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The Nordic Churches and the Ecumenical Movement
Ecumenical Review, The, April, 2000 by Peter Lodberg
If this interpretation is correct, the establishment of the special commission to deal with applications for official recognition as a religious community can be understood as part of the old state-church paradigm. In the guidelines published in March 1999 the commission emphasized that ministerial recognition of a religious community has nothing to do with freedom of religion but is based on the understanding of administrative law and the distribution of executive power. In other words, a refusal of recognition is not contrary to international human rights declarations. If one follows Henning Koch's argument, however, the guidelines do not change the basic fact that it is the minister of ecclesiastical affairs who decides on the limits of freedom of religion on the basis of the marriage act. From an international perspective, this gives minority religions an unusual and unacceptable legal status in a multi-religious society.
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It is interesting that the special commission, while remaining within the old state-church paradigm, stresses that Denmark as a pluralistic society needs a neutral institution -- and not the bishop of Copenhagen -- to deal with applications from religious communities. This is the first time an official document from the ministry of ecclesiastical affairs has described Danish society as pluralistic. This may well be the social situation, but the use of the term as normative has been introduced without further discussion. The concept of a "pluralistic society" allows the special commission to stay within the old paradigm while trying at the same time to enlarge it to cover a new social reality. The question is for how long it will be possible to operate with the traditional Nordic pattern of an established church and freedom of religion. So far it stands, and in the report of the commissioner of the Council of the Baltic Sea States on Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Ole Espersen, on "The Right to Freedom of Religion and Religious Associations" (March 1999), the combination of established church and freedom of religion is not challenged. Espersen states that "the existence of a state church is not a violation of freedom of religion in itself", though he does propose more transparency in financial matters, so that non-Lutherans do not pay to the church through the ordinary tax system.
Human rights and freedom of religion are secured in different ways in different European states. Human-rights debates and actions take place in historical and philosophical contexts inspired by various economic and political agendas. We have seen how Denmark has its own part of this debate and is challenged to find a way forward to secure the rights of the minority religions. This must be done on the basis of the debate in the 1840s that lies behind the present constitution. This debate was not at all as old-fashioned as one might think: many of the arguments of today were already heard during the revolutionary year of 1848. The main issue for the Danes is whether to continue the Nordic pattern or to decide that the old paradigm of state church and freedom of religion can no longer meet the pluralistic realities of the present. The answer depends mainly on the continuation of the process of nation-building in Denmark. Will this take place in a more and more European context? Will Danish Christianity follow the nation-state in an international development that automatically involves ecumenical fellowship among the churches in Europe today? So far the established church has been very reluctant to engage itself in ecumenical cooperation, but on the other hand it has always been good at accommodating itself to social and political realities.
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