Jesper Langballe
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Jesper Marquard Langballe (31 August 1939 – 15 March 2014) was a Danish Lutheran priest, author and politician who represented the right-wing populist Danish People's Party (Danish: Dansk Folkeparti) in the Danish parliament, Folketinget, from 2001 to 2011. Langballe was elected in the Viborg constituency. His son Christian Langballe was elected to the Folketinget in 2011.
Langballe was born in Copenhagen as the son of physician Mogens Marquard Langballe and housewife Agnete Langballe, née Wolfhagen. He is the cousin of Søren Krarup, another MP for Dansk Folkeparti.
He was educated as a journalist at Skive Venstreblad 1959-61 and Ringkøbing Amts Dagblad 1962-63 and as a priest at the Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs institute 1972–75. He worked as a journalist at Jyllands-Posten 1964–72 as cultural reporter and back page editor doing political satire. Later he worked as a priest in Thorning-Grathe parish 1975–2007. He has since 1982 been a co-editor and writer at the fundamentalist Lutheran religious periodical Tidehverv.
Views on church politics
Langballe has been spokesman on church affairs for the Danish People's Party in the last few years and has positioned himself as a strong proponent for the privileged status of the Danish National Church (Danish: Folkekirken) and its close connection to the state, described in the Danish constitution.
In this context he has, for instance, stated as follows about the wishes of the Catholic church in Denmark to have its member contributions collected alongside state taxes, like the state Lutheran Church of Denmark:
The tax collection is a part of the state backing, and it shall not be provided for other religious communities. If you start doing this, then what about other private associations? In this context we are talking about an association with a religious purpose. But it might as well be a handball club.[1]
