Norwegian church divided over apology to LGBT community
Photo Unsplash, Constantin Wenning
Northern Europe
Should the Church of Norway apologise officially to the LGBT community for its attitude against homosexuals? The chief representative of the Church of Norway thinks it ought to. Some critics call the move unbiblical.
Presiding bishop Olav Fykse Tveit argued in a Facebook post that the highest body of the Norwegian Church should offer an apology to LGBT people. Tveit did so in relation to the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of sexual relationships between men, Kristeligt Dagblad reports.
Tveit says to Vart Land that the Church should apologise because it made "the living situation of people with an LGBT identity difficult through [its] attitudes and the way [it] behaved."
The representative of the Church of Norway referred to the treatment of HIV patients by the Church, among other things. The ecclesiastical leadership saw the disease as a punishment for sexually immoral behaviour.
Resistance against apology
However, not everyone agrees that the Church of Norway should apologise to the LHBT community. Jo Hedberg, leader of the conservative party in the church parliament Bønnelista (posessing 9 out of 76 seats), says to Vart Land that it is unbiblical to do so. Referring to the Bible and several creeds from the time of the Reformation, he argues that homosexual cohabitation is wrong. Therefore, an apology would only harm the Church. "In doing so, we distance ourselves from God. That has never brought anything good. God is not going to change His will." Apologising in itself is not wrong, Hedberg stresses. "But it must agree with the foundation of the church."
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