Many cantons have replaced the Christian lessons with broader ethics lessons and curriculums that touch all world religions. However this is very much a local issue so your mileage may vary. Christian lessons may happen at school as a preparation for catholic and protestant confirmation but this is a deliberate choice.
You won't find evangelical churches in the protestantic state churches. The free churches are usually more into literal interpretations of the bible. But there may also be several other reasons and differences between them end the state churches.
There's a lot of exchange between the catholic and protestant churches. Ecumenical services often happen at holidays and after catastrophes. I think the free churches and non-Christian religions are also regularly in touch with the state churches. Also there are indeed some churches for other languages, for example the Italian catholic church in Zurich.
The majority of people who marry based on their religion in Switzerland are most likely orthodox Jews.
When I was christened in a protestant church, my grand-parents were a little offended and the next sibling got a catholic christening...
I suppose anyone can choose to ignore reality and imagine what they want to believe, or actually learn about the way things really are. As for the white part of the Swiss flag:
I have been here for 20 years, I have not paid a single rappen in church tax and did not get married in a church. There are churches here but it is freedom of choice if you want to go there. A lot of the "christian values" are just common sense and tend to be the basis for many laws. Not killing people tends to be a good basis for a society. I really don't see religion playing a big role here in the delay life or politics of the country. The US has had "religion" kidnapped by the republican party and really religion and politics should be independent of each other. Otherwise you end up with Iran or the US under Bush where decisions are made more on religious ground rather than on pure logic.
I'll assume you are misinformed and are not really intentionally trying to spread ignorance.
If you notice, the Swiss flag is square. This is in keeping with Vatican protocol. And here's a sure-fire way of telling if a country is based on religion. Checked its constitution.
In the Rütli pact of 1291, the first sentence reads:
"In Gottes Namen."
"In the name of God"
And if you want to check the constitution of 1874, the first sentence reads:
"In the Name of Almighty God, the Swiss Confederation, with the intent of strengthening the alliance ....."
Now, legally speaking, if you take away G-d from the picture, you are left with a worthless document. And guess what, there wouldn't be a legal Switzerland.
Perhaps you folks somehow mistakingly think you are in Sweden or someplace else?
This goes along with a lot of changes taking place in Swiss culture. We are seeing a diffusion of culture all over the world.
I think the reason people and groups claim that name of God is to claim validation on its actions. Historically, we've seen how this has been abused. It's also the reason why the US Constitution stipulated a separation of church and state. The writers understood all too well how religion is often used to oppress people.
Interestingly, the EU recently tried to pass a constitution that excluded the name of God. Ironically, they could not come to agreement, and it failed.
In the case of the US, ever since the 60s, there has been a culture war that has been raging. On the one side are conservatives aligned with moralists and the right wing, and the left wing aligned with social concerns. Because of the two party system, issues have been divided into two camps. What you don't see reported by the media is that there are Christians who are concerned with environmental and social issues, and there are gays who believe in laissez faire economics and traditional values. My recommendation for getting a better understanding of the world: Don't watch so much TV! The News media is mostly BS anyway.
* Big drop among RC and (especially) protestants - and especially in French speaking areas. (interesting in the last 20 years the proportion of french in France claiming to be catholic has fallen from about 90 to 50%!!!
* Big increases in non-affiliated, Islam and non-state church evangelicals
i was under the false impression that switzerland was a secular country too until the zurich police intervened to stop a film screening (of pasolini's salo) from st. jakob's church. read about it here: http://www.xenix.ch/1_programm/filmd...p?movieID=1061
And to think I expected a tunnel-vision knee-jerk response from you. But a freaky post, nevertheless.
That document is quite old - 2000. There are graphs in there that show how Swiss-Italians and those who live in smaller villages/cities are more likely to belong to a religion.
We also see big changes in the US. Frequent scandals involving catholic priests has caused a huge credibility gap with the clergy. The TV Evangelists' unquestioning support for the Iraq war has also turned off a lot of people. In polling, a lot of people are declaring non-affiliated.
Historically, church membership and attendance spike up in times of difficulties, and go through a trough during times of peace and prosperity. Here in Switzerland, there hasn't been any issues that have gotten the religious communities up in arms. External events and factors appear to have some bearing on the poll results.
After Sept. 11, the churches were full and it seemed like a vast majority were believers. Then there was a lull. When George W. Bush was running for reelection in 2004, he was falling behind in the polls. And then the mayor of San Francisco stubbornly insisted on allowing same sex marriages. There was a media circus as national news showed a parade of gay couples getting married and rubbing it in for the cameras. This freaked out the religious right. Folks like Ann Coulter rose to fame. Pastors rallied and consolidated support for Bush. Bush won another term as a result.
Not so. Gellert in Basel for example. I've a friend who's evangelical protestant and goes to that church. He also teaches religion in those state schools in Baselland that have an evangelical pastor linked to them. Though there are restrictions on what he can teach.
My church here in Zürich does that as well. Most of the church is served with wine in chalices, and then one section with grape juice in individual plastic glasses. I miss the symbolism of the common cup - but that's how it is here, and really I'm delighted to be able to partake at all.
You know, that's actually not a bad illustration of what I meant by saying Swiss evangelicalism is "theologically vague." Back home you'd have churches with wine and you'd have churches (often of the same denomination!) with grape juice - and if you asked ordinary churchgoers in either one, they would generally be able to tell you what their church's position on it is and justify it, either by citing tradition or chapter-and-verse. Here we don't even have a position or an established teaching on it (I once asked Pastor), just a current practice which we find works for us as a church. And it's that way with a lot of more serious doctrinal issues; the Lord's Supper is only a very minor example. We don't teach, think or corporately believe that multiple views are right; we just accommodate them, say as little as possible about them and get on with it.
The idea that there is such a thing as right doctrine and practice and that we should be diligently seeking to discern it, corporately and individually, is my bread and butter - but it seems foreign and frankly out of place here.
Again, this is not me taking a swipe at Swiss or European Baptist churches - although I might well have done before moving over here. The system works, I can see that now, and it's a very natural outgrowth of this culture. But to someone like me it's still very unsettling sometimes... the feeling that any coherence in our beliefs and practices is purely fortuitous. It's like you thought you'd climbed onto a raft, then you Iook down and it turns out to be a logjam. (But then I suppose that's what Christianity as a whole looks like from the outside, doesn't it?)
It is often on these basis that congregations split and denominations form. Oftentimes, there are personalities and politics behind the issues. And so the church gets caught up in minor issues.
I heard of Baptists congregation that splintered off because they insisted on foot washing. Later, the same congregation split into two over the issue of which foot to wash first, the left or the right.
I think it is due to the focus on ordinances such as these that cause people to say church has no relevance in their lives. I have to agree that certain issues are not very relevant. On top of that, from the outside, church looks like people practicing a bunch of ordinances. Which it isn't really what its suppose to be about.