Ecumenical News International: A Swedish Pentecostal pastor sentenced to a prison term after describing homosexuals as "a cancerous tumour in the body of society" has had his conviction overturned by an appeal court.
The court of appeal in the Swedish town of Joenkoping ruled on Feb. 11 that the views of the pastor, the Rev. Ake Green, did not constitute a crime under anti-hate legislation which bans incitement against homosexuals as well as against racial, religious or national groups.
The pastor had a right to preach "the Bible's categorical condemnation of homosexual relations as a sin," the court said, even if Green's views could be "strongly questioned," news services reported. Green had been sentenced in 2004 to one month in prison after he said in a sermon the previous year that homosexuals were "perverts, whose sexual drive the Devil has used as his strongest weapon against God." He had remained at liberty pending the appeal.
