Titel: Abrahamson, Hilda Gustava
Skrivet av: Ingela Martenius skrivet 2007-01-30, 04:02
Patti,
Until about 1860 you were only allowed one religion in Sweden: Lutheranism. There were a couple of exceptions, namely Jews and Catholics. No one was allowed to convert but if an immigrant happened to be a Jew or a Catholic they were allowed to keep their faith from the late 18th century (before this it was not allowed). In 1862 you were allowed to convert to a few approved Christian faiths: baptist was one of them. However, while it was allowed in law, it was not at all liked by the clergy (and usually frowned upon by the neighbours) in rural communities. In the cities most people didn't care (except super conservative Göteborg of course). But it was not until after WW II that Sweden had true religious freedom. Well, you were still born into the state church, but you could get out and did not have to enter any other religion. In 2000 (only 6 years ago) the state church was abolished. But more than 80% of the Swedes still belong to the Swedish church. In the old days lots of emigrants had religious constraint as one of their reasons for emigrating - still, the very first thing the majority of them did when they arrived in their new country was to trot off to the nearest Lutheran church...