Thanks! That's very interesting. Maybe you know about the situation in Germany already, but just in case you don't, I'll share a little, if you don't mind.
In Germany, we have roughly one third Catholics, one third Protestants (mostly Lutheran) and one third atheists/unaffiliated. On top of that, there are ca. 4 million immigrants from Muslim countries (on a population of 82 million total) and a large number of smaller groups or churches. But only ca. 10% to 15% of the population are strongly professing their religion (going to church regularly, etc). You have many rather secular "Christmas Christians" (who only turn up in church one day per year), who are not really religious.
Here in (West-)Berlin, I grew up in a mostly atheist environment. Back in elementary school, the one or two pupils in my class who claimed to believe in God were ridiculed like kids who still believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. As far as I can tell, that's common in Berlin and most of east Germany.
The commies did a good job marginalizing in east Germany. I wonder, how did the Romanian communists treat the churches when they were in power? Did they discriminate religious people and managed to weaken religion, or were the churches too strong?
Yeah, I read about 1 year ago that Germany and the scandinavian states have the highest atheist populations in Europe. Or at least, unaffiliated population. I found it rather interesting that the study itself showed that people who adhered to atheism were more likely to come from a western, free society rather than the communist one.
During communism, in Romania, the religious community was kind of tolerated but only when it benefited the state. It also depended on the region and the communist party representatives in the region. Not all people in the communist party respected the ideology fully... and some made it worse than it was or easier to live with. While it is true that the better part of the clergy had endured persecution and many of them went to jail because they were priests and such, not all theological institutions were banned or destroyed. There were still theological schools that functioned and churches that had plenty of constituents. This is particularly true for the villages.
Attending Church was sort of banned. It is a curious relationship because it is one thing on paper from and ideological standpoint but the general standpoint was quite varied.
For example... I know a few stories of people who got sent to jail on charges that they went to Church. That was more than often the pretense because said people couldn't be found guilty of anything else. I am quite certain this is a common story through the eastern block under communism since i have discovered other sites that reported the same thing in Poland and other countries.
I assume the reason why communism failed to destroy religious attendance in whole is because of 2 reasons:
a) the forbidden fruit syndrome -> people want what they can't have. Also, this has the undesired consequence that people miss out on religious aspects. They receive a shallow image of promise of what religion has to offer Just like Eve didn't know all the consequences of eating the apple, didn't know all aspects of it... it is the same with the religious community in eastern europe. Most belong because they just do, but anything more than that is shallowly developed.
b) the timeframe. 50 years just isn't enough to completely remove something that was present for hundreds of years.
Reminds me of a Croatian friend of mine. His family is very Catholic, and they have such a kind of religiously spiced-up vulgarity too.
Yeah. It is more a cultural thing rather than a religious thing.
That's interesting. And similar to my personal story. I used to be an agnostic for most of my life, until I faced an illness that made me begin a spiritual journey. A while ago, I joined the Baha'i faith (only ca. 5000 of them in Germany) and now feel at home in this faith.
I must confess I don't know much about the baha'i faith. I have heard of it, but never looked deeper into it. It is good that you found a religion that suits you.
Germany is actually not a secular state ... or at least no laizist state. There is a long tradition of cooperation between the state and the major churches, dating back to the Empire, so both are intertwined to some extent: For example, the state collects the church tax for the churches, from the members of the respective church. In public schools, there are religious education classes, but the teachers are trained and sent from the churches, allowed to teach in public schools. Things like that.
I find this the most odd thing in the world. Honestly. We don't have that here and I am quite amazed. The church collects its own taxes (usually once an year) but it does indeed pay no taxes to the state. It also receives money from the state (especially during the election season) because of "generous" politicians. But it is not like the state can come and arrest you or fine you for not paying Church taxes. It is an entirely voluntary action. You also benefits from paying said Church tax. You can have your house sanctified, you receive holy water and many more things.
Is there much anti-Semitism in Romania? If yes, is it more a "Christian brand" à la "the Jews killed Jesus", or the less religious "Elders of Zion" stuff?
I live in a city where there is a Synagogue and a fairly decent jewish community around it. I have no direct contact with them but I never heard of there ever being anti-semitic signs or vandalism because of anti-semitism. We do have a right wing party called "the new right" but they are not that concerned with "the jewish question". They are more concerned with the gypsy problem and some issues in politics. Romanian skinheads over here also don't go about bullying the jews but rather they have a beef to pick with hungarian extremists.
Also, in regards to israel, there is barely any public movement to criticize it or praise it for that matter at grass roots level. Most people just don't give a hoot about it more than it just being a discussion over a beer or so between drunk college grads discussing world problems. It rarely if ever goes beyond mere isolated vocal discontent. Even in the south-east where there lives the largest muslim community there is no display of anti-semitism or anti-israelian sentiment.
I can imagine that out of the two, the Jews killed Jesus brand is more popular though by popular I mean, if you gave a person to choose, he would choose that because it is in the Bible and it makes more sense.
Almost all my friends outside my religious community are atheists. Being an atheist in Berlin is probably about as original as being a Jew in Israel.
