When religion is another word for public service

Dreher:

In Denmark, a controversy has erupted over a congregation of the state Lutheran church’s requirement for its new pastor: that he affirm belief in God as a condition of employment. This has never before happened in Denmark.

It has come to this.

Here’s an article in Danish about it, though it’s firewalled from non-subscribers. Because I gave a comment to the reporter, I received a PDF copy, which I ran through Google translate. Here are my remarks, which appear in Danish, but which I’ve retranslated thanks to Google, and recalling what I told the reporter:

“Europeans have become accustomed to the idea that the church is a public service in line with your telephone company or power plant. As Soren Kierkegaard said: If all perceived as Christians, simply because they are born as Danes, Christianity to exist. The absurd Danish controversy is just the end result of the dynamic that Kierkegaard identified. A Christianity that does not require faith is not Christianity. If a priest does not believe in God, he is useless, and the whole thing is an empty ritual, a charade,” says Rod Dreher.

 

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