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Sweden's Conviction of Pastor for Preaching on Homosexuality Violates International Law

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty submitted an amicus (friend of the court) brief yesterday with the Swedish Supreme Court calling for the Court to reverse the conviction of a pastor prosecuted for presenting Christan teaching on homosexuality from the pulpit.

Pastor Ake Green was sentenced to one month in jail for a sermon he preached to his congregation in 2003 on Biblical texts addressing homosexuality. The sermon was later printed in a local newspaper and Green was prosecuted on the basis that his sermon offended Sweden's homosexual community.

The Becket Fund, a nonpartisan, interfaith, public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions, is a Non-Governmental Organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

The Becket Fund submitted the brief to inform the Gotta Supreme Court of Sweden's obligations to guarantee each of its citizens the religious liberty, freedom of expression, and equal protection of the laws secured by Articles 18, 19, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR"), to which Sweden is a signatory.

Article 18 provides, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."

As The Becket Fund's brief notes, "Article 18 provides 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."

Article 19 states, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds . . ." And Article 26 prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion "or other opinion."

"Should this Court uphold Pastor Green's conviction-which was based solely upon the expression of his religious beliefs in a sermon preached to his congregation-Sweden will be in violation of all three of these bedrock principles of international human rights law," the brief declared.

"Pastor Green's case is a wake-up call that we must be vigilant not to let that happen here," declared Becket Fund Director of Litigation Derek Gaubatz. "Free religious expression is a fundamental human right. People around the world have always looked to their religious leaders for moral guidance, and those leaders must be allowed to provide it free of state censorship.

See the amicus brief in full:
http://www.becketfund.org/pdfs/333_36.pdf

jhw

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