Björn speaks his mind

Björn has a lot to say nowadays. He was recently interviewed in "Humanisten", the magazine for Humanisterna an organisation Björn is a member of. Ice has a translation on his excellent page.
     The following article by Björn was published in Expressen on 1 February:

It's necessary that religions are being challenged.
When we are meeting religious fundamentalists, we have to look out for the secular socitey. Even religions must the subject of scrutiny and questioning and even be made fun of. Mankind has to take the responsibility for life on earth and not cowardly pass it on to a "higher power". This Björn Ulvaeus writes today.

"You have to exist, you have to", sings Kristina. I know that because I have written it. Kristina från Duvemåla. She is singing about God. About the God she needs to be able to cope in the northwestern outback. The lonely and vulnerable human being really wants to believe in something, something besides herself. Vilhelm Moberg, the atheist, created Kristina and he gave her a naive but very profound faith. Moberg, the atheist, must have had a lot of love for this wonderful, strong woman. Karl-Oskar, her husband, doesn't share her beliefs. But he doesn't judge it. He takes God's name in vain sometimes, but who doesn't? He questions often, but deep down inside he would like to believe in Kristina's God.

Maybe that's how it is with most of us. Like Karl-Oskar, we don't care much either way. We are tolerant. Even to those who are intolerence personified. The fundamentalists. In the long run it's an impossible stand. The fact that Denmark this Monday caved in for religious threats is a very bad sign. We have to stand for democratic and human gains we have made in Europe. We must constantly defend them. I think we should be proud over the ambition to achieve equality and our secularized societies. Even though we are not there yet completely we are at least making progress, unlike those who wants to take a step back into the misty religious days of the Middle Ages with patriatric hierarchies and oppresion of women and all that involves. Everything Voltaire, Newton, Einstein and all the other great philosophers and scientists achieved mustn't have been in vain. Even though what we call the Age of Enlightenment has passed some parts of the world by.

Religions must be challenged and scrutinized like every other phenomenon in a modern society. It is completely unacceptable that there should be a free zone for religious beliefs, that respect is expected for the beliefs of Eve being created by Adam's rib etc. In this aspect I think that the secular society has gotten a weaker position than in the 60's and 70's. The different religions' claim is growing today on behalf of sense and science. In many ways it feels like we are leaving the enlightened time and it scares me. We need strong secular answers to our times biggest questions. In this the USA, under Bush, has failed to do so. We need a secular America together with the European Union in the fight against fundamentalism. Instead we have a president who places creationism on an equal level with Darwin.

We who believe that religion is fiction are definitely not getting any respect nowadays from those who think it's true. If anyone wants to draw a picture that depict Muhammed or Jesus or Krishna he is entitled to do so. No matter how coarse it may be. If we forgo that right we are in trouble. We mustn't give in to death threats. None of us want to live in a society where we bow to the religious-fascist dark forces. Which, by the way, would have been a perfect target for Monty Python. Because it's easy to poke fun at men who claim that they are in direct contact with God. A God that happen to have a certain interest in certain ethnic groups in a desert area on a tiny planet in a small solar system, located on the outskirts of a small galaxy, which, in turn, is located on the outskirt of a universe.

If certain groups in Europe feel insulted by things that are written in the papers, in books or said on TV or radio, does that mean that you should refrain from saying so? Yes, if the only intent is to insult. No, if you want to mediate something else. It can be humour, serious things or inbetween. A society's democratic maturity is defined by how far you let the free speech go and at the same time where you voluntarily draw the line.

I don't believe in any god and because of that I think that religion should be conceived as any other ideology and that every child should be excused from every kind of indoctrination. According to this religious schools should be as unthinkable as political schools. Who would ever consider a communist or fascist school? Noone. What is happening within in a family, behind closed doors, that is something we neither can, nor should we, control. That makes it even more important to find a public arena where the child is exposed to values that are shared by society. An opposite view to the family's and, maybe in most cases, the father's values. It should be fairly easy to implement for all parties except maybe for the Christian Democrats. It's an absolute human right for a child in its most receptive age not to be subjected like this. Maybe a breeding ground for terrorism could be avoided if every child had the right to decide its spiritual abode when he or she is a grownup instead of getting a religious "back-pack" from his childhood.

When the immigrants in "Kristina från Duvemåla" celebrate their first time in America with a harvest home they sing:
Vi som alltid hukat under låga tak
We who always had to bend down under low roofs
Tigande och sväljande förtreten
Keeping silent, swallowing our annoyance
Nu har vi rest oss, går med ryggen rak
Now we have risen, walking up tall
Här är vi kvitt överheten
Here we are rid of the authorities

BJÖRN ULVAEUS
Björn Ulvaeus was a member of the pop group ABBA 1973-1980. In a week he will be going to the US for the production of the musical "Kristina från Duvemåla" on Broadway.