Posted on 02/18/2006 3:01:12 PM PST by NYer
The disturbing truth about Sweden’s moral decay should serve to sober us from our own complacent drunken stupor.
I recently had occasion to discuss religion and politics (dangerous ground, I know) with a Swedish mother of two visiting America. Sonya (not her real name) is a manager at a large investment house in Sweden. Her politics may be described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. In a word, fashionable.
We chatted about the Swedish economy, city life versus country life, and agreed that high taxes were hard on families. So much for the preliminaries.
Then we dove into the issue of homosexual rights. Having found common ground on fiscal matters, Sonya was not prepared for how divergent our views were on “gay” rights. But our takes on Pastor Ake Green’s sermon on homosexuality could not have been farther apart had she been from another planet.
When it became obvious to her that I would not repeat her “same-sex-marriage-is-a-human-right” mantra, she was visibly taken aback.
“Is this a religious thing for you?” she asked, hoping to pigeon hole me into a convenient corner.
I said, “You seem to assume that religion is something we can take out and put away at will, like a broom in a closet. It doesn’t work that way.” I then explained that just as my religion affects everything in life, from homosexual marriage to what I do for fun during the week, so her religion (or lack thereof) affects everything for her, too.
When I probed Sonya’s human rights argument and asked her where those rights came from, she just stared at me, unable to respond. She was speechless, apparently never having considered the question.
She recovered her voice when I asked her to define the rights. She said (somewhat judgmentally), “Everyone has the right not to be judged.” But when she conceded that she judges pedophiles, she stumbled again, and grew indignant. Our conversation ended abruptly only moments later, and I am sad to say our previous good relations were never the same again.
I don’t mean to single Sonya out. I suspect her views are representative of most Swedes, and indeed of many Americans as well.
But there is a lesson to be learned: for all of us who hold strong opinions on these issues, it behooves us to think through the presuppositions we hold before charging into heated discussions about them. Sadly, many of us who defend traditional marriage have not critically considered what we have presupposed.
The truth about Sweden
Before we parted, Sonya gave me a Swedish newspaper. It was half in Swedish and half in English., and I eagerly read it. If you are like me, you have always heard what a laid back, peaceful, utopia Sweden is, with low crime and little stress. It is the poster child of the left, held up as a model of what a live-and-let-live, anything-goes society ought to be. Such is the Swedish media massage.
So I was genuinely surprised to read the truth about Sweden. One article in particular was aimed at readers just like me, who had bought the chamber of commerce line about life in Sweden. The author was Swedish, and his title said much about his reasons for writing: “Quiet No More.” He had turned myth-buster.
Here are some of the startling facts he shared:
• There is more crime in Sweden than in New York City, though they are comparable in population.
• Drug abuse is rampant, with the number of deaths from overdoses having doubled in the past 10 years.
• Sweden has one of the highest incidences of rape in the world.
• Burglaries are so numerous that many citizens have stopped reporting them, because the police are overloaded and cannot undertake to investigate them all anyway.
• Attacks on money transports (like highway robbery) are so frequent that the transporters are threatening to quit, thereby effectively closing ATM’s all over the country.
• Violent outdoor muggings are becoming routine, having increased 15% last year alone.
• In Stockholm, the police recently admitted having lied when they claimed to have neutralized some 130 of the city’s most prominent gangsters; in reality, their sting operation was a bust.
• Swedish courts are plagued with perjurious police officers who routinely lie to support fellow cops in trouble.
Swedish churchs are a sea of grey heads.
Once they die, most of the churches will probably close.
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.
Actually, the state Church doesn't even have many grey heads.
prisoner6
FYI. Both lists?
Thanks for posting.
I had a very similar discussion with a French girl. In the end, when she had no logical means of escaping a contradiction, simply said that the French give little thought to questions of morality or the origins of rights. It would be silly to do such, apparently.
But when she conceded that she judges pedophiles, she stumbled again, and grew indignant. Our conversation ended abruptly only moments later, and I am sad to say our previous good relations were never the same again.
Hopefully the author's friend opened her mind (funny how liberals claim to be exclusively open-minded) a little bit, but based on the reactions (the same type I get with liberal 'friends' during discussions such as this) of the friend, I seriously doubt it.
Ping for a still ostensibly Lutheran--but LINO--country.
Actually, the state Church doesn't even have many grey heads.
Makes sense. An apostate europe will usher in the muslim mahdi (anti-christ to Christians).
I happen to think that there are many people who are born gay. Let's call them "authentically gay". I also happen to think that the line in the Bible that says "a man shall not lie with another man" is addressed to heterosexuals, and G-d is saying "it's okay for THEM to do that, but don't YOU go mimicking their behavior.
There are lots of examples of people who aren't authentically gay finding themselves in situations where they engage in gay sex, such as criminals in prisons, men who were sexually abused by pedophiles during their youth which screwed up their heads, and art school students who think that it's a rite of passage to have a gay fling. All of these examples fall under the heading of sexually deviant behavior along the lines of what took place in Ancient Rome.
I'm against gay marriage not because I want to deny authentically gay people the right to legitimize their relationships. I'm against gay marriage because laws are written in very general terms. So if gay marriage is legalized, the law won't make any reference to being gay or straight. So we'll just have a situation where our government makes no distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality, in terms of one being considered normal and the other abnormal.
So our government will basically be telling people "don't assume that a hetero marriage is right for you and that a homo marriage is wrong for you, so keep your mind open to going either way". Such a society is inviting people who aren't authentically gay to engage in "sexual experimentation", which is another term for sexually deviant behavior.
Is it supposed to say massage in the title?
as you might expect, there was a lot of sex on the channels (NOT cable, these were the regular TV channels!!!).
so, that's what you would expect on sweden you might say? well,*every single one* of the sex programs was gay or lesbian, or sado-masochist, or violent or something. there were *NO* depictions i could tell of normal heterosexual sex.
my lasting impression of sweden is one of degeneracy... i really feel sorry for the swedes.
The source of the statistics, as the author pointed out in the article, was a report by a Swedish journalist. I doubt he confused his homeland with Mexico.
Maliginant Narcissism kills.
Spot on. America is just a step or two behind. Sadly, it is evident even in many of the churches that *ought* to be truth and light.
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