British File Complain About Icelandic Televangelist Channel

Paul Fontaine
Grspevine
January 31, 2016

Broadcasts in Britain from an Icelandic company of a controversial faith healer have been found to violate Icelandic law. Peter Popoff, the televangelist in question, professes to be a modern prophet of God and to have the ability to cure illnesses.

RÚV reports that the controversy began with a formal complaint filed by a spokesperson for the Good Thinking Society to Ofcom, the UK’s communications supervisory institution. Popoff’s show, which is broadcast in the UK, purports amongst other things that viewers can receive financial rewards directly from God by buying Popoff’s special “miracle mountain water”.

Upon investigation, Ofcom learned that the broadcasts were directed by Gospel Channel Evrópa, a company based in Iceland. Ofcom then filed a formal complaint with the Ministry of the Interior that these broadcasts violate a number of British laws about truth in advertising.

The Ministry of the Interior’s Media Committee contacted the company’s spokesperson, Eiríkur Sigurbjörnsson, asking for an explanation. Eiríkur replied that no one had previous complained about Popoff’s show, but added that the show has been subject to persecution from people who organise mass complaints of evangelical programming.

The Media Committee, in turn, told Eiríkur it was their conclusion that Popoff’s show violates Icelandic law. While Eiríkur objected, the committee said their conclusion was also based on Icelandic law about truth in advertising; that you cannot sell a product that makes claims which cannot be proven, or are in fact false.

Gospel Channel Evrópa has managed to avoid any punitive measures for the programme, as Eiríkur said he plans to change the programming schedule in such a way that incidents such as this do not happen again.

http://grapevine.is/news/2016/01/31/british-file-complain-about-icelandic-televangelist-channel/

Why are atheists flocking to join Iceland's fastest-growing religion?

Adam Boult 
The Telegraph
December 7, 2015

Zuism is one of Iceland's newest official religions, having been recognised in 2013 - but it's been picking up hundreds of new followers in recent weeks, including many atheists.

The reason lies in Iceland's tax system. At present, citizens are required to contribute a congregation tax, known as sóknargjöld, to a religious organisation of their choice - or, if they're not religious, the payment instead goes to the state.

The modern incarnation of Zuism, based on Ancient Sumerian texts, plans to give the cash it receives through congregation tax back to its members. It's also calling on the Icelandic government to cease collating information on citizens' religious beliefs.

The Zuist church has some links with the pro-free speech, anti-authoritarian Pirate Party. Halldór Auðar Svansson, a Reykjavík city councilman for the party, has spoken out in support of the religion, praisining its efforts in "hacking the system," while Pirate Party founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir is thought to be a Zuist.

The church claims to have about 3,000 members, meaning they now outnumber Muslims by about three-to-one in Iceland's population of 323,000.

Tax authorities have cautioned that, if the Zuist church refund congregation tax (also known as parish fees) to its members, the payments will be subject to income tax.

The church's website says: "The religious organization of Zuism is a platform for its members to practise a religion of the ancient Sumerian people. Zuists fully support freedom of religion, and from religion, for everyone. The organization's primary objective is that the government repeal any law that grants religious organizations privilege, financial or otherwise, above other organizations. Furthermore Zuists demand that the government's registry of its citizens' religion will be abolished."

"The organization redistributes the government's annual financial support equally to all members of the congregation. The organization's financial matters are handled by an accountant firm, and general administrative matters are handled by a lawyer. Neither the administrative board nor other members will have access to the organizations financial matters."

"The religious organization of Zuism will cease to exist when its objectives have been met."

Around 80% of Icelanders are members of the Lutheran State Church. 5% are registered in other Christian denominations, and almost 5% Ásatrú, the traditional Norse religion.

Recent polls have indictated that support is mounting in Iceland for separation of church and state. In a Gallup survey published this autumn, more than 55 per cent of respondents wanted the ties to be cut, up about five per cent on the previous year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/iceland/12037285/Why-are-atheists-flocking-to-join-Icelands-fastest-growing-religion.html

Big in Iceland: Paganism

URI FRIEDMAN

The Atlantic
NOVEMBER 2015 ISSUE

 

Members of Iceland's neo-pagan Ásatrú movement Reuters

An Ásatrú temple is opening in Reykjavik for the first time in a millennium.

Next year, for the first time in a millennium, a pagan temple will welcome Reykjavik’s faithful. The heathen house of worship, vaguely resembling a misshapen meringue, will be aligned with the sun’s path and burrowed into a hill near the city’s airport. There, like the Vikings of old, members of Iceland’s neo-pagan Ásatrú movement will be able to feast on horse meat, swig from goblets of mead, and praise deities such as Thor, the god of thunder, and Freyja, the goddess of love.

At first glance, the scene might appear bizarrely anachronistic. But although Iceland officially adopted Christianity around a.d. 1000, paganism never really disappeared from the Nordic island. The religious traditions of the Norsemen lived on—in mythology and poetry, in popular Icelandic names like Thorstein, in widespread belief in invisible elves and nature spirits. Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, an Icelandic journalist and a self-described atheist who has attended Ásatrú ceremonies, told me, “Icelanders have never really been strictly Christian,” noting that when they accepted Christianity, they did so under the condition that they be permitted to quietly practice paganism. “It’s not that people necessarily believe in the old Norse gods or have secret ceremonies in their basement,” she said. Instead, she explained, pagan values are “ingrained into our culture.”

Ásatrú was founded in 1972, but its following has climbed steeply in recent years, doubling since 2009 to nearly 2,700 members. (Iceland’s population is only 329,000.) Explanations for paganism’s resurgence range from disaffection with the state Lutheran Church, to spiritual dislocation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, to a harmony between the homespun faith and Icelanders’ liberal values, including support for environmentalism and gay marriage.

Indeed, Ásatrú approved gay ceremonies in 2003, seven years before same-sex marriage became legal in Iceland. The Web site Gay Iceland recently reported that, amid a broader boom in gay Icelandic destination weddings, “more and more travellers are opting to get married here in the Old Norse way.” Ásatrú’s chief priest, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, told the Web site that he attributed the “explosion” in pagan same-sex weddings to the fact that “pagan belief is very inclusive.” Wayne Sievers, who traveled from Australia to wed his partner, Paul Gane, beside a fjord last year, agrees. Sievers told me that the Ásatrú priestess who married them said the round of thunder and lightning before their ceremony was a gesture of acceptance from Thor.

As for whether Vikings back in the day were as tolerant as Iceland’s latter-day pagans, Arnarsdóttir hesitated. “I’m not really sure they were.”

URI FRIEDMAN is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Global section. He was previously the deputy managing editor at Foreign Policy.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/going-pagan/407821/