On Thu, April 3, 2025 at 9:55 AM Biskop Torkild Masvie <[email protected]> wrote this concerning an article that featured The Lutheran Church in Norway (LKN) in one of Norway’s most prominent daily newspapers:
Dear friends,
We may be heading towards a storm in Norway for not being politically correct. Pray for us that we may be able to handle the media attention in a way that will provide further church growth.
The Lutheran Church in Norway is today on the front page of Aftenposten daily newspaper, Norway’s most prominent paper. We become the example of a church with segregated activities and discrimination.
The issue is, among other things, that our church has “segregated” activities. There are occasional private women’s gatherings in homes and private men’s meetings in homes in the Oslo congregation. Those are the only segregated activities that exist in our church.
Our discrimination is that we only have male pastors. That is enough to get the authorities to keep an eye on us.
I’m providing a link to the website of the church where we present a statement about the article. Use google translate for better understanding.
https://lkn.no/2025/aftenposten-skriver-om-lkn-statsstotte-og-regjeringens-merkelapper/
Aftenposten writes about LKN (The Lutheran Church in Norway), state aid, and government labels.
In Aftenposten’s cover case on April 3, 2025, three journalists write about state aid to various religious communities, based on a recent report. The journalists point out that every fourth religious community in Norway has stated that they have limited equality within the congregation, and that the real figure is somewhat higher. LKN is highlighted as one of the churches that talks the truth about themselves.
Government’s labels
Several labels are used in the case, including state aid, discrimination, and segregation. The labels come from a form that all registered congregations must fill out when applying for state funds. These are the three questions that Aftenposten bases the case on:
- Does the religious or belief society practice restrictions on access to their own activities, governing bodies, positions, or positions related to one or more discrimination in the Gender Equality and Discrimination Act?
- Has the belief or belief community segregated services?
- Did the belief or life-belief society receive a total of NOK 50,000 or more in contributions from one or more donors in a country other than Norway?
The label discrimination is thus used on LKN, because the priesthood is reserved for men. The label segregation comes from the fact that members in some congregations organize male evenings and women’s evenings. When we also call “state aid” a label, it is because this word overlooks the fact that it is a church tax the state collects on behalf of all denominations. The politicians have chosen to do so in this way, and decided that the tax rate should be calculated based on what is granted to the Norwegian Church. It is therefore not a support from the state, but a scheme that will ensure that the church tax share comes to the religious community the individual citizen belongs to-and not to the Norwegian Church. The term “state aid” indicates that it is the state’s gracious support to those who follow the authorities’ ideology.
A call to confess Biblical teaching
God’s word is life. If we let go of it, we lose our eternal salvation. Losing reputation in society, state aid, the right to gather, or whatever else it may be, is nothing against losing our part in eternal life. Jesus says, “For what does it benefit from a human being if he wins the whole world, but is harming his soul? For what can a person give to remuneration for his soul?” (Mark 8:36) Therefore, we must continue to confess biblical teachings.
Torkild Masvie, Bishop
Sakarias Ingolfsson, Vice Bishop
FOLCIN notes: It appears that the Norwegian government uses the questionnaires that are linked to government support as a way to keep an eye on LKN and other religious organizations.
It would seem that many religious organizations have not answered honestly, and the newspaper article uses LKN as an example of a church that answers questionnaire questions honestly.
LKN receives about $20,000 USD a year from the government. If the government drops LKN’s funding because of the “offenses”, Norwegian donors won’t be able to claim the same tax benefits of donations to LKN. Only donations of up to $2,000 USD a year could be claimed.
Please pray that the unsolicited attention from the press will attract more people to the truth of God’s Word. Pray for the generous support of LKN to continue during this potential crisis.