Norwegian Church bans gay members who bring their partner to the service

Living together with or being married to a same-sex partner is disruptive to the other members and their beliefs, the church leadership writes in its proposal for new guidelines, as reported by Vårt Land. Therefore, the church administration wants to be able to impose sanctions on members who bring their same-sex partner to worship services.

The BCC wrote in a letter to the Norwegian State Administrator that people with a homosexual orientation are not excluded for their sexual identity per se. They can hold all forms of office or employment and be church members, the leadership stated in a letter. However, when the orientation is lived out, for example, in the form of sexual cohabitation, the way of life conflicts with BCC's understanding of the Bible, the church argued, as reported by Segirt.

The Bible is very clear that cohabitation should be a marriage between a man and a woman, Harald Kronstad explains to Vårt Land. He is the director of the Brunstad Christian Church. "Therefore, we do not want to introduce other forms of cohabitation, such as homosexual cohabitation or marriage, in our congregations. Those who choose for this way of life anyways show that they do not meet the conditions for membership", he writes in a letter to the newspaper.

"Not discriminating"

The proposal's publication has led to much criticism. The Norwegian State Administrator received several reports of concern, Sb reports. However, it concluded that the proposed regulations are not discriminating. "According to the Religious Communities Act, there is nothing to prevent a religious community from discriminating, as long as the discrimination is based on the faith itself", Hege Nyhus, the department director of the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken, says.

Former member Paul Omar Lervåg finds the proposed rules ethically unjustifiable. He broke with the church in his teenage years and came out as gay in his early 20s. The fact that BCC has regulations which threaten cohabiting members with sanctions is an expression of social control, he says to Vårt Land. "Members end up in a situation where they must choose between two extremes: either you follow the cohabitation ethics and leave your partner, or you leave the congregation."

According to Lervåg, it is not disturbing for other church members to bring same-sex partners to church. "People tend to emphasise with the people around them. The more you get to know them, the more you realise that discriminating against someone is nonsense. Is BCC afraid that other members will think the congregation's relationship ethics are wrong?"

Clear framework

Harald Kronstadt from the BCC points out that the church is growing and that providing the congregation with a clear framework for the conditions of membership, including rights and obligations, is good. "Sanctions are common in all organisations and necessary to secure the members' interest", he says to Vårt Land. "But it is something that is used extremely rarely in BCC's congregations. It is the last resort."

The new proposal will be presented at the national meeting of the leadership of the BCC in December. The recommendation of the church is to enforce it starting in 2023.