Swedish Pastor Accused of Hate Crimes Not Guilty
Christian groups were grateful that a Pentecostal pastor in Sweden was found not guilty of hate speech charges stemming from 2003 comments he made for criticising homosexuality.
Posted: Wednesday, November 30 , 2005, 10:02 (UK)

Christian groups were grateful that a Pentecostal pastor in Sweden was found not guilty of hate speech charges stemming from 2003 comments he made for criticising homosexuality.

Pastor Ake Green, who had denounced homosexuality as a "cancerous tumor" in comments from the pulpit and had been scheduled to serve for one month in prison, was acquitted by the Supreme Court in Stockholm under protection of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Pastor Green was preaching straight from the Bible on the moral degradation of homosexual behaviour,” said Robert Knight, Director of the Culture and Family Institute for Concerned Women for America. Knight noted that Green was warning his congregation against "what God clearly calls sin" and invited others to repent like any other sinners.

At the centre of the controversy were Hate Crime laws passed by Swedish lawmakers in 2003. In the summer of the year, Green was arrested at his church and charged with “hate speech against homosexuals.” Prosecutors had sought to increase the sentence to six months in jail, even as the case began drawing attention from all over the world. The rest