Posted on 06/10/2014 6:12:58 AM PDT by marshmallow
Homosexual couples in Denmark have won the right to get married in any church they choose, even though nearly one third of the country's priests have said they will refuse to carry out the ceremonies.
The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.
Denmark's church minister, Manu Sareen, called the vote "historic".
"I think it's very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it's only heterosexual couples."
Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church.
The far-Right Danish People's Party mounted a strong campaign against the new law, which nonetheless passed with the support of 85 of the country's 111 MPs.
"Marriage is as old as man himself, and you can't change something as fundamental," the party's church spokesperson Christian Langballe said during the debate. "Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“Is it also guided by a government-run theology?
Hmm, I wonder what Luther would think of it — after all, he did object the way the Catholic Church handled its affairs.”
“Marriage is a civic matter. It is really not, together with all its circumstances, the business of the church. It is so only when a matter of conscience is involved.” —Martin Luther
I don’t think he ever imagined that some future Godless civil state would come up with something like ‘gay marriage,’ but that’s exactly what eventually happened. Same thing with easy civil divorce and remarriage.
FReegards
I just reread the article though and this story is from two years ago when the Church of Denmark changed its position.
That image is from http://www.catholic.org/news/national/story.php?id=55284&wf=rsscol and appears to be the former Episcopal Bishop, Gene Robinson. He’s the one who is celebrated for diversity because he chose to be gay and left his wife and young daughters to shack up with his true lifelong love and soul mate, whom he eventually “married” and recently “divorced”. I don’t know if it is photoshopped, although I hope it is.
oh I recognized it and I know he’s ridiculous enough so as to appear thusly festooned, but I did wonder about the pic. Thanks!
Nah. The Third Reich already took over the Lutheran churches in Germany decades ago. (They've had some time to clean house since 1945.) And the Chinese communists have long ago taken over the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and the Christian churches in China. So as fascists go, the Danes are hardly first adopters.
“we don’t want to force churches to marry homos” - the left
In January 2014, 78.4% of the population of Denmark were members of the Church of Denmark (Den Danske Folkekirke), the officially established church, which is Lutheran in tradition. This is down 0.7% compared to the year earlier and 1.3% down compared to two years earlier. Despite the high membership figures, only 3% of the population regularly attend Sunday services.The Constitution states that a member of the Royal Family must be a part of the Church of Denmark, though the rest of the population is free to adhere to other faiths. In 1682 the state granted limited recognition to three religious groups dissenting from the Established Church: Roman Catholicism, the Reformed Church and Judaism, although conversion to these groups from the Church of Denmark remained illegal initially. Until the 1970s, the state formally recognised "religious societies" by royal decree. Today, religious groups do not need official government recognition, they can be granted the right to perform weddings and other ceremonies without this recognition.
Denmark's Muslims make up approximately 3% of the population and form the country's second largest religious community and largest minority religion. As of 2009 there are nineteen recognised Muslim communities in Denmark. As per an overview of various religions and denominations by the Danish Foreign Ministry, other religious groups comprise less than 1% of the population individually and approximately 2% when taken all together.
According to a 2010 Eurobarometer Poll, 28% of Danish citizens polled responded that they "believe there is a God", 47% responded that they "believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 24% responded that they "do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force". Another poll, carried out in 2009, found that 25% of Danes believe Jesus is the son of God, and 18% believe he is the saviour of the world.
Sad statistics; typical of socialist, birth controlling, immigration-happy Europe.
Actually, no. It was Hitler who took over the Lutheran churches.
And Luther's original intent was not to go forward with progressive innovations, but to return the church to its orignial, apostolic origins in a period when the Roman Catholic church was selling indulgences and other questionable tactics to consolidate political power and increase funding. Luther was an Augustinian monk and did not want to split the church; he was forced out due to a groundswell of support for his reforms.
I wish I were wrong, but this is coming to the USA.
What’s the big difference between Denmark’s govt. run church and the US govt. influenced church established by Lyndon Johnson’s tax break. Want to keep your special deductions? Your church will have to do what the govt. tells it to do. Most churches in this country are under that special tax exemption.
In reality, I have no assurance that we have it any different due to the Constitution. When the govt. comes knocking, the cowards in this country will fold just as they have elsewhere. We’re already seeing it happen.
I'm trying to get clarification: all churches that Parliament controls, or all churches period?
Has Denmark altered its Constitution, or just passed a new regulation for the state-owned churches it controls?
Another poster indicated that it was only the state-owned churches.
Has Denmark altered its Constitution, or just passed a new regulation for the state-owned churches it controls?
Who said it was?
Do you think it is?
Sin is an individual's fault. Didn't you know that?
Oh come on. All luther wanted was to seperate marriage from the church to return it to a purely civil institution and to restore bigamy.........
I have just read that the bill that was passed is for the state owned Churches only, but since over 78 percent of the population are members of the Danish National Church which is Lutheran that does not leave much room for anything else.
“I think it’s very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it’s only heterosexual couples.”
These religious organizations are not interested in right and wrong and bringing the gospel of Christ to any one, the only thing they are interested in doing is to get the biggest membership they can.
Bring in the sodomites and convert them to Christ, yeah right.
Maybe the mother of the harlots is not bad compared to the daughters..
God bless you and yours and all of the wonderful work you do here.
I did, did you?
Yup, ‘homosexual marriage law’ is all about forcing the citizens to support and service homosexual behavior. Yeah, I know this story concerns Denmark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.