Swedish pastor aquitted

[cmotherofpirl]

ADF: Worldwide Outcry Influenced Swedish Pastor's Hate Speech Trial

By Allie Martin
December 9, 2005

(AgapePress) - An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says international exposure and pressure played a major role in a recent decision by Sweden's Supreme Court not to convict a pastor of committing a "hate speech" crime after he preached a sermon offering a biblical perspective on homosexual sin.

Last week Sweden's highest court unanimously decided to acquit Pastor Ake Green, who had been charged with hate speech in connection with a July 2003 sermon he preached at his church and later had published in a local newspaper. Arrested, charged, and initially convicted, Green was given one month in jail, a sentence he appealed.

An appellate court overturned Green's conviction on February 11 of this year. However, on March 9, the Swedish Prosecutor appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which acquitted the pastor on November 29.

ADF chief counsel Ben Bull says Swedish officials took notice of the extensive international press the case generated. He says this whole affair has been "a lesson that we need to be involved in what's happening in Europe with respect to the persecution of the Christian faith."

Under Swedish law, Bull points out, any person who shows disrespect for a person's sexual orientation may be sentenced up to four years in prison. He says things could have gone very differently for Pastor Green in the courts, but public outcry made a difference in the outcome of the legal controversy.

"If enough people make enough noise, even the enemies of the Christian faith sit up and take notice," the ADF lawyer asserts. "Most pundits who followed this case would have predicted that, had Christians around the world not paid a lot of attention to this -- publicized the case, got it into the Christian and secular media -- there's no doubt in everyone's mind that [Ake Green] would have been convicted and put in jail for doing nothing more than preaching the gospel in his own church."

Bull believes Christians worldwide who stood up and spoke out on Green's behalf were instrumental in the Swedish preacher's ultimate acquittal. To date, the 64-year-old minister still pastors his Pentecostal church in the southeastern city of Borgholm.


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Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

[Nathan]

That's socialism, folks. Pretty scary stuff.

[tojo]

Things aren't much better in out neighboring nation to the north.

[Socrates]

[quote name='tomasio127' date='Dec 11 2005, 05:25 PM']Things aren't much better in out neighboring nation to the north.
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What's it about a Northern latitude that seems to incline nations toward godless Socialism?

Canada, Scandinavian countries, the old USSR . . .

[Nathan]

It must be the cold. We're already miserable -- we might as well be socialists.

[Church Punk]

We really need to pray a lot of the Church in Europe and the world. It is completly horrible in Europe, an awful lot of the Bishops have lost their minds over there, completly altering the Liturgy, supporting homosexual activities ect.

My friend was telling me in Belguim if you were to get married, the state does not consider it legal unless you are married in the courts, not the Church.

PRAY PRAY PRAY
They need it, and we need to make sure it doesnt get out of hand here!

[Didacus]

[quote name='Socrates' date='Dec 11 2005, 06:58 PM']What's it about a Northern latitude that seems to incline nations toward godless Socialism?

Canada, Scandinavian countries, the old USSR . . .
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How dare you comment like that on Canada... if you lived in our nation you might be charged with hate speech!


j/k



I am very glad the preacher was acquitted, however, look at the circumstances... if christains would not have made such a fus, he would have been serving his time!! What the !?1?!?!? Is justice up for vote? Really? If there is an outcry in favor of an obviously and admittedly quilty murderer, should we let him go?


It might be wrong that he was charged in the first place (I would almost assume so) but the manner in which he was acquitted is very suspicious.