Eusebios
1st July 2004, 10:03 AM
Good morning all, just came across this bit of news from ENI:
Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service / 30 June 2004
Swedish pastor sentenced to one month in jail for offending homosexuals
By Lars Grip
Stockholm, 30 June (ENI)--A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced
a pastor belonging to the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, Ake
Green, to a month in prison, under a law against incitement,
after he was found guilty of having offended homosexuals in a
sermon.
Soren Andersson, the president of the Swedish federation for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (RFSL), said on
hearing the sentence that religious freedom could never be used
as a reason to offend people. "Therefore," he told journalists,
"I cannot regard the sentence as an act of interference with
freedom of religion."
During a sermon in 2003, Green described homosexuality as
"abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society".
He also called homosexuals "perverts, whose sexual drive the
Devil has used as his strongest weapon against God".
In the sermon, delivered in the small east coast town of
Borgholm, Green had warned that Sweden faced total obliteration
as a consequence of the lifestyle of homosexuals.
For the first time in Sweden, the law of incitement, which
applies racial hatred and to sexual minorities, was tested in a
trial dealing with aggravation against homosexuals.
During proceedings, the public prosecutor, Kjell Yngvesson,
played a tape recording from the sermon and asked the pastor if
he regarded homosexuality as an illness.
"Yes, of course," the pastor had replied. "The concept of a sane
body and a sane soul is contaminated by homosexuals."
In his defence, the pastor said that the purpose of the sermon
was to make clear the biblical view on homosexuality and not to
express disrespect.
His lawyer pointed to the contradiction between religious freedom
and freedom of speech on the one hand, and the rights of
homosexuals to be protected against discrimination, on the other.
A verdict of guilty would violate the pastor's right to preach
about his beliefs, the lawyer had been quoted as saying in the
Kyrkans Tidning, a daily newspaper covering church affairs
Prosecutor Yngvesson asked the court to impose a prison sentence
on the pastor, but Green is expected to appeal against the ruling.
* * *
Ecumenical News International
PO Box 2100
CH - 1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Tel: (41-22) 791 6088/6111
Fax: (41-22) 788 7244
Email: eni@eni.ch
* * *
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.
:bow:
Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service / 30 June 2004
Swedish pastor sentenced to one month in jail for offending homosexuals
By Lars Grip
Stockholm, 30 June (ENI)--A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced
a pastor belonging to the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, Ake
Green, to a month in prison, under a law against incitement,
after he was found guilty of having offended homosexuals in a
sermon.
Soren Andersson, the president of the Swedish federation for
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (RFSL), said on
hearing the sentence that religious freedom could never be used
as a reason to offend people. "Therefore," he told journalists,
"I cannot regard the sentence as an act of interference with
freedom of religion."
During a sermon in 2003, Green described homosexuality as
"abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society".
He also called homosexuals "perverts, whose sexual drive the
Devil has used as his strongest weapon against God".
In the sermon, delivered in the small east coast town of
Borgholm, Green had warned that Sweden faced total obliteration
as a consequence of the lifestyle of homosexuals.
For the first time in Sweden, the law of incitement, which
applies racial hatred and to sexual minorities, was tested in a
trial dealing with aggravation against homosexuals.
During proceedings, the public prosecutor, Kjell Yngvesson,
played a tape recording from the sermon and asked the pastor if
he regarded homosexuality as an illness.
"Yes, of course," the pastor had replied. "The concept of a sane
body and a sane soul is contaminated by homosexuals."
In his defence, the pastor said that the purpose of the sermon
was to make clear the biblical view on homosexuality and not to
express disrespect.
His lawyer pointed to the contradiction between religious freedom
and freedom of speech on the one hand, and the rights of
homosexuals to be protected against discrimination, on the other.
A verdict of guilty would violate the pastor's right to preach
about his beliefs, the lawyer had been quoted as saying in the
Kyrkans Tidning, a daily newspaper covering church affairs
Prosecutor Yngvesson asked the court to impose a prison sentence
on the pastor, but Green is expected to appeal against the ruling.
* * *
Ecumenical News International
PO Box 2100
CH - 1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Tel: (41-22) 791 6088/6111
Fax: (41-22) 788 7244
Email: eni@eni.ch
* * *
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.
:bow: