Will New Hate Crimes Law Threaten Religious Liberties?
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Religious conservatives are decrying yesterday's Senate expansion of the federal hate crimes law to include gays. The measure, attached to a must-pass military spending bill, is headed for a promised signature from President Obama.
Religious conservatives say the bill threatens their First Amendment right to publicly condemn homosexuality. I laid out the controversy in a recent God & Country column:
[C]onservative Christian groups, who've led the charge against expanding the federal hate crimes law since the mid-1990s, are stepping up warnings that the bill threatens religious liberties, including the freedom of clergy to condemn homosexuality. "What you say from the pulpit could literally become illegal," the Family Research Council wrote in a recent letter to pastors. The conservative Alliance Defense Fund has received more calls and E-mails on what the hate crimes bill means for pastors than on any other issue in recent months.
As religious conservatives mount a last-ditch effort to derail the bill, however, legal experts say the legislation narrowly focuses on violent acts and that pastors' speech remains protected by the First Amendment. And some religious activists acknowledge that they're less concerned about the immediate effects of expanding hate crimes protections than about the broader message it sends. "This is the first time you would have written into law a government disapproval of a religious belief held by the majority of Americans—that homosexuality is sinful," says Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "It's more of a slippery slope argument than about the law itself."
According to the FBI, 16 percent of the roughly 9,000 hate crimes committed in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, targeted the LGBT community. The two more common types of bias-motivated crimes, those based on race and religion, are already covered by the federal hate crimes law, adopted in 1968.
Expanding the law would authorize the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute violent crimes whose victims were allegedly chosen because of their sexual orientation in state or local jurisdictions unable or unwilling to do so. The bill moving through Congress also adds women and the disabled to the list of those covered by the law. Advocates say hate crimes laws are necessary because bias-motivated crimes terrorize entire communities.
But religious conservatives say that all crimes are motivated by hate and that gay victims shouldn't be accorded special status. Religious liberties are a much bigger concern. "When you have pastors being called to testify about what they taught or preached to a person convicted of a hate crime, that's going to send a shock wave through the religious community," says Stanley. "It will lead to a chill on speech and free exercise of religion as it relates to homosexual behavior."
Legal experts note that under the hate crimes bill, a person's religious beliefs about homosexuality become relevant only once he or she is accused of a violent crime against someone from the LGBT community. The bill prohibits a defendant's religious expressions and associations from being introduced as substantive evidence at trial, though the information can be used to help determine whether the defendant was motivated by bias. "Your penalty is being enhanced because of your religious beliefs," says Prof. Douglas Laycock of the University of Michigan Law School. "But you're being prosecuted for the crime."
Proponents of an expanded hate crimes law say religious beliefs should be subject to scrutiny if they lead to violence. "Even the strongest proponents of religious freedom do not claim that religious liberty means the right to beat people up," says Prof. Andrew Koppelman of the Northwestern University School of Law.
Read the full piece here.
- See President Obama's top faith leaders.
- Follow Dan Gilgoff on Twitter.
Tags: religion | hate crimes
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (8) | Print
Reader Comments
Pastors to engage in 'Civil Disobedience,' push limits of law
This article is on www.christianpress.com.
WASHINGTON -- On Monday, November 16 at 1:30 PM, the Coalition for Faith and Freedom, an ad hoc group of concerned clergy, will rally in front of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. to test the limits of the expanded federal hate crimes law. On October 28, President Barack Obama signed into law a measure extending the federal hate crimes statute to include so-called sexual orientation. The ministers believe this will criminalize all criticism of homosexual behavior, including that contained in the Bible.
Read more:
http://christianpress.com/content/us/494-pastors-to-engage-in-civil-disobedience-push-limits-of-law
Hate Crimes Legislation should not threaten religious liberty, however...
The problem, as I see it, is that there is only one God and since He is the only God, He has only one law. We have been conditioned to believe that there is a different law or rule for every person. So we've bought into the LIE that what is evil for me to do, if you do the same thing...it is good for you. There is no one standard recognized.
If that happened in nature- we would have PURE CHAOS.
Imagine if everyone decided for themselves when they came to a red light, whether or not to stop or go through it!
That is exactly the situation we have here.
God has quite obviously and plainly designed humans, male and female. It is also quite plain to anyone with any common sense- that in order to propagate the human race...it is natural and normal and scientific- for a male and female to become a pair.
But today- we have people that question that! They think there is another option!
They say...for you that may work and be good. But for me, I have a better way- a man with a man, or a woman with a woman. Then they call their lust, 'love' and attempt to persuade those behaving normally, that this is just another 'normal' option!
When God's representatives on Earth stand up for God's natural order of things, they are persecuted, just like the prophets of old. This so-called 'hate-crimes' bill, is just a thinly disguised attempt to shut up God's prophetic voice on Earth! This BILL is an emperor with no clothes!
Now, I would be the first to say that we ought to do NO human any violence. Jesus said that His Kingdom is not of this world...in other words- it does not use the physical sword to enforce its moral order. It is not the churches business to use physical violence, although so-called churches have been guilty in times past for committing abuses in Jesus name.
The Word of God clearly states that it is GOVERNMENTS business to use the sword to enforce moral order. (That's why police carry guns- and rightly so).
The CHURCH that belongs to Christ, however, has only ONE weapon in their arsenal. That is the TRUTH as found in God's Word. This HATE CRIMES law, though intended to only persecute those who illegally use force that belongs only to Government, may end up pressuring Christians to stop using the only God-given weapon they have-the TRUTH. This would be terrible, because it would mean that all moral authority in this world would begin evaporating. Your neighborhood, town, city, nation and eventually the world would descend into a dark age, where law and order ceased to exist. Anarchy!
There is a lot of confusion in this world about God and His moral order. A LOT of confusion! He only spoke to the world through one Nation. Israel. He created a nation from one man and one woman- Abraham and Sarah. This is how the Creator of Heaven and Earth decided to speak to the entire HUMAN RACE. He did not say different things to different people. God is a God of truth. Unlike we humans, God is consistent and does not contradict Himself. Trust Christ!
Hate the sin, love the sinner
Scripture is explicitly clear on this matter. It proclaims homosexuality an abomination. Period. The Bible also tells me that I am to live peaceably with all men with everything in me. I am also admonished to pray for those who, according to His Word, are without hope and living in sin. As a preacher who does NOT receive payment for preaching, I have NEVER advocated violence against any person for any reason. I know several homosexuals personally, both male and female. One of them asked my wife and me one time how we could befriend him knowing what he was. Our response was that he is not the focus of our disdain, it was his lifestyle we hated. As I would say to any person living that life. The sin that brought my attention to Jesus, and inviting Him into my life, was not homosexuality, but
in God's eyes was no better or worse. In His eyes sin is sin. We
followers of Jesus MUST declare His righteousness because we have none of our own. If the words I speak offend you, your problem is not with me, but with the word of God. I would urge you to seek Him out. If the words I preach run me afoul of the law, so be it. Ultimately, my allegiance is to my LORD, Jesus Christ.
advertisement
