Gerard Willemsens Blogg

Back after holidays

2008-08-20T19:31:00.002+02:00

So here I am, back after the holidays. Summer is over in Kiruna, there is chill in the air and the first autumn colours are coming. We made a hike of 5 days in the mountains the last few days. Along Giebnegaisi (Kebnekaise), the highest mountain of Sweden (still - the ice summit has been melting from 2121 meters in the eighties to 2101 last year. Another 12 meters and it is no longer the highest). On we went through Siellavaggi to Singi. A walk through a roadless land and through a beautiful landscape.

But now I am back at work. Starting a new job, as Regional Secretary for Asia at the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, still the other half of my time working as pastor for the Sámi in that same church.
Now I sit in a warm and summer-like Stockholm, quite a change after the last few days in the mountains!

Don't show you are a Christian!

2008-07-17T09:54:00.003+02:00

That is the advice of the Swedish special court for immigration, when they want to send back a Christian couple to Iran, according to Dagen . According to the newspaper, the Court (and apparently the Immigration Service itself, as they want to sent the couple back) thinks it is no big problem being a Christian in Iran, as long as you hold a low profile. They seem to know little about Christianity, as Christ calls upon his followers not to keep a low profile. The Great Commission and the central place that has in Christian faith seems to be unknown for them. How can one be a Christian and not talk about what changed ones life with friends, relatives, collegues, not gather in places to pray and worship?

There is no freedom for Christians in Iran. I thought everybody knew that. If Sweden thinks freedom of religion is important (as politicians say all the time) it seems clear to me that people like this couple should be granted to stay. While Sweden as a nation should do all that is possible to support democracy in countries like Iran.

Sending back people who fled because of their Christian faith to a country where they can be sentenced to death for their conversion from Islam to Christianity could be seen as helping third part to persecute people for their faith. Let us hope that Sweden will be more decent than so.

Bugging a pastor

2008-07-15T11:10:00.002+02:00

Swedish Parliament has recently passed a very controversial law giving FRA (National Defensce Radio Establishment) more possibilities to bug telephone and internet traffic passing the Swedish border. The law is controversial indeed.
Today, Dagen reports that already in the 90-ies FRA has bugged the leader of the Word of Life Church in Uppsala, Ulf Ekman, because of his missionary contacts with Russia. Apparently, FRA does not need a law at all, they seemed to think they can do whatever they like to.
Stefan Swärd, leader for another church, EFK, has put questions to FRA boss Ingvar Åkesson. Relevant questions. Why was this bugging done? Who ordered it? Have more christian leaders/organisations being bugged? What does the new law mean for the future concerning religious institutions? We wait for some good answers, if they exist.

In Sweden there is freedom of religion guaranteed. There are also laws protecting personal integrity and guaranteeing pastors and priests the right to be silent about things they have heard in confidence. How then can it be possible that FRA is bugging a pastor? Apparently they have been violating the constitution. What does this mean for missionary organisations in Sweden? Can we speak freely on the phone with our partners, or do we have to be more careful - not because of some other regimes, condemned by democratic Sweden, but because of our own governmental organisations?

Freedom of religion and protection of personal integrity are cornerstones of our society. I would hope they will remain so in future. FRA needs to be controlled in a better way. Apparently.

Extinct colours

2008-07-10T11:43:00.002+02:00

A problem for those reconstructing a world long gone (paleontologists, trying to reconstruct extinct life forms) is the fact that their reconstructed world tends to be in black an white. Sure there are colour reconstructions - many, in fact. But colours are sophisticated guesses inthe best case, based on the world of today. We can imagine the colour of an extinct seabird, perhaps, to be greyish and white beneath. That is functional and many sea birds ghave that today. But the colour of a dinosaur or a trilobite is less easy to guess. And who would have guesses the colour pattern of a malayan tapir or an okapi or giraffa, only having bones at hand?

It is very interesting therefore that scientists have been able to show that certain pigments fossilize. Paleontologists at Yale have been able to analyse pigmentation in a 100 million year old bird feather (Lower Cretaceous, Brasil). They could see the striped pattern of the fossil woodpecker, caused by the pigment melanine. Similar patterns were found on an Eocene bird from Denmark. (see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708182536.htm). This opens possibilities for looking for melanine in more fossils.
Perhaps feathered dinosaurs and even other animals long extinct will cet colours and patterns. New techniques give a thrilling insight in lost worlds.

Missing link between Christianity and Judaism?

2008-07-08T13:46:00.002+02:00

Under this title the newspaper Dagen reports on Israel Knohls (prof of Biblical Stdies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem) presentations concerning Gazon Gavriel, a recently discovered Hebrew text on stone from shortly before the birth of Christ. Dagens source is an article in New York Times. The text, found near the Dead Sea, is an apocalyptic text ascribed to the angel Gabriel. According to Knohl, the text confirms his theory that the thinking of a suffering and slain Messiah, raised again from the death, was already found in Judaism before Christ became active as a teacher. The text reads at a point: “In three days you shall live (an idiom for come to life again), I, Gabriel, command you.”, adressing a "Prince of Princes". The new thing in Knohls interpretation is the word live (hayeh), which is spelled in an unusual way, but in a way occurring just in this period of time. The original publishers could not read this particular word.

Knohl thinks the text in this case may be about a certain Simon, killed by Herods army, an interpreteation apparently challenged by others. But that is not the important point. The important point for him is, that the concept of a slain an resurrected messiah was not unknown at Christs time. According to him and others, this should shake our basic view of Christianity, and, as Daniel Boyarin from Berkeley says in the articles, see a threat to the uniqueness of Christianity, others may have another view.

I find the stone very interesting a look forward to more discussions about it. By the way, one may wish to read Knohls own article in Haaretz which came already in April (apparently missed by both Dagen and NY Times) which is far more elaborate than the other two articles. If Knohl is right and the concept of a slain messiah was already more or less common in (parts of) Judaism I see no problem for Christians. No threat. Contrary, many theologians recognize the concept of a suffering messiah in Old Testament texts, the most wellknown being Isaiah 53 (Yes I know there are other interpretations as well). Many texts are interpreted as prophetic texts pointing to Christ. Of course, one can explain the texts in different ways, they may well have more than one interpretation at the same time. But if Christians are right saying that the suffering and death of Christ as well as his resurrection are foresaid in the Old Testament, it is not at all suprising to discover that the concept of the slain messiah was alive within certain parts of Judaism. It would rather be expected.
I cannot see that the discovery would pose a problem for Christianity as a swedish blogger states (http://omreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/jesus-en-i-mngden.html). It rather clarifies a connection between Judaism and Christianity that many of us already knew is there.

Mosquito land

2008-07-04T10:15:00.005+02:00

The last week, warmth has come to Kiruna and Lapland, after much rain. With summer, also the mosquitos have come - as usual. A nuisance, I admit, but we get used to it. It seems to be much worse for visitors. And of course, they are a part of the arctic ecosystem. They are needed as much as any other animals. As someone has said, Kiruna is fantastic - 100 million mosquitos think so, so it must be true.
Nooit meer slapen - Never sleep again - the title of a book by the Dutch author WF Hermans. He describes a visit to Lapland, writes about the mosquitos, the midnight sun and the main character in the book does not like it, to use an understatement. Don't read the book before you have been to Lapland, I tell the Dutch - because after reading it you won't come. And that would be a pity.
Really, the arctic is beautiful in summer. Long days, and the small but beautiful arctic flowers are really exploding. Summer in the mountains is beautiful and I already look forward to a week in Hemavan (flora and geology week, see http://www.smufjallgard.nu/ - you are welcome to join in).

The tetrapod link

2008-06-28T16:17:00.002+02:00

The evolution from fish to tetrapod (four-legged animals, land animals) has always been a subject of debate, not the least in the creationist discussion. The last few years, much has become clearer about the transition from fish to tetrapod (amphibian). Classical Ichthyostega from Greenland, which is a devonian aphibian with a number of fish characteristics, is nevertheless a clear tetrapod. It is no longer however the most fish-like one. Nature reports new findings on Ventastega curiona, found in Latvia. (See Science Daily) The species has been known for some time, but newly described fossils (by among others Per Ahlberg from Upsala) shedsnew light on the animals limbs. This devonian tetrapod can be considered the most fish-like of them all. From the fish side, a very tetrapod like fish Tiktaalik was described from the devonian of Canada in 2006. Thus, the gap between tetrapods and fish is closing as we have more intermediate forms and better understand the development from fish extremities to tetrapod limbs.
Creationists may find that difficult, but I would say that my admiration for the Creators creativity only grows.

An ice free arctic?

2008-06-27T13:05:00.002+02:00

Svenska Dagbladet has an alarming article on the arctic ice sheet. Researchers fear that the North Pole ice may melt away completely this summer. This has never happened before. It may not be so catastrophic in in itself (Since the polar ice is sea ice, melting does not affect sea level. But larger ice free areas do absorb more solar energy and accelerate warming) but it is a symptom of what is happening to our climate. It shows - again - that things are worse than we thought. Not only sea ice melts faster than we could imagine just a few years ago. The same is true for the Greenland land ice as was reported not long ago by Science Daily . The yearly freahwater output from Greenland is increasing faster than thought before. The water masses bound in the Greenland ice are huge. If all the ice were to melt, sea level around the globe would increase more than 6 meters!

Climate change is nothing new. I spent many years studying the history of life on earth and climate has changed all the time. We have had ice ages as well as warmer periods than today. Even during historical times there have been changes. When the Vikings colonized Greenland is was warmer (hence the name) and when centuries later dutch painters painted their famous winter landscapes we were in the so-called Little Ice Age. Climate change is a naturlar thing, which nature survives. But unnatural change goes too fast, really. And the question is, even if nature will survive and life on earth will as well, are we willing to pay the price of much human suffering? When we now are able to do something about it?

I heard Stefan Edman talking about the subject lately. One of the best talks I heard on the subject. He said, the climate problem is a problem of injustice. It is about how most resources are consumed by a little minority. We need to live in balance with our environment and to share the richness of creation. Creation is our home, given to us to stewart - not to exploit.

Bibles for indigenous peoples

2008-06-27T10:47:00.003+02:00

The newspaper Dagen has today an interesting article about the Bible in China (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154957. China, as you may know, prints today more Bibles than any other country (Amity Press has capacity to produce 1 million Bibles a month), but then there is an enormous need with that much people.
Dagen mentions also this: "China has 55 officially recognised minorities. Bibles in their languages has had low priority. Those who want to have permission to translate and publish them, must wait long periods of time when authorities make decisions." I am sure that this is so, but things are moving even there. When I was in Yunnan a few years ago, the province with most minorities (25 of those 55) I did see that many are still without Bible, but also that work was going on in eight languages at that time. I met some translator groups and they are doing a good job. And the Church has a vision for those minorities, educating pastors and translating with the restricted means they have, which I can lack sometimes in the West. (I know that things are not always the same all over this vast country of course). We may have other kinds of hindrances than the Chinese, but fact is, that most European minority languages are without Bible translation today - so do we do so much better than China? Europe has around 220 spoken languages (not counting immigrant languages) according to Wycliffe. Only 48 of them have a whole Bible, another 13 the NT and another number have only small portions. Even in Sweden a complete Bible is lacking for the Sámi languages. North Sámi is going to have one in a few years. But Lule Sámi has only a NT and for South Sámi portions are being translated. So we have still much to do in our own part of the world as well. And how is the situation in North America? Australia?

Back to China. We might be able to help with those minority translations, and we already do. The West has been supporting with finances and in other ways. But, important to see, we might also be able to learn from them. How a church can focus on minority work with rather small means for example. By opening up for the language and the culture. we have to do that more. We can be inspired by others, all around the world. It ismportant to have the Bible in the language of the heart. No matter whether that language is spoken by millions or only by a small community.

Statistics, storches and babies.

2008-06-26T13:49:00.002+02:00

As I wrote statistics is difficult. And a statistical correlation does not mean anything unless well interpreted. Let me take a nice example. When I grew up in the Netherlands, the storch had become an extremely rare bird. There were not many left. The decline of the storch during a number of decades was very clear. The decline of the number of children born per capita was clear as well. I did not calculate, but looking at the graphs a strong statistic correlation could doubtlessly be proved.

But does that mean that there was any factual correlation, or causal relationship between those two declines - the number of births and the number of storches? Doubtlessly there is, would one say who believes in the storch theory of child birth. Others might look for alternative explanations. Is there an indirect relationship? An independent factor, influencing both (such as industrialization)? Or is it a coincidence?
Statistics is a useful tool. But one has to use it wisely.

Are believers stupid?

2008-06-26T12:51:00.003+02:00

According to Dagen (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154898 and http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154899) the danishprofessor Nyborg has concluded that religious people are less intelligent than atheists. His research was done in 137 countries, but is not new. See http://danish.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/05/554043-professor-atheists-are-more-intelligent-than-believers from feb 2007!). But I tend to agree to the english prof Martin, who according to Dagen thinks this is ridiculous.
Satistics is not easy. I would like to see the research methodology, the factual results and the statistical methods. Interpreting statistiscs is difficult. All we who have worked with statistics know that. Thre might be problems there in this case. Statistic correlation is not always the same as factual causality. Many times there can be alternative explanation models. Further, IQ is a difficult thing in itself. I am not sure you can just use the tests in different cultures, the tests have been developed in a western context. I am not sure that the results are totally independent from the testees background and education. There might be a bias there. Could it be that poor and religious countries give a lower average IQ because of other factors than religion? The results for the US - high IQ and high religiosity - talk against Nyborgs conclusions. Dagen writes: "There are several exceptions in the research, among others the US. There the IQ is high, even if the is a high percent of religious people, which the researchers explain through the many europeans have emigrated to the US because of their religion, and after that given their religiosity to coming generations." A nice explanation but I don't buy it. It must have been the more stupid part of the Europeans who emigrated (they were religious), but then it does not fit the results. In that case Americans should be more stupid than Europeans. Which is rubbish.

And then - what does it mean that 1% in the United Arab Emirates doubts the exitence of God, and 64% in Sweden does that? How free does an individual feel to express that kind of doubt in the Emirates compared to Sweden? What does the educational system mean here? Social pressures?
What had Swedes answered in the 19th century? Surely, the percentage of believers would have been much higher. Were Swedes more stupid back then?

As I understand it the researchers have compared the percentage of religiosity in the countries to the avergae IQ. But how is the connection between the two? Are the individuals with lowest IQ the religious ones? Or the other way around maybe? I do not think that it is possible at all to prove a real correlation between the IQ of people and their belief in God. The number of variables is too large, the uncertainties in what we measure too large.

But of course, an alternative explanation would be that I am too stupid to understand. After all, I believe in God.

Är troende dummare?

2008-06-26T12:13:00.002+02:00

Enligt Dagen (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154898) har den danske professor Nyborg kommit fram till att religiösa har lägre IQ än ateister. Forskningen berör 137 länder. Att resultatet är omstritt är självklart. Varför detta kommer i tidningen idag kan man förresten undra, eftersom Nyborgs tolkning inte är så ny (se http://danish.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/05/554043-professor-atheists-are-more-intelligent-than-believers från feb 2007!). Men jag är nog benägen att hålla med den engelska professor Martin, som enligt dagen menar att detta är skrattretande.

Statistik är vanskelig. Det vet alla som kan ämnet. Jag skulle nog vilja se underlaget för forskningen, de faktiska resultaten och sedan hur de har bearbetats statistiskt. Jag förmodar att en god statistiker skulle kunna hitta brister där. Denna typ av resultat är väldigt svåra att bevisa statistiskt, det kan ofta finnas alternativa möjligheter att lägga samband. Sedan är IQ i sig ingen lätt sak. Det är inte säkert att IQ tester ger en rättvisande bild om man tillämpar dem i olika kulturella miljöer. Testerna har utvecklats i en västerländsk kontext. Jag tror inte att de är helt oberoende av testpersonens uppfostran och utbildning. Redan där kan det gå snett. Där kan fattiga, mycket religiösa kulturer ge lägre IQ bara genom testets utformning. Har denna möjlighet beaktats? Att i USA hög IQ och hög procent religiositet går ihop pekar på detta. Dagen skriver: "Det finns dock flera undantag i undersökningen, bland annat exemplet USA. Där är intelligenskvoten hög, trots ett stort procentantal religiösa, något som i undersökningen förklaras med att många européer emigrerat till USA på grund av sin tro, och sedan överfört sin religiositet på kommande generationer." Det är ett roligt påhitt men då får man väl anta att det var den dummare delen av den europeiska befolkningen emigrerade (de var ju religiösa) men då stämmer inte resonemanget.

Jag fröstår från artiklarna att man har jämfört länders genomsnittliga IQ med landets genomsnittliga religiositet. Ytterligare en osäkerhetsfaktor. Hur är sambandet på individnivå? Är det individer med lägst IQ som är mera religiösa? Jag tror inte att det går att hitta ett sådant samband.

Jag tror faktiskt inte att - med tanke på alla osäkerheter och det stora antalet variabler - det över huvud taget går att bevisa ett samband mellan intelligens och Gudstro. Nyborg och hans medarbetare befinner sig på mycket tunnt is.

Naturligtvis finns en annan möjlighet. Nämligen att jag inget begriper för jag är dum. Jag tror ju på Gud.

Living in two worlds

2008-06-25T20:58:00.003+02:00

That is the name of an exhibition, which started today in Kiruna. It was made by young people, from three minoritiy peoples: Sámi, Jews and Roma. It is about what is is to be young and be 100% Swedish as well as 100% Sámi, or Jew or Roma. The exhibition is documentet at http://www.riksutstallningar.se/templates/Exhibition____5691.aspx (in swedish but there are some pics also). It is not about historical issues, not about the classical view of Sámi with reindeer in the mountains, but rather about identity in a modern world. The exhibition is good, and even better to hear the participants, eleven young people, telling about their experiences together. A report (also in swedish) can be downloaded at the website of the exhibition.
The experiences would be much the same I suspect, for young people belonging to other minority peoples in other countries. It would not be bad for Riksutställningar to have some info on this exhibition in English, in fact...
Well if you happen to be in Kiruna during the summer have a look at the exhibition which is in the town hall.

Do we need the union?

2008-06-25T18:44:00.002+02:00

In Dagen (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154846) pastor Tommy Lilja goes against the rather new section of one of the big trade unions, now having a department for church employees. Tommy means that we do not need the union, that being a pastor is not an ordinary job and he himself wors 60 hours a week and never takes full holidays and is doing fine.
I respect him, and am glad that all works so well for him. John, pastor at New Life Church is on the same line (http://synergistic.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/leadership-in-the-church-dealing-with-the-hireling-mentality/) and him I respect very much, knowing him a bit better than Tommy Lilja.
I myself am pastor in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden MCCS. We had an employee organisation of our own, facilitating the setting of wages and helping in conflicts between employees and pastors. That organisation became part of the big union SKTF recently. I was content with our small orginasation, but my feeling about the present situation is not entirely positive. I can feel partly the same as John expresses in his blog. I really do not know whether I will stay in the union or not.
Why not? Because being a pastor is not an ordinary job. Because it is a call from the Lord. Because it is He who gives us our places and calls us. Because the pastor and the church must find consensus.
Why stay? Because many churches are not as ideal as they should be. Neither are pastors. Because I have seen more than one case where a very difficult situation for a pastor in a conflict with the church would have been much more difficult without the unions help. Because pastors do get unemployed and in Sweden you need to be organised to get any support of society. Swedish society works in a certain way, so you probably cannot draw any conclusions workable for all countries.

In a perfect world we do not need a union-like organisation. We would not need any paper regulating the relationship between the church and its pastors or deacons or other workers. But the world is no longer perfect, as can be read in Gen 3. Even Israel had to put in place worldly institutions. Even Paul struggled with some of his churches (just read 1 and 2 Cor).

In my church, I still feel that we talk as church leadership and pastors. We try to get consensus, I do not sense a feeling of "try to get out as much as possible out of negotiations". As long as things work as they do now, I can still be in the system. Called by God, to a place in this Swedish society, where unions are so important compared to many other countries. Maybe He calls some of us to be here like that, and others to live and serve in other ways.

I learned once that it is good for a missionary (and are we not that as pastors) to be as much as possible part of the society like other people. Not too rich, not too poor, experiencing life as anybody does. To be able to build relationships and to communicate the gospel in the best possible way.

Midsummer

2008-06-21T21:43:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was Midsummer Eve. The official day (always a friday) coincided with the real midsummer. Last night was the shortest of the year on the Northern Hemisphere. For Kiruna, it means no night at all, since the sun never set. But it has not done so for a couple of weeks now, and will not do so the next weeks. One long day. This may be one explanation that summer may be short here, but ever so intense. Flowers are exploding. Everything happens within so short a time, everything lives very intensely before cold days and long nights return. Life forms here seem to be perfectly adaptet to the short and light season.

Even for us it is a beautiful time. Living in the arctic means living with extremes, with great variation. Which I find stimulating. Two weeks ago it was snowing - even if the sun never set at night. Now we enjoy flowers, and the first mosquitos have turned up as well. (that's the price we pay...).

Have a good Midsummer where ever you are!

New species: the richness of nature

2008-06-20T15:31:00.003+02:00

We know a lot about creation, but a lot we do not know. The enormous diversity of creation is well-known. There are numbers and numbers of living species. Around one million described. How many undescribed - another million or two? New species are discovered all the time - contrary to what most people think. Most of them small. Like insects or worms. Most people seem to think that we have discovered all the "large" or "higher" species, like mammals or birds. But we still discover new ones. And a considerable number - small and large - will undoubtly go extinct before we even discover them.

An illustration of this is a website I happened to see: http://marcvanroosmalen.org/newspecies.htm
Marc (a dutchman like myself by origin) works in the Amazonas. He describes a considerable number of new species he has discovered. Sea cows, pigs, monkeys, tapirs etc. A number of them are rare, and threatened with extinction. Marc uses his discoveries to stimulate preservation, as he states on his website: "My goal as a field biologist is to use new species as an ethical means to save entire ecosystems in the Amazon."

Have a look at his site and have again confirmed the diversity of creation and the urgent need of conservation. Do whatever you can for protecting the Amazonas and other precious natural environments!

The Swedish government does not know...

2008-06-19T20:40:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, the Sámi TV news Ođđasat did say that Sweden will not ratify ILO 169 (about indigenous peoples rights) within the near future. The responsible minister, Eskil Erlandsson, has put a comission at work to investigate things and they will be ready not before 2010...
Prime Minister Reinfeldt said to the reporter that he did not have anything to say, he had to get more knowledge first. Erlandsson said plainly that he did not know...

Now, the Swedish state has been looking into the matter for the last ten (yes, 10) years. But the prime minister and the repsonsible minister for Sámi affairs do not know... How can they be in office for 2 years and in parliament much longer and not know? Both seem to know much about many things, but ILO 169 they do not know how to handle. Not after 10 years of studies which are available to them. Why is that? It might be that they are simply not interested. Even if the minister responsible should be interested - and the Prime Minister should be as well. After all, the Sámi are an indigenous people in Sweden and as such an important group.

But maybe they are not interested. They are much more interested of other things, maybe, which gives them more votes in the next elections. The other possibility would be - and I hope sincerely that that is not true - that they conciously try potpone the ratification by investigating the whole question endlessly. That they know what they want - no ILO 169 - but do not dare say it. Yes, I hope that simple ignorance is behind this new investigation, as bad as that is.
But in that case - mr Reinfeldt and mr Erlandsson - you should be able to read a little bit faster. Some laws are passed with an incredible tempo in this country - to the extend that some find i too hasty and not well prepared. So you should be able to do this really fast as well. With those 10 years of investigations and discussions behind you. See to it that the ratification is done before Christmas (this year). You can.

By the way - if it so difficult for a minister responsible for Sámi affairs - why not take an expert to the job? In other words - a Sámi person? It is strange that the Sámi minister in this country never ever has been a Sámi.

Indigenous broadcasting network.

2008-06-18T16:22:00.002+02:00

Maori Television in New Zeeland has announced a first meeting to be held in August this year with the goal of establishing a World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN) (see http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0806/S00163.htm ). A network like this should be a gain for the indigenous communities around the world. We all know how important media are those days. We also know that the objectivity of news media are only a dream. Important powers in society, both governments and finances (not the least the number of television viewers) decide to a large extend what is sent. Which news is to be considered "important". That may not be the important issues for an indigenous community.

Therefore it is important that there are media controlled by the indigenous peoples themselves. Like Maori Television. In Sweden, Sámi television and radio are very limited (in terms of time and resources) but even then their importance for the Sámi is enormous. At the 15 min Sámi news many subjects can be seen which are of importance for the Sámi (and others) - but which never make it to the ordinary news. It would be necessary to give the Sámi media more resources.

A network like the planned one would probably be helpful for many, especially the samller, indigenous broadcasters. I hope SVT Sápmi and SR Sameradio will be part of it.

A big loss for the Christian indigenous community

2008-06-17T10:22:00.004+02:00

On thursday June 12 Monte Ohia died suddenly in his home town Christchurch in New Zealand(Aotearoa in Maori language). Monte became 62 years. Monte Ohia was a Maori leader of high importance. He has been active in education and politics and has served in important positions in New Zealand. He served as a director for the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. He has always struggled for the culture of his own people , the Maori.

Monte Ohia was also known as a deeply religious man. Being a Christian, he had since worked for the possibilites for his own people and for indigenous peoples all around the world to be allowed and able to express their Christian faith according to their own traditions. Monte was one of the pioneers in the Christian indigenous movement. Among other things, he and his wife were the founders of the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous Peoples (WCGIP) which was held for the first time in New Zealand in 1996. Since then five more gatherings have been held, the 7th is to be held in Israel later this year.

In Monte Ohia, the indigenous Christian movement has lost a pioneer and an inspiring leader, a humble and passionate man as those who knew him say.

See:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4583147a11.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0806/S00173.htm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10515934
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10516069

Canadian apology for residential schools

2008-06-15T23:44:00.003+02:00

Last week, the Canadian Prime Minister Harper formally apologized to all former students of the Indian residential schools. As is well known, many First Nation children have suffered in those schools, as they have been abused many times, and their language and culture have been taken from them. As Harper put it in his apology:

Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child."

When I heard stories which moved me deeply on one occasion, I was told, that I had not heard the worst things.
Those residential schools have been a cause of severe suffering for indigenous peoples in many countries: Canada as well as the US, Scandinavia, Australia. They have been an instrument in the hands of the colonizing power. Unfortunately, churches have been deeply involved as well in those schools. We can only say today that those schools were far from Christian institutions in many cases in spite of biblical education and morning prayers. The mere foundational thoughts of the system do seem to contradict everything Jesus tought.
This formal apology seems to be an inportant step in the healing process.
See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/pm-statement.html
and http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=18133d91-b8aa-4fbe-956e-20298d79c1d5

Secularized Sweden

2008-06-12T09:04:00.003+02:00

The newspaper Dagen writes that a new survey was published by Kairos Future, showing clearly what we already new: Sweden is one of the most secularized places in the world. A survey was done among 22500 people (16-50 yrs) from 17 countries. In the US, 75% believes in God. In Europe only 38%, and within Europe Sweden is even much lower. Even fewer see religion as important for their identity. In all kinds of questions, religion ends up very low on the list, says one of Kairos people.
The survey shows also, that young people may be concerned about e.g. environmental issues more than about money, but their behaviour is more centred on materialistic issues than on values.
See http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=154449 (swedish) and http://www.kairosfuture.com/en/international/projects/globalyouth

Building new

2008-06-12T08:57:00.003+02:00

I just returned from the annual conference of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, held in Gothenburg. It was together with the Baptist Union and the Methodist Church. A statement was adopted, saying that we altogether want to go on in the process of building something new: a new church, in stead of the three present churches.
Much has to be done still, and no formal decisions were made. But we want to move on. It is exciting: we may have a possibility to establish a new church, having room for all of us. Our three youth organisations established at the same conference a federation, named equmenia. As many times, the young are challenging us all to take steps.
Christ prayed for unity among his followers. This has come a bit more within reach at the Gothenburg Meeting this year!

Condor flute

2008-05-24T23:42:00.003+02:00

A few days ago I got my Condor base flute (in D) from High Spirits. I had already a Golden Eagle in F#. A very nice flute, this condor - a nice very deep sound. A bit more difficult to play perhaps, because of the rather large holes. I can recommend this flute!

I have tried to make some flute recordings on my computer. This went rather well, but for the mic quality. Now I did use the build in microphone, the result was such that I feel it worthwile to get a better microphone. I used a freeware, audacity, which is good at least to start with. Not too complicated for a beginner in this business like myself, who is not prepared to put a lot of money into technical equipment.

Flute

2008-05-17T19:45:00.003+02:00

Well if anyone thought summer is here after all warm days - today it has been snowing all day. Just a few degrees above zero. Summer seems far away now.
But one can always relax by making some music. I have become rather facsinated by different kinds of flutes. I am quite fond of the beautiful native american flutes. Have been playing on one for some time now, and it is easier than the chinese hulusi I also use.
Found some forums on the Internet but not yet anyone here in (north) Sweden who plays it.

The natural tone scale of those flutes (pentatonic mode 1, meaning 1½-1-1-1½-1 tone distances) is very harmonic and nice. Those flute invite to improvisation. But you can of course play diatonic music as well on them.
Maybe I will put some little tune here in due time.
Where do you get a native american flute? Mine comes from High Spirit. Good flutes, reasonable prices. Just ordered two more.

Funeral as entertainment?

2008-05-08T14:36:00.008+02:00

Some weeks ago, a 10 year old girl was on her way home, bicycling, from her footbal training. She was murdered by a man she did not know previously. The murder has chocked all of Sweden and the loss for the family is of course terrible.

Now, the State Television (SVT) has decided to send the funeral live in TV. A lutheran priest and member of parliament, Cecilia Wikström tells the newspaper that this is highly inappropriate (see http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=153150 in Swedish). She says, they are not public persons, not used to handling media, and then a funeral shall not be sent´in TV. Of course, she is more than right. People who lost a dear one, and even more under this kind of circumstances, should have an opportunity to take farewell without being sent in TV. Why would the general public want to see this funeral? What purpose does this serve, if not a lust for sensation, the same thing which makes people to want to see reality soaps and things like that? I can only agree to Wikström that the TV company is taking advantage of the grief of a family. A family in grief is vulnerable and they should not even have put the question to them.

Church outing

2008-05-04T20:41:00.004+02:00

Last thursday it was time for our traditional church outing in Kiruna. A really beatiful day, well over 10 degrees centigrade, but lots of snow still! It is melting fast, though, and today was the first rain for this year.

We spent a nice day outdoor however on thursday, making coffee and sausages over the open fire, and enjoying abundat sunshine.

Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

2008-04-24T10:06:00.003+02:00

Just now the Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is going on in New York. (http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/session_seventh.html) This time, issues on climate and biodiversity are in focus. Important issues. In the opening session, Bolivias president Morales (belonging to an indigenous people himself, the Amaya) warns against ethanol growing which threatens the land rights of indigenous peoples in South America.
It has been stressed that indigenous peoples should be part in negotiations on climate issues. On the one hand, many indigenous peoples way of life are heavily affected by climate change. We can see already what warmer winters will do to reindeer husbandry in Sápmi and to the Inuit of the Arctis. On the other hand, indigenous peoples have traditional knowledge to offer which can be of great value.
The view of many indigenous peoples on the way we ought to treat the earth, as stewards rather than just taking its resources, shows a way to live in a sustainable way on this earth. Too long, western society has not acknowledged that we are stewards and that our life and all creation are interdependent.

For a Christian this should be clear. Man is put to steward Creation in the Bible, and creation theology should be an important cornerstone in any theological system. Strangely enough, this has not been the case in most of western theology. The church has joined the rest of society in exploiting rather than stewarding the earth. Only very recently, climate issues and creation theology has become more important in the west. We should however not think that we have to do everything ourselves. Let us listen to what the indigenous peoples traditional values have to learn to us - in society as well as in church.

Inca treasures return?

2008-04-14T21:04:00.002+02:00

Newly it was mentioned in the newspapers that Peru wants to get back a collection of objects from the Inca town Machu Pichu from Yale university in the US. A collection of about 40 000 objects! There is a dialogue going on on this matter. See Svenska Dagbladet (swedish)http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/nyheter/artikel_1131155.svd
More and more, countries and peoples want to have back what western nations took from them without asking (that is what we in every day life call for stealing, but we realize that researchers then did not see it that way). And all dialogue and cooperation to settle those kind of matters are to be welcomed.
So the Sámi are not alone, when they want sámi treasures to be returned to the Sámi land. Much is in important museums in Stockholm or other countries. For example, most of the 72 surviving sámi drums are far away from Sápmi. But some things have been returned.

We need a dialogue. It is important that archaeological and cultural materials, as well as the much debated human remains, are the property of the people it came from in the first place. But of course, it is also important that people in other places can be able to see something of other cultures. I am sure that is possible. By travelling exhibitions, long term loans and why not by having institutions own some of the cultural objects - if they are rightfully given or purchased from the owners, not just taken from them.

The contrast

2008-04-14T20:45:00.003+02:00

The contrast was enormous, coming home after Spain. 30 cm of snow to take away before the house, amd still full winter. The picture was taken in our street today! People are skiing and snow-mobiling rather than taking a swimming tour in the sea.

Soain was warm for us, even if the Saniards found it too cold to walk about in only T-shirts as we did. Well, they should come and have a taste of the climate up here!

Warm and beautiful

2008-04-14T20:29:00.006+02:00

The first week in April we were in Piniscola, Spain, joining the ECM (http://www.ecmi.org/) Biennial Conference. We were two families from the Mission Covenant Church in Sweden, a missionary couple in Spain and ourselves. Over 300 people, ECM staff and coworkers as well as supporters, meeting old and new friends. Hearing David Ruiz teaching, reports on developments on the different European mission fields and also some free time.

We were able to share something about the situation in the northernmost part of Sweden. I also had two seminars on Being Christian in a world of science. Which gave quite some interesting discussions.

Once again we heard about Europe, the only continent where the church diminishes, but also about signs of hope for the Christian Church in Europe.

Papa Luna was the name of our hotel. The castle in town was once the refuge of a pope, Cardinal de Luna or Benedict XIII, while he had a rivalling pope in Avignon. We learned about this history when visiting the castle. The castle on the isthmus is today a geautiful place to visit with a nice view on the surroundings.

Cold and beautiful

2008-03-24T10:17:00.003+01:00

Both December and January have been extremely warm here, about 8 degrees warmer than normal. Climate change is very noticeable here, with melting glaciers and climbing treelines in our mountains. We see it happen and it disturbs us.
But this easter gives us traditional easter weather, as beautiful as anyone could wish. Blue sky, no wind almost, loads of snow and between 5 and 10 below zero here on Luossavárri mountain where we live. In the valleys of the Torne and Kalix River, even at the airport which is situated much lower, it is probably colder than so. The other night the village of Nikkaluokta, 60 kms from here, in the Kalix River valley, had 41 degrees (Celsius) below. Which was a new extreme - they have never experienced that low this late in the winter since measurements started! That is 50 degrees below the extreme they had one day in december - when they had 11 above zero, the first time ever they had above zero in december!

We don't have that cold. We have the perfect circumstances for skiing, downhill or cross-country. With the slopes so nearby that you could walk if it not were for the heavy skiing shoes, we have been skiing both yesterday after church and the day before, and will be today. A strange thought that we will be able to swim in the sea next week when we are in Spain...

Christ is risen

2008-03-24T10:02:00.002+01:00

We had a good Easter service in Kiruna, where I preached. Some friends and members of the church, now living in other places, where there, which was a highlight. We spent a long time drinking coffee and talking about various things. The theme of the service was of course the risen Christ and the hope that gives us in any kind of circumstances. In the end, to be a Christian is not an intellectual decision, based on arguments (even if it is good to go through all the arguments) but it is based on meeting the Risen one, the living Christ, and accepting Him. Without that, there can not be any meaningful theology at all. As Paul has written, if Christ has not risen your faith is meaningless. But He has, Paul adds.
I hope your Easter has been good, and I hope meeting the Risen has put its mark on your life.

Blessed Easter

2008-03-21T17:14:00.002+01:00

It was too long ago I did write here. Now I just want to wish you all a blessed Easter time.
Christos anesti - Christ has risen, that is the greeting with which people meet at Easter morning in Greece. He is truly risen, is the reaction then. A great way of greeting one another, says more than just "hej" as we use in Sweden!

I did spend a few days in Stockholm, where we were gathered who in some way do pioneering church work like church planting in the Mission Covenant Church. It became interesting days and things are happening in this country, which basically must be regarded a mission field. New churches start to emerge, which is a great blessing. Not an easy task however.

After Easter we will be in Spain on the European Christian Mission conference. I will have a series of two seminars on Science and Theology there, focussing on evolution and creation. Many interesting things can be said on that topic.

Doing Sámi church

2008-02-20T17:30:00.006+01:00

Developing Sámi ways of doing chuch and theology is not so much a theoretical issue, even if that plas a role as well. Sámi ways of doing churh must spring out of living Sámi culture. One way of doing this is by means of a "Sámi church workplace" if that would be an acceptable translation of Samisk gudstjänstverkstad in Swedish.

Last weekend Luleå Diocese of the Church of Sweden organised one together with the church in Vittangi in the Sámi village Badje Sohppar.

Around 30 participants gathered friday evening and Saturday. There were some talks of a practical nature (about symbols in Sámi culture, about yoik in church) and then all split in groups. Working with music, with handicraft to have in church and also a childrens group. Beatiful creative things came out which were used in church that Sunday. The church really was transformed. There was no preaching but in stead some people told a little story from their life, illustrating a short Bible reading. In the evening, some of us sat late and tried to put all different elements into a service.

A weekend like this gives a lot of experiences which can be used in further development of Sámi church life.

Returning cultural objects

2008-02-20T09:46:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, Svenska Dagbladet (one of the big newspapers in Sweden) wrote about the returning of two aboriginal craniums to Australia. Today, they write more (see http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/nyheter/artikel_891649.svd ). A discussion about those matters is of utter importance. Throughout collections in the world, there are many objects, human remains and other things, that were taken from other countries, or from indigenous peoples, in ways that are not acceptable. This can be craniums, mummies, but also works of art and things with religious background. Just have a look at the Egyptian collections in many famous museums. How did they get there? Legitimate questions to ask. In each and every case the backgound must be investigated and in dialogue it must be determined what to do with a certain object. Such a process must take some time, but not too much. There is a certain risk of commercialisation, writes SvD, and there is. Some of those objects can be very valuable. So caution is necessary.

Still, we must go on, as a part of a decolonization process. Humain remains ask for special caution and sensitivity. Also, religiously loaded objects and objects from graves must be paid special attention to. And the nearer in time, the more sensitive questions are. But there are even cultural objects, works of art, simply stolen from the people.

Of course, there is a great value in having collections from other places. To be able to study cultures from all over the world. Therefor, there should be an ongoing possibility to have exhibits on Indian culture in Stockholm, or on Swedish culture in Sioux Falls. To name just one example or two. A good dialogue can settle this. There are always possibilities of exchange, of compensation. When the Ethnographical Museum gave back a totem pole to the Haisla people in North America, they god a modern hand-made one in exchange.

It is a good thing that dialogue has started on those matters. We still can have educational exhibitions on different cultures. But we would like to be sure that they are ethically acceptable. And human remains and grave objects must be handled with utmost respect and caution. Especially in that case, the people in question are to decide themselves what is acceptable or not.

Australian craniums given back

2008-02-19T15:34:00.006+01:00

Today, Lund University in Sweden gave two craniums of Australian aboriginals back to the Australian state. The craniums were bought in London at the end of the 19th century for one pound. The craniums were given back in a ceremony attended by the Australian ambassador and a representant for the aboriginal population of Australia. The craniums will first go to the National Museum of Australia, in order to determine from what area or people they come.
Ambassador Howard Brown said that it is very important for Australia and its government to repatriate Aboriginal bones to their land. Also the principal of the University, Göran Bexell, said it is an important issue to repatriate those craniums.

And it is. Earlier, the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm has given back alltogether 32 Aboriginal craniums, on two occasions 2004 and 2007. Australia has a formal repatriation program and has put 23 million SEK (4 million US$) into that. Last autumn, Australia demanded the two craniums from Lund and the result of an according to ambassador Brown good cooperation with Sweden came today.
It is to be hoped, that also the demanded repatriation of remnants of the own indigenous population, the Sámi, from different institutions, will be a fact as soon as possible. It is difficult to see why the process in that case must take so much more time if the Sámi parliament so clearly put forward a demand ...

Read the press release of Lund University (in swedish) at http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/lunds-universitet-aaterlaemnar-aboriginiska-kranier-196788 and http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=708&news_item=2372
See also http://sydsvenskan.se/lund/article302259.ece and http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_889467.svd, two newspaper articles in Swedish as well.

No rebellion to Sweden!

2008-02-15T12:14:00.003+01:00

Nils Gaups Sámi film The rebellion at Kautokeino has come - in Norway. A film about an important event i Sámi history, showing what colonisation could do to a people. But no, the Swedish Film Institute does not take it to Sweden according to the Swedish Radio website. It is not interesting enough. We saw a fragment at the Jokkmokk film festival last summer - very promising indeed!
The attitude of the film institute is a scandal. Why do they not take their responsibility as a cultural institution? Should they not promote Sámi film, the Sámi being a people of four nations, among them Sweden? And the event described in the film - the "rebellion" at Kautokeino had to do a lot with Sweden as well. It is connected to the Swedish priest Lars Levi Laestadius movement (laestadianism). One could wonder whteher this refusal of the Film Institute to take it to Sweden is another expression of a colonialistic or discriminating attitude of parts of Swedish society. It shows the need for a Sámi film institute...

http://www.sr.se/sameradion/nyheter/artikel.asp?artikel=1846113

Sorry to Aboriginals (2)

2008-02-13T13:37:00.003+01:00

The Australian parliament opened today and in a ceremony they said sorry to the indigenous peoples of Australia - prime minister Rudd called them the oldest continuing cultures in the world. Especially he said sorry to the Stolen Generations. The many children, taken from their parents. He called this step a part of the healing of the nation. We hope it will be that. What he and others said indicates further steps that should be made, in order to close the gap in health, education etc existing between white and aboriginal Australians. Of course this is a good step. Shame upon former prime minister Howard, who did not attend this apology, a thing he has opposed to all his time in office.
The road to reconciliation always starts with reflection on the past, acknowledging what happened and ask for forgiveness. After that, actions must be taken to decolonize and to remove unjustice, until full reconciliation can be reached. This is a valuable first step, even if we can understand the Aboriginal voices outside the Parliament, which were asking for recognition of their sovereignty as a people.

Australia made a good step. Sweden made this step as well some years ago. But now it is up to Sweden - and Australia - to show what a sorry means in practice. So far, Sweden has not done so well...

The text of the apology can be founde here:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23202612-5013172,00.html

Sorry to aboriginals

2008-02-12T14:58:00.000+01:00

The Australian government plans to say sorry to the Aboriginals. Sorry for the injustice done in earlier years towards the Aboriginals, and sorry especially to the 100 000 children that against their will were taken from their parents and put in boarding schools, reports the newspaper "Dagen" among others in Sweden. This kind of "mission" by putting children in boarding schools has been done by other countries as well (USA, Canada and also Sweden) and has caused a lot of suffering. Children were taken from their mothers and put in a strange culture. The first time I heard about this regarding Australia was from one of the victims, a lady taken when she was 5 and she was deported far away from her parents. I heard her story some years ago. She did not see her mother again until she was a grown-up. It impressed me deeply and I was shocked when she told me that her fate was far from unique. Shortly after I saw a true story in the film The Rabbit Fence (see it if you haven´t already). My friend who told me this is now around 70 and a Christian, working among her own people with Christian work. I admire her for that after her experiences with the white mission stations.

Anyway, it is a good step that the Government says sorry. A recognition of wrongs that have been done. And a necessity for the next step that hopefully comes: a full recognition of Aboriginal culture and rights.

Another collaps in the mine

2008-02-07T14:23:00.001+01:00

It happened again. Another accident in the mine, but it went well this time. A truck driver saw rocks falling but he managed to turn the vehicle and one rock hit the car and caused damage on that. No one was hurt. The cooridor where this happened was supposed to be safe and reinforced. It seems the mine has to look over its routines thoroughly.
http://www.nsd.se/artikel.aspx?artid=83474&arkiv=False&city=8 (swedish)

Sámi National Day

2008-02-07T14:03:00.000+01:00

Yesterday the Sámi National Day (Sámi Álbmoga Beaivi) was celebrated. In Kiruna, it was organised by the Sámi Association and the Sámi Parliament. There was an official meeting at the town hall in the afternoon, with talks and music. In the evening there was a Sámi service at the Kiruna Church, organised by the churches in Kiruna together. In my sermon based on Acts 17:22 ff I stressed the appropriateness of celebrating a day like this in church. Different peoples are all Gods creation, all cultures and languages are created by God as Paul stresses. God is a God of diversity. Diversity in unity.

Becoming a follower of Christ does not imply, to abandon your ethnic identidy and culture, as some have understood it (but no westerner does that, and in missions leaving the supposed pagan culture hase mostly ment to become part of western culture - as a Native American friend put it: why should I leave my own sinful culture just to become part of another sinful culture, i.e. the western culture?). It means becoming a Sámi (or whatever is your culture) follower of Christ. To become a Christian as a Sámi. That is important. The church incarnating in your own culture, rather than make people turn their back on their heritages. Of course God has always been present in Sámi and any other culture, even if He has not always been recognized. Paul says that in the text. Sámi have felt the holiness of Creation, the spiritual dimension of nature - somehing western tehology often has missed. Then of course Paul talks about Christ making the Creator known in a new way, and calls upon the Athenians and upon the Sami and all others to become followers of Christ.

When the Sámi - as Sámi, with the whole of their culture - take their place in the circle, together with all other peoples, and Christ is in the centre of that circle the circle becomes whole, as it was meant to be by the Creator in the beginnings of time.

If anyone would care to read the sermon (I warn you it is in Sámi) i will happily email it to you.

Sami national day

2008-02-05T16:13:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow is the Sámi national day, celebrated by Sámi in all countries. In Kiruna it will be celebrated at the town hall, in the afternoon, and new for this year, with a Sámi service in Kiruna Church organised by the Church of Sweden, the Mission Covenant Church and the local pentecostal church. You are welcome to join at 18.00. It will be in Sámi and in Swedish. I just finished preparing the sermon, which will focus on Pauls words at the Areopagos in Athens, about all peoples being created by God.
Would you know more - come and listen (if you have the luck of being in town of course :-)

Sadness in Kiruna

2008-02-05T16:03:00.001+01:00

The town of Kiruna is blooming at the moment. Optimism about the future, new jobs and so on. Much of this because of the mine. The largest underground mine of the world, besides a very modern one and one with high security.
But now sadness came to town and to the mine. Last Saturday, there was a collapse and one man sitting in his vehicle was buried beneath the stones. He died. Now, issues about security are coming up for discussion. Mining has always been a dangerous job. The discussions about security are good of course. If security levels can be raised more it is good. Nevertheless, mining in Kiruna cannot really be considered dangerous in the manner that early day mining was, or that mining still is in many parts of the world. And it will never be 100% safe, but hopefully as safe as ever possible. Looking to the number of accidents over modern time, mining is not more dangerous than let us say truck-driving, being a pilot, working in a factory and many other things people do for a living.

Nevertheless, every accident is one too much. If LKAB (the company) can make it better I hope they will. I trust they will. I take it they listen to the critical voices that have been heard and do all they can. In the mean time, we think of the people who lost a dear one. Our sympathies go to them.

Dutch article

2008-01-21T09:48:00.000+01:00

For my dutch friends I would like to just give you a link to an article, published today in one of the dutch newspapers, on indigenous theology.

Voor de nederlandse lezers wil ik u even opmerkzaam maken op een artikeltje van mijn hand over oerbevolkingstheologie dat vandaag verscheen in het Nederlands Dagblad.

http://www.nd.nl/Document.aspx?document=nd_artikel&id=107344

Teenage Dinosaur pregnancy

2008-01-17T10:04:00.000+01:00

Researchers at Berkeley, California, have found that large dinosaurs were sexually mature before they were full-grown. The analysis of bones of both predatory Allosaurus and plant-eating Tenontosaurus show this pattern. Studied individuals laid eggs when only 10 resp 8 yrs of age. See http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/01/14_teendinos.shtml
The growing pattern of those dinosaurs was similar to that of mammals and birds rather than reptiles. A fast growing phase, slowing down at adolescence. Just like large mammals, including man, sexual maturity was reached just at the end of the fast growing phase. Small mammals like mice and birds reach sexual maturity only after becoming full-grown.

These results once again confirm the image of dinosaurs as creatures quite unlike big repriles like crocodiles, more living like birds and mammals. Resaerch of the last years shows that dinosaurs were agile creatures, with well developed social life, closely related to birds rather than to reptiles. The classical image of slow and unintelligent giants has been abandoned by scientists for quite some time now.

The Swedes and the Bible.

2008-01-17T09:34:00.000+01:00

A new survey among 1000 Swedes has been conducted in January. The results are in many newspapers today. About 32% said that the Bible has importance for their views on ethical and moral issues. For the majority it has not. Only about 10% of the people reads the Bible once a month, a figure which has been about the same during the last few years.

One question in the survey was: Is there any sripture that has had big influence on your ethics and moral views? The Bible was mentioned here by 20%, second largest was the UN Declaration on Human Rights (4%). Other religious documents had very small percentages, eg the Quran 1%. There were also people mentioning as diverse documents as greek filosofers, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Anne Franks Diary, etc.

But most remarkably, 62% of the people said that no document at all had such an influence on them. This is a high figure and one can wonder what this on the long term is going to mean for ethical and moral views in the country. With no written document at all as a guidance ethical and moral views risk to become rather floating and and changing under unclear influences. One could speculate that a situation like this would make it easier for certain groups, propagating for values contradictory to what most people still view as good, to find a growing ground. Further one could speculate that, no external guidance in form of any document being of relevance, the own winning could become the measuring stick for what is good and evil. Of course all this is speculative, but still, this figure of 62% might be a warning bell.

For the Christian community in Sweden it must be a challenge to give the Bible a greater relevance in Swedish society. Indeed, interest for religion seems to be growing. God is discussed in the media more than some years ago.

The sun is back in Kiruna

2008-01-10T15:47:00.000+01:00

The sun is back in Kiruna. After almost 6 weeks, the sun looks above the horizon again. It brings hope about the light in the world, appropriately after celebrating Christmas - about a "peaple walking in darkness has seen a great light" as Isaiah profetized.

The town is beautiful, with new snow which has come after the long period of too warm weather in December.

Now times come of skiing in the sun, downhill with beautiful views over the town and over the mountains!

Dawkins delusion.

2008-01-03T21:40:00.000+01:00

Read it some time ago-when the swedish edition came. Dawkins book The God delusion (swedish Illusionen om Gud). As a paleontologist I have known Dawkins work for a long time. Found him to be a good scientist, giving good argumentation and sound facts to support his theories in his first book (The selfish gene) as well as some later work. I was impressed, even if I did not support his quite reductionist ideas. I could never see the gene as the fundamental entity the way he does, and could support criticism by Gould and by Conway Morris (who has a view on evolution which is close to my own) - but still, Dawkins did a good job.

But not in this book. I am not fond of creationistic fundamentalism, or Christian fundamentalism in general. Even if I consider myself to be evangelic, and not liberal. I did not know that there is something like atheistic fundamentalism. Now I now there is. Propagated by Dawkins. Unscientific, manipulating, picking facts as he likes, omitting what he dislikes, no carefull analyses as I was used from him...
I am not going to give a critique of the book - that would take another book (such a one was written by Alistair McGrath, read that if you happen to be impressed by Dawkins. A good antidote). But I agree to what someone has said: if this is the best atheism can come with to its defence, atheism has very big problems indeed.

In my opinion, Christianity does not need any fundamentalistic defenders, manipulating facts and giving biassed analyses. Apparently, Dawkins, foreman of intellectual atheism, thinks atheism does need that kind of defence.

Read the books - both of them - and judge for yourself.

Happy New Year...

2008-01-02T16:30:00.000+01:00

A Happy New Year to all of you...
It has been impossible to find time to write here the last few weeks of 2007. For a pastor, Christmas always is a busy time.
One of the things we had in church was a music evening, as every year. Last year I demonstrated my hulusi (chinese flute), this year I could play a bit on a native american flute I bought in S Dakota when I was at NAIITS conference. Native flutes have a beautiful sound, they differ from western flutes in have either 5 or 6 holes. They are based on a pentatonic scale just as the chinese ones. It is fun playing those, beside the ordinary western flutes (which also sound beautiful...)

There are many ways to share the Christmas gospel. One is to play it with hand-made puppets, as my wife did for a number of school classes, while I was reading the texts to it. Amazing to see how small children forget everything and are completely involved in the play!

Look back here, I hope to update a bit more often in the future.

NAIITS Conference

2007-12-12T13:35:00.000+01:00

Can a Christian worship with a powwow drum? And can we burn sage-grass (according to traditional Native American practice) when we pray? This kind of questions was up at the North American Institute of Indigenous Theological Studies seminar, 29 Nov-1 Dec at Sioux Falls Seminary, South Dakota.

The answers to the questions above must be: yes. That is my conviction. God never gave western culture any privileges above other cultures. Burning incense or candles as symbols of prayer, or kneeling down or closing your eyes are Western culture habits - nothing wrong with that. Church organs and guitars are also western (and very beautiful) instruments for worhipping. But they are not more holy than native drums. And our prayer habits are not better than traditional native prayer symbols.

Native and non-native theologians/workers gathered a few days to talk around the themes of reconciliation and decolonization. I had the privilege to be one of the speakers at this conference, focussing on the road of reconciliation in Sámi culture in Sweden. We spoke about the wounds in native communities, caused by the churches in the name of the Christian God. We heard about abuses, and I understand why many natives despise Christianity. I understand the need of contextualised christian work. I am convinced that God has meant Native Americans to become followers of Jesus in their own way, and that He enjoys their worship through their own culture.

For me, it was a strong experience to pray with my Native American brothers and sisters in their own traditional way. It made me even more aware of the richness and diversity in Gods creation, and, really, in the Creator himself. It strengthens us in the quest for a Sámi way of worhipping and doing church.

NAIITS is doing a great job, not only for Native Indians but for all the indigenous peoples in the world. And, not the least, for the worldwide Church.

Sioux Falls

2007-11-29T05:15:00.000+01:00

Just now I am in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, since a few days. First time in the US, SD is a good place to start :-) The temperature is much like Kiruna but no snow. Looking around there are not so many shops with local traditional stuff to buy, but almost directly I found a scandinavian shop, just like being soemwhere in Sweden again. A block away is De Hoek (the corner that means and it is on a corner) which is a dutch shop, selling all those nice dutch things like "stroppwafels" and "speculaas". The owner has a dutch background, and there are apparently many people with either dutch or scandinavian backgrounds here. There is a Dutch Reformed Church.

Tomorrow the NAIITS conference s to start, NAIITS is North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies. Theme is reconciliation and decolonization. My contribution will be on the situatin of the Sámi in the churches in Scandinavia.

The picture shows the Falls - look at the snow and ice!

Meeting old friends of another kind...

2007-11-07T08:46:00.000+01:00

During our visit in the Netherlands we made a visit to Burgers Zoo, one of the most beautiful zoos in Europe, in the town of Arnhem where I grew up. Here I could visit the chimpanzee colony, which was established 1972. In 1979-80 I spent more than a year with those chimps on a daily basis, working on an ethological project under the guidance of Frans de Waal (now one of the leading primatologists in the world, working in the US). Many of the chimps from that time are now gone, and a new generation grew up. But the oldes female from that time, named Mama, is still there 50 years of age, and her daughter Roos, who was very small then is now a mother herself. Also some other "old friends" were still around.

Chimp behaviour is fascinating. I can still spent the whole day just observing them. The chimps make one think about our own place in nature. Chimps and the other apes are the animals, physically most like ourselves. Even their behaviour reminds many times of humans. The way they have conflicts, their reconciliation (the aspect I worked on back then), their way of doing "politics", it seems so familiar to us. As we know today even their DNA is more than 95% identical with ours. Of course, chimps are our evolutionary cousins so to say. Paleontological evidence is abundant.

Still, there is this difference which is difficult to put our finger on. In spite of all those resemblances something makes us very different as well. Even if our bodies and our psyche remind of eachother, there is an aspect making human human. It might be that difference, that extra aspect which made the writer of Gen 1 use that unique word bara (create out of nothing) about the creation of man. It might be that which is said in Gen 2, that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living being (nefesh, a living soul). Gods breath - the hebrew word is ruach and can as easily be translated Gods spirit. The text also says man was made of dust - materia, our physical roots are in the material creation (as the evolutionary model confirms). But our spiritual roots come from the Spirit of God. That is why a chimp is so very like ourselves, but so very different.

A meeting - again - with my chimpanzee friends sure give a lot to think of.

In the Netherlands

2007-11-07T08:31:00.000+01:00

Last week we spent in the Netherlands. Apart from meeting our families we spent time with people in several churches, supporting missionary work in Sweden through ECM (http://www.ecmnl.nl/), in order to show something of the work of the churches in the north of Sweden. We lived in Zeist during the week, with friends who opened their home for our family.

Autumn was beautiful in the Netherlands. Leaves are gone from the trees by long in Kiruna, where winter reigns by now, but not so down there!

We had severeal meetings at the Free Evangelical Church of Huizen. We have had contacts with this church since many years and it was good to meet them again, as well as people from some other churches.

Another way of moving...

2007-10-12T11:43:00.000+02:00

The iron mine in Malmberget, 120 kms from Kiruna, is eating itself into town since many years. Sometimes people have to move when the ground gets instable. Most people would of course move from one house to another, but yesterday somebody was moving house in a literal sense. We happened to see one of the houses moving these days being transported just one block away from our church.

The street was almost too narrow!

And the house was huge - as was the truck!

Reconciliation

2007-09-25T13:12:00.000+02:00

I have been preparing my paper for the NAIITS (North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies)conference in S Dakota later this year. This is to be on the theme of reconciliation, I plan to give some background from the Sámi situation. This is about reconciliation between churches and indigenous peoples. It gave an opportunity to think on what reconciliation means in practice, when a country and a church have been mistreating a people for so long time. It cannot stay with words only. It will be interesting to see what other theologians will have to say on this. We have heard about terrible situations in different countries, not so long ago at all. Come to think of the fil "The rabbit fence", where aboriginal kids were hunted down and put at missionary schools. Sadly this is a true story, I have met people who were in that situation as kids. One wonders how Christians could act like that.
As for now, the next Sámi meeting is coming up on thursday and needs some attendance!

After the initial cold, warmth came back. 10 degrees today, no snow left.

Autumn colours

2007-09-14T11:03:00.000+02:00

Well, the snow did not last. After having been away for a week (visiting my parents in the Netherlands, where temperatures were summerlike - around 18 degrees) I was met by the Lapland mountains exploding in yellow and red. Somehow colours are more intense in this area than in the south. Once again one is truck by the beauty of creation.

The next two days we will spend in Killingi, a small village (and I mean small!) far from the main roads, near Kaitum. The churches in Kiruna and Malmberget will have a weekend together, as has become a tradition. Meeting, enjoying the serene beauty of the area, reading, talking and praying together.

The picture shows the beautiful old church of Velp in the Netherlands, 900 years old. This can be compared to the history of Kiruna, which was founded a little over 100 years ago!

Winter came to Kiruna

2007-08-30T10:04:00.000+02:00

Today, 30 August, winter came. We woke up with this sight! A few centimetres of snow! Since autumn hardly has started, we reckon that the snow will melt soon, and we will enjoy a nice autumn before the snow will cover everything permanently. The picture below was taken yesterday!

Sändaren

2007-08-26T16:14:00.000+02:00

Lagom till min något försenade 50-årsfest kom den eminenta tidningen Sändaren med ett porträtt av mig. Så om ni vill veta hur det kom sig att man byter från en paleontologisk forskarbana till pastor kan man beställa det senaste numret på www.sandaren.se - tyvärr finns artikeln inte med på nätet. Men bättre än att köpa lösnumret är att prenumerera på tidningen. Sändaren har bara blivit bättre och bättre. Och s kan man ibland få läsa det jag skriver där också ;-)

Det här med kristna tidningar är inte lätt. Det finns flera stycken i Sverige och det är nog bra. Sändaren har Missionskyrkan och Baptistsamfundet som huvudmän. Så man hittar en del där som berör dessa samfund men även mycket annat ur den kristna världen. Det förvånar mig att tidningen har inte fler prenumeranter bland dessa två samfunds medlemmar. Borde finnas i varje hushåll i samfunden! Då skulle tidningen bli starkare. Så alla som inte har kommit till skott - klicka på länken och teckna prenumeration nu.

Ja festen var mycket trevligt. Många gäster och trevlig gemenskap. I ekumenisk anda. Som en av vännerna sa: här är vi samtliga 5 samfund i staden representerade. Det passar mig bra. Ekumeniken är en livsnödvändighet för kyrkan. Kristi kropp kan inte vara delad.

Hemavan 50 years

2007-08-01T10:19:00.000+02:00

Not only did I reach 50 years of age in July, so did the church guesthouse in Hemavan, our own "Mission Post" in the area. Saturday and Sunday I will be there for the official celebration of 50 years in Hemavan. Started in 1957 as a simple small house, we now have a beatiful guesthouse with many different activities going on. The Mission Covenant Church president Göran Zettergren will come. You are welcome as well on Sunday 11.00 for the Celebration Service. But of course you can come any time and spend some days there. Walking in the mountains in summer or skieing in the winter.
www.smufjallgard.nu

Hemavan

2007-08-01T10:10:00.000+02:00

It was too long since I wrote. Have been in Hemavan in the southern Lappland mountains for 1 week. Hiking, going down in caves and as usual take a look at the beautiful orchid Gymnadenia runei. This orchid was discovered in the seventies and it is only found here on one mountain slopes as well as in one or two places nearby. Must be one of the rarest flowers in Europe. I can't write the exact place here but if you join next years Flora and Geology week in Hemavan I might guide you to the place...

This year there were extremely many flowering. Beautiful as ever. For me a symbol for the diversity of creation.

Nikkaluovttas

2007-06-29T10:29:00.000+02:00

Mii leimmet Nikkaluovttas. Lavet vuolgit dosa jos mis lea guossit. Lea soma Nikkaluovttas. Čájehin girku. Ja oinniimet govva-čájehusa. Carola Grahn lea dahkan hui čappa govvaid. Govvat lea boares sámi muitalusa birra man boahtá Kola-guovllus. Geahčča daid govvaid go leat Nikkaluovttas!

Life's solution

2007-06-27T14:10:00.000+02:00

Science and theology is one of my favorites, being a paleontologist by profession as well as a pastor. Just now I am re-reading Simon Conway Morris' book Life's solution - inevitable humans in a lonely universe.

I really must recommend that book. It is not a narrow specialist book, it is fully readable for anyone with a scientific interest. Written with humor also. Morris is challenging - with succes - the quite common view that evolution is a process steered by chance, humans happen to be one of the outcomes, but it could really have been anything. He challenges that other great paleontologist, the late Stephen J Gould, and his famous thesis that if the tape of evolution could be re-run the outcome would be quite different. It would not. Life has a tendency to move to certain specific solutions. Tendencies which apparently are rooted in the earliest organisms living long before the Scandinavian mountains I see from my kitchen window even started to form. The outcome in the end could not have become anything you can or can't imagine. It had to be humans - or something very much like humans. Evolutionary theory and theology have a bearing on each other. You get the feeling that evolution could very well be teleological (something of course the writer of Genesis 1 and 2 would happily agree with).

Simon Conway Morris is a believing evolutionist, as I am myself. He gives no room for genetic fundamentalism (with Richard Dawkins and his selfish gene as main advocates), nor for so-called creation science.
Curious?
Read the book if you haven't done that before.

A balanced book, written by a man with great knowledge and a very clear mind.

Mission Covenant Church Conference

2007-06-19T13:09:00.000+02:00

Fro0m 13-17 june, I was at the annual conference of our church. Together with over 500 representants of our local churches as well as a lot of other people we looked back and made decisions for the year to come. Apart from formal gatherings there were lots of seminars and meetings. Guests from all overthe world were also with us.
One of the good things was to look back on the agreemant with the Church of Sweden, which is now in place, to decide on steps towards more close relationships with the Baptists and the Methodists, as well as to learn about the new agreement with the Catholic Church on recognizing each others baptism.

Important for me was the fact that the Meeting declared support for the Sámi people in their demand to get back skeletal remains that Swedish institutions are storing and many of which were actually stolen from e.g. graves during the 19th century, and to have them reburied. We urge the Government and the institutions to cooperate with the Sámi parliament in this, as well as our local churches to cooperate in this reburial whenever this is asked.

A number of new pastors and deacons were ordained and people were sent out to the mission field. More on the conference can be read (in swedish) at www.missionskyrkan.se, there are also pictures to see.

Miššuvdnagirku doarju sámi gáibadusa

2007-06-19T12:54:00.000+02:00

Ledjen Ruoŧa Miššuvdnagirku girkukonferenssas 13-17 geassemánus, Stockholmmas. Das ledje eambo go 500 áirasat olla Ruoŧas. Okta ašši lei Sámediggi gáibadus sámi dakteávdnasiid birra. Girkočoahkkin lea dál mearridan doarjut Sámediggi gáibadusa. Maŋŋil dan vahkus girkočallingoddi áigu almmustahttit preassadieđihusa dan ašši birra ja saddet konfereanssa cealkámusa ráđđehusii. Oaine www.missionskyrkan.se /aktuellt

Seminára Johkkamohkis

2007-06-07T14:33:00.000+02:00

Lei buorre seminárábeaivi, Johkkamohkis, sámi olmmošlaš bázahasat birra. Ii lean nu ollu olbmot geat ledje mielde. Lei hui čáppa dálki, jahkan ahte olbmot ledje olggos, luontus.
Maja Hageman lei mielde ja muitalii rasbiologijja historjja birra. Elisabeth Iregren, osteologa, muitalii mo dutkkit geavahit dakteávdnasiid ja Lars-Anders Baer muitalii manin Sámediggi gáibida ruoktot máhcaheami. Rose-Marie Huuva lei mielde, Mihkke Somby, Johannes Marainen ja Sunna Kuoljok.
Mon ipmirdan ahte dakteávdnasat leat deahalaččat Elisabeth Iregrenii ja eará dutkkiide, muhtu oaivildan ahte sápmelaččat ferte mearridit dan ašši birra. Mon čuovun mii dáhppahuvva dan aššiin. Dieđán ahte Sámediggi lea ságastan Historjalaš Museain dan ašši birra mannan disdaga, in dieđe mo manai.

Loga Maja Hagermana girjji "Det rena landet" go hálidat lohkat rasbiologijja Ruoŧas birra.

Sámi dakteávdnasat

2007-06-01T09:12:00.000+02:00

Ihtin mon áigun mannat Johkkamohkkii, das lea seminárabeaivi sámi dakteávdnasiid birra. Sii čájehit filbma Álbmoga Viesus vuost ja gaskabeaivvimallásiid maŋŋil lea sagastalla dan ášši birra. Mon lean mielde panelis. Dat šaddá geldolaš.
Lean dutki (paleontologa) ja lean dahkan ollu osteologalaš barggu ovdal go šadden báhppa. Mon dieđán ahte dakteávdnasiid lea hui deahalaš dutkiide. Muhtu stáhta lea valdan sámi dakteávdnasiid sápmelaččain ja dat lei bahá. Leat suoladuvvon. Lea diehttelas ahte dakteávdnasat fertet mahcajuvvot ruoktot. Mii fertet respekteret sámi álbmoga, mii fertet respekteret váinniid.
Mun jahkan ahte dat šaddá intressanta seminarábeaivi ihtin. Boađe don maid! Johkkamohkkis d. 10.30, Folkets Hus ja maŋŋil Ájtte.

Ge oss våra skelett!

2007-05-29T10:31:00.000+02:00

Den 2 juni kommer jag att medverka i en seminariedag i Jokkmokk omkring de frågor som Sametingets krav att återbörda samiska kvarlevor från diverse institutioner och återbegrava dem. Var gärna med och lyssna!

Så här står det i

Seminarium "Ge oss våra skelett!" lördagen den 2 juni 2007 kl 10.30-16.30 på Folkets Hus och Ájtte i Jokkmokk

Efter filmvisning av Ge oss våra skelett! och musikvideon Vuolge mu mielde bássivarrai inleds seminariet med tre kortare föredrag på ca 20 min vardera:
- Nuläget kring återföringsdebatten om de samiska kvarlevorna
- Redogörelse kring forskningens behov av skelett som forskningsmaterial
- En idéhistorisk tillbakablick på rasbiologisk forskning och minoriteters ställning i natur- och kulturvetenskaplig forskning
Därefter paneldebatt med utgångspunkt av frågor som:
- Vem äger rätten till kvarlevorna?
- Ska skeletten återbegravas eller förbli forskningsmaterial?
- Är det vetenskapens behov eller moralen och etiken som ska få styra beslutet?
- Hur visas människor ur minoriteter eller utsatta grupper på museer och i filmer? Tar kulturutövares (t ex museifolks, filmares, konstnärers och författares) behov av att exotisera andra folkgrupper över de etiska övervägandena?
Även en film-på-gång-session med filmklipp från inspelningarna av Kautokeino 1852 kommer att äga rum, och där regissören deltar.

Inbjudna att medverka som föreläsare är:
Lars Anders Baer (ordförande Sametinget)
Elisabeth Iregren (professor osteologi)
Maja Hagerman (författare och forskare)

Inbjudna att medverka i paneldebatt är:
Johannes Marainen (ordförande i Svenska kyrkans samiska råd)
Någon från kulturdepartementet eller Historiska museet
Gerard Wilhelmsen (paleontolog och pastor)
Rose-Marie Huuva (bildkonstnär och poet)
Nils Gaup (regissör)
Paul Anders Simma (regissör)
Sunna Kuoljok (etnolog Ájtte museum)
Elisabeth Iregren (professor osteologi)
Maja Hagerman (författare och forskare)

En moderator leder diskussionerna och fångar upp frågor från publiken.

Deception on "Deception in the church"

2007-05-23T13:19:00.000+02:00

Sandy Simpson, writing on www. deceptioninthechurch.com, has had a crusade against many fellow Christians since many years, among them all people involved in the World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People. Only now I happened to see his comments on the Kiruna WCGIP in 2005. Simpson seems to try to impress his readers by lengthy articles, full of quotes. But in spite of his very hard and, in fact, unloving criticism of good, evangelical Christians trying to reach their own peoples with the Gospel, he builds his arguments on loose sand. I wonder form where his "knowledge" of the Kiruna meeting comes. He was not there, I know, being one of the organisers. I doubt whether he has been on any WCGIP.
Simpson builds his criticism on two quotes. The quotes are taken totally out of context. Any Bible reader knows that you can even make the Bible say the most terrible things by selective quoting. Of course, you need the context. Simpson does not have the context since he was not there.
He does not even have quotes. The two Kiruna "quotes", which makes him condemn Terry LeBlanc as well as Gavriel Gefen (whom he supposes has not read the NT lately) are taken from a blog of one of the participants. Thus the quotes are not necessarily literally quotes but the impressions of one participant of what two people said. The blogger does not even state she is quoting exactly. Sipmpsons sand to build on is very losse indeed. To give another quote: "Don't build your house on a sandy land".
And then, Simpsons arguments against the stated quotes are not too good as well. Terry LeBlanc sees a need for indigenous theology. So do I and many others. But Simpson says there are no different theologies. I would say: take another look into what theology is. Of course there are different theologies in different contexts, and there need to be. Simpson has apparently not seen the fruits of what Terry and others are doing. I have.
Simpson condemns even Gavriel Gefen "and his messianic Jews" for being back in the synagogue. He quotes Gal. to strengthen his case, a beautiful example of making short out-of-context quotes serve your own case. A dangerous thing to do. But Paul does not anywhere forbid a Jew to be a Jew and to be in synagogue. He fights the víew that the jewish Law be put on the non-jewish Christians as a burden. He says we are free from the Law but he himself was in the synagogues and even in the temple. He even circumcized a person, even if he saw that was not demanded by God, the circumstances made it a wise thing to do.

I can't help wondering. Pastor Simpson seems to be a zealous man, wanting to take the battle for Christs sake. I can admire that. But why, why putting all this energy in battling against his fellow Christians, instead of putting that energy into preaching the Good Word to those who are in need of it?

Gavriel I know as a wise man, wh

Service in 3 languages

2007-05-08T15:16:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday it was time for Sámi church service in Hemavan, in the southern part of Sápmi. This is a special thing in that area, since there are two sámi languages there. The one is a variant of South Sámi, called Ume Sámi. The other one is North Sámi. The speakers of that language are families who have been forced by the state to move to that area in the first part of the 20th century. Then, many Sámi, especially in this southern part, have lost their mother tongue thanks to state policies. South and North Sámi are as different as let's say Swedish and German.

So in this area, we sing hymns and read texts in both languages, and preaching has to be in Swedish. It is quite a challenge to have a service like this, but worth the effort.

Samisk i Hemavan

2007-05-08T15:09:00.000+02:00

I lördags var det dags för samisk gudstjänst i Hemavan, på SMU Fjällgården. I ekumenisk anda, tillsammans med Tärna Församling. Samisk gudstjänst där är alltid lite speciellt. Trespråkig fick det bli. För där bor det både nordsamisk talande, som ett resultat av tidig 1900-tals tvångsförflyttning, och sydsamisk (eller umesamisk) talande. Plus många som har förlorat språket.

Så både sånger, böner och andra texter var på ibland det ena, ibland det andra samiska språket. Och predikan på svenska. Svårt, visst, framför allt när man håller i gudstjänsten. Men också roligt och trevligt. Trevligt att träffa gamla vänner också, sedan den tid jag bodde i denna trakt. Såväl dagarna innan som dagen efter var det Storuman som gällde - bibelstudier, bilder från Kina och gudstjänst. Roligt att komma dit man bodde i 11 år!

Biblarna stannar

2007-05-08T15:03:00.000+02:00

Jo på Scandic Hotels alltså. De skulle ju borta för mångfaldens skull, som jag skrev 12 apr. Men nu stannar de, så kungjorde Scandic häromdagen. Protesterna har varit många. Boikott hottade man med och verkställdes. Göran Skytte började, bl.a. flera stift inom Svenska Kyrkan gick samma väg.
Scandic lyssnade. Vilket var klokt gjort. Och nu stannar bibeln på rummen. Ibland lönar det sig att höja sin röst...

How many Sámi are there?

2007-04-25T11:35:00.000+02:00

Lars-Niila Lasko has written in his blog about how many Sámi there are (http://lasko.bloggsite.se/post/769/7078). The official figure for Sweden is 17500. This figure was, as he writes, produced many years ago by taking all reindeer herders (a minority among even the Sámi!) go back two generations and calculate their relatives today. This was done in the seventies. The figure is ridiculous. Lets calculate how many Dutch there are by taking all cheese makers and their relatives... Or Swedes: all who work in forestry and their relatives.
(important to know that ethnicity is not registered in Sweden which makes all figures just calculations)
Another research institution calculated some years ago 65000 Sámi in Sweden, and this is more plausible, even if that also may be a rather conservative figure. They also took existing litsts of reindeer keepers, voting lists for the Sámi Parliament etc and calculated their relatives.
One wonders why then, the 17500 number is still used officially as the number of Sámi. Do the authorities not want to have too many Sámi? I don't like to believe it is that bad. But why?
Maybe the best guess today for swedish Sámi would be something between 60 000 and 100 000

Summer is early

2007-04-16T22:50:00.000+02:00

Summer is early in Sweden. 25 degrees in the south is quite unique in April. An even in Lapland it has been very warm. We have still lots of snow in Kiruna, but is amazing how fast it is melting. Temperatures have been very nice at some occasions. As well as the last summer has been very nice, longer than any other summer I remember here, and nice and warm.
Still, it does not feel good. It disturbes me. And more and more people are saying that: nice, yes, but it is not good. We are feeling and seeing the whole ecosystem become out of balance. The global warming has moved from scientific reports to every day laife, to our personal experience.

I have seen the trees climbing up the mountains since my first visits at some places 25 years ago. What will our mountains look like in 50 years? What happens to the reindeer herding? And of course, our problems are small compared to some other areas.

We are to be stuarts of this creation. Many indigenous people have said that. The Bible also says that. Why, then, have so many western churches and western Christian societies forgotten this important point? We as Christians should be heading the environmental movements, we should be showing the way. Maybe our brothers and sisters among the indigenous peoples of the world can help us seeing that.

In the mean time, enjoy nature, enjoy creation. But let's respect creation, and in that way also respect the Creator.

Samerna och budgeten

2007-04-16T22:38:00.000+02:00

Så kom den nu, regeringens budget. De som har får, de som har mer får mer, kan man kanske sammanfatta det hela. Det finns vinnare och förlorare. Samerna som folk hör inte till vinnarna vad vi förstår. Enligt Oddasat nämns inte ens Sametinget i budgeten. Sametinget har fått nya uppgifter som de har tagit över från landstingen när det gäller rennäringen. Men resurser för att kunna klara dessa kommer inte. Inte heller pengar till sametingshuset, som man redan har lagt både pengar och energi på.
Det är naturligtvis en skam av stora mått för landet Sverige att dess Sameting tvingas ha sina plenum än här än där, och stå utan ändamålsenliga lokaler. Den faktiska situationen ger en bild utåt av hur staten ser på det samiska folket och dess rätt till viss självstyre. Vilken annan statlig myndighet, vilket annat folkvalt organ tvingas ha det så. Landet som så gärna kritiserar andra när det gäller hur man handskas med sina minoriteter går verkligen inte före med gott exempel.
Vi får väl hoppas att de styrande inser vilken signal de faktiskt sänder och ändrar sig till nästa budget.

Trendbrott i Missionskyrkan

2007-04-12T12:01:00.000+02:00

Nu har trenden vänt i Mälardalens distrikt i Missionskyrkan, skriver Dagen (http://www.dagen.se/dagen/Article.aspx?ID=132038). Medlemsantalet ökar igen efter många decennnier. Hoppas det håller i sig, hoppas att det är så i fler av Missionskyrkans 7 distrikt. Ett till distrikt vet jag i alla fall visar samma trendbrott, nämligen Övre Norrland. Också där är det en liten ökning, vilket har varit många år sedan sist.
Varför har trenden vänt? Svårt att säga, det är nog både ett andligt behov som finns hos många, och en medveten satsning att möta människor där de är. Blir du nyfiken som läser ta gärna en titt i närmaste kyrka någon gång.

Biblar borta för mångfaldens skull

2007-04-12T11:39:00.000+02:00

Scandic Hotels beslut att ta bort biblarna, som de får gratis av Gideoniterna, från rummen har tack och lov väckt starka reaktioner. Scandics argument håller inte. Inte främjar man mångfalden på det sättet. Däremot kunde man utöka med andra skrifetr på rummen - om det nu fanns de som ville skänka dem på samma sätt som Gideoniterna gör.
Scandic verkar lida av allergi mot kristendom. En enda protest gjorde att biblarna skulle bort. Men protesterna mot porren via deras TV apparater viftas bort med att det är en samhällsfråga. "Frågan om att tillåta erotiska filmer är i våra ögon en samhällsfråga snarare än en hotellfråga. Vi välkomnar en debatt kring tillgängligheten av erotiska filmer, något som du idag kan köpa på varje bensinstation, se på kabelTV kanaler och inte minst översvämmas av på Internet. Hos oss måste du aktivt gå in och välja genom att programmera in ditt rumsnummer och du kan naturligtvis också välja att göra dem otillgängliga ." skriver de. Lika lite som jag behöver knappa in porrfilmer på min TV behöver jag ta fram gideonitbibeln och läsa den. Lika mycket, nej mycket mer som jag kan känna mig kränkt av bibelns närvaro kan jag känna mig kränkt av det faktum att porrutbudet finns på hotellet. Men det är klart, biblarna tjänar de inga pengar på, i motsats till betalfilmerna förmodar jag.

Nåväl, protestera kan man göra på olika sätt. Skicka ett enkelt epost via http://scandic.blodocheld.se/ är ett sätt. Initiativtagaren har på sin blogg http://karlsten.blogspot.com/lyckats få diskussionen igång.

Och så kan man göra som Göran Skytte vill göra, tala det språk som affärsvärlden förstår. Läs gärna hans debattartikel på http://www.dagen.com/dagen/Article.aspx?isArchive=False&ID=132899

Easter

2007-04-12T11:32:00.000+02:00

Christ has risen.

He has truly risen.

That is how people greet eachother in the Greek Otrthodox church at Easter. What a good habit! Not "Hello how are you today", or Happy Easter as one may say in Sweden, but "Christ has risen". I like the central position of Eastern in the Orthodox churches.

We may have many different traditions and ways of expressing our faith, many different opinions ons things, but that is central: Christ has risen. As Paul said: if Christ has not risen, our faith is meaningless.

I hope you all had a blessed easter time. And may His resurrection be present in your life.

Playing the hulusi

2007-03-24T23:07:00.000+01:00

At last it came. The book with hulusi-music I ordered from China. It is in chinese but the music at least I can read. Now I will make some real effort to learn this beautiful instrument I bought last year in Yunnan.

The hulusi is a gourd flute from the Bai people in Yunnan (they call it bilangdao) and most western music cannot be played on it. The music that can be played is very beautiful though. Sun Yu Min taught me the first grounds in place at Kunming, but it will take some time to catch up with her skills ...

Well if some of you happen to play this instrument don't hesitate to contact me. Could be nice to exchange some experiences.

Urbefolkningsteologi

2007-03-15T21:47:00.000+01:00

Det finns mycket gemensamt i den historia som många urbefolkningar har med den kristna kyrkan. Samma misstag gentemot urbefolkningar har begåtts på många platser. Det slog mig när jag var i Lisu-land i Kina, hur omständigheterna har varit annorlunda och oändligt mycket svårare för Lisu, men hur man ändå kämpar med samma typ av frågor. Hur förhåller vi som kristna Lisu oss till vår kultur? Får den plats i kyrkan? Det förvånade mig hur man känner igen varandra som samer och lisu. Samma upplevelse hade jag då jag talade med mina vänner från Molukkerna , med indianer från Nord-Amerika. Får vi använda vår trumma i kyrkan? Får vi sjunga våra egna sånger? Samma diskussion pågår på många platser.

Kontakter mellan kristna från olika urbefolkningar kan nog hjälpa oss att hitta ett sätt att formulera ett sätt att tro som passar oss och forma kyrkan så att den kan vara en del av den egna kulturen.

För att underlätta det har jag startat ett forum för urbefolkningsteologi. Som är avsett för alla intresserade, inte just bara för teologer. För teologi är ingenting annat än en beskrivning av hur vår tro ser ut just nu. Urbefolkningsteologi vill beskriva hur tro skulle kunna se ut för urbefolkningar. Här hemma behöver vi den typ av kontakter, för att kunna formulera en ansats till en samisk teologi.

Titta gärna in på forumet.

http://samebahppa.proboards101.com

An icy world

2007-03-06T23:12:00.000+01:00

Together with some visitors we were at the Ice Hotel outside Kiruna two times last week. Ice is a wonderful material, and what creative people can do with it is astonishing. Seeing how beautiful such a simple thing as ice can be makes me admire the Creator of all even more. The play of light with ice and snow in combination is wonderful. This frozen world is very special, and emphasizes the beauty of this cold land. This morning we woke up in a world where trees were covered with a thick layer of rimefrost, a blue sky. Maybe a symbol of how white and pure this world was ment to be.

Samiska kvarlevor

2007-02-25T20:30:00.000+01:00

Sametinget har - med all rätt - krävt att samiska kvarlevor (kranier mm) i diverse institutionssamlingar skall återbördas och återbegravas. Ett mycket riktigt krav. Det är bara obegripligt att inte myndigheter har ordnat med det för länge sedan. Man tycker att alla borde vara med på detta. Men så är det tydligen inte. Vissa forskare menar att dessa kvarlevor skall vara kvar där de är, med tanke på framtida forskning.
Jag fick frågan vad jag tyckte - som samepastor och med ett förflutet i forskning. Som paleontolog hade jag att göra med mänskliga rester ibland, särskilt under den tid då jag arbetade på ett arkeologiskt museum. Jag förstår vad forskarna menar. Det går inte att utesluta att forskningen kunde ha nytta av dessa kranier framöver. Men det etiska ställningstagande torde vara solklart. Av respekt för de individer vars kvarlevor har blivit stulna skall de återbördas på ett så bra sätt som möjligt. Här måste forskningens intressen ge vika.

Man kan mera allmänt fundera över var gränserna går för forskning. För en del år sedan grävde man upp mummifierade inuitkroppar på Grönland, samt ett 1600-tals gravfält på Svalbard (holländska valfångare). Forskningsresultaterna var mycket intressanta och viktiga. Ändå kan jag mena att det inte var etikst försvarbart. Dessa individer begravdes inte för att sedan kunna studeras av forskare. Jag är mycket medveten om värdet för forskare och om vad som kan göras med sådana utgrävningsresultat. Men man måste varje gång fundera igenom de etiska aspekterna. Desto närmare i tiden, desto tybgre vägar de. I dessa fall hade jag nog valt att avstå. I samernas fall är det ännu tydligare. Det ligger så nära i tiden, det kan vara möjligt att identifiera individer och deras ättlingar kan vara kända idag. Ingenting kan försvara att de ligger kvar i institutioner och museer. Nu finns chansen att rätta till övergrepp som har skett i vetenskapens namn (fast rasbiologi var som bekannt inte mer än pseudovetenskap), och åtminstone lite grand göra upp med en svart sida i svensk vetenskapshistoria.

Lappskatteland

2007-02-23T10:53:00.000+01:00

Lappskatteland är en bok som handlar om rotlösheten som de kan känna, som har förlorat kontakten med sina samiska rötter. Rekommenderat läsning. Se min recension på:
http://www.sandaren.se/default.asp?action=article&ID=2501&KeyWords=NoKeyword

Ännu bättre är förståss att prenumerera på tidningen Sändaren!

Internet problems

2007-02-22T14:49:00.000+01:00

Då har man just startat blogga och så händer det. Routern går sönder, så de närmaste två veckor blir det bara att koppla upp sig via ett vanligt gammaldags och trögt modem. Det gör man inte oftare än nödvändigt, så det kommer nog inte att hända så mycket här fram till sportlovet som in denna landsända inträffar vecka 10...

En sådan gång upptäcker man att man är alldeles för beroende av den moderna tekniken. Det kanske är skönt att leva ett par veckor utan ständig uppkoppling :-)

Samiskt kyrkoliv behövs

2007-02-20T21:55:00.000+01:00

Har du hunnit läsa min artikel om samiskt kyrkoliv och samiskt självstyre i kyrkan i Världen idag?
Om inte det, så går det fortfarande att hitta artikeln här:
http://www.varldenidag.se/?aid=5253&sessId=UKHYV7BC&cat=9&b=1

Välkommen till min blogg

2007-02-20T21:39:00.000+01:00

Det är bara att hänga på trenden. Blogga alltså. Som pastor och f.d. forskare (paleontologi) har jag många intressen som jag kommer att beröra. För närvarande är jag verksam som samepastor i Svenska Missionskyrkan, och urbefolkningsteologi tycker jag är intressant. Men annat kan det också bli.
Det kommer att bli på engelska, eller svenska, eller till och med nederländska, allt beroende på ämnet. Och allt från min horisont här uppe i det vackra snötäckta Kiruna, eller Giron som det egentligen (på samiska) heter.

Welcome to this blogg

2007-02-20T21:35:00.000+01:00

So now it is time. Everyone is blogging, you have to join the trend. We will see how this goes. Anyway, I will be writing in english, swedish or dutch, depending on the subject.
As for the moment, snow is lying thick in Kiruna. Temperatures are low, around -16 it was today. But with a beatiful sunshine the world looks nice and pure.