In countries where there is a State Religion (Britain, Denmark etc.) does the government promote this religion in media to members for example to go to church, and to non-members to convert?

10 comments

1. Norway removed the official state church like 10+ years ago now, but no, they never did anything to try to convert you into Christianity. Unless you count the being registered in the church at birth unless opting out as a form of trying to convert people haha.

2. No; not directly. It’s not like National Broadcasting Service has a special segment of _Conversion Corner with Christiansen_ (Christiansen is the surname of the Bishop in Haderslev.)

   That said. The National Broadcasting Service _does_ televise church services, (almost) every Sunday at 10, from the so-called “DR Church,” which isn’t a church in its own right, but a collaboration between parishes. The National Broadcasting Service also broadcasts Christmas-calendars, which doesn’t make much sense outside of Christian-cultural spectre.

   There’s also a dedicated school-subject, _Kristendomskundskab_ taught in primary school, which, as the name suggests, is based around the teachings of Christianity, and knowledge of the teachings of Christianity and the “importance of Christianity to Danish culture” (though it does also touch on other religions.)

   In terms of politics, as part of the opening of Parliament, every year, a special service is held in the church of Christiansborg.

   Generally speaking, the idea from Matt. 28,16-20 isn’t something the State Church pushes too much, if at all.

3. No, absolutely not. The BBC does have a weekly God Slot but it’s not exclusively Church of England; other Christian denominations get occasional slots. But this is much less advertising and more a condition of their public service broadcasting licence.

4. We have it, and absolutely not. Religion is a private matter and pushing it would be seen as weird as fuck. Like we have had a few openly religious politicians and the fact they are religious is mentioned because it’s noteworthy. The baseline is non religious or being private about it.

5. The majority religion in the UK is None – all forms of Christianity together come in second. It sure looks like state broadcasting promotes it, any viewer of the BBC will tell you there’s Nothing on TV.

   The Church of England has some role in the state, e.g. its bishops have seats in the House of Lords and the coronation ceremony is religious. The Church of Scotland has a much smaller role but it is also sorta established. Northern Ireland has a national cult of fœtus worship instead, I’m not sure how that plays out in state ceremonial.

6. No, not at all.

   The only way having a state religion really impacts things in Denmark is that there is a prayer service at the opening of parliament.

   Also there is a church tax and the People’s Church gets funding by the government.

   However in day to day life, it’s more so cultural christianity. Holidays are all religiously themed (though the government recently got rid of the big praying day, which itself was an attempt to compile all of the saint’s days into only one day off).

7. There had already been a few comments on Denmark, but just to add a little regarding broadcasts, I have heard more than one presenter on state run radio saying that they were atheists and I can’t actually recall even once hearing a presenter saying they believe in God! So there’s that… I mostly listen to the two most popular radio channels though, P4 and the “youth channel” P3.

   Also in my experience most Danes consider them selves atheists.

8. The relation between State and Church is matter of the cantons. Two cantons don’t recognize any church as official, all others have roman-catholic and reformed, a handful also has christ-catholic (broke off after Vatican I. Google Union of Utrecht) and even the jewish community

   There are segments on the national broadcaster on saturday evening that are effectively a sermon, and the newspapers publish occurrences of local churches.

   No conversion though, as far as I can tell. Generally, Swiss culture is very discreet about that and at the time where it wasn’t, there were ferocious wars between catholic and protestant cantons.

   In the place where I went to school, there were ecumenical services at the beginning and the end of schoolyear and the entire class was present when the catholic classmates had first communion and firmation. Nobody was forced to actively participate, though.

9. Belgium is technically a Catholic kingdom and you see a lot of churches (like everywhere else in Europe). Catholic schools are also prevalent. But it really isn’t pushed beyond the traditional baptism and “profession of faith” that a lot of kids still do by tradition in those schools, though that practice is also decreasing. When I was a kid there was a Catholic tv channel and radio but I think they might have discontinued them. At university you might have a stand at a festival sometimes that sells cotton candy or something and they’ll be from a nearby parish but they wouldn’t try to talk or convert you. In general Belgian people like their personal space and peace so proselytism of any form is unlikely.

10. We don’t really have a state church (since 2000), but we still treat the Church of Sweden a bit differently, so it’s not entirely divorced either. And no, no ads. Not now, and as far as I can remember, not before 2000 either. There are some CoS-specific programming on public TV/radio, but it’s more for the already turned than for turning (unless you’re very susceptive).