The International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) has released the English-language translation of Swedish Christian leader Jacob Rudenstrand’s book The First Right: Freedom to Religion. Freedom from Religion.
Rudenstrand, deputy secretary general of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, has written extensively on the need to protect religious freedom in Sweden, widely considered one of the world’s most secular nations.
Rudenstrand notes that in just 70 years since religious freedom was enshrined in law, Sweden has traveled a path from having a Lutheran state church to functioning as a secular, progressive society. Along the way, he argues, the country has come to treat religious freedom with “great carelessness,” treating faith as something that should be expressed only privately.
In response, Rudenstrand argues that voices from the early church to the Enlightenment have recognized respect for religious freedom as an essential component of safeguarding human rights. He then critiques how modern Sweden has restricted religious freedom and expression in a variety of ways, such as hate speech laws, deployment of state subsidies, and public criticism of political leaders who espouse a faith commitment.
“Religious freedom is a litmus test for how free a society is,” Rudenstrand says. “But the right to practise one’s faith has been treated as a secondary right, often subordinated to other rights or marginalized in much of the West. In Sweden, studies show that it is viewed as the least important democratic principle, and believers are often expected to keep their deeply held convictions to themselves, while secular and progressive creeds are seen as a societal norm. There is also a blindness when it comes to religious persecution. Even if the case can be made for Christians being the most persecuted group in the world, this is relativised or rarely acknowledged.”
Rudenstrand concludes:
“My aim in this book is to argue why a country such as Sweden, with its ambition to be a moral superpower, has homework to do when it comes to defending religious freedom.”
The First Right is now available on the IIRF website: https://iirf.global/?p=6932