The Roman Catholic Church in Norway has joined Baptists, Pentecostals and free Lutherans in an effort to clarify a Christian position on marriage, ‘gender diversity’, and the rights of children.

In Norway, the theologically liberal Lutheran Church of Norway (Den Norske Kirke, to which the majority of the population still belongs on paper) marries homosexual couples, and has included LGBTQI theologies and included sexual diversity policies, in the line of the laws promoted by successive governments.

In contrast, Christian organisations holding to a historic view of marriage and sexuality (including Operation Mobilisation, the student movement Laget and the Norwegian Lutheran Mission) have now joined forces with church groups to declare a position, “based on our faith in the Bible as the Word of God, on the recognition of biological realities and out of respect for the human rights of children”.

Christian doctrine and biology

The concise document (which can be downloaded here), underlines the Bible’s teaching that “God created humans male and female”, and that “marriage is a divine institution inscribed in natural law” that “unites a man and a woman”. Sexuality outside this bond is “at odds with the Bible’s theology of creation and with Jesus’s ethical teaching”, the signatories says.

It is biology that confirms that there are “only two biological sexes”, something confirmed “at conception”. Therefore, “the notion that gender is a subjective category and that sexual and gender identity can be freely chosen on the basis of feelings or preference, irrespective of biological sex, is based on ideology. It has no biological or scientific foundation”, the text continues. 

Protecting children from harmful ideas

Teaching children that they may have been “born in the wrong body” or that “gender is ‘fluid’” is “immensely problematic”, say these Christian organisations, since it may lead to “confusion, insecurity, and destructive life choices”.

The document also addresses the debate around surrogacy, stating that it is “no adult’s right to have a child”, and that “neither mother nor father, nor the wider family of either, is superfluous or irrelevant in a child’s life”.

Even so, the signatories clarify that “regardless of the manner in which they are conceived, all children are equally precious, equally loved by God”.

Invitation to respectful debate

The organisations and churches say: “We wish to encounter all people with respect, reasonably and kindly – ‘speaking the truth in love’ (Ephesians 4:15). But we will not compromise on Biblical truths, even if these truths should conflict with political pressure or societal trends”.

They call people with opposing views on matters of marriage, sexuality and children’s rights to still “encounter one another respect and friendliness”. In this sense, they add, “we reject, in every setting, all forms of bullying and ostracism, manipulation and coercion, harassment and hatred, sabotage and violence”.

Government’s pressures in a secularised society

The Christians signing the document have also expressed their hopes for Norway to continue to be a “a democratic, pluralistic, and open-minded society where there is space for diversity of beliefs characterised by mutual respect”.

Human Rights such as “freedom of expression and conscience, as well as religious freedom”, are “central and essential”.

The signatories specifically address the political power. “We hold that public authorities and governmental bodies exceed their mandate and power by attempting to pressure citizens and organisations to adapt to ‘queer theory’ on gender, sexuality, and marriage”, the document says. “Such activism on the part of government violates religious freedom and freedom of conscience, as well as the rights of parents”.

The Minister for Equality of the Norwegian government, Lubna Jaffery, reacted to the declaration saying some of its points were “scandalous”, reported CNE News and newspaper Vart Land. She suggested that “queer Christians” would “not feel particularly welcome in these organisations” and claimed Norway’s society had moved beyond such debates.

This is the full list of the church denominations and organisations who have supported the Joint Christian Declaration on ‘Diversity of Gender and Sexuality’ in Norway so far.