The Politics of Faith

The party had no professional organization, no newspaper, no practical platform, hardly any funds. Only two months before the election did it succeed in setting up headquarters. Barely a fortnight before election day was its telephone installed. But it won close on 10% of the nation's total vote and is still growing.

By last week the Christian People's Party had become Norway's most surprising political phenomenon. Like other Christian parties across the ravaged face of Europe (e.g., the Mouvement Republicain Populaire in France), the twelve-year-old Norwegian party was built on deep foundations. Before the war it could gain no more than two seats in the Storting. Last month, in the liberation election (TIME, Oct. 22), it won seven. Resurgence of the Lutheran faith in war-weary Norwegians and the application of religious principles to politics accounted for the difference.

One of the party's Storting members, Erling Wikborg, explained its principles last week to New York Timesman Cyrus L. Sulzberger. Said he: "During the war we learned for the first time what a pagan political system was like. . . . We are neither of the right nor of the left. . . . In social questions we have radical ideas, but some conservative leaders have promised to cooperate with us. . . ."

Added Wikborg fervently: "We wish to put into action the brotherhood of man. . . . Our platform is really the Bible."

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