Church and State

Professor Jurg K. Siegenthaler. American University

Despite many similarities between Switzerland and the United States, there is an interesting difference when it comes to religion and the political system, as well as religiosity.

Both countries do of course embrace a principle of separation of church and state, but they do it in deeply contrasting ways.

The US has its constitutional rule that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … ” (First Amendment), but there is little skepticism vis-à-vis religion; Switzerland has officially registered religious denominations, but has had periods of anti-clericalism in its modern history and is now deeply secular.

I got reacquainted with these issues when I read about the new church law about to be enacted in canton Zurich (it is the individual Swiss cantons that legislate in church matters).

Officially recognized denominations, and thus those entitled to collect church taxes via the state returns, are the Reformed, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, and Jewish congregations. In canton Bern, I understand, the list includes the Methodist Church, but no state goes beyond the “most representative” religions, fearing that too many churches might otherwise vie for funds.

The taxes collected officially do not go toward worship activities, but pay for salaries, services, and facilities upkeep that serve public purposes such as weddings and funerals and, especially, charitable programs.

Still, this legal arrangement would strike Americans as discriminatory. And even in Switzerland, the question has arisen how the increasing number of Muslims can be accommodated by cantonal church law.

Faith-based initiatives

In the United States, the First Amendment precludes official churches or public funding. Yet the ground for ever-new versions of Christian or other religious groups has long been fertile here.

Thus the interface between state and religion has remained lively and at times controversial. An old and recurring issue is that of allowing prayer in public schools. Formal, staff-sanctioned prayer in public schools was effectively outlawed by Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s and 1970s. But that has not stopped the controversy over prayer at graduation or school athletic events.

A more recent issue has been the authority of the federal government to subsidize faith-based initiatives, that is, public services offered by churches. In 2005, $2.1 billion (SFr2.6 billion) in grants was awarded by seven federal agencies to religious organizations for the provision of social services.

Critics have argued that faith-based programs do not have clear enough rules against proselytizing and discrimination in hiring, thus violating the First Amendment.

Faith and politics

Perhaps the strongest impact of organized religion on the American political system has been the mobilization of traditional Christian voters for the Republican Party.

One of the protagonists of that movement, Rev. Jerry Falwell, has just passed away. He and the party had skirted the non-establishment principle on the grounds that near-limitless free speech guarantees allowed the clergy and religious interest groups to guide conservative Christians toward finding a home in the “big tent” of Republicanism.

As a consequence, a new generation of young people has been ushered into the administration, graduates of evangelical colleges and law schools that “train Christian leaders to change the world” (Hanna Rosin in the Washington Post).

No such prospects in Switzerland. Church attendance has been declining. One-third of people filing a tax return now declare that they are not a member of a religious denomination and thus are excused from paying church tax.

In general elections, the denominational political parties, the Christian People’s Party and the Evangelical People’s Party, typically gather a mere 17 per cent of the popular vote combined. Whereas, according to various studies, only four to nine per cent of Americans do not believe in God, 17-27 per cent of Swiss hold no belief.

Tolerance

In both societies, of course, solutions have been found to balance religious and state interests.

Tolerance is the enlightened principle in both the United States and Switzerland, even as the practical means diverge. How important this is and how difficult it was to learn the lesson is once again demonstrated by history.

In Switzerland, 2007 is a year of remembrance for Anabaptists, who interpreted the gospel in such a pure sense that they were expelled from the country in the early 16th century. Many found a permanent home in America in the 18th century, as Amish and Mennonites.

One of their core beliefs was that the church should dedicate itself to spiritual matters only, and that the authorities should move solely outside the church (Schleitheim Testimony of 1527, authored by one Michael Sattler).

That was not conceivable for Calvin, Zwingli, and other reformers, who had come to cherish the protection of their respective states. The Anabaptists were ahead of their time and deserve to be deeply appreciated in both countries today.

Jurg Siegenthaler

The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of swissinfo.

Biography

Every month retired professor, Jurg Siegenthaler, compares and contrasts aspects of life in Switzerland with that of his adopted homeland, the United States.

He emigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1967, and is now a retired university professor living close to Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Bern University (Dr.rer.pol., 1966).

His fields of teaching and research encompassed economic history, social theory and social policy analysis. Throughout his career, he has maintained close comparative research interests in the US and Switzerland.

He is associated with the Institute for Socio-Financial Studies, a research non-profit that has done a lot of work improving financial literacy at the community level.

Since his retirement, Jurg Siegenthaler has broadened his involvement in community organizations and in the arts. He is married and lives with his wife Linda in Silver Spring, Maryland.