Swedish pastor acquitted by court for anti-gay sermon.Sweden's Supreme Court has acquitted a Pentecostal preacher who was charged with violating the country's hate-crimes law after an anti-gay sermon. The Rev. Ake Green, 64, told a congregation in Oland that gays are "a deep cancerous tumor on all of society" and that Sweden was "facing disaster of great proportions! Of that we can be sure. God said the land would vomit out its inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. ." The pastor's 2003 sermon caught the attention of a prosecutor who brought charges against Green pursuant to the nation's hate-crimes law, which bans attacks against gays and other minorities. Advocate magazine reported that in June 2004 he was convicted of the crime and given a 30-day suspended sentence A sentence given after the formal conviction of a crime that the convicted person is not required to serve. In criminal cases a trial judge has the ability to suspend the sentence of a convicted person. . The pastor's case attracted national and international attention. The Alliance Defense Fund The Alliance Defense Fund ("ADF") is a conservative Christian non-profit organization with the stated goal of "defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation. , the Becket beck·et n. Nautical A device, such as a looped rope, hook and eye, strap, or grommet, used to hold or fasten loose ropes, spars, or oars in position. [Origin unknown.] Noun 1. Fund and other Religious Right groups came to Green's defense. The Becket Fund's friend-of-the-court brief argued that Green's incendiary INCENDIARY, crim. law. One who maliciously and willfully sets another person's house on fire; one guilty of the crime of arson. 2. This offence is punished by the statute laws of the different states according to their several provisions. comments against gays were protected by the free speech and freedom of religion clauses of international conventions. "Because religious leaders have a sacred duty to teach from texts that lay claim to eternal truths, they cannot simply moderate their teaching according to fluctuations in social mores," stated the brief. On Nov. 29, the Swedish Supreme Court acquitted Green, saying his divisive sermon was protected by the European Convention of Human Rights. |
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