5000+ members leaving the church after anti-gay campaign!

The Christian Youth Newspaper Nuotta performed a 'belly landing' in its purest form "with a campaign against homosexuality: Finnish Protestants left the church en-masse in protest over the ad!

How QueerNews reports, the magazine to convey to young people to "abandon homosexuality and instead read the Bible and follow Christ". (We blogged about this Homophobic Ad-Campaign here yesterday!) The campaign was a YouTube video of "Annie" in a peaceful white winter landscape explains that she was freed by their faith from their bisexuality. She asks the audience: "If murderers can be cured, why should it not be possible to cure gays and lesbians?"

Apparently Finns don't care about that question at all!! On the contrary: instead of more people leading to Christianity the campaign caused nearly 3.000 people to leave Evangelical Lutheran Church. On Tuesday night 1 person per minute left the Evangelical Lutheran-Church. By comparison, usually "only" 50 people a day leave the church in Finland.

Now, the campaign was halted after only one week. The organizers apologized and stressed that their aim was not, to hurt feelings or to demonstrate against homosexuality, but to help only those who would like to change their sexual orientation.

This was clear but not in Finland, the Finnish sexologist Tarja Sandberg. Compared with the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE she warns that such campaigns could be very dangerous for young people: It is precisely through such campaigns that get young gay and lesbian issues with their sexual orientation. This can lead to serious disorders and even suicide. "That's the problem for my clients - they do not understand, what they should be cured of. Homosexuality is not a disorder, it is not a disease that needs to be healed..," Explains Sandberg.

An opinion that is shared within the church: So, another Lutheran youth organization condemned the campaign sharply and expresses its solidarity with all who suffer in the Church regarding sexual orientation.

Immediately after the advent of the protests has made clear, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland that it has nothing to do with the campaign, condemns and distances itself in all the clarity of her. However, it was supported by reports from two groups of YLE, which are also subsidized church tax.

Source: GGG.at