Faith and Freedom Network

The secularists always claim that hate crimes laws are only for violent crimes and that conservatives and Christians are being alarmists when we say that hate crimes legislation will affect religious expression--particularly that of pastors who preach biblical truth regarding homosexuality.

Congress will soon be dealing with this issue again. More than a few people are concerned.

It's well known that we already have an abundance of laws dealing with violence. Someone has said that all crimes are hate crimes. Clearly there is more to this push than merely trying to punish those who commit violent crimes.

Other countries that have adopted hate crimes laws, as a number of both Republicans and Democrats in our Congress are trying to do, have generally also adopted "hate speech" bans as part of the package.

Here are some examples:

* Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are "threatening, abusive, or insulting and are intended or...are likely to stir up hatred" on the basis of sexual orientation.

* Iceland forbids "ridiculing, slandering, insulting or threatening" protected classes including homosexuals.

* Sweden's hate speech law even bans expressing "disrespect."

* In Italy, an atheist has taken a priest to the European court of Human Rights on a complaint of "religious racism" for teaching that Jesus existed.

Obviously the Italian atheist had some personal issues with the Catholic Church, but this is an example of how far reaching this kind of legislation can be.

An even more troubling example has been reported by Stephen Adams from Focus on The Family. He says that probably the next big battleground after "homophobic" hate speech will be "Islamophobic" hate speech and uses this story as an example:

"Canadian Pastor Mark Harding publicly objected when his local high school began handing out Qurans and making special accommodations for Muslim students to pray at school, while denying others the same privileges. Because the literature he distributed attributed violence to Islam, Harding was prosecuted under a Canadian hate crimes law for "willingly promoting hatred" against a religious group.

His sentence was two years probation and 340 hours of community service at Ontario's Islamic Society of North America, under the supervision of a Muslim imam."

If this so called "hate crimes" legislation is passed by our Congress, we will soon be punishing people not for their actions, but for their "thoughts." This is a brave new world that some of us do not want to occupy.

THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF AND HAS FAR REACHING IMPLICATIONS.

Some of our elected officials are pushing this legislation to assist those who have a certain agenda, perhaps some are doing so out of ignorance, however; thankfully, there are those who are seriously questioning this whole process and are asking the right questions.

More with part two tomorrow.

Please contact your elected officials and express your strong opposition to so called "hate crimes" legislation.

_____________________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

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