Når fårene forlader flokken. En religionssociologisk analyse af udmeldelser fra folkekirken

ENGLISH SUMMARY: Membership of the Danish National Church has declined steadily but has not until now been the subject of sociological analysis. Using data from governmental databases housed at Statistics Denmark the article analyze individuals who disaffiliated from the Danish National Church from 2003 to 2007. Secularization theory is used as the starting point for the analysis. Individuals who disaffiliated were generally younger, more affluent, more educated, more urbanized and more often living with non-members than the rest of the population. Age differences between the disaffiliated and the rest of the population suggested that disaffiliation was the result of a life-cycle effect rather than a generational effect. It was also shown that non-members tended not to baptize their children while members did. Therefore it must be concluded that the declining membership of the Danish National Church is the result of a general societal development.DANSK RESUME: Artiklen analyserer ved hjælp af registerdata fra Danmarks Statistik individer som har meldt sig ud af folkekirken i perioden 2003 til 2007. Med udgangspunkt i sekulariseringsteori må det forventes, at de udmeldte var yngre, mere velhavende, højere uddannede og mere urbaniserede end resten af befolkningen. Analysen af data bekræfter forventningen med visse forbehold. De udmeldte var mere velhavende, højere uddannede og mere urbaniserede end resten af befolkningen. De var også generelt yngre; men de udmeldtes aldersprofil antyder, at udmeldelse var et livscyklus fænomen og ikke et generationsfænomen som teorien forventede. Det kunne også konstateres, at medlemskab af folkekirken og mangel på samme videreførtes fra forældre til børn. Resultaterne antyder, at folkekirkens dalende medlemstal er resultatet af en generel samfundsudvikling

Kristendom og tolerance i Danmark

Peter Lüchau: Christianity and tolerance in Denmark During the past two decades, Danish politicians have formed a consensus that refugees/immigrants are synonymous with Muslims. Some politicians have used this consensus to argue that Denmark is a Christian nation excluding the possibility of Muslims becoming Danes because of their religion. If these political claims have taken root in the general public, there should be a negative correlation between being Christian and tolerance towards immigrants. This article analyses the Danish data from the European Value Survey from 1999 with particular reference to several measures for Christianity and ethnic tolerance. There is a negative correlation between individual Christian faith and tolerance towards immigrants at the national level. When subjected to a multivariate analysis, however, this correlation disappears, because people with a lower level of education tend to be materialists, tend to be rightwing, and tend to hold a Christian faith. The lack of correlation between Christian faith and tolerance towards immigrants in a religiously homogenous country with a strong state sponsored national church is best explained by the special characteristics of the Nordic “civic religious“ model that neutralises the ability of any one group to seize national and religious symbols in the minds of the general public

Folkekirken i Tal 2011

Folkekirken mister medlemmer men det sker langsommere, end de officielle tal kunne lede en til at tro. Medlemsfaldet har forbavsende nok ikke så meget med Folkekirken at gøre men er snarere styret af faktorer udenfor Folkekirkens kontrol. Der er store udsving i medlemstabet fra år til år hvilket gør det meget vanskeligt at forudsige Folkekirkens situation selv indenfor en begrænset tidsramme som fx 10 år. Siden 2007 har Danmarks Statistik hvert år publiceret en mere detaljeret folkekirkestatistik end tidligere, men for at forstå den må man bruge den eksisterende forskning til at komme bag tallene

Grænser for religion

Where and in what context Danes accept religion is dependent upon their attitudes toward the boundaries of religion. Dependent upon the theoretical point of departure, the boundary may be expected to be situated between religion in the public and the private sphere (secularization theory) or between religious exercise of authority and religious self-expression (individualization theory). To determine which theory may best explain the Danes' view concerning the acceptable place of religion in Denmark, data from the International Social Survey Programme 2008 ‒ Religion III questionnaire are utilised. The analysis shows that the boundary of religion is situated at the point of religious exercise of authority, and thus individualization theory best explains the limits of religion in Denmark. Furthermore, it can be shown that this boundary is part of the existing value-based cleavages among the Danes.Hvor og i hvilken sammenhæng danskerne accepterer religion, afgøres bl.a. af deres holdning til, hvor grænsen går for religion i samfundet. Alt efter teoretisk udgangspunkt forventes grænsen at gå mellem religion i det offentlige og det private rum (sekulariseringsteori) eller mellem religiøs autoritetsudøvelse og religiøs selvudfoldelse (individualiseringsteori). Til at afgøre hvilket teoretisk udgangspunkt som bedst forklarer danskernes syn på religions rette plads i Danmark, benyttes data fra International Social Survey Programme 2008 ‒ Religion III spørgeskemaundersøgelsen. Det viser sig, at grænsen for hvor danskerne vil acceptere religion går ved religiøs autoritetsudøvelse, og dermed at individualiseringsteori bedst forklarer grænsen for religion i Danmark. Det kan ydermere vises, at denne grænse er en del af de eksisterende værdimæssige kløfter blandt danskern