Sweden: Many "No":s to same-sex weddings in church

The Swedish Pentecostal newspaper Dagen ("The Day") has made a survey of what the different religions and denominations will do with same-sex couples coming to them, asking to be married. Not surprisingly, most didn't want to perform such a ceremony. The by far largest denomination in the country, the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, is, however, positive to this development. And then there is the third group, who haven't made their minds up yet.
The list of the different religious groups can be found here in Swedish, but to mention some:

YES:
The Church of Sweden
The Jews
The Quakers

NO:
The Roman Catholic Church
The different Orthodox churches
The free churches, including e.g. Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventist, Methodists, the Salvation Army and some Lutheran organisations
The Moslems
The Mormons
The Jehovah's Witnesses

DUNNO:
Anglicans
Baptists
Baha'i
The Scientology Church
Some Lutheran organisations

There is also the question what to do with consciencious objectors, i.e. pastors who refuse to marry same-sex couples.
In many of the above religious groups, there is an ongoing discussion about the right to perform marriages - should our church retain that right or give it up? Does the right to perform marriages include an obligation for the individual pastor to do so? Should the right to perform marriages no longer be a question for a whole denomination, but rather given individually to those pastors who have no objections to marrying anyone that the state deems worthy? These questions are far from being solved.

You know that your dog has trained you well when ...

... you have a picture of your dog in your wallet, but not one of your kids.

From Of Course I Could Be On Vacation ... with my thanks!

A beautiful priest for our wedding, please!

Many happy couples want their wedding to be beautiful. Brides spend hours at the beauty parlor and at the florists, and much effort is put into choosing the right gown. The church and the venue for the wedding feast are chosen most carefully. Bridegrooms have even been known to shower and shave before the ceremony!

Here in Finland, the demand has now arisen that we priests should be beautiful, as well - or at least, not downright ugly. Couples have turned down priests because of their weight, and have recommended others to go to a professional cosmetologist or to the same hair salon as the bride. If the priest is a woman, one might assume.
Having the choice to either laugh or weep, I choose laughing, since that is funnier. Not that this superficial trend is funny, of course.

But to my knowledge, I haven't been turned down for my looks yet. For my opinions, yes, but that is another matter.
Or is it?

Hääparit vaativat kaunista pappia (YLE 12.9.09)
Brudpar kräver en snygg präst (Dagen 14.9.09)

Lolcat evil

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Schoolboy Howlers 18

Poetry is when every line starts with a capital letter and doesn't reach the right side of the page.

Biblical inerrancy or Christ?

MadPriest once again comes up with some very interesting ideas, as he writes his "Thought of the century" (7.8.09). Extract:

If the Bible is in any way inerrant, written by God or dictated by God, then what was the point of Jesus?
There would have been no reason for the Word to become flesh. [...]
If the Bible is the word of God then we better hope God isn't lying. And we wouldn't know whether he is or not. However, if the Bible is written by independent witnesses to the acts of God then we have more reason to believe that those acts of God actually happened.
In other words, the Bible is more trustworthy and a zillion times more exciting if God didn't have anything to do with its writing and compilation.

In a comment, Counterlight points out that

There is one completely inerrant book written by God himself that is so holy, some regard it as "uncreated;" with God from the very beginning of time.
That book is the Quran, according to Muslim belief. The Muslims would agree with you. They certainly don't need any Incarnate Word.
Happily, despite the best efforts of fundamentalists to turn it into such, the Bible is not the Quran. It remains what it says it is, a testament.

A few years back, I preached a sermon (in Swedish) where I made a similar point. A translation of the pertinent passage:

In our present-day Lutheran church, there are many things that need reforming, e.g. regarding bureaucracy and structures. What the edge of reform must point to is however in my opinion the misinterpretation of the expression ”the word of God” that has come to the fore and damages individuals to the core, when they are hit by loose bible verses. That is hardly what the author of the Letter to the Hebrews had in mind when he writes (4:12f): Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. In this passage, as in the New Testament in general, ”the word of God” is not a collection of texts (which usually is called ”the Scriptures” or something similar). It is to the ”word of God” that we must render an account. ”The word of God” is not the Bible, but Jesus Christ, God's living and active word that became flesh. The Bible contains words from God when it proclaims Christ, but it also contains other things, for example the Jewish ritual law that Jesus made obsolete. They have a place in the Bible because they paint a background to why Christ had to come to the Earth, but they aren't the word of God even in the sense that the phrase usually is understood.
The Bible is in itself a very good book and worth close study. But in our church it competes with Christ forthe title ”the word of God”. We have to reform this competitive situation. It is the message of Christ's love that is important, not what we happen to be able to combine from different odd verses.

Lolcat sleepy day

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About dogs and people

Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.

- Franklin P. Jones
as quoted by the Episcopal padre

In front of one's nose

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

- George Orwell
as quoted on the Daily Dish

That's bad!

WHATEVER HITS THE FAN WILL NOT BE DISTRIBUTED EVENLY.

Thanks to Wounded Bird!

Vacation time!

I'm taking the month of August off blogging
- I'm in need of a vacation.
I'll leave you with a couple of recent photos,
just to illustrate the versatility of the Pastor Bastard's work.

(Photo: Joakim Palmén)

(Photo: Niklas Montonen)

All the best! The Lord be with you!
See you in September!

Quotation from Bailey's Buddy

Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching.

- Satchel Paige
as quoted on Bailey's Buddy

Lolcat nerd

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King on quality and quantity

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Mother Love?

Here's a nice one!
A mother was so upset with the fact that her daughter was a lesbian, that she arranged to have her daughter raped. Her idea was that if the daughter even once could have a real man, her misguided interest for other women would disappear.
Crazy! Disgusting!

Read the story on One Utah. And thanks to MadPriest, through whom I found it.

Schoolboy Howlers 17

The headmaster caned me only on rear occasions.

True and false moralists

A true moralist, after years of study and thought, works out a rule of life and sticks to it.
A false moralist expects everybody else to stick to it.

- MadPriest

On the Jamaican homophobic society

Through Aqurette and the Box Turtle Bulletin (BTB), I found an AP article dated 20 July 2009, entitled Gays live - and die - in fear in Jamaica. This is terrible, but enlightening, reading for those who paint a rosy picture of freeminded Jamaican potheads. A few excerpts:

Even now, about three years after a near-fatal gay bashing, Sherman gets jittery at dusk. On bad days, his blood quickens, his eyes dart, and he seeks refuge indoors.
A group of men kicked him and slashed him with knives for being a "batty boy" — a slang term for gay men — after he left a party before dawn in October 2006. They sliced his throat, torso, and back, hissed anti-gay epithets, and left him for dead on a Kingston corner. [...]
Many in this highly Christian nation perceive homosexuality as a sin, and insist violence against gays is blown out of proportion by gay activists. Some say Jamaica tolerates homosexuality as long as it is not advertised — a tropical version of former President Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for the U.S. military.
Jamaica's most prominent evangelical pastor, Bishop Herro Blair, said he sympathizes with those who face intolerance, but that homosexuals themselves are actually behind most of the attacks reported against them. [...]
Perhaps playing to anti-gay constituents, politicians routinely rail against homosexuals. During a parliamentary session in February, lawmaker Ernest Smith of the ruling Jamaica Labor Party stressed that gays were "brazen," "abusive," and "violent," and expressed anxiety that the police force was "overrun by homosexuals."
A few weeks later, Prime Minister Bruce Golding described gay advocates as "perhaps the most organized lobby in the world" and vowed to keep Jamaica's "buggery law" — punishable by 10 years — on the books. During a BBC interview last year, Golding vowed to never allow gays in his Cabinet.
The dread of homosexuality is so all-encompassing that many Jamaican men refuse to get digital rectal examinations for prostate cancer, even those whose disease is advanced, said Dr. Trevor Tulloch of St. Andrews Hospital.
"Because it is a homophobic society, there's such a fear of the sexual implications of having the exam that men won't seek out help," said Tulloch, adding Jamaica has a soaring rate of prostate cancer because men won't be screened. [...]
Sherman, meanwhile, is simply trying to move on with his life. But he said he will always remember how, after his attack, patrolmen roughly lifted his bloodied body out of their squad car when a man admonished them for aiding a "batty boy." A woman shamed them into driving him to a hospital; they stuffed him in the car's trunk.

The BTB comments:

So predominant is hatred of gay people there that it outweighs basic decency - simple compassion you’d show a dog.

Shameful. And even more shameful, of course, is the fact that the churches seem to endorse this behaviour. At least, by not speaking out against it.

Anglicans and GLBT

Last week, two sets of news concerning Anglicans and GLBT hit the world.

The first one dealt with a letter sent by two English bishops, Christopher Hill and John Hind, to the Swedish archbishop, Anders Wejryd. ++Anders had sent a letter informing the Porvoo churches about the Church of Sweden's stance on gay marriage, and the English letter was a response to this.
In effect, the bishops Hill and Hind (oh, so diplomatically!) threatened the Church of Sweden with ecumenical repercussions if the Swedes wouldn't desist accepting gays as Christians and full members of the Body of Christ. This has created quite an uproar in Sweden, where some see it as an interference in internal matters, while others (happily saying "I told you so") predict the downfall of the Church of Sweden and of the Porvoo Communion.
I think the English bishops have every right to communicate with the Swedes and inform them of their thoughts in a matter where the Swedes first took the initiative. The Swedes, however, have an equal right to ignore the English, if they choose to do so. Ecumenism doesn't mean that everyone should do the same thing, but that we all should look to what unites us, rather that to that which divides us.

The other Anglican news was that on 17 July, the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA), which is part of the Anglican Communion, authorized bishops to bless same-sex unions and research an official prayer for the ceremonies. This moved the church closer to accepting gay relationships despite turmoil over the issue in the Anglican family. The Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has struggled to keep the communion unified.
Anglican leaders had pressed the ECUSA for a moratorium on electing more gay bishops than Gene Robinson, elected in 2003, and asked the church not to develop an official prayer for same-gender couples. But the measure adopted Friday by the Episcopal General Convention noted the growing number of U.S. states that allow gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, and gave bishops in those regions discretion to provide a “generous pastoral response” to couples in local parishes.
The 2 million-member Episcopal Church earlier in the week approved a resolution opening the doors to ordain gay men and women as clergy. These and related issues have already prompted some congregations to leave the Episcopal fold and form the rival Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) that claims 100,000 believers. Anglican churches in regions like Africa have broken ties with their more liberal U.S. brethren.
Here, too, the split is unfortunate, but the Episcopalians must do what they think is right. As must their opponents, of course.

The Bishops' letter, dated 26th June 2009
Engelsk oro över svensk äktenskapssyn (Kyrkans Tidning 15.7.09)
USA-kyrka bryter anglikanskt löfte (Kyrkans Tidning 15.7.09)
Gay clergy eligible for all Episcopal ministry (365 Gay 15.7.09)
Episcopal Church USA to ordain homosexual bishops (Spero News 16.7.09)
"Vi kan vara på väg att bli isolerade" (Kyrkans Tidning 16.7.09)
Anglo-Swedish rift over church gay marriage (The Local 16.7.09)
”Klipp banden med England” (Svenska Dagbladet 16.7.09)
Chans till besinning (Dagen 16.7.09)
Könsneutralt äktenskap (Från prästgårdsfönstret 16.7.09)
Engelska kyrkan i genuspanik mot Sverige (Trollhare 16.7.09)
Gay bishops more likely after US passes ‘nuanced’ motion (Church Times 17.7.09)
English bishops say Swedish proposal redefines marriage (Church Times 17.7.09)
Koskinen svarar på "anglikanattacken" (Kyrkans Tidning 17.7.09)
”Vi viker oss inte men bör ändå be Engelska kyrkan om ursäkt” (Dagen 17.7.09)
Episcopal Church moves toward blessing gay unions (Reuters 17.7.09)
Vad är viktigast? (Karin Långström Vinges blogg 17.7.09)
The Church of England Condemns the Church of Sweden (Aqurette 17.7.09)
Auf Wiedersehen! (Dagblogg 17.7.09)
Brevdebatt förvånar anglikansk biskop (Kyrkans Tidning 18.7.09)
Episcopalians: Bishops can bless same-sex unions (AP through 365 Gay 18.7.09)
Den västerländska kyrkan splittras (Dagen 21.7.09)

Lithuania's new law against information

On July 14, 2009, the Seimas (the Lithuanian parliament) voted to pass a law that bans information on homosexuality, bad hygiene, gambling and hypnosis (among other things) in schools or in media accessible by young people. The law, titled 'Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information', includes "the propaganda of homosexuality [or] bisexuality" as a detrimental factor on young people.
In June, the then-President Valdas Adamkus vetoed the law, but the 141-member Seimas has the power to override him and did so with a vote of 87-6. It is expected the law will come into force on March 1st, 2010.
On July 12, the country's new President, the former European Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaitė, came into office. She has voiced her opposition to this law, but is powerless to do anything about it. Many Human Rights organisations - e.g. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch - have expressed their concern about the significant narrowing of the rights to free speech and to information, that this law entails. The blogger Aqurette comments:

The irony is that Lithuania fought long and hard for its independence from the Soviet Union. Freedom of speech was at the top of the agenda. And now, after eighteen years of post-communist democracy, it introduces a law that bans free speech. Joseph Stalin would be so proud.

And we certainly wouldn't want to disappoint him, now, would we?

What really worries me, however, is the attempt (within the EU) to legislate moral issues. That has never worked and it will never work. If something is sinful, a sinner will try it. Making sin illegal can't cure the incurable. And since we all are sinners, it is obvious to me that we try to legislate away not our own sin, but our neighbour's. This is not how lawmaking should work.
While laws reflect the morals of the legislators, the laws themselves should be concerned with actions that hurt others in some way, not with trying to enforce moral behaviour on those that haven't the same values or basis for their morals as the legislators have. If morals are to be influenced or changed, you should use information, not legislation.

Lithuania's parliament passes 'Section 28-style' law to ban homosexuality in schools (PinkNews 14.9.09)
Litauisk lag mot homosex och hypnos (Svenska Dagbladet 14.7.09)
Homoseksualumas yra meilė! (QX.se 14.7.09)
Ny morallag i Litauen får kraftig kritik (Kyrkans Tidning 15.9.09)
Litauen antar lag mot homosex (Dagen 15.7.09)
Mycket att göra i EU: korkad litauisk lag antagen (Karin Långström Vinges blogg 15.7.09)
Dumstrut över Litauen (Antigayretorik 15.7.09)
Homoseksualumas yra meilę (Aqurette 15.7.09)

Loldog plays chess

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The last refuge

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

- Salvor Hardin
a character in a book by Isaac Asimov

Join the Church electronically!

For a few years now, it's been possible to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland electronically. A humanist society in Tampere (the largest city in Finland outside the Helsinki area) has thoughtfully provided this service, which has been very popular.
Now, the Church has made a countermove. Through the websites blimedlemikyrkan.fi (in Swedish) or liitykirkkoon.fi (in Finnish), it is possible to join the Church electronically. One obstacle has - up till now - been the need to know which parish you're joining. Through the new service, your application is automatically sent to the right parish, which then, presumably, contacts you and wishes you welcome.

About time, one could say - but better late than never. And we'll see what effect, if any, these websites have. At least they're streamlining a process that so far has been rather difficult.

A lesbian Reformed pastor ordained in Switzerland

On June 11, I published this item in Swedish on my multilingual blog, Kalles kyrkliga kommentarer. I was asked by a certain person to translate my text into English, and having done that I thought it best to publish it here, as well. Enjoy, or don't, as the case may be!

A little more than a year ago, the French-speaking Swiss Marianne Weymann (see picture) was ordained in Église protestante de Genève for work within Église évangelique réformée de canton du Vaud, a little further inland from Geneva. At present, she works in the congregation Terre Sainte (Holy Land) in Céligny.
What makes this interesting, and is the reason I wanted to blog about it, is that pastor Weymann is a Lesbian, and that the Church authorities have been aware of it all along. There are no skeletons in the cupboard here! Of course, this is the first time it happens, but that doesn't matter.
In Geneva as early as in 1988, pastor Weymann was engaged in founding the group C+H (Chrétien-ne-s et Homosexuel-le-s) for christians, homosexuals and combinations thereof. Twenty years later, the EPG had had a change of heart, and she could be consacrated (as the word is there. Well done! I wish God's rich blessings on pastor Weymann and her co-workers!

About dogs and people

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.

- James Thurber
as quoted by the Episcopal padre

To die for

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Says God

And it came to pass that God visited the earth, and He did behold a series of billboard ads attributing to Him utterances of such banality that they would never pass His lips in a billion years. And it came to pass that God in His wrath considered a libel suit, but in the end opted simply to mount a cantankerous, self-contradictory ad campaign of His own...

I never said, "Thou shalt not think."
—God

Okay, you've got multiplying down. Now let's try replenishing for a while.
—God

I don't care who started it. Just stop it.
—God

If you seek to know my ways, read a science book.
—God

You'd better have stopped fighting by the time I get back, or you're all grounded.
—God

Six days? Yeah, right. I'm a scientist, not a magician.
—God

E=mc². Yeah, that's one of mine.
—God

The dinosaurs didn't believe in you either.
—God

Excuse me? Where do you see my name on the front of the Bible?
—God

Only six thousand years old? Oh, that's a good one.
—God

Just look at this planet! Do you expect me to clean this up?
—God

I love Marilyn Manson, too. Maybe more than I love you.
—God

Here's a clue—if they say they're doing it in my name, they're lying.
—God

I gave you a bigger brain for a reason. Start using it.
—God

Want to know how old the earth is? Ask the earth, not the Bible.
—God

If you don't clean this place up, you won't get another millennium.
—God

I don't blame video games when my children start shooting each other.
—God

I like to kick things off with a bang. A Big Bang.
—God

If you didn't hear it straight from my lips, take it with a grain of salt.
—God

All this will someday be your children's.
—God

There is no such thing as killing in my name.
—God

Stop smirking. I'm talking to you, too.
—God

Thanks to Ad Hoc and Karin!

Havel on hope

I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist, because I am not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart. Hope is a feeling that life and work have a meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you. Life without hope is an empty, boring and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big a gift as life itself.

- Vaclav Havel
as quoted on Musings of an episcopal padre

Penguins, penguins, penguins...

Penguins! Endearing creatures that seldom get eaten by polar bears, of geographical reasons. I've come across them in a few different contexts lately.

One example is the story of the two male Humboldt penguins, Z and Vielpunkt (picture), who are raising a chick together in the "Zoo am Meer" zoological park in Bremerhaven, northern Germany. The proud fathers are one of three homosexual penguin pairs at the zoo. They assumed the role of surrogate parents when an egg was cast aside by a heterosexual pair. The zoo has tried to have gay birds incubate an egg before, but this is the only occasion it has worked.
The story has appeared at least in the Huffington Post and the Local (Germany), and on Of course, I could be wrong... and the Pet Blog during the first days of this month of June, 2009.

I found another charming story about penguins on Of Course I Could Be On Vacation...:

Touching Penguin Ritual
Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica - where do they go? Wonder no more!!!
It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life. The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintaining a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life.
If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into and buried.
The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing: "freeze a jolly good fellow."

(Actually, I have some small doubts about the veracity of the last statement. Is this a penguin story or a shaggy dog story, one might wonder. The answer, however, is obvious.)

Laugh or die!

You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.

- Michael Pritchard
as quoted on Bailey's Buddy