Would you like some Danish with your coffee?

Election campaigns are beginning to heat up in the USA, so soon the obligatory pie fights will start – those attempts to find something in the opponent’s past (or, better yet, present) allegedly making him/her morally and ethically unfit for office. In view of this approaching media event, I thought I would cast my glance northward from me to a small country far away from international limelight – Denmark.
Skandinavia has long been known for it’s tolerance – perhaps a function of Kierkegaard’s „Fear and Trembling?“ The Danes responded carefully to the caricature fiasco last year, insisting that they cannot compromise freedom of expression. Denmark was also the first country in the world to allow pornography to be openly sold, so we see they mean business about freedom of expression.
Denmark is an interesting land with a small population and a strong protestant fundamentalist tradition on the west coast. Yet in the metropolitan areas elected politicians are open about their past or lifestyle. A representative in the Danish parliament openly cites her homosexuality positively and has always openly admitted her earlier profession – an actress in pornography. And, she represents a right-wing party and has not suffered politically or in any other way from these facts.
Denmark may be riding the crest of the wave, but other nations are not far away. In Germany at least two mayors – Hamburg and Berlin – are openly gay and suffer no negative consequences, and the leader of one of the major political parties in Germany has been openly gay for a number of years with no negative repercussions at all.
These examples help me realize that nations today cannot be a religious-based enterprise. Europe has tried to do that and failed completely. And, I certainly don’t think the Bible wants us to erect a physical political Kingdom of God here on earth – His Kingdom is not of this earth…
So what is the real question? Is a person who is homosexual or a previous actor in pornography not fit per se for a political office? Yet the Washington politician who has his sweet young thing in a nice Washington suburb is perfectly fit for office? To what extent is a person’s present or previous profession or lifestyle a litmus test for suitability for office? The homosexual mayors and party leaders in Germany are highly respected competent politicians guiding some of the more cosmopolitan cities of the world. If only religious organizations have a say in answering this question of suitability for office, then we haven’ moved that far away from the fusion of church and state, which only caused problems in medieval Europe.