I just got back from a week spent on a tiny little island in the middle of the Baltic Sea called Bornholm. During this "field course" we did mini-projects using the island as a sort of test case for how different environmental policy/sustainability ideas could be implemented. Our group looked at the potential for energy services companies (ESCOs) on the island. An ESCO is a company that signs a contract with the owner of building to analyze how energy is used by that building and its occupants and then implements technological and behavioral changes to save energy. This is all financed by the ESCO, which then receives an amount of money equal to the energy costs saved by its efforts for a certain period of time.
For example: An ESCO retrofits a store that spends $1 million per year on energy with better insulation, more efficient lighting and solar panels on their roof. The store now spends only $700K per year on energy. The store pays the ESCO $300K per year for 5 years and then gets to enjoy the savings benefits free of charge.
ESCO are neat (and a lot more complicated than I make them sound) but they are not the subject of this post. While I was on Bornholm, I visited one of the islands famous "round churches."
If you think it looks like a castle, that's because it kind of is. Bornholm used to get raided all the time by Polish pirates so they built their churches as combo worship and defense spaces. Denmark, and from what I understand Europe as a whole, is chock full of beautiful old churches. I'm sure one could spend a lifetime traveling around and seeing them all. The thing about them, however, is that they are now almost exclusively tourist destinations. As you may know, not a whole lot of Europeans attend Christian churches anymore.
The Danes do know that Christianity is still very much alive in the U.S., and often ask me if I am religious. When I reply in the affirmative, I can tell they are pretty surprised. I think they assume anyone who is religious is a) fanatical b) uneducated and/or c) extremely conservative. Come to think of it, I know a lot of Americans who believe this as well. By the time the Dane has brought up religion, he or she usually knows me well enough to know that I am none of those things, so on more than one occasion I have been forced to explain my faith, something I am not very accustomed to doing in the U.S.
I first have to dispel the myths that Danes often have about Christians, i.e., that we are all pro-life, anti-evolution, sinners-will-burn zealots. I try to explain that even though I am Christian, I do not believe that everything in the Bible happened exactly as it is written. One of the truly European fears about religion that the Danes often possess is the sense that being Christian means you are part of an establishment that has sought to suppress liberty and freedom for hundreds of years. If you look at history, you can understand why.
On one occasion, after attempting to explain why I was religious, the Dane I was talking to nodded his head but, I'm pretty sure, still thought I was crazy. He went on to say, though, that he felt he was a spiritual person and certainly wasn't an atheist, but had too many problems with the Bible to call himself a Christian. Then he asked me how he could watch American Football on the internet.
There are some religions we can all agree on.
Alter in the Round Church
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