Posted on 06/29/2007 2:27:12 PM PDT by Bushwacker777
"The Minister for Social Affairs angered many of his own party members earlier this year with a decision to allow foreign women to come to Sweden for abortions.
Hägglund has also rejected suggestions by party colleagues that the upper limit for abortions without special permission should be reduced from 18 weeks to 12 weeks.
"The Christian Democrats want to keep the 18-week limit for abortions. The outcome was clear and I hadn't expected anything else.
"
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.se ...
But, hey, 18 weeks is only just a blob of tissue dangerous to the woman's health and waistline.
Yeah, and with social attitudes like this it’s no wonder Swedes are a dying species.
The name of the party, Christian Democrats, really does not mean “Christian” in the sense we would understand in America. It’s essentially just another political party, probably one having historical Christian roots, but no longer strictly “gospel” or Jesus oriented, and certainly not with heavy (if any) church associations. Now, it’s just a name. Christianity in Europe as almost an oxymoron.
Party names just don’t have precise, literal meanings. A European “Democrat” party would not at all resemble what our Democratic Party. The same runs true for party names like Socialist or others.
In the same way, the Republican party in the U.S. is certainly for Democratic values like free elections, free speech, rights of the people. It would be inaccurate and unfair to say Republicans are opposed to Democratic values in that sense of the world.
It’s important we Westerners understand that a lot of the words we use mean one thing in America and another thing in Europe (and perhaps a third, fourth and fifth thing in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand?).
For instance, some years ago I saw a clip (featured in a TV program) taken from an educational film from WWII made for US soldiers on their way to the UK. Among other things, this educational film advised US soldiers not to use expressions like “I look like a bum!” when, for instance, looking into a mirror while shaving. In BE, this would translate into “I look like a bottom (of a person)!”.
In everyday Swedish, a “Christian” could mean someone that is baptized, belongs to the Swedish Church although simultaneously being an atheist or into Zen Buddhism because it’s ‘kinda cool’ and ‘very spiritual’ (I’m not an enemy of Zen Buddhism by the way). However, if an ethnic Swede asks another ethnic Swede a question like “Are you a Christian?”, it’s about whether or not the latter person believes in Jesus Christ.
In the case of the Christian Democrats/Kristdemokraterna, I’d say at least 90% of them believe in Jesus Christ, perhaps more. Concerning their voters, I would guess something like 50-70% do so. But these are just my personal estimations.
Two links about the Christian Democrats and their opinions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democrats_%28Sweden%29
http://www.kristdemokraterna.se/otherlanguages/English.aspx
Regards.
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