Religion and politics

I have been surprised by a lot of things about Icelandic religious beliefs. Not the hidden people or that some people have second sight, I have heard about that stuff long enough that it just seems right and proper here, a part of what makes Iceland beautiful.

But recently I have been surprised by discussions of the role of religion in politics. For instance, I was surprised to discover that one of my favorite bloggers is a staunch advocate for the idea that people demand to have their names removed from the Icelandic state church. I do not see why that institution, which serves the population in many, many ways, should be denied tax dollars. It is like saying one's taxes should only go to elementary schools if one has a child between the ages of 6 and 13. Not even to mention how many tax dollars go to other cultural institutions that even fewer members of the society take advantage of.

I also read that there is some interest in forming a new political group, one which is expressly religious. Coming from the United States, this sends all sorts of red flags up for me, since of course the conservative evangelical movement in the Republican party slowly managed to take over the entire platform until someone like George Bush became the only acceptable candidate for the party. However, in Iceland, where there is a multiple party system, I do not understand why this would be such a big problem. People who believe religion has a role in influencing government policy can vote for that party, those that do not will not. It is not like in a two party system, where a lot of people (my Dad included) were rather bullied into supporting the religious right because they did not want to support the Democrats. No one should be backed into supporting religion, or for that matter, not supporting religion.

Religion only works if it is motivated by a willingness to act on the positive, and thus using negative arguments around it or about it are irrelevant.