COPENHAGEN, Denmarkâ€â€Pastor Thorkild Grosboell of Denmark's state Lutheran Protestant Church was quoted in a newspaper interview last year saying he did not believe in God, the resurrection or eternal life. He was suspended for several weeks before he repented and was reinstated. But his remarks from the pulpit continued to be atheistic and faithless, so he was suspended again last month, according to AFP News.
Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel said Grosboell had sown "deep confusion within the church" with his comments, which were first published in a newspaper interview in May 2003 and which he has continued to express since then.
Rebel said he had been keeping a close ear on all of Grosboell's sermons for the past year, where he repeatedly reiterated his faithlessness.
The first part of June the bishop told the pastor he could either quit with three years' salary, or face suspension with the possibility of having his priesthood revoked for failing to live up to his sacred duties.
Grosboell refused to resign.
"No one from my parish wants me to quit. I'm staying," he told the Christian daily Kristelig Dagbladet.
Hundreds of people from Grosboell's parish in the village of Taarbaek have defended him, saying that the church must tolerate differences of opinion.
According to the AFP, the controversy has led to a heated debate over the role of the church in Denmark, where 85 percent of Danes are members of the state church.
