The Swedish Media Massage (The disturbing truth about Sweden’s moral decay)

American Family Association ^ | February 17, 2006

[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.

I found this data remarkable. While I do not want to place undue reliance on a single newspaper article, it is entirely consistent with a Christian worldview that a nation so firmly committed to the ways of the world would eventually find itself wallowing in crime.

Augustine of Hippo put it this way: “He who sees the truth and flees has weakened the acuteness of his mind through the habit of carnal shadows.” That is, to the extent we turn from truth, away from God, we weaken our ability to discern and become accustomed to carnality, or wickedness.

Of course, it is as true for us in America as for those in Sweden. We have embraced our sin, celebrated our “diversity,” and indulged our depravity. And now, having sown, we must reap. Will we awaken from our stupor? Can we turn from the shadows and once again gaze upon the glory of Truth?

America is only a step behind Sweden and the whole of post-Christian Europe. Absent an abrupt change in our spiritual direction, we are in for dark days ahead. Those who have light, however dim, must lead the way.

[AdrianR]

Google reveals a lot of sources saying that property crime in Sweden is higher than in US (and has been higher for last 20 years). I can't find anything on violent crime, though.

[Joe Republc]

Two comments:

- A lot, if not most, of my friends and acquaintence who are in favor of normalizing gay relationships into marriage just go nuts when you try to argue the subject from any kind of logical viewpoint, esp. if you try to interject morality. Apparently, most of them just think they're 'enlightened' enough not to have ours laws support what they consider the purely religious position regarding traditional marriage.

- I've never heard of Sweden having this kind of crime problem, and have always read just the opposite. I'm open to learn something different, but I'd really like to see other sources besides this.

Thanks,
-- Joe

[El Cid]

I happen to think that there are many people who are born gay.

I agree that we are all born 'diseased' in one degree or another. This began when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden and the sting of sin is passed onto all of their descendants (all of mankind). Some have a predilection towards homosexuality, others towards alcoholism, others towards drug abuse, child abuse, adultery, rape, etc... The fact that these tendencies exist do not make them right. They are to be overcome, and they can be overcome through Christ Jesus. We aren't doing anyone good by telling them that their slide into depravity is 'ok' - no matter what their disease. We don't tell the heroin addict that it is 'ok' to shoot up, we don't tell the child molester that his actions are 'ok', and we don't do any favor to the homosexual by telling him that his actions are 'ok'.
Love them - yes; but lie to them - no.

[VOA]

Here's some tidbits from listening to shows to www.krla870.com (KRLA in Los Angeles).
Michael Medved read some stats from document prepared by Swedish economists that
revealed that their socialist state is headed down the road to financial challenges.
IIRC, there was some sort of projection that in the not-distant future, the
average wage/worth in the USA would exceed that of Sweden, plus other factors
were going to go against Sweden.

And Dennis Prager had a (unbelievably) conservative economics professor
who is actually tenured at a Swedish university. He also painted a
fairly gloomy economic picture for Sweden. The fellow had a really thick accent...
because he came to Sweden from South America (Peru?) and he saw that the
Swedes were making a lot of the same mistakes that his home country did 30-40 years ago.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Funny you should write this.....Having lived in Sweden for three years then living there 50% for the last 2 1/2, I know you hit the nail on the head about the TV. One channel is Swedish Nickelodeon from 6 am to 6 pm then Nature takes over until midnight then from midnight to 6 am is Playboy. God forbid my 3 year old gets up a little early.

Not to mention the HARD CORE porrfilmer on Canal Blu, Canal Gul and Canal Plus.

And that is just a few of the channals. The others have their own sex shows as well.

Very interesting TV!!!

[VOA]

I can't confirm/deny the author's claim on Sweden's crime rates.
But I did see in The Los Angeles Times that Sweden (especially Maalmo area?)
is in an economic/crime mess because now that USA has cleared out the Taliban...
cheap, good quality heroin is again flowing from the poppy fields of
Afghanistan to veins in Sweden (yeah, it IS Bush's fault!).
And the crime/rape wave of the Muslim imports are bad enough that we even
get threads (with documentary articles) here from time to time.

I don't know the current stats, but I do remember that maybe 30 years ago,
Sweden did lead the world in what some call "the crime against self" (suicide).
Cradle-to-grave security apparently ain't the best thing for the human psyche.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Rape is middling high by European standards, and quite high for the developed world:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_rap_vic

OTOH, Swedes feel the safest of any country in Europe walking a street at night:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_per_of_saf_wal_in_dar

perhaps it's the case that violent crime is concentrated geographically or in some other way?

One thing that surprised me looking at those stats: in some respects Sweden may be a rather corrupt society by European standards:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_bri_pay_ind

[Disambiguator]

What are the gun laws like in Sweden? I'm sure that would have some bearing on the crime rate and types of crimes committed.

[kitkat]

BUMP

[my4kidsdad]

for later reading...

[kitkat]

Your post #23 is excellent.

[NYer]

This was a GREAT article

My mother used to work for SAS in their NY offices and, as a young child (many millenia ago), we traveled to Denmark and Sweden. I have retained many beautiful memories from those trips.

In the early 80's, PBS ran a documentary on socialized medicine in Sweden. They explained that medicine had become very specialized and showed the waiting room at one hospital. On the wall were identical boxes each one labeled with a specific body part. In order to be treated, the patient essentially had to pre-diagnose their malady, by body part, pull a slip and wait their turn. The dilemna however was in treating maladies that crossed several areas of the human body.

The same documentary also showcased the socialized work environment where, once hired, an employer could not fire an employee. It didn't matter whether or not you showed up for work after hire; they couldn't fire you. Meanwhile, Swedish youth who had graduated from college were turning to alcohol because they couldn't find work. All the positions were already taken.

Granted, it's been a long time since this documentary aired but I would be curious as to the veracity of these images they projected. Was there any truth to this?

[driftless]

There is much to be said to the "live and let live approach to life" creed. But when all the liberal do-your-own -thing people say that all morality is personal or that there is no such thing as morality, they are lying through their teeth. What they really mean is that they have rejected traditional morality and put in place a hodgepodge of old hippie-style-if-it-feels-good-do-it type of morality. It is the morality of no personal discipline and the idea that what is pleasurable is automatically right.

They use the argument of "how is the action of someone thousands of miles away harming you?" Using that logic, a pedophile in California raping and killing a child thousand miles away from where I live is none of my concern. So then what's next for these a liberal morality types? Public bestiality ?

[driftless]

"impression of Sweden"

I thought something had really gone bad in Sweden when a few years ago I saw a photo in a foreign newspaper of some Swedish parents presenting their teenage daughter and her boyfriend flowers in bed after the kids had just slept together for the first time. There was the accompanying story about how great the whole thing was. I just felt sad for the Swedes.

[muir_redwoods]

One of the effects of US military hegemony in the world has been to let our allies lose their edge and slip into an unmanly torpor. They no longer have to fear the enemy so they indulge their whims and fantasies knowing that somewhere the adults are in charge looking after them.

[NYer]

the French give little thought to questions of morality or the origins of rights. It would be silly to do such, apparently.

This wasn't always the case in France. Some of the greatest saints in the Catholic Church emerged from this country.

I used to work for Air France in their North American HQ and traveled frequently to France on business. I got to know the French. Like their european neighbors, the French have slipped into the same religious decay. This was well expressed by (former Cardinal) Ratzinger in his Pro Eligendo homily, delivered to the Cardinals assembled at the Conclave to elect the next pope.

* * * * *

"How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true. "

FULL TEXT

* * * * *

In their efforts to educate their children, they have limited the number of births and turned over 'menial jobs' to Muslim immigrants. Throughout Europe, the natives are shrinking in numbers while their Muslim immigrants are reproducing like rabbits. Run the numbers; it's only a matter of time before we see the total demise of western Europe and its culture.

[NYer]

yes

[the anti-liberal]

"Run the numbers; it's only a matter of time before we see the total demise of western Europe and its culture."

Run the numbers; the same will happen here in the US.

[NYer]

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.

And what is the scriptural basis for your belief? Can you cite it?

[NYer]

A lot, if not most, of my friends and acquaintence who are in favor of normalizing gay relationships into marriage just go nuts when you try to argue the subject from any kind of logical viewpoint, esp. if you try to interject morality. Apparently, most of them just think they're 'enlightened' enough not to have ours laws support what they consider the purely religious position regarding traditional marriage.

Seems you have just proven the author's arguments that the US is slipping in this direction. Canada has already caved.