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http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_05119green.shtml
Christian group invites 'hate-speech' Swede to the UK -09/11/05
A Pentecostal pastor who got into trouble in Sweden for a sermon he preached on homosexuality is to be invited by a UK Christian group to seek asylum in Britain.
Pastor Ake Green, charged with hate speech for denouncing homosexuality as a cancerous tumor, defended his views in Swedens highest court today, claiming that gay sex was an abnormality on a par with paedophilia.
Audio broadcasts from the much-awaited hearing were carried live on nationwide TV, which is unusual in Sweden. The hearing was expected to last one day, but a ruling could take several weeks.
According to the BBC, Ake Green originally got into hot water when he made the extraordinary claim that gays were likely to rape children and animals.
He told a congregation on the small south-eastern island of Oland that homosexuals were a deep cancer tumour on all of society.
Pastor Green also warned that Sweden risked a natural disaster because of its tolerance of homosexuality, and describing it as something sick, equivalent to paedophilia and bestiality.
The preachers views are being denounced as hateful, inaccurate and inflammatory by gay and civil rights groups, and by Christians seeking to promote Gospel-based inclusivity.
However, the leader of Britains Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) political party, Councillor Alan Craig, is inviting the pastor to the UK to seek political asylum. Mr Craig is in Stockholm with Andrew Otchie, a CPA lawyer, attending the Court hearing.
Commenting from outside the Court in Stockholm, Cllr Craig declared: Free speech is fundamental to the basis of western civilization and it is important that Sweden knows it is being watched by the court of European public opinion. Offensive sermons are best ignored or forgotten. But if church leaders are to be arrested every time someone is upset by what is said in church, then the courts will be very busy indeed.
He continued: The Bible has tough things to say about all of human life, whether greed, injustice, adultery or homosexuality, and the freedom to speak its message must not be curtailed lightly.
However the majority of reputable biblical scholars will see what Pastor Green has said as a serious distortion of the texts he seeks to use.
Jonathan Bartley, director of the religious think-tank Ekklesia, which is this weekend co-sponsoring a major conference on homosexuality and the church, said: Pastor Greens views about gay and lesbian people will be deplored by most Christians in the UK. There are many difficult passages in the Bible, but it is very hard to reconcile such inflammatory comments with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The attempt to link homosexuality with bestiality and paedophilia is inaccurate and offensive.
It is feared that the acquittal of Pastor Green will open the door to fiercer attacks against Jews, Muslims and gays by right-wing extremists.
A translation of Pastor Ake Green's sermon is available here.
Christian group invites 'hate-speech' Swede to the UK -09/11/05
A Pentecostal pastor who got into trouble in Sweden for a sermon he preached on homosexuality is to be invited by a UK Christian group to seek asylum in Britain.
Pastor Ake Green, charged with hate speech for denouncing homosexuality as a cancerous tumor, defended his views in Swedens highest court today, claiming that gay sex was an abnormality on a par with paedophilia.
Audio broadcasts from the much-awaited hearing were carried live on nationwide TV, which is unusual in Sweden. The hearing was expected to last one day, but a ruling could take several weeks.
According to the BBC, Ake Green originally got into hot water when he made the extraordinary claim that gays were likely to rape children and animals.
He told a congregation on the small south-eastern island of Oland that homosexuals were a deep cancer tumour on all of society.
Pastor Green also warned that Sweden risked a natural disaster because of its tolerance of homosexuality, and describing it as something sick, equivalent to paedophilia and bestiality.
The preachers views are being denounced as hateful, inaccurate and inflammatory by gay and civil rights groups, and by Christians seeking to promote Gospel-based inclusivity.
However, the leader of Britains Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) political party, Councillor Alan Craig, is inviting the pastor to the UK to seek political asylum. Mr Craig is in Stockholm with Andrew Otchie, a CPA lawyer, attending the Court hearing.
Commenting from outside the Court in Stockholm, Cllr Craig declared: Free speech is fundamental to the basis of western civilization and it is important that Sweden knows it is being watched by the court of European public opinion. Offensive sermons are best ignored or forgotten. But if church leaders are to be arrested every time someone is upset by what is said in church, then the courts will be very busy indeed.
He continued: The Bible has tough things to say about all of human life, whether greed, injustice, adultery or homosexuality, and the freedom to speak its message must not be curtailed lightly.
However the majority of reputable biblical scholars will see what Pastor Green has said as a serious distortion of the texts he seeks to use.
Jonathan Bartley, director of the religious think-tank Ekklesia, which is this weekend co-sponsoring a major conference on homosexuality and the church, said: Pastor Greens views about gay and lesbian people will be deplored by most Christians in the UK. There are many difficult passages in the Bible, but it is very hard to reconcile such inflammatory comments with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The attempt to link homosexuality with bestiality and paedophilia is inaccurate and offensive.
It is feared that the acquittal of Pastor Green will open the door to fiercer attacks against Jews, Muslims and gays by right-wing extremists.
A translation of Pastor Ake Green's sermon is available here.
