A tweet posted in 2018 by a Pastor from Sweden declaring teen star climate activist Greta Thunberg as the successor to the Jesus Christ has resurfaced in the wake of her ‘How Dare You!’ speech before the United Nations.
“Announcement! Jesus of Nazareth has now appointed one of his successors, Greta Thunberg,” the church reportedly tweeted on December 1, 2018. The Limhamns Church had previously tweeted several sentiments of climate activism.
?Lucka 1❄️
Kungörelse! Jesus från Nasaret har nu utsett en av sina efterträdare, nämligen Greta Thunberg.?— Limhamns kyrka (@Limhamnskyrka) December 1, 2018
The 2018 tweet of the church has now appeared again on social media platforms following Thunberg’s appearance at the United Nations earlier this month in which she had warned about climate change during her speech, which has gone viral too.
“My message is that we’ll be watching you,” Thunberg warned the world leaders. “You all come to us young people for hope, how dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I’m one of the lucky ones … We are at the beginning of mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?” Thunberg had said in her animated speech.
Reportedly, the Church is known for its climate change activism, noting on their official website, “When the Amazon burns, we gather to fight for Mother Earth together.”
However, the church later said that the tweet was being misinterpreted. After some backlash in December when the tweet was published, the church posted a second tweet that suggested “success” could be interpreted in more than one way and apologised for the for hurting the sentiments. The Church had even quit the Twitter following the backlash it had received after the incident.
Kära twitter,
Har vi sårat någon ber vi om ursäkt, det har aldrig varit vår mening. Vår mening har varit att på vårt sätt tala om Jesus Kristus. Nu lämnar vi arenan. Tack för engagemang, glädje och debatt.
Gud välsigne er!
Jonas Persson, församlingsherde— Limhamns kyrka (@Limhamnskyrka) December 6, 2018
“Dear Twitter, If we have hurt someone we apologize, it has never been our meaning. Our meaning has been to talk about Jesus Christ in our own way. Now we leave the arena. Thank you for your commitment, joy and debate. God bless you! Jonas Persson, the ward pastor,” said the Church.
There were several websites that had reported that it was the Sweden Church that had made this declaration, however, that was not entirely true. It was a Church in Sweden, however, the Swedish Church to which most of the Swedish congregation belongs had not made any such statement.
The 16-year-old Greta Thunberg last week had denounced world leaders for failing to tackle climate change in a speech at the start of a climate summit at the United Nations in New York. The dramatic speech made by Greta at the UN climate summit has received mixed reactions, with some sections even accusing her of being a left-wing created phenomenon.
