Report from Norway.

Norway is a land of stunningly beautiful mountains and fjords, progressive politics, and gracious, generous people. With living standards similar to those in the United States and a population about the size of Maryland's (a little over four million), Norway devotes ten times as much per capita than the United States in aid to developing countries and is a strong supporter of the United Nations.

The major negative aspect about Norway is its archaic church-state arrangement. Its 1814 constitution states:

   All inhabitants of the realm enjoy the free exercise of religion. The
   religion of the state remains Evangelical-Lutheran. Inhabitants of that
   confession are committed to raising their children in the same.

In practice this means that the Evangelical-Lutheran Church gets government preferment, its clergy are supported from taxes, and the public schools promote the state church, even though church attendance is among the lowest in Europe.

Particularly important in Norway is the confirmation of fourteen-year-old young people every spring. Throughout the country's history, confirmation and the mandatory classes that precede it are vital for finding any sort of decent job or succeeding in one's chosen profession.

Enter the Norwegian Humanist Association (Norsk Human-Etisk Forbund), founded in 1956 by Oslo University biologist Kristian Horn. The association grew rapidly over succeeding decades and now counts about 70,000 people as members--nearly 2 percent of the population. The association receives is proportionate share of the church tax and has become the largest and wealthiest humanist organization in the world. About 20 percent of Norwegians identify themselves as humanists in opinion polls.

Among the Norwegian Humanist Association's goals is an amendment to the state constitution to separate church and state and to guarantee "liberty for all religions and life stances on equal terms." This would entail privatizing the state church, eliminating discrimination against citizens outside the state church, making public schools and kindergartens religiously neutral, and facilitating civil rites-of-passage ceremonies.

A major contribution of the association is sponsorship of civil confirmation (Borgerlig Konfirmasjon) and its accompanying class. In 2001 nearly 9,000 fourteen year olds (about 16 percent of their age cohort) had the civil confirmation--900 in Oslo alone.

On May 6, 2001, following a meeting of the General Assembly of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, I had the privilege of attending the fifty-year jubilee civil confirmation in the magnificent Oslo city hall. In addition to the seventy confirmands, there were an estimated 600 relatives and guests, including members of the IHEU General Assembly and Executive Committee. A very special guest was Her Royal Highness, Princess Maarta Louise, whose appearance provoked indignation from elements of Norway's religious right (under Norwegian law, members of the royal family are to belong to the state church). The ceremony was televised.

Music for the hour and a half ceremony was provided by the Christiania Brass Ensemble and the Humanist Chorus, both of which were superb. The principal speaker was Levi Fragell, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and former secretary general of the Norwegian Humanist Association, who began his address:

   In January of this year, fifteen-year-old Benjamin Hermanson from Holmlia
   in Oslo was murdered by racists and neo-Nazis. He died because of the color
   of his skin. We remember him here today because he has become the symbol
   for one of the fundamental causes uniting humanists in Norway in this
   fledgling millennium--the fight to put an end to racism. And we remember
   him because he was confirmed here in the civil confirmation ceremony in
   Oslo City Hall just a year ago, sitting dressed in his finest where you are
   sitting now....

Fragell reminded the audience that confirmation was required by law in Norway until 1911 and explained that

   Civil confirmation was introduced to provide a choice for young people who
   sought to preserve the best of a long-standing tradition but who didn't
   feel it was right to take part in a religious rite. Tradition is also
   important to humanists. Traditions bind us together with the people we
   love--as well as those for whom we have no love. The latter is, in fact,
   one of the most important functions of traditions.

However, as Fragell noted:

   Traditions also pose a challenge to the individual's right to be him- or
   herself. Sometimes, our need for personal freedom comes into conflict with
   the beliefs and customs passed down through our families for
   generations.... The right to be one's self must apply to everyone, whether
   they live in a cabin or palace. Just as the obligation not to harm or
   exploit others must apply across the board. We do not want an inflated,
   unmonitored, elitist morality for an insulated upper class and a popular
   morality for the rest of us. A double standard is hardly twice as
   constructive.

The ceremony ended with a spirited singing in Norwegian of the old German freethinker song "Die Gedanken sind frei" ("My Thoughts Are Free").

On the long flight to the United States from Oslo (whose airport is graced with a whimsical steel sculpture of a man launching a paper airplane), I looked back upon days of discussion with humanists from Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Peru, Belgium, France, Australia, the United States, and elsewhere who share a common interest in freedom of thought and religion, human rights, and peace. And participation in the humanist-sponsored forum on "Freedom of Religion and Belief" by an Italian Catholic expert on church-state issues and a Norwegian Lutheran minister served to remind me that a great many outside the humanist orbit share the humanist concern for and dedication to church-state separation.

In the era of Bush II, our court-appointed acting president, cooperation among U.S. citizens of all religions and life stances is essential if religious liberty and church-state separation are to survive.

Edd Doerr is the president of the American Humanist Association and executive director of Americans for Religious Liberty.