Finnish Pastor Convicted by Court for Holding Line on Gender Roles in the Church

A pastor in Finland and two of his evangelical colleagues are suffering the consequences of obeying the Bible's injunction that forbids female pastors in an egregious violation of the separation of church and state.

A Finnish district court last week convicted and fined Ari Norro, a preacher in the Luther state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF), with criminal discrimination for refusing to conduct a worship service with a female pastor, according to a Christianity Today report. 

Norro was fined the equivalent of 20 days of his salary, according to CT. Acting vicar Tauno Tuominen and Pirkko Ojala, chairman of the Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland, were also found guilty of similar charges and fined. All three men will now have a criminal record.

The case first unfolded in March when Norro was scheduled to preach at a Sunday morning communion service in southern Finland. Fifteen minutes before the service, female preacher Petra Pohjanraito arrived to serve at the altar. Norro offered to leave the church, but Pohjanraito chose to leave instead. A church council requested a police investigation into the matter, leading to charges against Norro, Tuominen and Ojala.

Finland's laws prohibit any discrimination either in the workplace or in public based on race, language, age, family ties, health, religion, political orientation, work, sexual orientation, or gender.

The ELCF has been ordaining women since 1986, and in 2006 the Bishop's Conference ruled that pastors do not have a right to refuse to work with female pastors, even if they believe it to violate the teaching of Scripture. Pastors who don't accept women's ordination cannot be appointed vicar of a parish.

Norro fears that the case has set a dangerous precedent and will lead to pastors being put on trial if they refuse to work with a gay pastor or teach that homosexuality is a sin.

"It's sad that the church can't resolve problems like this one," Norro told CT. "In this case, the church itself winds a rope round its neck and gives the end of the rope to the state."

A fundamental issue in the Norro case is the grossly unbiblical nature of a state-sponsored church; by intervening in this case, the governing authorities of Finland have overstepped their proper sphere of authority.

Scripture is clear that God has ordained government to wield the sword of steel (Rom 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-15) and Christians are duty-bound to submit to these authorities insofar as they maintain their proper domain in a way that is commensurate with Scripture.

However, the church, and the church alone, is called to wield the sword of the Spirit. Genuine effectual faith cannot be coerced; similarly, certain convictions, such as the Bible's teaching on leadership in the church, cannot be regulated by human authorities. The government is not called to be a conduit of the Gospel; that is the domain of the church. Neither complementarian nor egalitarian teachings should ever be enforced by human courts. 

I am thankful for the courage of Norro and his co-laborers and their willingness to suffer for the sake of truth. May God use these circumstances to grant these men and other faithful truth-telling evangelicals in Finland rock-ribbed perseverance and profound growth in their faith in accord with James 1:2-4: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."  (ESV)