According the thesis of secularization religion is not important in contemporary politics. State and religion are distinguished, religious attitudes or matters should not interfere official politics. Many theorists have disagreed on this and religious terrorism have pointed out very clearly that religion (and collision of different religious cultures) is very significant in wolrd politics. However the case is more complicated: actually most political issues and opinions are based on values and thus many times on beliefs and also religious doctrines. It is worth to notice that also the faith on human reason is particular type of faith and as such very similar with the faith on God - at least from the point of view of power and government. Decisions can be justified on reason or on God, but on both cases they are represented as "only right decisions". Also at the same time state itself is based on certain belief on special social form, which may also be justified by God himself. Exactly this is the case with Finnish revival movement called Conservative Laestadianism. Pietism-based movement considers state as a half-holy construction, which gets its justification from God, like emperors and kings used to do. At the same time the movement believes in democracy (in society, not inside the movement itself) and is very active on participating politics. I am stuying the politics of Conservative Laestadianism as a particular way of believing in state. Conservative Laestadians are considered as good members of Church but it seems also that they are very good members of the state and contemporary economic system.
