Gays will go to hell. These were the strong words of former Swedish pastor turned Christian Democrat candidate Tommy Dahlman in a recent opinion piece he wrote along with 21 Pentecostal pastors.
The piece, which appeared in Dagen, a Christian publication in Sweden, condemned homosexuality as a sin "based on what the Bible says," The Local reported.
"The Bible is not just a novel, and there are uncomfortable, difficult sides to Christianity," he said.
In a report by the GT newspaper, Dahlman said that gays "could be lost" after death especially if they do not choose celibacy. He added that hell is the only place for them if they miss out on heaven.
In his personal blog, Dahlman shared that he has received a lot of positive reactions for his position on homosexuality and that he was pleased by the amount of press his article generated.
However, Dahlman's position was not endorsed by another religious leader, Bishop Per Eckerdal, who leads the Swedish Church in Gothenburg.
"If you look at the whole of the Bible and the bigger context, it is very hard to come to the interpretation that they do," he said about the opinion piece.
Dahlman's political party is also singing a different tune.
Urban Eklund, who nominated Dahlman as a party candidate in 2013, said they were surprised that he had these views about the topic as it runs contrary to the group's ideals.
The Christian Democrats, the smallest political group in Swedish Parliament, is strongly against discrimination because of sexual orientation.
Dahlman was at the top of the list of Christian Democrat candidates for the Västra Götaland region last year but he did not make it to Parliament.
"To say as a political candidate that homosexuality is a sin should have disqualified him. But what he says as a private person is another thing. I don't want to sit here and judge other people," Eklund said.
