June (Web-only) 2003

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Danish minister suspended, but whether he'll be fired is up to government
In the last week, Weblog has read several crazy claims about Christianity. Two different authors are claiming that Jesus was gay, and the New Age Ulysses Press "would have us believe that Mary was a prostitute when she gave birth to Jesus, and that the grown-up Jesus committed unspeakable acts with his mother," according to the Associated Press.

Orthodoxy will face such nonsense until Christ's Kingdom is fully realized. But when a Christian minister starts spouting such guano, it's all the more troubling.

In a recent interview (the Associated Press doesn't say with whom), Lutheran minister Thorkild Grosboel of Taarbaek, Denmark, said, "There is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection." Hmm. Not much left in the Lutheran Book of Concord after that, is there?

Grosboel's bishop has demanded that he retract the statements and apologize. "There should be no doubt that priests have committed themselves to act within the church's confession of faith," said Lise-Lotte Rebel, adding that his remarks "caused confusion" in the church. She also suspended him from this duties as the town's pastor.

Suspended? Why not fire him? "In Denmark, Lutheran pastors are employed by the state, and bishops cannot fire them," the AP's Jan M. Olsen explains. Ah, the joys of a state church.

There's some indication that the government might sack him. Minister for Ecclesiastic Affairs Tove Fergo, for example, said it's not possible to be a pastor without believing in God and the resurrection.

In any case, Grosboel is a symptom of what's happening throughout the country. According to Operation World, 90 percent of the country belongs to the Danish National Church ...