Polish wikipedia on the Åke Green's sermon controversy. Into English by Google translate plus supplementary effort. Notably, the name of International Organisation of Good Templars - National Templar Order (IOGT-NTO)* had to be restored, since google translate mangled it.
On July 20, 2003, Åke Green gave a public sermon in the city of Borgholm on Öland, in which he presented an interpretation of a text from the Bible regarding homosexuality. He provided it with a comment in which he stated that the acceptance of homosexuality opens the way to deviations such as pedophilia and bestiality. In his opinion, "The Bible clearly describes all sexual perversions. It is a cancer on the body of society." The pastor warned that making perversions the norm could send God's wrath and natural disasters to Sweden like the biblical Sodom. He called homosexuals "perverts", claiming that they could not be Christians at the same time. He also stated that homosexuality is a matter of free human choice and is not genetically determined. He also declared that "everyone can be liberated and set free." At the end of his sermon, Green said, "We can't condemn these people - Jesus never did either. He showed everyone he had deep respect for him as a person ... Jesus never put anyone down."
On June 29, 2004, a district court found the pastor guilty of "inciting hatred against a social group based on its sexual orientation" based on a newly passed law extending the criteria for persecution of minorities to include sexual minorities.
The case generated numerous positive and negative comments around the world. The Slovak Minister of the Interior, Vladimír Palko from the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), reacted the sharpest. On July 13, 2004, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Bratislava was called in connection with this case. The Slovak minister considered the verdict political. In his opinion, for the first time in the recent history of democratic Europe, a clergyman was convicted for what he said in a sermon. The Slovak minister told the ambassador that Slovakia has many years of experience in locking up priests, but it also has experience in rehabilitating them. In his opinion, the Kingdom of Sweden has so far experienced only the former[1].
The case generated numerous positive and negative comments around the world. The Slovak Minister of the Interior, Vladimír Palko from the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), reacted the sharpest. On July 13, 2004, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Bratislava was called in connection with this case. The Slovak minister considered the verdict political. In his opinion, for the first time in the recent history of democratic Europe, a clergyman was convicted for what he said in a sermon. The Slovak minister told the ambassador that Slovakia has many years of experience in locking up priests, but it also has experience in rehabilitating them. In his opinion, the Kingdom of Sweden has so far experienced only the former[1].
On February 11, 2005, the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, stating that Green had not incited hatred against gay people, but merely conveyed his own interpretation of the Bible.[2]
On March 9, 2005, the Attorney General appealed the acquittal of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. The trial before the Supreme Court began on November 9, 2005 and ended on November 29. The verdict stated that the pastor had violated Swedish law, however, taking into account previous judgments of the European Court of Human Rights invoking Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal[3].
In January 2008, the Swedish International Organisation of Good Templars - National Templar Order* decided to remove Åke Green from the organization, claiming that his views on homosexuality conflicted with the teachings of the association[4].
The Polish Dominicans from Poznań spoke about the pastor. They criticized the verdict as a legal misunderstanding and unjustified granting of a privilege preferring only one of human sexual behaviors[1].
June 10, 2005 Åke Green came to Poland on the eve of the Equality Parade at the invitation of the Association for Civil Liberties and the Christianitas Quarterly. He presented a critical stance towards the parade and presented the Swedish situation related to the place of homosexuality in society and law[5].
Here are the footnotes 1 to 5:
1 http://christianitas.pl/c/wydarzylosie/index.php?id=307 [dead link, domain for sale]**
2 'Hate speech' pastor wins appeal
BBC News : Last Updated: Friday, 11 February, 2005, 16:07 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4256945.stm
3 Dom på engelska, pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20120209074955/http://www.domstol.se/Domstolar/hogstadomstolen/Avgoranden/2005/Dom_pa_engelska_B_1050-05.pdf
4 https://www.iogt.se/templates/NewsPageSmall____15743.aspx [page not found on site, so dead link]
5 http://christianitas.pl/c/wydarzylosie/?id=190 [dead link, domain for sale]**
Now for the comment.
I had not seen the actual text of the sermon when I commented online that God hating homosexuals is not what the Bible says. It actually is about sodomites, i e people who practise homosexuality. One can be a homosexual without practising it, like the celibate and chaste Joe Sciambra (who unfortunately thinks every homosexual should be that), or like Josh Weed (at least formerly married to and still living with the mother of four daughters), and like Svante Pääbo (who later followed the same course as Josh Weed, and who also is a remarcable scientist, thanks to whom we have a sequencing of the Neanderthal genome).
First Corinthians 6:9 - 11 gives a list of people who, if remaining in their sins, will not inherit the kingdom of God.
nor liers with mankind, nor thieves,
I note that St. Paul does not speak of homosexuals and cleptomaniacs, he speaks of sodomites and thieves. In other words, he does not speak of predispositions, but of acts, not of people with certain feelings, but of people who commit certain acts. Sure, some acts are committed internally by lots of people who are still homosexual but no longer sodomites or never became sodomites, and if they are voluntary, they also exclude from the kingdom of God (cfr Mt 5:28). But on the one hand, they are easier to repent of, as they never involved someone else counting on one's continued consent, and on the other hand, either the choice of marriage or the choice of celibacy is a choice that can help one combat their recurrence.
Here is a thing where I did take issue with Åke Green, because in the citation I had seen, he had used or was cited as having used the word "homosexual" ... but my motivation was, I had recently been in prison in Sweden, and did not want to get back to prison for supporting Åke Green on the sermon. I did not have a personal issue about homosexuality, even if by now some people have since then given me rumours about homosexuality. But in 2003, I was not yet out of Sweden, so, I was afraid.
The guys who really did not support Åke Green were the semi-masonic (and condemned by the Catholic Church, I think too) IOGT. However, Åke Green has damaged his reputation as a Christian by being with an organisation like IOGT. The first public miracle of Jesus did not result in non-alcoholic grape juice. It resulted in wine, identical to the wine that naturally goes through the process of fermentation to its completion./HGL
* The international and national orders are merged in Sweden. ** This shows why free blogs are preferrable to links that can die because a lack of payment, for an internet page that is anyway not paid by the readers.
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