The Christian Unity Party ( no, Kristent Samlingsparti, KSP) was a Christian conservative and

fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishi ...

Brekke, Torkel (2011).
Fundamentalism: Prophecy and Protest in an Age of Globalization
'. pp. 140-141. Cambridge University Press. .

political party in Norway This article lists political parties in Norway. Norway has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which no party can easily gain a majority of the 169 legislative seats. Parties may cooperate to form coalition governments. His ...

without parliamentary representation. The party's ideology is based on literal interpretation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

, traditional values, and opposition to

reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

in the Church of Norway.

History and ideology

The Christian Unity Party was founded on 26 September 1998 with the merging of the

New Future Coalition Party The New Future Coalition Party ( no, Samlingspartiet Ny Fremtid, SNF) was a Norwegian political party, which was founded by Member of Parliament Finn Thoresen in 1993. The party was never successful in elections, and merged with the Christian Conse ...

and the Christian Conservative Party.Samles i nytt kristent parti
''Verdens Gang''. 29.08.1998. The party won a single representative in the

Kautokeino Kautokeino ( no, Kautokeino; se, Guovdageaidnu ; fkv, Koutokeino; fi, Koutokeino) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other village ...

municipal council in the 1999 local elections. The party's first years were marked by internal strife, mainly due to conflict over whether women should be allowed to hold posts in the party. Party leader Ivar Kristianslund was against women holding posts, but gained little support for this position and founded a fundamentalist splinter party after a court ruled in 2001 that Ørnulf Nandrup was the legitimate new leader of the party. During Kristianslund's leadership the party's ideology maintained that the Constitution of Norway was a gift from

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

to the Norwegian nation, stressed the divine right of the

King of Norway The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty kingd ...

, and wanted to abolish

parliamentarism A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

and restore Norway's original political system as of

1814 Events January * January 1 – War of the Sixth Coalition – The Royal Prussian Army led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher crosses the Rhine. * January 3 ** War of the Sixth Coalition – Siege of Cattaro: French garrison ...

. The party had around 1,000 members before the split. After this the party has said that its ideology is very different from what it was in its early days, but the party still maintains strongly conservative Christian policies, holding the

as the highest authority of society. The party focuses on moral Christian values such as the traditional family and protection of the weak, and the party opposes

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

and

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

, especially from

Islamic countries The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...

. The party supports

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberali ...

, which it believes is most in accordance with the Bible. In foreign policy it is opposed to Norway joining the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, wants Norway to withdraw from the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

and the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

, and instead maintains strong support for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. In the 2009 election campaign, pastor Jan-Aage Torp, the top candidate for Oslo, produced a graphic anti-abortion video that was shown three nights in a row on the TV 2 evening news, due to its controversial nature. The party has also received attention as segments of the party have appeared as members of radical anti-Islam groups. Ahead of the 2015 local elections the party announced that it would suspend all its activities after agreeing to cooperate with The Christians Party following 67% of its members voting to join the larger party."Kristent Samlingsparti (KSP) går inn i Partiet de Kristne(PDK)"
. Kristent Samlingsparti. retrieved May 2015.

Elections

Parliamentary election results

Party leaders

* Ivar Kristianslund (1998–2001) * Ørnulf Nandrup (2001–2010) The Christian Leaders * Morten Selven (2010–2015)

References

External links

Kristent Samlingsparti (Christian Unity Party)
- Official website {{Norwegian political parties Christian democratic parties in Norway Political parties established in 1998 Conservative parties in Norway Protestant political parties Anti-abortion organisations in Norway 1998 establishments in Norway