Norwegian Jehovah's Witnesses demand subsidy despite their loss of religious status
Jehovah's Witnesses evangelising. Photo Jehovah's Witnesses
Northern Europe
The Norwegian Jehovah's Witnesses demand subsidies from the state for 2021. That is remarkable because they lost their status as a religious community last year.
Yet, the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they have the law on their side when asking for grants, Vart Land writes. "We are convinced that the Jehovah's Witnesses meet all the legal requirements to receive state subsidies for 2022 and 2023", spokesperson Fabian Fond writes in an e-mail to the newspaper. The community believes it is entitled to 35 million NOK (about 3 million euros).
The Religious Communities Act specifies that only registered faith and life-view communities are eligible for the grants. The Jehovah's Witnesses lost that registration in 2022. However, they argue that they did have the status of religious community at the time they applied for the grants, ABC Nyeter writes.
Status
The Jehovah's Witnesses applied for their subsidies in February 2022. At the time, they were still registered as a religious community, the Jehovah's Witnesses point out in a letter to the State Administrator. They lost their status in December.
However, they appealed this decision and requested a "temporary injunction", which was granted by the Oslo District Court. That means that the Jehovah's Witnesses retain their registered status until their court case is decided. As a result, the Jehovah's Witnesses argue, they must be considered registered at the time they applied for the 2023 grants in February. In April, their temporary registration was annulled by the district court.
Now, the Witnesses call for answers to their applications for grants. They criticise the fact that one and a half years have already passed since their applications for the grants for 2022. The State Administrator does not want to respond yet, Vart Land writes.
Currently, the Jehovah's Witnesses are engaged in a legal battle over their status. They sued the state over its decision to strip them of their registration as a religious community and about the cancellation of their right to seal marriages. The reason for the decision of the state is the exclusionary practice that the Witnesses apply when someone leaves the faith community. The trial is scheduled for next January in the Oslo district court.
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