Something Rotten? The State of Religious Freedom in Denmark

“There goes freedom.”

Statements lamenting the demise of religious liberty have appeared frequently on social media as members of the Twitterverse and Facebook have shed light on a recent piece of Danish legislation that requires the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) to allow same-sex couples to marry in their churches. Defenders of religious liberty understandably fear such a decision, but the legislation in Denmark is not that new of a development. In fact, much of the information published online misleads readers. Let’s get the facts straight:

According to the Pew Research Center, Denmark became the first country to allow same-sex couples to register as domestic partners in 1989. In 2010, “the country enacted a law allowing gay couples in registered partnerships the right to adopt children.” The same Pew Research article says, “In June 2012, Denmark’s legislature passed a bill legalizing gay marriage. The measure was enacted into law a few days later when Queen Margrethe II gave her royal assent to the bill.”

The legalization of gay marriage directly affected one religious institution, the ELC, which is the official state church of Denmark. The US State Department presented religious demographics for the nation of Denmark in its International Religious Freedom Report for 2011: “Based on 2011 official statistics, approximately 80 percent of the population belongs to the ELC. Although only 2 to 3 percent of citizens attend services regularly, approximately 50 percent of them utilize the church at least once annually for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals, and religious holidays.” Interestingly enough, the only difference in the 2012 report (the most current) is a more generic statistic regarding regular attendance: “Although reportedly fewer than 10 percent of citizens attend services once a month or more…”

The government-issued affirmation of same-sex marriage necessitated the availability of ELC sanctuaries for same-sex marriage ceremonies due to the ELC’s official connection to the Danish government. This 2012 law in no way requires any member of the ELC clergy to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies (in fact, the law protects the clerical right to choose in these circumstances). The 2012 law also allows other religious groups to be autonomous in their decisions regarding same-sex marriage, and clarifies that ceremonies in state churches must be longer, formal marriage ceremonies, not short blessing ceremonies that had occurred at the end of church services since 1997. These short ceremonies became a regular church practice as a result of a declaration made by ELC bishops in 1997, when they did not recognize same-sex partnerships as marriages, which they still defined as occurring between one man and one woman. In the years since, the ELC has also independently chosen to ordain homosexual men and women as members of its clergy, but not without controversy.

The ELC neither accepted nor performed same-sex marriages until mandated to do so in 2012. A few exceptions exist, such as the ‘Provo Priest’ Harald Søbye, who performed over 200 same-sex partnership blessings and technically illegal and unrecognized marriage ceremonies beginning in 1973.

Denmark’s parliament did pass a law recently relating to same-sex marriages in Denmark’s state church, but most reports delineate a minor amendment to the 2012 law. Clergy may continue to opt out of officiating, but they no longer have the right to refuse their church buildings to be used for the ceremonies.

Much of the current confusion comes from a Telegraph article (interestingly enough, from June 2012…) that opens, “The country’s parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.” Richard Orange’s wording was simply unspecific; had he said “all state churches” instead, much of this confusion would not exist. The new law still does not currently affect non-state churches, as evidenced by a statement from the Vatican Radio.

Can defenders of religious liberty breathe easy? I’m not sure we should expect much from a state church, honestly. Based on the current state of legislation, religious freedom in Denmark still exists despite this troubling trend. As long as non-state churches remain unaffected and ELC clergy maintain the right to opt out of performing same-sex marriage ceremonies, defenders can at least breathe easier. Soli Deo Gloria