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Oulu People Do Not Approve of Gay Marriage |
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By News
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Tuesday, 22 December 2009 |
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People in Oulu overwhelmingly disapprove of gay marriage according to a poll published by the YLE broadcasting service.
The majority of Finns approve of same-sex church weddings but only by a tiny margin with 43 percent approving and 39 percent being opposed. Helsinki has the highest approval rate with 60 percent favouring same-sex church unions. However, this attitude is not shared by people in Oulu, two thirds of whom are opposed to gay marriages happening in church.
Oulu is widely regarded as a particularly religiously conservative area of the country. According to Dr Kimmo Ketola, of the Finnish Lutheran Church Research Institute, church membership in Oulu is the highest of any region in Finland. It is also has very high membership of conservative ‘Awakening Groups’ such as the Conservative Laestadians.
The majority of women and people under 35 backed the change but only one in three men favoured gay marriage in church.
Many priests are also cautious about performing the ceremonies, which, in Sweden, they can refuse to do for reasons of conscience.
‘I wouldn’t perform a gay marriage,’ one young priest, who wished to remain nameless, told 65DN. ‘I don’t think homosexuality’s natural. I just think it’s wrong.’
The survey was conducted by provincial daily Turun Sanomat and a number of smaller newspapers. It asked whether the Finnish Lutheran Church should follow its Swedish counterpart in blessing same-sex weddings.
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