A Danish clergyman of the Lutheran Protestant Church (LPC) faces a church trial over his public statements that he does not believe in God, resurrection, or eternal life [link from The Revealer]. The problem isn't that this pastor's faith headed south. What's wrong is that the LPC needs to hold a trial to figure out whether those views are incompatible with being an LPC minister. What's wrong is they may very well decide those views are okay as long as the pastor makes it clear to his flock they are perfectly justified in maintaining their own faith in such things.
Luther, a bold believer if ever there was one, must surely be puzzled over Lutheranism and the state of Christianity in Germany and Scandinavia. I attended the confirmation of a friend's teenage daughter at a Lutheran church in Sweden a few years ago. Dozens and dozens of youth participating, several hundred observers, flowers, singing, a really big deal. Yet these same Swedes design their homes with a little bedroom right by the front door so their teenagers can sneak in unobtrusively (without Mom and Dad having to notice) with the friend of their choice and experiment with Nordic sex--the teenagers don't have cars, you see. It's all so nicely planned, almost programmed. But it shows how lightly they carry their Lutheranism. I can't see how the Danish pastor can possibly be convicted. He's probably quite popular locally. I'll bet dimes to donuts it's his embarrassing popularity that is the problem, not his beliefs per se!
Absurd, absurd, absurd. The notion of having a nonbelieving ecclesiast who professes his unbelief is yet another rotten fruit on the hybrid tree of Christianity and relativism. Still, I expect that the increasing Muslim influence in Europe will awaken Christianity. I hate that xenophobia maybe what gets people to open their eyes, but there are worse things.
Posted by: Nate Cardon | Jul 15, 2004 at 11:56 PM