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Anti-Gay Campaign Doubles Average Church Resignations

The anti-gay campaign launched by Christian youth organisations has seen a sharp rise in resignations from the Lutheran church. In just over a week since the campaign – titled Älä Alistu, or ‘Don’t Submit’ – began, the online church resignation service eroakirkosta.fi says that some 4,200 people have resigned from the church.

Image: Yle

30.3.2011 10:59Updated 11.4.2012 5:29

The figure amounts to more than 40 percent of this year’s church resignations. The website said that around 10,000 people had resigned from the church this year as of Tuesday.

Eroakirkosta.fi says that the number of resignations has been twice the usual number for this time of year. Since the end of the campaign the number of resignations has subsided to the seasonal average.

Resignees have given different reasons for their decision. Some have criticised the church’s perceived narrow-mindedness and discrimination against homosexuals, while others have said that their decision is for doctrinal reasons as the church is too liberal towards gay people.

The Don’t Submit campaign did not cause as many resignations as YLE’s ’gay evening’ last autumn. Controversial statements by the leader of the Christian Democrat party in that broadcast were followed by the resignations of approximately 40,000 members of the church.