Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland - Position in Finnish Society

Position in Finnish Society

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a legal position as a national church in the country alongside with the Finnish Orthodox Church. Finnish society has experienced a general secularization, and membership in the Church has decreased in recent decades. Nevertheless, the Church retains the allegiance of a large majority of the population, a special role in state ceremonies and the right to collect Church tax from its members in conjunction with governmental income taxation. In addition to membership tax, businesses also, to some extent, participate by a way of taxation in contributing financially to the Church.

A record 83,097 members left the church in 2010; the large number caused in part by a Finnish television discussion programme broadcast on 12 October 2010 concerning gay rights, in which church clergy and laymen were divided both for and against the proposed legal amendments.

Avoidance of the Church tax (between 1 and 2 percent depending on location) has been a popular reason cited for defections from the Church. In 2010 the number of defections hit a record of 83,097, caused partly by the Church's controversial view that homosexuality is a sin. Indeed, Stefan Wallin, Finland's minister responsible for church affairs, accused Päivi Räsänen, the Christian Democrat leader, of deliberately taking a public position against homosexuality and gay rights in order to drive away from the church those people who might hold more liberal views on gay acceptance.