The Evangelical-Lutheran church in Norway is funded by the national budget, due to the state-church system. A system of compensation to the religious minorities is alleviating much, but not all, of this partiality. Many religious institutions also receive other forms of government funding.

The state-church system in Norway has a long historical tradition, and it has not been possible to achieve separation of the church from the state so far. Some changes will be implemented in 2014, but even if state and church take a step away from each other, a complete separation is still far away.

Historic background

The Constitution of 1814 is, to a large extent, still with us today. Its first clause states that Norway is an independent nation and a hereditary kingdom. The second clause gives the church its privileged position. Quote: “The Evangelical Lutheran religion remains the official religion of the state. Citizens that belong to it are obliged to educate their children in the same. Jesuits and Monastic orders must not be tolerated. Jews are still excluded from admittance to the Kingdom.” Some politicians wanted another solution, but they did not want to upset the Swedish king more than necessary. Ever since, the main part of the church’s costs has been financed by the national budget. In the beginning, there was a special church tax, but later the church became just an ordinary item in the budget of the Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs.

In 1845 a law was passed to regulate Christian societies outside the state church, called the Non-conformist law. Nevertheless, all civil servants had to be members of the state church, and even today half of the members of the cabinet have to be church members. The ban on Jews was lifted in 1851, and Monastic orders were allowed from 1897. Norway accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, but when it was supposed to ratify the European Convention a few years later, the government had to make a reservation for paragraph 9 on freedom of religion, because the ban on Jesuits was still in place. It was finally removed in 1956, and in 1964 the principle of freedom of religion was finally incorporated in the Constitution. Then, in 1969, the Religious Societies Law was passed to replace the Non-conformist law. This applied to all religious groups, and gave them the right to register as a society, to hold meetings, to perform legal marriage and to receive funding from the government. This funding was called a “refund of the church tax” paid by the congregation members, and was supposed to be the same amount per member as received by the state church.

Over the years, some attempts have been made to change the Constitution so that the state church system can be abolished and the church is made to finance its own activities. None of these attempts have gained much support, so the Norwegian Humanist Association, which was founded in 1956, in the 1970’s tried to get the same financial support for its members. First they tried to change the Religious Societies law to also include non-religious life-stance societies, but did not succeed. If the Humanist group had called itself a religious society it would have been included, but the Humanists insisted on not being labeled as religious. Based on the international human rights treaties it was not difficult to argue for equal treatment of non-religious convictions, but the politicians were reluctant to give the Humanists the same rights as religious groups. Therefore a separate law was made in 1981 that gave secular life stance groups (which at the time was only the Humanists) the same financial support as the religious groups.

Many Humanists in Norway would prefer our society to be truly secular, where religions and other life stances are accepted, but do not affect society much, and are not part of the government’s activities. But this will not be politically possible for many years to come. Meanwhile, the Humanists argue for equal rights of all citizens, whether they are Humanists, Christian or Muslim. This leads us to a multicultural society, where religions and life stances are accepted, affect the society to a certain degree, and are supported by the government – with equal treatment as the guiding principle. 

Calculation of the funding

The size of the funds for the religious groups and life-stance societies is calculated to be the same amount as the state-church gets per member. And since the state-church gets funds from both the state and the local communities, the same principle is applied to community funding as well. So, in general terms, there seems to be equal treatment by the government of all citizens regardless of religion and belief. However, as you will see from the following paragraphs, there is a long list of exceptions to this general rule.

Several church related items on the Ministry’s budget are not included in the calculations, as they are regarded as relevant for all citizens regardless of faith or belief. Some of these exceptions were the Norwegian Church Abroad and the Norwegian School of Theology (!).

Additionally, several other Ministries also spend money on religious activities, which are not included in the calculation. This includes, for instance, official posts for priests in the army, hospitals, prisons, airports, police etc.

In addition to the state and community levels, there is a third, intermediate level of administration in Norway. In this level there is no compensation for government financing of church activities, on the assumption that there is no such financing at that level. But of course there is, - within the sectors of health, culture, preservation of buildings and cultural monuments and regional business development.

A further problem is that there is no correct register of members in the state church. Such a register was started in 1993, but many people are still registered against their will or their knowledge, so the register clearly contains more people than it should. Estimates vary from a few thousand to several hundred thousand members. Children under 15 years old are registered as “belonging to” the church if at least one of the parents is a member of the state church, regardless of whether the child is baptized or not.    

Other forms of funding

Norwayhas a good public school system, but the law opens up for private schools based on alternative pedagogy or religious conviction. Such private schools receive per pupil government funding, almost on par with public schools. These schools have to follow the standard curriculum and exams, but are free to organise the school day according to their preferences. The government control of such schools is sporadic.

Most health care in Norway is public, and all citizens are covered by government financing of health care through taxes. In the last 20 years, some parts of the health care services have been outsourced to private businesses, working for and being paid by the government. Such institutions are mostly of two kinds, private commercial companies and institutions owned by religious groups and churches. There is little or no control over religious practices in these institutions.

There are several sources of public funding of youth group activities, and religious groups can apply for such funding in addition to the funding they receive as a church or religious group. Such funding is given both for the general functioning of the youth group as well as for specific activities.

The culture sector is also an area for religious groups to obtain financial support for their activities. Music groups, choirs, performances, festivals and Christmas concerts, properly presented, can be objects of government funding through various agencies. Even a special education for church musicians is funded from the national budget.

Norwayis spending a lot of money on international aid and development work. This is also an area where religious groups, as well as the state church, are eager to contribute. A large portion of the state funds is channeled via some of these religious groups. The condition that the aid work should not be combined with proselytizing is seldom, if ever, imposed.

Conclusion

A large number of religious groups and institutions are partly financed, directly or indirectly, by the government. The state church system is making it difficult to separate religious activities from government responsibilities.

As a wealthy society, it is not unreasonable for the government of Norway to financially support organised activity, but the historically strong position of the church has made it and other religious groups major players in organising much of that activity.  

This will probably change over time, as the relationship between state and church changes. The Humanists will do their utmost to speed up that process.

--Roar Johnsen

Roar Johnsen is IHEU Vice-President and former President of the Norwegian Humanist Association.