Quota for Homosexual Clergymen?

Not everybody in the Norwegian Lutheran Church has accepted homosexual clergymen yet, but nevertheless, the Norwegian Association for Lesbian and Homosexual Emancipation (LLH, Landsforeningen for lesbisk og homofil frigjøring) yesterday said that it would like to see quota introduced for them. Another organization, the Open Church Group (Åpen kirkegruppe), stated that in dioceses that had a positive view towards homosexual clergymen should actively go out and recruit them for their parishes.

The LLH notes that homosexual clergymen aren't everywhere welcome yet, and in some cases their applications aren't even considered when a new vicar has to be appointed. The spokesman of the association, Nils Riedl, even made the point that the fight for homosexual clergymen can be compared to the fight for female clergymen. Therefore the association wants to improve the position of the lesbians and homosexual within the Norwegian Lutheran Church by imposing quota. In a reaction to the proposal both the social democratic Labor Party (Ap, Arbeiderpartiet) and the conservative Right (H, Høyre) said they supported the organization's objectives, but not the quota. They think they would damage the interests of the homosexual in the long run.

One can be irritated by the demand of the LLH, or react in a rather humorous way and wonder whether we'll soon see a demand for atheistic clergymen too. If you opt for the latter approach, maybe you should be reminded of the story of the Danish vicar Thorkild Grosbøll a few months ago. At first he had expressed he didn't believe in God, but after a row and a short suspension from his job he seemed to have regained his faith in God and could continue his work.

So what else could there be in this tale of quota and surrealistic proposals? Some Muslim clergymen perhaps? Believe it or not, but in Sweden the question whether the Swedish part in the name of the Svenska Kyrkan should be removed has already popped up because it may be too hostile against immigrants. Some say that in a multicultural society, the Church should become multicultural and hence include immigrants too. References to the Swedishnes of the Swedish Church should therefore be avoided. I assume that once they start to go down that road, Muslim vicars shouldn't be excluded either.

Two thousand years ago, Christianity was founded by a white, young, religious man, and if there's any truth in The Da Vinci Code, He was heterosexual too. If for example the Open Church Group gets it as it wants, soon enough vicars like Him will rather be the exception than the rule in the «enlightened» dioceses. Next time God wants to save the world, He'd better send His black lesbian daughter who doesn't believe too much in Him or her brother.