Tine N. Paulsen
Sweden joined 4 other European countries in May 2009, when the Swedish parliament passed a law that officially made same-sex marriage possible in church.
Sweden has long been a leader in giving homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals. The country was among the first in the world to give gay couples legal partnership rights, and since 2002 has allowed them to adopt children.
The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Norway have all passed similar “marriage” laws during the last decade, but Sweden is the first country where the law has a monumental effect on the country’s main church, The Swedish Lutheran Church.
The law makes it possible for all pastors who agree to it to perform the ceremony in their churches. However, the Lutheran Church has not agreed to call it “marriage” yet, because they think the term refers strictly to a union between a man and a woman.
Although other religious groups in Sweden are more split on the issue, with Muslims and Roman-Catholics making more sceptical comments on the law, the Lutheran church argues that this is a very important move for Sweden to have churches going in front and be a good example. “It is important that the Church of Sweden can be ecumenically weighty by being one step ahead and showing potential pathways. We are first in this context,” says Claes-Bertil Ytterberg of the Swedish Lutheran Church.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7978495.stm
http://www.thelocal.se/6713/20070316/
