The Gay Debate – Round Two

The stakes have been raised in the Finnish gay/Christian debate. And I must raise my hat to some very brave young people in Finland. One of them is a girl who shares her story of having teenage-lesbian-relationships until meeting God. In short, her life has changed and she’s now engaged to a guy.

She tells her story on a video now up on Youtube. The video headlines a (teen-organized) campaign, where teens are encouraged not to give in to mainstream gay (or any) propaganda, but rather find solutions to life’s questions from the Bible.

I’d say the kids are pretty bold.

Especially after what has followed, in the last three days. They have had to turn off comments on the Youtube video, after hate messages and death threats. The campaign’s Facebook-group has been shut down, by Facebook.  The Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Finland has absolutely rejected the campaign on national television.

No one is praising the girl for her courage to share her story. The campaign is not a hate campaign against gays, it just gives a voice to another point of view.

It is an oxymoron that Christians aren’t “allowed” to have a Biblical opinion when it comes to homosexuality. Not even by the official Lutheran Church of Finland.

The official campaign page.

Church: The Great Gay Debate

Finland has been turned upside down and inside out by the great gay debate. Recently in a televised debate Christian politicians and a Lutheran bishop said that gays cannot marry in the Church and having gay relations is un-Biblical. People got ticked off and left the Church in roves. In two weeks about 35 000 people have left the Lutheran Church. In a nation of 5 million, where over 80% of the population are members of the Church, it is kind of a big deal.

The papers, the news, the kids, the Church – everyone is talking about the Church and gays. The surface question is whether, when, why and how the Church will bless the civil unions of gay couples. The deeper issue lies in the interpretation of the Bible and simply – faith.

The crisis the Western Church is facing has been building up for decades. We are now simply reaping the consequences. The same-sex-marriage-debate has been going on in churches in America, the UK, Sweden etc.  Several decades ago the Finnish faculty of Theology that trains Lutheran pastors, started operating on the basis of dissecting the Bible as “a scientist” would. No longer was it deemed as inerrant, but as a piece of ancient literature that is fitting for our day as we see fit, ie you can use history or culture to explain away the uncomfortable bits. Herein lies our problem today. Since science has become our Western religion, ultimate truth and authority on all things, the Bible is subordinate to that. (Which is ironic, because true science never contradicts the Bible, when it is subordinate to the Bible.)

Therefore when I want to do something that is not permissible according to the Bible, I am right and the Scriptures are dated. This point of view is understandable if you are a person who doesn’t believe in the Christian God of the Bible, but shocking if you are a clergyman or even a Bishop. Then you are like a salesman who doesn’t believe in the product he’s selling.

The crisis in the Church is whether we believe the Bible truly is inerrant and the Word of God or not. Based on the answer to this question the Church will decide what it is supposed to do about the gay issue among others.