Laestadian Lutherans and their large families

Laestadian Lutherans and their large families April 27, 2015

Rev. Christopher Jackson informed me that the new Prime Minister of Finland is a Laestadian Lutheran, a pietist strain best known today for rejecting birth control and having very large families.

From Rev. Christopher Jackson:

 The newly elected PM of Finland, Juha Sipilä, is a Laestadian Lutheran. There are different Laestadian groups out there, but Laestadianism is a strongly pietist movement that tends to oppose the consumption of alcohol and the use of birth control. (Sipilä has five children.) Laestadianism got a mention in the book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? as an example of one of the religious groups that promote large families.

For more on this movement, go here.

There are a number of small Laestaedian church bodies in America.

Now most Lutherans that I know wouldn’t go along with the pietist part or the opposition to alcohol.  But large families seem to be coming back into vogue.  It’s interesting that there is a distinct Lutheran tradition that makes a point of this.

Any Laestadian Lutherans out there?  I’d like to hear from you on your theology and practice.  Any semi-Laestadians?

"You raise a fair point. I still think, though, that it would likely have gone ..."

Monday Miscellany, 4/15/24
"Kerner, perhaps you should temper your minimizing the harm the Trumpian disruption has and will ..."

Beliefs as Status Symbols
"I don't understand how people get to be a member of a group, such that ..."

Beliefs as Status Symbols
"I'm confused - nothing new there. Are we to take your reference to "gods" literally? ..."

Beliefs as Status Symbols

Browse Our Archives