The Danish Government has upheld a decision by the state Lutheran church to suspend a minister who publicly denied the existence of God, opening the way for him to be fined or sacked.
The Reverend Thorkild Grosboell, a pastor in Taarbaek, a town of 51,000 just north of Copenhagen, was suspended by the bishop of his diocese on June 10 following a sermon in which he said God had "abdicated".
In Denmark, where about 85 per cent of people belong to the state Evangelical Lutheran Church but only 5 per cent regularly attend services, Lutheran ministers are employed by the Government.
On Monday the Justice Minister, Lene Espersen, backed Mr Grosboell's suspension and said his case would go before a disciplinary labour court consisting of two theologians and a presiding judge, who will decide if he should be sacked or fined.
Ms Espersen said in a statement that Mr Grosboell "had damaged the state church ... and had not shown loyalty to the state church".
She said the minister's hearing, a rare event, would begin some time after September 1. Mr Grosboell could appeal against its verdict to a judicial court.
The minister has been under strict supervision since he was first suspended after a May 2003 interview in which he said "there is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection". His suspension was lifted after he retracted his statement.
But he was slapped with a new suspension after saying in a sermon on May 16 that "God had abdicated in favour of his son, hence in our favour.
"Therefore there is no longer a heavenly guarantee or an interfering might, there is only the godly kingdom [on Earth] that is achieved by us and between us. So if it fails, there is nothing."
Bishop Lise-Lotte Rebel said Mr Grosboell's sermon was "clearly incompatible with the state church's faith".
He had "spoken in a strongly provocative, hurting and confusing way", the bishop said.