline, inculcated over the
centuries,
were still evident in the lives of most Finns.
Data as of December 1988
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