"Surkean surkea uutinen" – lähetystyön pyhä, heteronormatiivinen järjestys muuttuvassa kirkossa ja maailmassa

Lähetystyön pyhä, heteronormatiivinen järjestys muuttuvassa kirkossa ja maailmassa

Authors

• Eetu Kejonen

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23980/sqs.70784

Abstract

The article analyses an online forum debate generated by a blessing of a same-sex couple to missionary work on a Conservative Finnish Christian discussion forum. The article employs the concept of “holy order”, developed by Sari Charpentier, a Finnish gender studies scholar, in her analysis of the Finnish same-sex partnership discussion in the 1990’s. The methodological approach of the article moves in the intersection of theology and gender studies. The close examination of the discussion draws attention to the strong vocabulary used in comments about the blessing of the same-sex couple. My analysis reveals border lines between so-called “conservatives” and “liberals” within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In the “liberal” comments, which remain in the minority in the discussion, the blessing was motivated among other things by referring to concepts of love and non-discrimination. The dominating conservative comments focused on the defence of the authority of the Bible and included heteronormative and conservative Christian ideas but also more secular argumentative ideas. I argue that the discussion can be explicated by using concepts such as the “holy order”. My analysis spurs an additional viewpoint, which shows the discussion’s connection to the present cultural situation and the interruption of heteronormativity within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.