Posts Tagged ‘denmark’
Renaming it will not fix the problem
January 24, 2012 | 
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The group leader of the Danish Socialist People’s Party, Pernille Vigsø Bagge, got the brilliant idea that in Denmark we should rename our Ministry of the Church to Ministry of Life Philosophies.
A statement that she withdrew within 24 hours after everyone in Denmark laughed at the idea, or suggested it should be something else such as the Ministry of Magic (I guess we got a lot of Harry Potter fans in our population).
I do wonder if Pernille actually have given it any thoughts at all, because what would changing the name of the said ministry change? (Besides the obvious fact as the name)
We would still have a state church, and with that a state religion, no equality amongst religions, and no proper freedom from religion.
What we need is a change in our constitution, we need to have equal rights for everyone in our country. Yet I fear this is at least one generation away in Denmark to happen, that the church and state will be separated. (30 years time)
There is no easy solution, it will require hard work from our politicians, the non-profit activist groups (such as The Danish Atheist Society), and the general population in order to create this change.
Instead if Pernille would want any of my respect, instead of focusing on the name of a ministry, she should focus on what it does, and its effects on society. Start a debate on what the effects are of a state church in Denmark.
I find the level of hypocrisy amongst politicians in Denmark to be nauseating at best sometimes, I hear interviews where they say that religion and politics have no place in Denmark, yet none of them dare to open a debate whether Denmark should keep having a state church.
What about instead of using the amount of members in the state church for their arguments, how about they find out, how many do actually believe in what the Lutheran Church teaches? How many are actually just “cultural christian” or in all practicality either deist or atheists (agnostics included).
So secular politicians in Denmark, please if you ever read this, grow up, and start an actual debate.
Posted in Politics, Religion | 
Tags: Danish Socialist People's Party, denmark, kirkeministeret, Ministry of the Church, Pernille Vigsø Bagge, politics, Religion, secularism, SF, state | 
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Crazy Religious Moments of February
In latest funny and slightly crazy news, is that here in Denmark, a bishop has forbidden the local priest at the church of Sthen in Snekkersten.
Since 2009, priest Kirsten Knutzen has baptised 80 dolls and teddy bears at sermons for children at the ages one to six.
She told the press that she is aware that she is not making a blasphemic ritual, but she puts the ritual as close as possible to the actual ritual she uses her own words.
The Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel of the Helsingør Congregations put an end to it. With the message that the People’s Lutheran Church of Denmark does not baptise objects.
In my honest opinion, I think it is an effective way of pulling children into the religion, but on the other hand, it also undermines the religion, by making fun of it. How can you tell a fake baptism apart from a real one?
May 2011 they had planned baptism and wedding for the teddy bear couple at Church of Sthen.
In Indonesia, a man was sentenced 5 years for blasphemy, a Christian man who insulted Islam.
I am not sure what he did, if I would consider it insulting, but hey I also think it would be as bad as insulting someone who though they were herding invisible unicorns.
But it wasn’t the sentence that I thought was the most absurd part, no no no..
The absurd part is that the local muslims wanted him killed, and they processed to burn local christian churches.
Horray for the religion of peace, both of them.
Sigh.
A Potential Funny Series Censored by SBS in Denmark.
SBS TV who are a part of ProSiebenSat.1 AG Media, which is the second largest broadcast company in Europe with over 77 million recievers in 13 different countries, has decided that they will not air the Danish/Egyptian comedian Omar Marzouk’s series called “The Cell (Danish title: Cellen)”. Originally the series was named “The Terror Cell (Orig.Title: Terrorcellen)” but SBS got that changed, after awhile they decided they would not air it on their more popular Channel 5, but on their less seen Channel 6.
As the series was closing in on the date on where it would be aired, the makers of the series were asked to censor away some of their more controversial scenes. For example there is alledgely a scene where someone throws up on a bunch of Qurans, if that scene actually exists I cannot get confirmed or unconfirmed.
Eventually they pulled the plug, as they said, “Want to evaluate the terror risk.”
This would be fine if it was not because of one “minor” fact. The series is also financed by public money from the Danish Institute of Movies, with 4.5 million DKK (~0.9 mio US$) and because of that SBS TV has to live up to certain agreements, such as, atleast 50% of the Danish population must be able to watch it, no radical changes in the content of the series are allowed, and lastly the series most be shown within a year.
So far SBS TV has lived up to none of these agreements.
Omar Marzouk is supposely angry at SBS TV, and rightfully so in my opnion. As he said, he is not out ot create a new Muhammed Cartoon Crisis, but rather open a dialogue.
In my opnion, the most effective tool we got against religious fundamentalism, is humour. If we cannot laugh at how silly they are, what else can we do?
SBS TV can be contacted at http://www.sbstv.dk/kontaktpersoner feel free to tell them what you think.
