Conservatives
Rebuke
Hate Crimes Bill Ploy
By
Michelle Vu
Conservative Christian groups were quick to
denounce the Senate’s attachment of a hate crimes amendment to the Defense
Funding Bill, criticizing the measure for elevating some violent crimes above
others.
Opponents of the political ploy argue all
violent acts should be given equal justice instead of designating some worse
than others when the end results are the same. They contend it is a “dangerous
mistake” to rank crimes of violence based on purported motives or the identity
of the victim as the proposed amendment would do.
“Murder is murder and should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of the possible motives of the
murderer or 
the
racial, ethnic or sexual identity of the victim,” said Richard Land, president
of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, to the
Baptist Press.
“It’s called blind justice for a reason,” he
added. “It is why the symbol for law is a blindfolded woman holding the scales
of justice. It’s called blind justice because justice should be meted out based
on actions, refusing to take into account the particular identities of
perpetrators or victims.”
Tony Perkins, president of Washington-based
Family Research Council, would agree.
He
pointed out the hate crimes legislation is a “direct violation” of the Constitution’s
Equal Protection Clause. “Congress needs to remember that preserving equal
justice under the law is more important than scoring points with advocates
of homosexual behavior,” Perkins said in a statement. “All violent crimes
are hate crimes, and every victim is equally important…All our citizens deserve
equal justice under the law,” he said. “Congress should represent all Americans,
not give special protections for some.”
The measure seeks to add violence against
individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability
to the list of federal hate crimes involving prejudice against an individual’s
race, color, religion, and national origin.
Co-sponsors Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)
and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) claim it is appropriate to attach the hate
crimes amendment to the massive defense funding bill – which includes the Iraq
war – because both combat terrorist behavior.
However, opponents retorted that Kennedy’s
action will delay funds to U.S. troops and that raising a “special interest”
bill at such an urgent time is inappropriate.
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Concerned Women
for America, expressed anger that the Massachusetts senator “would hold our
soldiers hostage” with the defense bill by attaching a “totally unrelated,
dangerous hate crimes amendment,” according to OneNewsNow.
Similarly, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said,
“I think it’s shameful we’re changing the subject to take care of special
interest legislation at a time like this,” according to The Associated Press.
The hate crimes amendment as a single bill
was originally criticized by Christian leaders for threatening the right of the
Church and believers to preach about the biblical sin of homosexuality.
Prominent Christian leaders, such as Chuck
Colson and Dr. James Dobson, defended the right of people of faith to speak out
on their religious beliefs.
Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship and
former top aide for then President Richard Nixon, highlighted cases in Europe,
Canada and even in the United States where Christians have been prosecuted for
peaceful speech on the sin of homosexuality. “In Pennsylvania, 11 Christians
were prosecuted under the state’s hate crime law for preaching on a street
corner against homosexuality,” he noted, referring to the case of the ten
adults and one teenager who were arrested shortly after “sexual orientation”
was added to the state’s hate crimes law as a victim category in 2004. The
group was singing hymns and carrying signs peacefully at a homosexual
celebration in Philadelphia.
“The Hate Crimes Act will be the first step
to criminalize our rights as Christians to believe that some behaviors are
sinful,” said 
Dobson,
founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action, in a message for a petition
to oppose the bill. “Pastors preaching from Scripture on homosexuality could
be threatened with persecution and prosecution,” he noted.
Dobson has also pointed to ENDA, the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as another “equally or even more dangerous”
bill in Congress. ENDA would force non-profit organizations – such as Focus on
the Family and the Salvation Army – to hire homosexuals or “individuals hostile
to our firmly held moral beliefs.”
“Why are Americans seeing such an onslaught
of pro-homosexual/drag queen bills being rammed through the House and Senate
this month?” asked Traditional Values Coalition executive director Andrea
Lafferty. The conservative leader noted that the Human Rights Campaign, a
well-known pro-gay rights group, held an event for Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi on Oct. 3. “They wanted to have a legislative victory to crow about at
this Pelosi event,” Lafferty suggested. “Congress is committed to catering to
the homosexual/drag queen lobby rather than being committed to the truth.
“And,” she added, “they’re willing to exploit our
military by adding this non-germane amendment to a defense budget bill.”
President Bush vowed earlier this year to
veto the hate crimes bill if it made it to his desk when the House passed its
version of the amendment in May. Bush is expected to veto the new bill despite
its attachment to the must-pass defense spending bill.
"I hope and pray that if this
bill makes its way to the president's desk that he will fulfill his promise to
veto it," said Baptist leader Richard Land.
Michelle
Vu is a reporter for the Christian Post
Publisher’s Comment
Folks, if President Bush does not veto the
Defense Authorization Bill and this Hate Crimes Amendment stays intact and
remains in the Bill; or, if President Bush vetoes the Bill and his veto is
overridden, it will supersede the laws of all 50 states on this subject.
The amendment will authorize the U.S.
attorney general to provide assistance to state and local officials in the
investigation and prosecution of hate crimes, as well as expand the categories
covered by the law to include "sexual orientation" and "gender
identity," among others. The legislation says a hate crime is one
"motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color,
religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or
disability of the victim, or is a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate
crime laws."
"Sexual orientation"
includes homosexuality. "Gender identity" is a "person's innate
sense of gender," which may be different than his sex, according to the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC -
the country's largest homosexual activist organization).
Transgender is an umbrella term for "people who live all or substantial
portions of their lives expressing an innate sense of gender other than their
birth sex," according to HRC. The transgender category includes
transsexuals and cross-dressers.
This amendment will make it a Federal felony
for any person to act in a way that appears to have been for the purpose of
causing “bodily injury” to a “perceived” homosexual, lesbian, or to a person
because of his or her “gender identity.” The use of the term “bodily injury” in
the Hate Crimes bill is a ploy to include not only incidents of physical harm,
but also allegations of mental trauma and emotional distress as sufficient to
trigger application of this new criminal law.
I guarantee you, Christian broadcasters,
writers, ministry leaders, and clergy will be targeted for Hate Crimes prosecutions.
This is nothing short of an attempt to impose thought control over anyone who
stands opposed to the homosexual agenda or believes homosexuality is a sin. Overly
zealous or politically-minded prosecutors and homosexual activists will use
this law to prosecute, persecute and silence any and all who oppose the
homosexual agenda – period.
Now that I’ve given you the lighter side of
the effects which this legislation will have should it become law, let me
tell you what those who are pushing this agenda have as their end goal. That
end goal is the total eradication of all Christian moral principles and Christianity
itself in America. That’s where this is heading. Laugh and snicker all you
want, but I’m as serious as a heart attack.
