The Swedish Supreme Court is about to hear the case of Ake Green, a pastor who was previously convicted, then acquitted of hate speech under the three year old Swedish hate-speech legislation (good link). There are four interesting things about this case.
1. Right to Free Speech
First, his acquittal balanced his right to free speech with the hate speech legislation.
The court ruled that Sweden’s free speech laws protected Pastor Green from prosecution, accepting the argument from The Becket Fund’s brief that the guarantee of freedom of expression means that “it is not the role of a government composed of men to declare what is orthodoxy by punishing those who publicly teach one religious view of what is right, even if that view may offend others.â€
The court ruled that Pastor Green had a right to preach about “the Bible’s categorical condemnation of homosexual relations as a sin,†even if such views were “alien to most citizens.â€
2. Bad Legislation
Second, the language of the legislation is dangerously broad. The good side of this broadness is that it covers not just gays, but any sexual orientation, as well as race, etc. The much worse side is that it basically doesn’t allow you to morally disapprove of a behavior (read "sin"), especially if you are speaking to groups (like a preacher might).
In fact, Christianity Today reported:
"The bill clearly violates the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights," said Johan Candelin, president of the Religious Liberties Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance and a Finnish Lutheran pastor. "If the bill passes, it will place Sweden on level with China, with the state defining which theology is permissible."
Check out the wording of the legislation:
Any person who, through expression or other communication that is disseminated, threatens or expresses disrespect for a group of people or other such group of persons with respect to race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, faith or sexual orientation, shall be found guilty of incitement against a group of people and sentenced to prison in no more than two years or, if considered a minor offense, to fines. If the crime is considered major the sentence is prison in at least six months and no more than four years. When considering whether the crime is major, special consideration shall be given to whether the communication had an especially threatening or disrespectful contents and had been disseminated to a great number of people in a way intended to create substantial attention
In his sermon Green had stated: "sexual abnormalities are like a cancerous tumor". However, Hedin agreed with the monitor that Green had said that "homosexual people are like a cancerous tumor".
4. Muslims will use such laws to attack Christianity too
Fourth, it looks as if Muslims are now taking Christians to court using this same law. What a pain!
You guys are having strange comment problems again.
I sent a screen capture to them once, and all they could say was fill in a trouble ticket next time it happens. Dammit.
When should speech be prosecuted? When it incites, directly or indirectly, violence. Free speech is not an absolute: it also has responsibilities.
That being said, I am in favor of the maximum amount of freedom of speech. Thus, this little pastor is entitled, in his own church, to preach against gay people. Who cares? We all know that christianists hate gay people anyway. If, however, he tells his people to kill gays, then he should be jailed.
Such laws can always be turned against anyone. If I write against Christianists, declaring them to be ignorant and prejudiced, I shouldn't be silenced. Only freedom within the marketplace of ideas will find the truth. Jerks like the above pastor should be confronted with truth, not silenced.
I agree louis – you should be able to call hate a crime. You should even be able to accuse xians of hate, whether it is true or not – unless you venture into slander.