Supporters of gender-neutral marriage say church can choose whom it wants to marry

Kari Mäkinen

Ville Niinistö

Taru Tujunen

Annika Lapintie

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Parliamentary parties supporting gender-neutral marriage generally have no problem in allowing the Evangelical Lutheran Church to set its own practices with respect to marriage.
      The Green League, the Social Democratic Party, and the National Coalition Party have all taken stands supporting gender-neutral marriage.
      A large proportion of MPs of the Left Alliance are also in favour of such a practice.
     
Lutheran Archbishop Kari Mäkinen said in a television interview programme on Wednesday that he feels that it is important for the church to retain the right to perform marriages.
      Eero Huovinen, the Bishop of Helsinki, said in July that a gender-neutral marriage law could lead to a situation in which the church gives up its legal right to seal marriages.
      Mäkinen disagrees: “There are no pressures in the debate that would demand a change in the law on marriage.”
     
Mäkinen emphasised that same-sex couples should nevertheless have the same rights that married couples currently enjoy.
      “What is most significant is that society should secure a permanent couple relationship and equal rights regardless of gender”, Mäkinen emphasised. He includes in this legal protections, such as inheritance.
      Mäkinen added that it is important that the church’s concept of marriage should be defined in discussion within the church and not from the outside, and that the notion of couples of the same gender does not fit into that concept at present.
     
“The church can decide itself whom it marries”, says Ville Niinistö, chairman of the Green Parliamentary group.
      “I hope that the church would be progressive in this, but it is most important to get legislation giving equal rights.”
      “People’s rights before the law should be the same”, says National Coalition Party Secretary Taru Tujunen. “But the church has the right to choose whom it marries.”
      “If the church decides only to marry heterosexual couples, it is a matter for the church”, says Social Democratic MP Tarja Filatov. She feels that a gender neutral marriage law is needed to ease the everyday lives of families.
     
However, Left Alliance MP Annika Lapintie takes issue with the idea that the Lutheran Church would get to choose which of its members it will agree to marry.
      “We have a constitution, which guarantees equal treatment for all. If someone is a member of the church, all of the church’s services should be available.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Proposal for gender-neutral marriages puts future of church weddings in doubt (2.8.2010)

See also:
  National Coalition Party has confused stance on gay marriage (17.8.2010)

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