The American Family Association, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and other conservative activist groups are urging their supporters to call, e-mail, fax, or visit their senators today to express their disapproval of S. 909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Senate Bill 909). The bill would authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., a member of the conservative coalition known as the Arlington Group, says the measure would have a chilling effect on the religious liberty of pastors.
"Back in 2006, [Democratic Representative] Artur Davis from Alabama, who will be running for governor by the way in that great state, made a statement to [Representative] Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] in a [House] subcommittee meeting that a pastor could be held liable or [as] a co-conspirator of sorts in a hate crime if we found out that his preaching and teaching incited -- according to their thinking -- someone to commit a violent act against someone that is gay," Jackson explains.
This entire push against adding sexual orientation (because that's what is getting the religious right up in arms) to existing hate crimes legislation reveals the abject dishonesty of religious right groups.
They have careened from one argument to another in their attempts to kill this bill. From inaccurately saying that it will protect nasty sexual behavior to claiming that it will keep pedophiles who molest children from going to jail, this entire controversy has been a window into the mindsets of some so-called Christians, revealing just how low they will stoop in the name of God.
While they claim that adding sexual orientation to hate crimes legislation will cause mere speech to be punished, not one of them from Harry Jackson to Tony Perkins to James Dobson has said a word about eliminating existing hate crimes legislation altogether; especially the statue that punishes crimes committed on the basis of religion.
And they refuse to acknowledge that heterosexuals are also protected under the sexual orientation addition.
But what's more interesting is that statement by Jackson:
"Back in 2006, [Democratic Representative] Artur Davis from Alabama, who will be running for governor by the way in that great state, made a statement to [Representative] Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] in a [House] subcommittee meeting that a pastor could be held liable or [as] a co-conspirator of sorts in a hate crime if we found out that his preaching and teaching incited -- according to their thinking -- someone to commit a violent act against someone that is gay,"
First of all to be exact, Jackson is inaccurate about the year in which the exchange took place. It was in 2007.
And what is wrong with a pastor being charged if his preaching and teaching incited someone to violence? The devil, as they say, is in the details.
Seems to me if a pastor actually tells someone to go out and harm an lgbt or anyone else via teaching or preaching, then the pastor should be charged with a crime.
And that pastor would be charged with a crime even if hate crimes legislation did not exist.
But a good question would be what if the pastor merely said that homosexuality is a sin and someone took that as a statement telling him to harm an lgbt?
That would be a problem except for an action committed by Rep. Davis during the hearing; an action that Jackson omitted bringing up. According to the webpage, Religious Tolerance:
Artur Davis (D-AL), a co-sponsor of the bill, offered a change that clarified that the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech would not be affected by the bill. That is, pastors and other Christians who denigrate homosexuals (or women or the disabled, etc) need not fear being charged with conspiracy if a someone is motivated by the speech to commit a violent act. The amendment reads:
"Sec. 8: Rule of Construction:
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."
Which means the concern about a minister getting arrested for merely preaching that homosexuality is a sin is a smokescreen. It was a smokescreen in 2007 and it is one now.
Or in other words, a cynical lie thought up by a group determined to destroy a bill.
I never knew that Jesus told us to tell lies. Jackson and company must have a new translation of the Bible. I knew they would flip after they discovered that the King James version was offered by a gay man.
Other posts on hate crimes legislation:
Hate crimes legislation makes Doug Giles lose his mind
SC gay groups organizing response to DeMint letter
Tell Senator DeMint to stop lying about hate crimes legislation
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