Posted on 07/23/2004 8:29:49 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
KDH defends priest [Note: Original Title]
By Martina Jurinová Spectator staff
HRUŠOVSKÝ (centre) defends criticism of homosexuals. photo: TASR
THE RECENT sentencing of a Swedish pastor to one month in jail for offending homosexuals has stirred protests by Slovakia's ruling Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), and one of the party's officials even took his personal protest to the Swedish ambassador in Slovakia, Cecilia Julin, on July 13.
Interior Minister Vladimír Palko told Julin that he had no choice but to protest the sentencing of the Pentecostal pastor, Ake Green, who was found guilty of offending homosexuals in a sermon that took place in 2003.
According to the global news service Ecumenical News International (ENI), Green described homosexuality as "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society".
In an effort to protect freedom of expression, the KDH has organised a special press conference regarding the matter with the party's highest officials protesting the court's sentence. Palko even suggested that this was an example of how "a left wing liberal ideology was trying to introduce tyranny and misuse the EU for this purpose".
Palko said that this also explained why his party was against the approval of the anti-discrimination law in Slovakia. The legislation was approved just recently despite KDH's opposition.
"In Europe people are starting to be jailed for saying what they think," Palko said.
The KDH chairman, Pavol Hrušovský, added that this was "a breach of human rights, the right to religious freedom, and the right of expression".
After meeting with Palko, ambassador Julin said that states have the right to hold different opinions regarding court verdicts issued in other states. She added, however, that, "Swedish law states that public addresses cannot be used to instigate hatred towards a certain group."
The KDH's comments surprised their political peers and some even said that the Christian Democrat's protests may even put international blame on Slovakia.
Jozef Banáš, a member of another ruling party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, said that the "KDH's activities are damaging to Slovakia".
He said that Palko's protest as well as a letter in the works that Hrušovský, speaker of Slovak parliament, plans to send to his Swedish colleague would make Slovaks look "like total idiots".
Marián Vojtek, head of a Slovak gay rights group Ganymedes, said to The Slovak Spectator that his group agreed with the Swedish court's verdict and hoped that the decision would stop people from speaking badly about homosexuals.
"If someone is making such statements publicly it should not go unnoticed because this is an incitement to hatred towards homosexuals. The same would apply if the person would be talking about any group of people whether it's Jews, black people, or anybody else," said Vojtek.
In regards to the KDH's opposition to the verdict, Vojtek said that it was typical of the party to "discuss homosexual issues during the political dry season".
According to Marián Gavenda, spokesman of the Slovak Conference of Bishops (KBS), "if a priest directly offends a person, laws apply to him just like to any other person."
He added, however, "we would be unhappy if, on the other hand, a civilian authority disabled the Church from calling things the right names. We would consider that discrimination," Gavenda said.
In an interview with The Slovak Spectator Gavenda also said that he did not consider news reports about Green's case to be sufficient for him to be able to carry out a thorough evaluation of the matter.
He noted that, "If he was only tried for condemnation of practiced homosexuality, which from the Biblical point of view as well as the point of view of the Church, is immoral the sentence was certainly unjust."
According to ENI, Soren Andersson from the Swedish Federation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, said that religious freedom could never be used as a reason to offend people.
In a statement issued by the KBS back in May of 1999, Gavenda said the Slovak bishops "differentiated between a person with homosexual orientation, to whom respect must be paid and who has to be incorporated into the common parish community life, and a person who practices homosexuality in intimate life with persons of the same sex."
"It is not considered right that marriages between persons of different sex who create families have the same social status as partnerships of homosexuals even though the possibility of child adoption by the latter type of partnership is refused," said Gavenda.
When asked what he thought about the KDH's opinion that the liberals and left-wing groups were trying to misuse the EU, Gavenda said: "It is true that in a social atmosphere created by the media as well as in the trends of the European legislation, a misuse of antidiscrimination laws can be observed in a sense that topics tabooed by liberal groups cannot be freely touched upon.
"In this sense it can be seen as a 'velvet tyranny'," he said.
"We think that in the 21 century all expressions of discrimination should be condemned. This case is even sadder because it involves a representative of the Church that is an institution that should spread reconciliation and good coexistence among people," Katarína Glonèáková-Golev, deputy chairwoman of the fellow ruling coalition member the New Citizen's Alliance, said in a media statement.
[7/19/2004]
In Belgium, there is a party called Vlaams Blok that basically did what you are describing. Of course, they're also calling for closing the borders and deporting the swarms of Mohammedans coming in. A leftist EU judge recently declared them to be an illegal party, though not in time for the EU Parliament vote last month.
Any reason the homosexuals were not sentenced to jail for offending the Swedish pastor?
That's because is is lawful to offend Christians. Christ said that Christians would be hated and persecuted for His Name's sake and we are seeing it happen.
I'm aware of Vlaam's Blok, but I haven't heard of the ruling. Next a politician needs to call the EU judicial system out, and see if they are blocked from participating in the election process. At that point, it's hard not to support those who take extra-judicial activities to defend themselves from the tyrants. Apparently Chirac has been tutored by Mugabe on governance, while the French media said Chirac mentored Mugabe on economics. I'm basically stunned at the level of disaster soon to be unleashed upon the EU.
Yes, I agree. That's what's so scary. But, maybe we have a chance to turn it around. There are still many practicing religious people here, unlike Europe. Unfortunately, it does seem like it's too late for them .
Something that I notice a lot among conservatives in theor reponse to this type of outrage are charges of hypocrisy, or how foolish and ridiculous this behavior is.
This type of thing is not hypocritical or ridiculous within the doctrines of leftist thought, though. To leftists, the world is divided into three groups:
1. The "oppressed others" - minorities, homosexuals, women, the workers, etc. As these are the designated victims of oppression, they are not capable of committing evil acts. Any bigotry, murder, and even genocide carried out by members of aid groups is seen as being reactive in nature and therefore morally justified.
2. The "oppressors." Members of this group who fail to embrace leftist dogmas deserve no mercy. They are completely 100 percent evil and mmust be destroyed through any number of means: reverse discrimination, hate crimes laws (which apply only to the oppressors), destruction of culture, and reduction (through unlimited immigration) to minority status in their own native lands. The oppressors are a) Christians (and Orthodox Jews to a degree); b) whites (and any minorities who embrace the majority culture); c) heterosexuals; d) males.
3.) The last group is the smallest. They are the annointed ones - the true believers in the new order. Because they are leading the way to the great utopia, anything they do is perfectly justfiable. This is why, for example, you see feminists who rail about sexual harassment twist themselves into amazing pretzel shapes when standing up for their men - Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. Those men are members of the annointed, thus they are categorically incapable of doing anything from a purely base motive. They must be defended at all costs. That's also the reason we'll never see an Imam sent to prison for advocating that Christians and Jews be put to the sword under leftist hate crime statutes, unless its such a bad case they might face a real public revolt if they didn't do something.
The evil oppresors must be destroyed and the righteous oppressed must be elevated under the enlightened guidance of the annointed visionaries. Leftism is a religion, not a logical methof of thinking about political issues.
I think once they start tracking the newest "hate crimes" the results will be similar as the rest of the minorities.
The book 'Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics' is a revelatory study of the phenomena. It was coauthored by James B. Jacobs, who is the director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at New York University and a professor of law at the NYU School of Law, and Kimberly Potter, an attorney who was formerly a research fellow at the Center for Research in Crime and Justice.
The authors also reveal the surprising statistics regarding interracial crime. It turns out that 80 percent of violent crimes involve an attacker and victim of the same race. “For the 20 percent of violent crimes that are interracial, 15 percent involve black offenders and white victims; 2 percent involve white offenders and black
victims; and 3 percent involve other combinations.”
Who is worse, the ones hell bent on dragging us down, or the rest of society who see it happening and do nothing to stop it?
"for the Lord has not appointed you unto wrath,but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thes. 5:9 It's not far off.
A decade and a couple hundred million personal firearms away, not as close as one might think...
Political claim "Religious freedom could never be used as a reason to offend people."
Jesus said.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. 40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Did you attend the same church I used to!! That is why I left after 7 years of being active in that church. They were interested in nothing except fund raising for new carpets and kitchen fittings etc for the church.
We are surrounded...
.....but armed to the teeth.
Swedish pastor sentenced to one month's jail for offending homosexuals
although...it is a little different and from a different source.
PING!
BUt heavier versions have been bantered around -
BUt you are correct, many have already been passed.
And you are also correct- it's amazing how it seems that only white males can commit hate crimes....
Coming soon to the USA if the liberal left gets their way..
Yes, if only...
I am afraid you are right. They don't seem able to shake of a complacency towards tyranny in Europe and the North American continent has become deeply infected as well. We (the U.S.) may be too sick ourselves to come to Europes rescue the next time they're on their death bed.
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