Religious freedom in Finland: Two churches more equal than the rest

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By Paavo Tukkimäki
     
      In the beginning was the Word - now the Word has unequal descendants.
      "The Lutheran and Orthodox Churches travel in the first class of society, while other religious communities are in second class", says Juha Seppo, Professor Emeritus of Church History. He specialises in the field of relations between Church and State, and issues of religious freedom.
      He emphasises, however, that trends in Finland and the EU have been moving in the right direction, toward greater equality in ecclesiastical policy.
     
State supervision has been reduced, religious communities no longer need to seek permission for all their various activities, the right of the state to conduct inspections has been lifted, and economic freedom has been expanded.
      The reforms reflect changing attitudes: minorities are no longer looked upon with suspicion, and seen as being in need of supervision. Seppo feels that the state now has a polite relationship with minority churches, but it still does not really notice them in practice.
      It would have been possible to go much further in the ecclesiastical equality when Finnish legislation on freedom of religion was reformed in 2003.
     
Inequality is most evident in economic questions. The law was to have contained rules on state support for registered religious communities, but it was dropped out.
      In Seppo’s view, state funding would have placed the various denominations on an equal footing, suggesting that the state wants to treat different religious convictions equally.
      He describes the relationship of the Lutheran Big Brother toward other communities by noting that the Lutheran Church seems to be the only institution in Finland giving significant support to the other communities.
      The minority religions lack the necessary political clout, because they have not brought forward the kinds of statesmen that have emerged from the ranks of equivalent denominations in Sweden and the Anglo-Saxon countries, for instance.
      The Finnish Ecumenical Council is the joint body churches and other Christian communities in Finland. Its Secretary-General, Pastor Jan Edström, is a member of two Finnish minorities: he is a Swedish-speaking Baptist.
     
Edström feels that legislation concerning religion is in good shape in Finland. Their implementation, however, can be more difficult.
      For instance, Edström takes as an example schools and burial. The new law opened religious instruction in school to all competent teachers regardless of their affiliation. However, not all churches want the children of their flocks to be taught by someone who is unknown to them.
      Burial now has equality of conviction: a plot in a Lutheran cemetery costs the same for all local residents of a community, regardless of denomination.
      The Ministry of Education is again looking at the once-rejected idea of state support for religious communities, and Edström feels that "theoretically the promise of support might be forthcoming".
      It would be a significant issue of principle for the minority religions, because they do not have the right to levy taxes as the Lutheran and Orthodox Churches do.
     
Edström notes that the Lutheran Church has no rules or laws on ecumenicism, which can survive only as long as the leadership of the Lutheran Church and its parishes have people with an ecumenical orientation.
      Edström has heard complaints that in work with immigrants, the Lutheran Church sometimes takes advantage of its position of strength. Its workers do not always tell Catholic immigrants, for instance, that Finland also has a Catholic Church.
      Edström himself knows that he is expecting the impossible when he suggests that on Independence Day, the sermon at the Helsinki Cathedral might be held by someone other than a Lutheran bishop.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.3.2005

More on this subject:
 Minority churches would like just a little more equality
 FACTFILE: First class churches, second class communities

PAAVO TUKKIMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
paavo.tukkimaki@hs.fi