- Next month, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and
Foundation for Moral Law attorneys will continue to challenge Pennsylvania's
state hate law. In 2004, eleven Christians were shocked to find themselves
in jail as hate criminals. <http://christiannewswire.com/news/684985759.html>They
were arrested for peacefully protesting a gay pride parade. Christians
across America were justly horrified. Bill O'Reilly and others featured
the story of persecution in "the land of the free." The Pennsylvania
Commonwealth dismissed criminal charges against the Christians. The proactive
Christians then sued the governor and legislative leaders, arguing that
the hate laws were not passed in a Constitutional way in 2002. They won.
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- Today the Commonwealth is appealing
to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, trying to keep special legal protection
for privileged groups, including homosexuals. For decades, states and nations
have been complicating their legal systems with such "anti-hate"
statutes. These laws stiffen punishment for crimes motivated by "bias"
or "hate." They lead to speech restrictions and end up criminalizing
legitimate criticism, especially from Christians and conservatives. For
example, in Canada and now in the California public school system, it becomes
illegal to express our "fundamentalist" bias against anal, same-sex
intercourse or to negatively point out that homosexuals have higher AIDS
rates. (See, <http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/howbiblebecamehate.htm>How
the Bible Became 'Hate Speech' in California) Bias crime laws are used
to silence all criticism-legitimate, thoughtful, or venomous, it doesn't
matter-of protected social groups.
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- Christians don't have such protection.
While the Philadelphia Commonwealth is trying to save homosexuals' special
privileges, another group of Pennsylvanians-Catholics-aren't feeling the
love. A Catholic church was recently vandalized. Thugs defaced a statue
of Mary and the church's front doors with words, "God is dead"
and "[Obscenity] Jesus." They planted a fake pipe bomb so convincing
a bomb squad was called in.
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- But if they're caught, they won't be
prosecuted for a hate crime-just "institutional vandalism." Philly
columnist <http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/219-02212008-1491322.html>J.
D. Mullane wrote about this crime, which he notes was hardly motivated
by love. But that's the unequal treatment that results from hate crime
laws. We argue that no one should benefit from the increased punishments
and complex investigations of hate crime laws. No crime should carry a
heavier sentence based on why it's committed. But it's worth pointing out
that as various groups are added to hate crime statutes, conservative Christians
are not among them.
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- While advocates battle in Pennsylvania,
<http://www.sovo.com/2008/2-8/news/localnews/8111.cfm>the fight over
hate laws also continues in Georgia. Georgia is one of five states without
a hate crimes law. This means it is one of five remaining states with a
simple, equal-to-all legal system that punishes a murder or beating as
a murder or beating, no more or less. Georgia's state laws promise to punish
your assailant whether you wear a drag queen's stilettos or a pastor's
oxfords. Their wise Majority Whip recently advocated a bill calling hate
laws repugnant, as a dike against militant homosexual advocates who want
a hate law. His bill said that "encouraging police to treat victims
differently depending on whether they fit into a special status created
by statute causes victims of similar crimes to be treated disparately,
a concept repugnant to the Georgia and United States constitutions."
He's so right. But his bill was defeated. Things are in a kind of stalemate.
Last year, a Georgian bill to define hate crimes never made it to the Senate
floor. But that bill was reintroduced and stands a chance of passage this
year.
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- Meanwhile, hate crime laws are also
debated in other states. In Massachusetts, pending legislation will add
transgender people to hate crimes protected status. Maryland <http://www.wmdt.com/topstory/displaystory.asp?id=8004>lawmakers
seek to include the homeless under hate crime statutes. <http://www.wtop.com/?nid=712&sid=1349021>A
local news source explains, "Under the bill, someone who commits crimes
--including defacing private property or murder-- because someone is homeless,
could be charged separately for committing a hate crime." <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030600942.html>Maine
already did that last year. A federal bill, now pending, wants to do the
same.
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- I'm repeating myself for the fifteenth
time-but hate laws are no good because they create special categories of
victims; they criminalize bias, thoughts and beliefs not actions; they
complicate law enforcement; they end up criminalizing speech; and they
confuse the process of law enforcement which should be equal for all people,
for all crimes, at all times.
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- But there's not a lot of critical thought
in the Maryland halls of justice, apparently. <http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=71577>Their
Senate passed the bill by a whopping vote of 44-4.
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- One of the four senators with brains
(David Brinkley, who deserves to be named) said: "Someone murders
someone, they murder someone, there shouldn't be a separate category for
it. If they beat someone up, assault and battery is assault and battery.
And if the rules are too lenient for some, then let's change them up for
all."
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- Apparently this sunlit logic can't penetrate
the dense clouds of identity politics and victim lobbies, led mostly by
Jewish groups such as the freedom-hating Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith. If that 44-4 majority support of hate crime laws is even halfway
mirrored at the federal level, we stand little chance of defeating a national
hate crime law. Especially under a liberal President.
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- <http://www.wtop.com/?nid=712&sid=1349021>This
story says the homeless bill only succeeded because of advocates for the
homeless who championed it. This is what happens with hate crime laws:
They pass because they have ardent minority defenders, and the silent majority
doesn't know enough to care. If Americans truly understood hate crime laws,
these laws wouldn't stand a chance. But evil laws can pass when small groups
lobby hard and no one else really speaks up. When the majority realizes
its doom, it's too late. Just look at the neighbors.
-
- Canadians are slowly waking up to the
reality of hate speech laws, as conservative commentators face jail time
for criticizing Islam. Canadian National Post blogger Jonathan Kay openly
admits that Jews created these speech codes, which are now being used to
punish even mainstream figures like Mark Steyn.
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- "Ironically," <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/02/23/158480.aspx>he
says, "the censorship regime that well-meaning Jewish intellectuals
helped put in place to fight anti-Semitism a generation ago is now being
applied to prosecute the pundits blowing the whistle on the one truly genuine
threat that Jews are facing worldwide: militant Islam."
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- This quotation matters not because it's
wholly true (Were Jewish intellectuals really well-meaning? Is militant
Islam really the greatest threat, not Jews' anti-Semitism-generating evil
leaders?). It matters because this pundit casually assigns blame for increasingly
unpopular laws to Jews-and that's been taboo for a couple decades.
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- Maybe the tides can shift. Maybe more
Americans can learn that hate crime laws pose the single greatest threat
to our domestic freedoms, and this threat isn't going away.
-
- For that to happen, more people need
to talk truth about hate crime laws-what they are, why they're wrong, and
also who's writing them. The ADL is a strong force. Far too many Christian
leaders are afraid to criticize hate laws because they will be smeared
as "anti-Semites," especially if they point out the ADL as architects.
But that's just simple reality. This fight is here to stay. Americans need
to keep fighting. The people who want to take away freedom aren't taking
a nap.
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- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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- Harmony Grant writes and edits for National
Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog group.
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- Let the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
teach you how they have saddled 45 states with hate laws capable of persecuting
Christians: <http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp>http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
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- Learn how ADL took away free speech in Canada
and wants to steal it now in the U.S. Congress. Watch Rev. Ted Pike's <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7217700265038533779>Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase this
gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org
for $24.90, DVD or VHS, by calling 503-853-3688, or at the address below.
-
- TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on
this subject. Call (503) 631-3808.
-
- NATIONAL PRAYER NETWORK, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR
97015
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- <http://www.truthtellers.org/>www.truthtellers.org
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