A Finnish television network recently filmed a Southern Baptist pastor as he visited secular Nordic countries and struggled to come to grips with widespread LGBT rights and atheism.
In an episode of Yle's The Norden, Summit Church of West Georgia Lead Pastor Marty McLain tells the network that he is a creationist who believes in the story of the Garden of Eden, and that there is a "literal Hell."
"The Bible does refer to -- in the book of Revelations -- the lake of fire," he explains.
In a trailer for the episode, McLain interviews people on the street in an attempt to find someone in the Nordic countries he visits who believes in God.
"If there's no god, why should I believe in him?" one man asks the pastor.
McLain eventually speaks to Lars Danner Madsen, a reverend at Solbjerg Church in Copenhagen, who tells him that Danes are not religious "all day, all the time."
The Southern Baptist pastor points out that the Danish government had forced churches to treat LGBT people equally when it came to marriage rights.
"The parliament, the government says you must perform same-sex marriages in the church," McClain notes. "Wow!"
Madsen, however, does not seem to object to the idea of marriage equality.
"I think God has created love, not to make new generations, but to unite people," Madsen observes.
"I believe same-sex attraction is a sin," McLain later tells a Yle interviewer. "When it comes to homosexuality, the worst thing I can do to somebody is say, 'You know, God made you that way, and he wants you to that way, and God's all for a homosexual relationship.'"
"When you look in the Bible, you see what God says about homosexuality," he adds. "I have to deny so much of scripture in order to give that type of counsel."
