Danish Priest Denies Existence of God
Here’s an interesting one. From the BBC comes the staid AP version of the story: Doubting Danish priest suspended. Thorkild Grosboel, a Lutheran priest, has given an interview in which he said, “there is no heavenly God” (among other brow-raising statements).
For a slightly more-fun version of the story, see Christianity Today: Danish pastor suspended after denying God, eternal life, and resurrection.
September 26th, 2004 at 3:27 am
Thorkild Grosboel’s only mistake was one of ommission, he ommitted to distinguish between the literal and metaphorical interpretation of these religious concepts. Essentially he is trying to shepherd people onwards from the tyrannical puerility of fundamental Christianity and I agree with him wholeheartedly. A little more diplomacy might have avoided the confrontation, but perhaps there needs to be a confrontation to draw attention to the nature of fundamentalism which is essentially an immature misinterpretation of the religion which governed Europe for two millenia. Fundamentalism itself being in part a response to adolescent threats from other fundamentalist religions. The Christian response to such threats should be a faith in our fellows and our community, but that good faith has been eroded by the right wing factionalism and politics of self which began to reassert themselves in the eighties in both Europe and US and took us too far from the mutualism which fosters a strong and trusting community. Once you break faith it takes a long time to regain trust.