Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome, everyone.
We're gonna get started right on time because I know Ed has a full schedule for us this morning with his presentation.
So glad you can be here. My name is Lynn Scales and I'm one of the associate pastors here at Nassau. And get to work with the faith formations with adult education and also mission and outreach.
And Ed's been a big part of our refugee team this past year. So let me give you a quick introduction to Ed Matson.
The son of Danish immigrants, Ed Matson was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois. While serving in the army, he was introduced to Bible study and composed Cloverleaf Official March of the fourth United States Army. Still studying the Bible and dabbling in music, he he has enjoyed worshiping at Nassau for 35 years.
A contributor of articles to various Christian publications, he has also been published in the Bridge Journal of the Danish American Heritage Society.
After Ed returned from a brief trip to Denmark last summer, Dave Davis asked, how is the church doing in Denmark?
You're about to hear Ed's answer to Dave's question.
Pray.
Dear God, thank you for all the ways you show up in our lives and that your spirit is moving both inside the walls of churches and outside in the community.
May we meet you there and join you in the work of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly. Amen.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Amen.
Routinely ranked among the happiest countries, Denmark is not a socialist country. It's a market driven capitalist economy.
But they have universal health care. University attendance is free. Students don't have to pay anything. As a matter of fact, university students are paid a stipend by the government while they go to college.
How do they do that?
High taxes.
If you want to buy a $50,000 car in Denmark today, you're going to pay another $50,000 in taxes on top of the price of the car. Somebody's got to pay for it.
Maybe that's why 40% of Danes commute to work on bicycles.
This is how most people get to work in Denmark. In Copenhagen, 60% of the commuters work are on bicycles.
Until recently, this is how most people looked at Denmark. The Jutland Peninsula and a few islands tucked over there near Sweden. But as we know from the news recently, Denmark also includes that little island of Greenland which is way up north. And it's really cold and it's really big. It's about 40% larger than than the state of Alaska. It looks like it's bigger than the 48 states, but it's not.
But just because it's far away and only has 55,000 people doesn't mean that the Danes don't care about Greenland. For example, consider the lovely lady here, my cousin Anna, standing next to my son Neil.
And Anna lives in a lovely home in Denmark. That is her home overlooking the Bay of Aarhus.
Not a shabby place, but a year ago last October, she gave up living there for nine weeks so that she could go on a humanitarian mission to Greenland.
She gave up that beautiful place for nine weeks in Aarhus to visit this cold place where the sun doesn't even shine in December. Why would she do a thing like that? Well, Anna is by profession what the Danes call a yodemore, which translates into earth mother, which makes no sense, but it means midwife. She's a midwife. And she goes for nine weeks to help Inuit women.
Comes safely through childbirth.
That sounds like authentic Christianity to me.
Didn't the Lord say, inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me?
Well, here's how Denmark used to look. Everything in red belonged to Denmark. That is Greenland, Norway. I've talked about little itty bitty Denmark.
And that was 1,000 years ago. The way it looked about 500 years ago.
The king of Denmark was a guy named Christian iii. And he decided that he was going to reform Denmark. So he put all the Catholic bishops in jail, he took away all of the church property, and he declared Lutheranism as the state church in Denmark. And that has stuck until the present day.
By 1800, Denmark was riding high with lots of territory, had a powerful navy, and things were looking good. They had a couple of problems, though.
They made a bad bet when they backed Napoleon.
And they also had a king who was neurologically impaired.
Really, really neurologically impaired. Impaired.
So in 1806, the Brits came by. They firebombed Copenhagen, torched a third of the city, took away Denmark's navy. Denmark lost Norway, its northern province, to Sweden. It lost its southern province to Germany. And in 1813, the nation declared bankruptcy. And the people were kind of down and out. They kind of lost their way, didn't know what their nation stood for anymore and had lost hope in the future.
Somehow God provided four leaders in the 19th century. The first one was this young chap.
He wasn't very good with words, never did write very much as an adult, but he was quite a good artist. That's a self portrait that he made.
He was also good with a hammer and chisel, which he used to remind the people of Denmark and people around the world that Christ has risen.
This is his statue of the risen Christ, which has been replicated more than 100 times around the globe. This one happens to be standing in the rotunda at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The original in Denmark has inscribed at its base, which is Danish, meaning, come unto me. Come unto me, ye who are heavy laden. The one in Baltimore actually has, as he come unto me, ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Another leader that popped up during the 19th century was the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
As a boy, what he did was he reminded Danes and the world about personal dignity.
As a boy, he was awkward, and he grew up feeling ugly.
And this statue of him depicts him reading his fairy tale, the Ugly Duckling that Grew up into a Beautiful Swan.
His tales have been translated into more than 100 languages.
Another leader was Sren Kierkegaard.
Widely known around the world, not so much in Denmark.
He was very critical of the church. He was afraid that the church was getting swallowed up by the culture. And he criticized the institutional church for replacing authentic personal commitment to God with a mundane social institution. If Kierkegaard were here in this room today, he would probably argue that just because you're born into a Christian community doesn't make you a Christian any more than being born in a garage makes you a car.
The fourth leader that popped up was this fellow. You've never heard about him. His name was Bishop Grunfig.
NFS Grunvig. If you ask Danes on the street today who's the greatest Dane who ever lived, they'd probably say Bishop Gruntvig. He promoted social as well as religious reform. But before getting into what Gruntvig was up to, let me pause to say that the 19th century was. Was a hard time for women in Denmark. For example, in 1905, my great grandmother was being interviewed, and her interviewer asked, do you have many children? And she said, nein, which is the Danish way of saying no. And then it came out. She had nine children. And her interviewer said, nine children. How is it you say you don't have many children? She said, My mother had 17. My husband's mother had 19. I didn't think nine was so many.
In 1928, my parents came to Chicago and they emigrated from Denmark, and they sailed into a hard life in America.
They never told me why they left Denmark.
And sadly, I never thought to ask.
And I really didn't have much of a clue until about 26 years ago, when a cousin from Denmark and His wife came over and visited us in Princeton. I took them out to Ellis Island. We saw a display about Scandinavian American line ships that brought over a lot of northern Europeans in the early 20th century. One of the ships featured in that display was the Heilig Olive, literally Saint Olaf, named after a Norwegian king. That was interesting. We came home, but my wife Lois made a lovely dinner for these folks. After dinner, we were in the family room and my cousin reached into his briefcase and pulled out a packet of letters, literally tied together with a shoestring, written by my parents over here to their parents over there. One of them written on board the Hayleig Olive. As they were coming across, my wife Lois said, you should write a book about those letters. So I did. Here it is. And there are some free copies available for you on the back. If you'd be interested in reading one, please take it home and read it. I'd enjoy to see them all disappear.
Okay.
When they came to Chicago in 1928, there were 115 bombings in the city of Chicago that year. Al Capone and Bugs Moran were duking it out for control of bootleg liquor and prostitution.
Fast forward 33 years, I get out of the army, I go over to Denmark for the first time. And I'm visiting Denmark and three of my young cousins, they're about 11 to 14 years old. They introduced me to their friends and they said, this is Edgar, he comes from Chicago.
Last August, my son Neil and I went to Denmark and I'll tell you why in a moment. And we got together. Oh, there are the shoestring letters. I forgot to show it to you.
We got together with those three young cousins. There they are, the guys who were machine gunning their friends.
You can tell from that picture that my son does not get his height from his father's side of the family.
We were there to join about 100 other cousins to celebrate the 300th anniversary of my father's family farm.
Fortunately, almost all of those cousins speak English. And when we toured the main house, in fact, this was on the wall of the house. I don't know if you can read it from where you are. What it says is sometimes on the way to a dream, you get lost and find a better one.
Afterwards at the banquet where there were 120 relatives at the tables, I sat across from this fellow.
He's my fourth cousin, Carl Sunegord.
Just a fine looking chap. Looks full of life, doesn't he?
When he was 10 years old, his mom died of cancer.
When he was 16 years old. His plans to become a champion rower on a crew team were shelved when he was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Now he's pouring his energy into being the manager of a crew team in Denmark, which is going for the national championship.
Like Karl, Denmark had a lot of problems to overcome in the 19th century.
The big break came with the Constitution of 1849, which gave freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of association. And those three freedoms had an enormous impact on the church in Denmark.
Three huge movements flowed as a result of that. The first, in 1850, Mormon missionaries came to Copenhagen. In the next 50 years, 30,000 Danes converted to Mormonism. 18,000 of them went all the way to Utah for that reason. There are a lot of Matsons in Utah today.
Not necessarily related, but Matson's a very common name over there. The second movement that was allowed to flourish were the Pietists.
Prior to the Constitution, it was against the law to hold a Bible study, which they had been doing in secret, but now they could come out into the open. And they professed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They promoted Bible studies. They were decent people, but they're remembered primarily for what they didn't like. They condemned drinking, card playing, dancing, working on Sunday and swearing.
Known as the Holy Danes, they congregated and their stronghold was Western Julen, western Jutland, which is where my people are from.
The third group that flowed out of those freedoms were the followers of Gruntwig and his call for cultural and social reform. Let's take a look at a couple of churches in Denmark today. Here's one that's 700 years old in Pfaster, a little farming village on Jutland. When my father was a boy, he was made to stand in front of the elders of this church and swear. Everybody who plays cards is going to hell.
Sounds like the Holy Danes to me.
That church may have won the battle with the boy, but they lost the war with the man for the rest of his life. My father was looking for alternatives to traditional worship. Tried Christian science for a while, and then he thought up with people, had the answer.
It was kind of like he was looking for morality without religion.
It was almost like he was shopping for the perfect car, but kept falling for one that looked slick but lacked sufficient power under the hood.
Another church. By the way, there are 2,200 churches standing in Denmark today. Another one that looks pretty much like my dad's church. This is where my mom's people are from. 50 miles northwest in a little Town of Lomborg Village.
My great grandfather, my middle name is Bera. My great grandfather Jacob Beira led the singing and prayers in this church for 40 years from 1873 to 1913.
And inside, the iconography is exquisite. The scripture overhead from James 1:21 translates, receive with meekness the Word and engrafted in suffering, which is able to save your souls. And underneath, the depiction of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration from Matthew 17:5. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Listen to him.
Inside the church there are a couple of eye catchers. First, that crucifixion on the left wall. That's left over from the 14th century in Catholic times, when apparently the liturgy included carrying Christ in procession.
The other eye catcher in there is that model ship hanging from the ceiling. You'll find a ship like that hanging from the ceiling of practically every church in Denmark. Why did they do that in Denmark? Nowhere are you more than 30 miles from the sea.
And the nation has a long history of seafarers going out and never returning. And this is kind of a reminder that life is a voyage hopefully pointed toward Christ.
For me, it's a reminder of the American gospel song. Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life's tempestuous sea when at last I near the shore where the fearful breakers roar.
May I hear thee say to me, Fear not, I will pilot thee.
The church is mostly empty now, but exquisitely maintained, as are churches all over Denmark.
They're supported by the state. You don't have to drop anything in the offering plate to keep it going. That's the good news. The bad news is hardly anybody in Denmark goes to church anymore.
Except for funerals, weddings, confirmations, baptisms. Easter harvest festival draws a good crowd too.
I'm not sure they go to church on Christmas, but maybe they do.
What's going on here?
Is the church in Denmark dead?
Or is it sleeping like Halgerdanska, the spirit of Denmark who slumbers in a tunnel under Hamlet's castle? Legend has it that when Denmark gets into real trouble, Hulger Danska will wake up and come to the rescue.
Well, while we're waiting for Helgar to wake up, let's check out what a couple of the other leaders were up to.
Here is Hans Christian Andersen again. He said, every person's life that means you and me. Every person's life is a fairy tale written by the hand of God.
That also includes Mary Robinson, a 28 year old young professional woman who is a single enjoying a drink in the Slip in pub in Sydney, Australia during the Summer olympics when a 33 year old guy walks up to her and says, my name is Fred.
How's that for a. Come on. Well, they had a nice conversation and hit it off. And after a while somebody came up and whispered in her ear. Do you know who that guy is?
He's Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark.
Four years later they got married.
There they are. Pretty as any fairy tale could be.
Two years ago, when Fred's mother abdicated from the throne, he became King Frederick X of Denmark and his lovely wife. And I forgot to tell you, she was a Scottish Presbyterian.
She became Queen Mary of Denmark.
Queen Mary has endeared herself to the people of Denmark by taking the trouble to learn their language. And let me tell you, that ain't easy. I haven't been able to do it. For example, in Denmark they've got a lovely dessert which is red pudding with cream upon it. The way you say that in Danish is rhe gredmuth flutipo.
Another fairy tale, which many of you already know about, so I don't need to get into detail, is how after 50, not seeing my college flame for 50 years, we got together and got married. There we are at a campus dance and the other side shows us at our first date in 50 years.
Lovely.
Okay, I'm going to ask Francis Slade to go to the piano and help us out with a couple of songs in just a moment.
If you ask, as I mentioned, a Dane who the greatest Dane ever was. They would say Bishop Grunfig. He was a preacher, philosopher, political tornado who barreled through 19th century Denmark. He lobbed questions at the establishment like this.
Why are we studying only Greek myths? We should be studying Nordic myths too.
Why are university students examined in Latin? They should be examined in their native language.
Why do we end education for the masses at age 14?
We should have continuing education.
And that brought Grunfig to to two of his blockbuster ideas. Blockbuster idea number one, of which all of us in this room are a part of this morning.
Gruntweg invented adult education with no exams.
And to do that he founded and promoted what are called folk schools which prospered in Denmark. They were state subsidized schools. Boarding schools were young adults age 18, 20, typically coming from farms in the winter months. In these boarding schools they got a general education.
But they also accessed Gruntwig's other blockbuster idea, which was communal singing.
And that's what we're going to do right now. We're going to sing one of the Songs that sung in Denmark.
And this was not written by Gruntwig, but it's a very popular song. Evening star up yonder. Francis.
And it's a lullaby, so don't fall asleep on us now.
Sa.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: Up yonder Teach me like you to wander willing and obediently the path that God ordained for me Evening star up yonder.
Teach me gentle flowers to wait for springtime showers in this winter world to grow green and strong beneath the snow Teach me gentle flowers.
Teach me lonely heather where songbirds nest.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: Together.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: Though my life should seem unblessed to keep a song within my breast Teach me lonely.
Mighty ocean Teach me to do the task that needs me and reflect as days depart Heaven's peace within my heart Mighty ocean Teach me.
Shady lanes refreshing Teach me to be a blessing to some weary soul each day Friends or foes who pass my way Shady lanes refreshing.
Evening Sunday sending Teach me when life is ending Night shall pass and I like you shall rise again where life is new Teach me Sunday.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Thank you, Francis. Thank you, everybody.
We cheated.
You're looking at a painting of the Danish equivalent of Makash 50.
This is actually the lecture hall in a Danish folk school that my mother attended in 1919.
In the book, she describes on pages five and six what her school day was like in Denmark. I think you'll be impressed.
In 1930, Miles Horton, a student of Reinhold Niebuhr, went to Copenhagen in order to check out what these Grunvig folk schools were all about. He came back to Tennessee, and in 1932 he established the Highlander Folk School. After the Danish model had adult education with no exams and championed freedom for poor folk in the Highlands, he used singing and promoted social justice for the poor folk. In 1955, four months before holding her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks attended a two week desegregation workshop at the Highlander School.
At that time, Zilpha Horton, the wife of the founder, introduced Pete Seeger to an old gospel song which Seger tweaked the words into We Shall Overcome.
Two years later, at the 25th anniversary of the school, the speaker of the day was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, pictured here with Pete Seeger, Rosa Parks, Robert Ralph Abernathy. And in the foreground is Kira Horton, the founder's daughter.
Okay, there are a couple of things you should know about Grunvig.
He couldn't carry a tune, but he wrote more than 1600 hymns in the Danish Lutheran Church, the national state church. A third of the hymns are attributed to Grunvig. One of the hymns he wrote starts with the words, all is in our father's hands.
In 1960, after my mother's heart attack, she wrote a letter to my brother and said, not that I have any worry after death. When my heart stops beating, everything is in God's hand.
I think I know where she got that idea. From Gunfig's hymn.
She went on to say, if I get a chance to think, I know that I shall go to sleep with peace.
Five years later, God answered that prayer when she fell asleep in a chair, never to wake again.
Eleven hours later, when I discovered her lifeless body, three thoughts filled my mind with incredible clarity. First, that body does not contain my mother anymore. She's gone. Secondly, thank you, God, for having given me such a wonderful mother. And thirdly, I'm sure glad I took her to nice places and brought her flowers while she was alive to enjoy them.
Not everyone believes as I do.
For example, in 1970, when I went to Denmark, my cousin Ola looked at me and said, I have Social Security.
What do I need Jesus Christ for?
There are a lot of Danes in Denmark who would agree with my cousin Ola.
20% of the Danes identify as atheists.
80% don't believe in life after death, but they pay the voluntary church tax anyway because they feel a sense of obligation.
But underneath this surface of happiness that we read about, there's an underlying fatalism that this life is all there is.
We might as well live it up before the door slams unfairly shut on our lives.
So beneath the surface, there is not the profound joy that comes from worshiping God and serving your fellow man. Although there are exceptions, like my cousin Anna.
Furthermore, worship is being corrupted.
Take confirmation, for example.
In Denmark today, half of the teens get confirmed, but the script has been flipped for many of them. Rather than confirmation being a confirmation of on the part of the conformant, confirming baptismal vows to worship and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, the conformants view it as God saying, nice job, go out and have a good time.
For example, prior to confirmation, the confirmans prepare a wish list of gifts they would like to receive for confirmation.
And after the confirmation, they go to parties.
And the lists include things like laptops, iPhones, computers, vacations, jewelry, stuff like that.
A Danish bank has made a survey and found that the average confirman receives $3,200 worth of gifts for confirmation gifts. It's like a bar mitzvah.
And so they go.
A few Years ago, in 2023, the Holy Danes. Oh, by the way the Holy Danes, they're still around and they're not a separate organization. They're a conservative voice within the state church.
But their spokesman said Denmark is on the threshold of a neo pagan age.
The Christian era is coming to an end.
He may be right.
Sounds to me like it's time for Halger Danska to wake up the way he did in World War II when word leaked out that the Gestapo were about to round up Danish shoes for deportation. Not unlike the way ICE is rounding up immigrants today in our country for deportation. Within 48 hours of that word leaking out, the Danish bishops issued this pastoral letter.
[00:34:19] Speaker D: The Danish bishops have, on September 29 this year forwarded the following communication to the leading German authorities through the heads of government departments.
Wherever Jews are persecuted as such on racial or religious grounds, the Christian church's duty. The Danish bishops have on September 29 this year forwarded the following communication to the leading German authorities through the heads of government.
Wherever Jews are persecuted as such on racial or religious grounds. The Christian Church is duty bound to protest against this action because we can never forget that the Lord of the Christian Church, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary according to God's promise to his chosen people, Israel. The history of the Jewish people up to the birth of Jesus contains the preparation for salvation God has prepared for all people in Christ.
This is characterized by the fact that the Old Testament is a part of our Bible.
Because persecution of the Jews opposes the view of human beings and the love of one's neighbor, which is a consequence of the Gospel that the church of Jesus Christ has the task to preach.
Christ knows of no respect of persons and he has taught us to see that every human life is precious to God. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 because it conflicts with the understanding of justice rooted in the Danish people and settled through centuries in our Danish Christian culture.
Accordingly, it is stated in our constitution that all Danish citizens have an equal right and responsibility towards the law and they have freedom of religion and the right to worship God in accordance with their vocation and conscience. And so that race or religion can never in itself become the cause of deprivation of anybody's rights to freedom or property.
Irrespective of diverging religious opinions, we shall fight for the right of our Jewish brothers and sisters to keep the freedom that we ourselves value more highly than life.
The leaders of the Danish church have a clear understanding of our duty to be law abiding citizens that do not unreasonably oppose those who execute authority over us. But at the same time, we are in our conscience bound to uphold justice and protest against any violation.
Consequently, we shall, if occasion should arise, plainly acknowledge our obligation to obey God more than man.
Signed on behalf of all Danish bishops. Hfalsang Damgard, Bishop of Copenhagen.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: I'm sorry I muffed up on the slides. I meant these slides to show up. While that was going on, 7,000 Jews were evacuated to safety in Sweden, which was a free country following those bishops issuing that letter.
Standing up against the Nazis was risky business. In World War II.
Many freedom fighters were killed.
Let's see if I can get the slide here.
On Liberation Day, which is celebrated on May 5th of every year, royalty and common folk alike get together to remember their fallen heroes. And they sing a song which Francis will lead us in. And this will be our sending song today. Okay, Francis.
There are three verses.
[00:38:33] Speaker C: Joyful always as you go, Trusting the Lord to be your guide.
Even where dark shadows grow.
You'll be held securely at God's side.
Like the stars that shine at night, glistening in the sky above.
Be a bearer of Christ's light, brightening this world with Jesus love.
Let God's word be your delight, Lifting you up till life is done.
Serve the Lord with all your might, Knowing that in Christ the victory's done.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: There. I've lost my cursor here, but I wanted to show a slide up here and I can't get it to show. It says tuck, which is, thank you all.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Ed. And we have time for a couple questions.
Questions.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Thank you, Ed. It was wonderful.
In the early 19th century, when Denmark owned or had all that property, I guess you could call it land, it was stopped. So what language did they all speak? And then when Norway came apart, did it still speak Danish or Norwegian? The language thing interests me.
The Norwegians say they can read Danish, but they can't understand it spoken. When I was on a Norwegian ship going up the fjords, I heard the tour guide say, yeah, she was Danish. Speaking Danish is like speaking Norwegian with a mouth full of mashed potatoes.
So they were under one king, they had one language at one time. But then they parted company.
Sorry about that.
[00:40:55] Speaker D: Apologies.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: What was the part about the Highlander School? Oh, the Highlander School, Tennessee was founded by this fellow Horton, who he got the idea for his Highlander School by going to Denmark and seeing what the Grunvig Folk schools, how they operated. And so he Operated the Highlander School in the same way.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: And the Highlander Folk School is still in existence today in Tennessee and continuing that work.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Now, is it affiliated with any church.
[00:41:26] Speaker D: Or is it just. Just a standalone school?
[00:41:29] Speaker A: I don't think it's affiliated with any particular church. I believe when Miles Horton came back, he started with some vacation Bible school and then started teaching parents, and it kind of moved and grew from there.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: Ed didn't mention. We have talked. There is also the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, which I have been to twice, and it was on television last night after they showed on public television the Danish sitcom about the seaside hotel.
It ended in 45 minutes and the next 15 minutes was about the Campbell School.
Yeah. Don't forget there are free copies of the book available for you in the back. Yeah.
Lorraine, did you have any questions?
I was interested in the communal singing tradition.
Can you tell us a little bit how that, how that has stayed with culture today in Denmark? Sure can. When you go to a luncheon, they'll hand out a sheet of paper like this with music on for people to sing. And the songs may be a traditional song or it may be one that's been written for just that occasion. When Neil and I were at that event with 120 relatives, they handed out a sheet of paper like this with words on both sides and everybody's supposed to sing. It doesn't matter if you can sing. Well, just sing.
And so that's a part of the truth they have at work.
They'll have a time of singing in the morning at work or at school or at social events. Yeah, yeah.
Again, thank you, Ed. Wonderful.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: So even if people you say are not professing to be Christian or attending church, for example, you're singing these songs.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Together and they are Christian based with Christian beliefs.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Does that mean also, like on a Sunday in Denmark, you can't find a.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Church to go to to worship or anything? Oh, you can find a church to go to. There'll be a pastor in the church. There just won't be anybody in the pews.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Oh, and yet people will do the communal singing with.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: They do a communal singing and they sing other songs. Christian bass, they sing Bruce Springsteen song, they've got a national songbook. So it's not just all Christian songs that they sing.
You didn't ask. So I'm going to take another minute to answer the question. Didn't ask about Iceland, about Greenland, what happened?
You may have heard that Trump made these remarks about the Danes not standing up and doing their part in Afghanistan.
And in fact, there was a greater loss of life per capita of Danish soldiers than there were American soldiers killed in Afghanistan. So anyway, the war veterans planted 44 flags, one for each of the Danish soldiers killed in front of the Danish embassy. And an embassy staffer came and picked them all up and plucked them all away.
And then the Danish veterans came and planted 400 Danish flags and they had 44 flags, one flag embroidered with the names of a soldier who had fallen. And they were gathered up after a few days because of the weather, so the weather wouldn't destroy them. They were gathered up and delivered individually to the families of those fallen Danish heroes. God bless you all. Thanks so much.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: Thank you, ED.
And everybody is invited to come back next week. We are excited to continue in our Adult Ed series with Pum Zong. He is with us and often worships with his wife Nay and children Elijah and Joshua here at Nassau. They are from Burma and he is a professor of World Christianity at Myanmar Institute of Theology and has been an important part of our community for the last few years and will be with us for at least one more year. So please come next week too.
