Sweden

Sweden is a socialistic country in Scandinavia. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city. Sweden has got 9 million inhabitants. With an area of 450,000 square kilometers Sweden is the third largest country in Western Europe.

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. The prime minister of Sweden is 41 year old Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderates. The Swedish parliament has 349 seats.

80 % of the inhabitants belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden named The Swedish Church (Svenska kyrkan in swedish). This church are very different to other churches because it has decided to marry homosexuals. This church are not a conservative church and does not protest against abortions, divorces, or anything else. About 5% of the Swedish population belongs to "real" christian churches (conservative churches) and a majority of the population are atheists.

Sweden got 18 weeks of free abortion and 4 weeks when the women need to have a special permission to be allowed to have an abortion. Right now the Swedish politicians are discussing if foreign womens should be allowed to have an (late) abortion in Sweden, and much suggests that the parliament will vote in favour for that proposition.

Sweden was a Christian country until the 1960's, when the government decided to reduce the school education about christianity. And when Sweden got free abortions in 1975, it was a definitely a fact that Sweden was out of Christian ethics.

Sweden has got the worlds highest taxes and probably the worlds strongest trade unions. Even if sweden now got a new government instead of the old, socialistic, one, it's still a socialistic country and will be for a long time. Fredrik Reinfeldt says that he is not going to destroy the Swedish model - in fact he says he likes that model - he only wants to do some small changes. And despite that one of the parties in the government alliance is named "The Christian democrats", no decisions have been made to make christianity stronger in Sweden.

there is, however, a few signs of light. a few years ago a Swedish baptist priest åke green was found not guilty of hate speech when preaching the bibles words on homosexuality. and - strange enough - the struggle for religious freedom by some radical Muslim groups has lead to an awakening in the Christian society..

still, all Christians should pray for a revival in this country.

some notable swedes

• alfred nobel, instigator of the Nobel Prize
• greta garbo, actress

References

http://www.sweden.se http://www.svenskakyrkan.se