Americans take freedom of speech for granted, and imagine that it is a bedrock principle of a free society. Most of us probably don't realize how rare this is, even among the liberal democracies. Consider this from Sweden:
One Sunday in the summer of 2003, the Rev. Ake Green, a Pentecostal pastor, stepped into the pulpit of his small church in the southern Swedish village of Borgholm. There, the 63-year-old clergyman delivered a sermon denouncing homosexuality as "a deep cancerous tumor in the entire society" and condemning Sweden's plan to allow gays to form legally recognized partnerships.
"Our country is facing a disaster of great proportions," he told the 75 parishioners at the service. "Sexually twisted people will rape animals," Green declared, and homosexuals "open the door to forbidden areas," such as pedophilia.
With these words, which the local newspaper published at his request, Green ran afoul of Sweden's strict laws against hate speech. He was indicted, convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He remains free pending appeal.
I do not think much of Pastor Green's sermon, so far as it is here quoted. Whatever homosexuality is, it isn't a cancer. And I would agree with those who argue that such words may well encourage individual acts of violence against homosexuals, or even collective acts if he should gain a sufficiently large constituency.
But dragging a preacher out of the pulpit (metaphorically speaking) for something he said there is a violation of sanctuary in the most basic sense, and such an act has been regarded as both religiously and political impious since the time of the ancient Greeks. If he cannot announce the principles of his faith as he understands them from that location, there is neither freedom of speech nor freedom of religion.
The American distinction between speech and action has proved to be a pretty secure bulwark against invasions of liberty, and it is a wonder that the Swedes could not come up with something like it. But perhaps they know better than I how much danger the regimes of Europe face from their most illiberal elements. In the U.S. freedom of speech has always rested on a faith that the voice of pernicious faction will be always be contained by the multiplicity of interests and faiths that constitutes the regime. Maybe we are naive. Or maybe Europe is just a more dangerous place than is commonly recognized.
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