Several Swedish church politicians entered the debate surrounding three bishops' statements about not ordaining those who refuse to marry same-sex couples. If the bishops “want to get closer to non-biblical rainbow religion”, they should start a new denomination”, write five politicians of the right-wing Sweden Democrats (SD).
As CNE reported earlier, three bishops from the Church of Sweden, Mikael Mogren, Andreas Holmberg and Sören Dalevi, said in December that they do not want to ordain those who refuse to ordain same-sex couples. Bishop Holmberg argues that he would not ordain such a priest “because it would be very difficult for him to get a priest's position in the Stockholm diocese.”
Swedish Bishop refuses ordination of priest with traditional marriage view
However, the SD politicians believe these statements are discriminatory, so they write an op-ed in Expressen. They point out that the Church of Sweden's current order protects same-sex couples' rights by having an obligation to offer a priest to perform the ordination if such wishes exist. But they believe that the order that has prevailed in the church since 2009 with the so-called right of ordination – where a priest can refrain from officiating – should continue to apply. “We believe that the religious freedom of priests is not respected if they are forced to go outside the classical biblical norm that a marriage is between a man and a woman,” they write.
In their debate article, the five SD politicians take up the shortage of priests in the Church of Sweden as an argument and believe that it is not a recipe for success to sort out Bible-faithful candidates for the priesthood. Another reason to question the statements from the bishops is that it alienates the Church of Sweden from the worldwide church, the politicians believe.
The SD politicians propose that the bishops create their own community instead of risking splitting the church. “If the bishops are driven by an ideology that does not agree with the Christian faith – but want to approach a non-biblical rainbow religion – they should start a new community,” they write. They also think that bishops Mogren, Holmberg and Dalevi should focus on evangelization in their diocese instead of “acting as politically correct communicators for the left-liberal political interests”.
