Christians should 'come out of closet' when Muslims arrive - Estonian church leader

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

Speaking of the prospect that Estonia will accept a significant number of refugees from Muslim countries soon, Urmas Viilma, head of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK), said Christians should «come out of the closet» too because being openly religious is better understood by Muslims than talk about European values.

«I'm quite confident that it's much more understandable for a Muslim if we speak about Christian values, instead of speaking generally and vaguely about European values,» Viilma said in his Advent speech on Thursday. «I'm glad that the state has seen namely EELK and other Christian churches of Estonia as its partners in the acceptance and integration of refugees.»

Viilma said that quite soon residents of Estonia will have to get used to refugees, many of whom are Christians or Muslims.

«We must create an environment in Estonia that is supportive of their religion and culture, and besides we must present to them our culture, traditions and religion,» the church leader said.

The archbishop admitted that often our people cannot do it, because these subjects are strange to them and everything that is strange causes fear in a person and the wish to avoid it.

«I believe that here are the roots of the hostility toward aliens that our people have been accused of. When our new generation, the generation born free, has completed its education without education in religion and have been taught to deny and be ashamed of their own Christian background and traditions, is it possible for us altogether to succeed as a state and a nation in the multicultural and multi-religious world in the longer run?» he asked.

«To be able to tolerate and to care for others and their beliefs, to respect another person's culture and religious world view, we must acknowledge first who we are ourselves. We must be able to acknowledge without being ashamed that Estonia is a Christian country and Christians live in Estonia, and come out of the closet as Christians,» Viilma said.

The church leader dismissed reports about Estonians' remoteness to religion as an urban legend.

«While the claim that Estonians are the most non-religious people in Europe persists like an urban legend, statistics shows something very different,» he said, adding that a poll taken by Saar Poll this spring suggests a reduction in the percentage of atheists by five points from 13 to 9 percent in the last five years. The same survey indicates that one in three residents of Estonia believes in God and three in four believe in supernatural forces.

«We are a very religious people. But it's true that only a quarter of the Estonian population are members of a church, which picture makes us a harbinger of future for the declining Protestant churches of Europe, the Nordic countries in particular,» the archbishop said. "The picture of us now probably is of their future. Nevertheless, EELK is the biggest organization in Estonia, being bigger in terms of the number of donating members than Kaitseliit, trade unions, or the number of donating members of all political parties combined."