Aarhus youth pastor Mia Schmidt-Mikkelsen is calling for queer and feminist theology to take up more space in the Danish Folkekirke, starting with confirmation classes. Her appeal follows repeated hostile comments from young men on her social media videos.
DR reports that the 37-year-old pastor works at the youth church UngK in Aarhus. She has become known as a “TikTok priest” for videos aimed at young Christians, including reminders about women in the Bible. According to DR, she sees a growing need among young people to read the Bible in a new way.
Every time she posts a video, critical comments follow from young men, she tells DR. Recent examples in her comment section cited Bible verses arguing that a woman should not teach or have authority over men. Another comment noted that the twelve disciples were all men.
Schmidt-Mikkelsen says she can handle the messages herself, but worries about young readers who know little about Christianity. That has led her to appeal to her colleagues across the Folkekirke. Confirmation classes would be a good place to start, she says, warning that pastors risk failing young people if they act as if these perspectives do not exist.
She describes queer and feminist theology as a norm-critical way of reading the Bible, with attention to people outside the traditional narrative. As an example she asks what would happen if Mary were treated as the main character in the nativity play, familiar to many from Christmas in Denmark. She also points to convents in history where nuns lived in lesbian relationships.
Schmidt-Mikkelsen links the trend to so-called christfluencers, who present the nuclear family as the only correct model to thousands of followers. Jesus spent most of his time with twelve other men, she notes, and was himself a norm-breaker. Asked whether she reads selectively too, she agrees, but says theology becomes narrow if only familiar readings are heard.
The church has no central authority
She argues that Danish pastors have a duty to say that the Bible can be interpreted in several ways, because queer and feminist theology is part of theological scholarship. Anders Damtoft Kaufmann, who trains pastors and develops confirmation material at Folkekirkens Uddannelses- og Videnscenter, told DR that “duty” is not part of his vocabulary. He said pastors are expected to teach about church life and Christian faith, but hold considerable interpretive space.
Kaufmann added that the Folkekirke has no pope or central church council setting one theological interpretation. What young people learn is therefore up to the individual pastor.
Schmidt-Mikkelsen is one of the hosts on the Folkekirke’s official TikTok profile. In a January 2026 announcement, Folkekirken said the initiative should give young people a church alternative with room for doubt and without performance pressure. The Christian outlet Udfordringen criticized the church’s TikTok videos in February 2026 as an outdated way of communicating Christianity.
At UngK, traditional services are replaced by activities such as yoga, drag bingo and linoleum printing, alongside conversations about faith and God. DR describes the church as aimed at people who are not used to churchgoing, in a country often discussed in terms of LGBTQ inclusion.
