The national church's split over the sanctity of marriage isn't limited to the controversy over same-sex unions. According to daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, one out of ten Lutheran priests in this country refuses to officiate at the weddings of divorced people.
"It's no use to take a vow of 'til death do us part' if what you really mean is, 'til we get sick of each other.' At a time when so many couples are divorcing, it is more important than ever to stand firm on the binding nature of the marital covenant," said Børge Haahr Andersen, parish priest at Emdrup Church, north of Copenhagen. Haahr Andersen has performed just one ceremony involving a divorced person, and this only because the individual had not broken a marriage vow.
According to Hans Raun Iversen, a lecturer in practical theology at Copenhagen University, no actual studies have yet been made to track the number of priests who share Haahr Andersen's disdain for divorce.
"But the general consensus is that it's around 10 percent, with the largest concentration in evangelical and conservative congregations in Jutland," said Raun Iversen.
Hans Raun Iversen is backed by several of the nation's bishops. Ribe Bishop Elisabeth Dons Christensen says around 30 of her parish's 174 priests oppose marriages between divorced people, while Viborg Bishop Karsten Nissen says the same is true of 25 of his parish's 177 priests. In Roskilde Parish, which enjoys a fairly liberal reputation, just three of the region's 250 priests refuse to perform marriages between divorcees.
Like Børge Haahr Andersen, many of the church's anti-divorce ministers studied at conservative schools like the Århus Congregational Faculty and Copenhagen Bible Institute, which trains about 10 percent of the nation's clergy. The official position at both of these schools is that homosexuality is a sin, women priests should be banned from the clergy, and that divorcees should not be allowed to remarry. Graduates of these schools often have difficulty finding work in eastern Denmark, Funen and larger towns because of their conservative beliefs - even though Danish law permits them to choose whether or not to marry divorcees.
Even Børge Haahr Andersen was rejected when he applied for his first job in Aalborg Parish in 1992.
"When the interviewer got round to that question (about divorce), I clearly sensed that the congregation did not share my belief. And I didn't get the job," he explained.
Ejvind Sørensen, chairman of the National Association of Church Lay Members, supports parishes that refuse to hire priests like Børge Haahr Andersen.
"If a divorced person in the congregation wants to remarry, and the priest refuses to perform the ceremony, it can cause tremendous upheaval in the local community. It is the right and duty of church officials to weed out any priest during the interview phase, if they have any indication that the issue is going to stir up trouble," said Sørensen.