“Älä alistu,” or “don’t acquiesce,” advised a campaign from the Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland, which encouraged teens questioning their heterosexuality not to give in to their demons. Instead, it encouraged droves of Lutherans to formally resign from the church.
The campaign — which was kicked off in part by the magazine Nuotta, whose editor Mika Falk expected there to be controversy (but not split the Church) — features the story of “Maria,” a young bisexual lass who was able to find her way to straightness through religion. If murderers can be rehabilitated, she opined, then why not gays?
Having wrapped up its one-week run, the campaign has drawn criticism from Kari Mäkinen, Archbishop of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, though it’s drawn praise from some groups that receive financial contributions from the Church. The Christian Democrats of Finland, meanwhile, have insisted the party had nothing to do with the campaign, though leader Päivi Räsänen argued the campaign was a spiritual, not political one.
You can understand why the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church wants to distance itself from the campaign: Hundreds of people signed an online statement declaring they’ve cut ties with the church over the message of “Älä alistu.”
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McMike
Wow, it’s unreal how hateful some religious people can be. To sit there and tell a child they’re demonic is unfuckingreal.
greenmanTN
Better yet, why can’t homosexuals murder evangelicals? Then the world really would be a better place AND the evangelicals could get the express-train to the heaven they claim to believe in so it’s win/win.
I can’t help but notice that this is the big “new” tactic of the Religious Right. Even they’re admitting that it’s inborn, not a “choice,” and they can’t change it. Even the Exodus turds are admitting they have to police their impulses all the time so they don’t accidentally “slip” and suck a dick.
So their brilliant new idea is “OK, but why do have to ACT on it? You can just repress your sexuality for your entire life and the rest of us can do whatever the fuck we want like always!” Yeah, what a great bargain.
I’ve got a better one. How about you take your deranged ancient fantasy novel written by desert nomads and shove it up your ass?
Tallskin
God’s teeth, fucking christians again!!
And where the fuck is cassandra to defend this shit??? Not daring to show her face, that’s where
The sane Francis
These people attack and hate our community so fiercely because being openly gay in a homophobic world takes a lot of courage, strength and having to put up with bullshit. Since most gay people (and all people) grew up having to deal with anti-gay religious bullshit, when we make it through the other side and stand on our own two feet, that discredits the churches’ brainwashing schemes and education. We are a threat to them because we are fully capable of being ourselves without the fear of “what will God say about me” or “my community of conservative religious freaks will hate me”. Organized religion is all about mind control. These people are hateful but even more than that, they are con artists.
Alex
Good for this girl. More and more, I find myself being happy for my homosexuality (something I’d never have imagined when I first came out to myself: back then it seemed like a burden), because trying to reconcile it with my faith led me down the road of reason to atheism. Beyond that, it has sensitized me to the plight of others: women, racial minorities, and underdogs in general. It’s made me a more considerate and thoughtful person than I might otherwise have had incentive to become.
RJP
@Alex… I agree with you. I am also an atheist but I have told people before that if I were religious I would thank the gods everyday for making me gay because I see more clearly than most what monsters people can be to each other no matter the race, faith, and other isms that shocks some but it is my truth though I am still optimistic about humanity as a whole.
Steve
The good side of this is that we see that there are many religious people who recognize ignorance and won’t have any part of it. It gives me hope.