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Swedish Journalist Examines American Politics Through a European Lens
< < Back toTherese Larsson Hultin, a Swedish journalist, traveling across the United States on a 90-day fact-finding fellowship, is studying the role of religion in American life and American politics.
Hultin was at Ohio University as a guest of the Institute for International Journalism and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. During her visit, she talked with WOUB’s Tom Hodson.
“To understand the American political system, one needs to understand the role of religion in American life,” Hultin said.
Hultin notes that Sweden is the “most secular” country in Europe. Not many people go to church in her home country and no Swedish politicians ever taut their religious affiliations while running for office. If they did, “they wouldn’t be elected,” she says.
In American, she notes, religion is a part of almost every political speech and she believes that no candidate for President would ever get elected if he/she said they didn’t believe in God.
Hultin is starting a 24 state tour of the United States traveling from coast-to-coast and throughout the heartland. She will be reporting her observations about American life and politics back to Sweden.