Leaders of Norwegian Christian organizations: Oil exploration is not a matter of faith

Multiple leaders of Christian organizations in Norway don’t think oil exploration is a matter of faith. 

The Norwegian Lutheran Mission is among those who do not want to criticize Norwegian oil exploration.

“We believe it is important to encourage good management of creation, but we do not have a basis in Christian ethics to conclude that all oil exploration is ethically worthy of criticism,” acting Secretary-General Espen Ottosen wrote in an email to the newspaper Dagen.

“Our role is not to come to party political conclusions,” Ottosen wrote.

Earlier this week, the bishop of Møre diocese, Ingeborg Midttømme, asked the government to stop all oil exploration.

“There is enough oil in the world,” Midttømme said.

Lobbyists from the Church of Norway

She is one of several lobbyists from the Church of Norway who traveled to the climate summit in Glasgow.

Dagen has been in contact with a number of leaders outside the Church of Norway to hear if they want to go as far as the bishop.

The Pentecostal movement, the Mission Covenant Church of Norway, the Norwegian Christian Student and School Association, and the Catholic Church say that they did not take a stand on Norwegian oil exploration.

Secretary-General of the Norwegian Christian Student and School Association, Karl Johan Kjøde, did not want to take a radical stand on Norwegian oil exploration.

“It is currently not perceived as a question of faith, but it could be when the Church of Norway speaks so strongly,” he told Dagen.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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