Scandinavian scandal: Reuters reports that Sweden’s supreme court on Tuesday cleared an evangelical preacher of inciting hatred after he labeled homosexuality “a cancerous tumour” responsible for AIDS during a 2003 sermon.

The case has acted as a rallying point for Christian groups in Sweden and abroad that have defended the pastor’s right to freedom of speech and faith. One gay rights group said it would open the door to further pressure from right-wing Christians.

The highest court upheld a ruling by a lower tribunal affirming Pentecostal Pastor Ake Green’s right to preach religious views even if many found them offensive.

Green told Swedish radio he was relieved, adding: “There will be no limitations on the way we can preach.”

The court said his comments could not be considered hate speech as they were made in church on a biblical theme.

It also said the European Court of Human Rights would likely find a conviction of Green to be against the European Convention on Human Rights, which Sweden has signed.

The lower court had overturned a sentence of one month in jail for inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Gay rights group RFSL said the verdict showed Sweden’s hate speech law needed reform to include the religious sphere.

“It is very serious that the church has been made into a free zone of persecution. We will now unfortunately experience growing religious persecution from extreme right religious groups,” RFSL chairman Soren Andersson said in a statement.

Sweden’s Lutheran church, of which 80 percent of the country’s 9 million people are nominal members, faces a revolt by more than 700 of its 5,000 priests over a decision to bless gay couples.

The church separated from the state in 2000 and attendance is low in one of the world’s most secular countries. It ordained its first woman priest in 1960 and in 1998 the late Pope John Paul II canceled an audience with its head, Archbishop K.G. Hammar, over his pro-gay views.

Pastors from Sweden’s west coast protesting at the ordination of women and gays have called in an archbishop from Uganda to anoint their own first bishop.