Hannah Moss on the Problem of Control

By: Hannah Moss

April 14, 2009

The Czech Republic is a self-proclaimed secular state. It is, therefore, rather surprising to find the line between church and state blurred.
That is not to say that belief in a higher power permeates the laws of governance. While the state may pay the salary of priests and hold the deed to much church land, there is little obvious influence of religion in the functions of government. The Czech Republic is, to most extents, the secular state it claims to be. Yet, the perception of a large part of the populace seems to be that religion, in its institutional form, is no different than any other instrument of government. It is a form of organization with the potential to control. This perception, moreover, has proven of great detriment to the flourishing of religion within the country.

When communism took the state in 1948, it took the church with it. The government took possession of all church lands and struggled to silence the voice of religion. This religion was, of course, principally Christian, as Judaism had been nearly eradicated and Islam not yet introduced to much of the population. Naturally, both Protestant institutions and the Roman Catholic Church made a determined effort to fight this oppression of belief. These attempts, however, were not principally perceived as endeavors to achieve freedom of worship for the Czech people. Rather, the struggle that ensued was seen as other institution’s vying for control of the populace. The Catholic Church especially, with its rigid hierarchy and catechism, was cast by many as a body capable of gaining no less control than the communist regime already in power.

As is common among the citizenry of most former Soviet bloc states, the people here have fostered a natural rebellion against control. Having so long been under the supervision and instruction of communism, Czechs are now prone to assert independence. This is seen in various facets of society. “Alternative culture”, as it is perceived in the United States, is simply considered the culture of youth in the Czech Republic. The average Czech teenager wears black, dies his hair an unnatural neon color, and is weighed down with a nonsensical amount of metal. Such dress is an expression of rebellion, not simply against one'’s parents or social norms but against control itself.

A less obvious mode of rebellion is seen in the rejection of religion. This particular trend can be found within most age groups throughout the country. Because organized religion was perceived by so many as another threat to freedom, a distrust developed amongst the populace. This distrust was not only of the institutions wrangling with the communists but also in the deities and belief systems they championed. Thus, the prevalent atheism of the Czech Republic is not only the product of a systematic oppression of religion but also of a perception of religion itself.

According to many Czechs, there no longer exists a clear distinction between the institutions of governance and of religion. Both are institutions capable of controlling, to some extent, the actions and minds of the populace. Unfortunately, the pessimism fostered during 40 years of communism transcended faith in a political system to become a lack of faith in any system not solely established by the individual. Organized religion was rejected and, as commonly follows, a belief in the higher power that institution professed began to rapidly decline.
Opens in a new window