In the summer of 2003, the Rev. Ake Green, a Pentecostal pastor, stepped into the pulpit of his small church in the southern Swedish village of Borgholm. There, the 63-year-old clergyman delivered a sermon to his 75 parishioners at the service in which he made the following points:
- Homosexuality is abnormal, a horribly cancerous tumor on the entire society,
- Our country is facing a disaster of great proportions by allowing gays to form legally recognized partnerships,
- Sexually twisted people will rape animals,
- Homosexuality opens the door to forbidden areas such as pedophilia,
- Homosexuals are perverts whose sexual drive the devil has used as his strongest weapon against God,
- Homosexuality is chosen, not inborn, and everybody can be set free and delivered, and
- A person cannot be a Christian and a homosexual at the same time.
He submitted a copy of the entire sermon to his local newspaper, and they newspaper
The sermon ran afoul of Sweden’s strict laws against promoting hate speech.
So he was indicted, convicted and sentenced on June 20, 2004, to 30 days in jail, but he was allowed to remain free pending appeal.
On Feb. 11, 2005, the appeal was heard in the courthouse in the southern city of Jonkoping.
Protestors
A crowd estimated at 200 gathered outside. Many were gays and lesbians who deplored the pastor’s words, but defended his right to speak out.
Inside, the prosecutor argued that the minister had expressed disdain for homosexuals as a group. He requested that the 30-day jail term be lengthened.
The appeal was denied, and on March 9, 2005, the prosecutor-general appealed the decision to Sweden’s Supreme Court.
Acquittal Day
Green’s lawyer contended all along that his client’s religious freedom had been violated. On Nov. 29, 2005, the high court acquitted him by saying that although he had clearly violated Swedish law, a conviction most likely would be overturned by the European Court of Human Rights based on their previous rulings.
When the Rev. Phelps first learned of the case and read of the Rev. Green’s endearing sermon that equaled or exceeded his own contempt for gays, he was sure he had found a kindred Scandinavian spirit who would be most supportive of the new website.
Drawing a Line
But after the Rev. Phelps began sending unwanted faxes to the Swedish royal family, denouncing Sweden as "a land of sodomy, bestiality and incest," and saying to anyone who would listen, "The king looks like an anal-copulator and his grimmy kids look slutty and gay," the Rev. Green prudently began distancing himself from the American fanatic.
Even the Rev Green was appalled that the Rev. Phelps had erected a monument on his website to the nearly 5,000 Swedish tourists who lost their lives in the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia.
The monument bears this inscription:
“God Sent the Tsunamis That Destroyed Thousands of Wicked Swedes in Asia.”
Drawing Distinctions
Of course there is a vast difference between the right to free speech, which means the right to persuade, as opposed to the right to spew, designed only to incite, since such abhorrence can and -basher will attest.
There is no doubt that such evangelicals as Fred Phelps and Ake Green, who proclaim, "Hate the sin but love the sinner," have not learned how to practice what they preach.
