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Would Hate Crimes Law Limit Free Speech?
Reuters - The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved an expansion of federal "hate crime" laws -- on a vote of 249-175, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill backed by the new Democratic White House to broaden such laws by classifying as "hate crimes" those attacks based on a victim's sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability.
The current law, enacted four decades ago, limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to assaults based on race, color, religion or national origin.
The hate crimes measure seeks to add violence against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability to the list of federal hate crimes. Current federal law covers crimes committed on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin. If passed, the federal government would be more involved and have greater power to investigate alleged hate crimes.
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Critics of the hate crimes legislation fear that if passed, the legislation would inhibit pastors from speaking about homosexuality as a biblical sin and be interpreted in a way that bars speech against the lifestyle.
Christian leaders have pointed to hate crime laws in England, Sweden and Canada, where Christians have been prosecuted for breaking these laws.
In the United States, 11 Christians in Pennsylvania were prosecuted under the state’s hate crimes law shortly after “sexual orientation” was added as a victim category several years ago. According to reports, the ten adults and one teenager were singing hymns and carrying signs at a homosexual celebration in Philadelphia when they were arrested.
But Rep. Frank assured that the new bill would only apply to violent crimes and “does not infringe on free speech in any way.” More
“Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality — they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been,” says the Texas lawmaker.
So how do you think this will end? It seems clear that no group of people should be singled out for hate crimes, but when a President is quoted as saying, "America is not a Christian nation," and where litigation runs rampant, do Christians have a legitimate concern? Share your views here.
The current law, enacted four decades ago, limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to assaults based on race, color, religion or national origin.
The hate crimes measure seeks to add violence against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability to the list of federal hate crimes. Current federal law covers crimes committed on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin. If passed, the federal government would be more involved and have greater power to investigate alleged hate crimes.
Smaller Indiana is made possible by its members and sponsors
Critics of the hate crimes legislation fear that if passed, the legislation would inhibit pastors from speaking about homosexuality as a biblical sin and be interpreted in a way that bars speech against the lifestyle.
Christian leaders have pointed to hate crime laws in England, Sweden and Canada, where Christians have been prosecuted for breaking these laws.
In the United States, 11 Christians in Pennsylvania were prosecuted under the state’s hate crimes law shortly after “sexual orientation” was added as a victim category several years ago. According to reports, the ten adults and one teenager were singing hymns and carrying signs at a homosexual celebration in Philadelphia when they were arrested.
But Rep. Frank assured that the new bill would only apply to violent crimes and “does not infringe on free speech in any way.” More
“Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality — they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been,” says the Texas lawmaker.
So how do you think this will end? It seems clear that no group of people should be singled out for hate crimes, but when a President is quoted as saying, "America is not a Christian nation," and where litigation runs rampant, do Christians have a legitimate concern? Share your views here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Bivens on -
This is a poor example of a straw man argument, isn't it? The Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment prevents the government from prohibiting the reasonable exercise of one's religion, so unless the ministers/pastors are telling people to throw bricks at the heads of GLBT individuals, they probably won't be going to jail anytime soon.
If you think about it for more than six seconds, it's very ironic. No matter how advanced we think our society is, we are still allowing blatant wholesale descrimination. It's no longer against Italians/Blacks/Irish/Jews/Catholic/Chinese/Mixed-Races/etc., but against everyone who is not heterosexual or celibate.
Hate is bad, so let's just ban all hate crimes, no matter who the victim is, and forget about non-sequitur attempts at fear mongering.
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Permalink Reply by Bjorn Carlson on -
Wow - this is ridiculous. Violent acts against individuals because of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. is flat out wrong, no question there, but limiting, and in this case prosecuting someone, because they said that homosexuality is wrong is plain and simple going against Free Speech and the foundational freedoms our country was founded on.
How is it that Perez Hilton can call Carrie Prejean, Miss California and first runner up to Miss USA, a "b*tch" and a "mother f**ker" for her personal belief in heterosexual marriage and people just sweep it under the rug. And Hilton's angry outburst is somehow better than saying homosexuality is wrong? It won't be long before our country is so far Communist that being arrested for speaking out against homosexuality, abortion, etc. will look like child's play. We are headed down a very dangerous path with this new "Change" and much of the freedom that we have come to enjoy and our countrymen have fought and died for will all be for naught.
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Permalink Reply by Kurt Workman on -
Nicely said Mr. Carlson. I can't help but think that Perez knew what and why he was asking the question; he had an agenda and found a platform to "go off" about it.
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Permalink Reply by Theresia Whitfield on -
Excellent comments, Bjorn.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Shepler on -
He did not commit a crime - hate crimes are a matter of action, not words.
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Permalink Reply by Darrell G. Walton on
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Well said!!!
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Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on -
Look out....the Commies are coming!
Be afraid!
Be afraid!
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Permalink Reply by aaron story on -
Well said Bjorn.
It's mind boggling how our culture has paraded the statements of Perez Hilton because Carrie Prejean simply talked about what she believes because of our current freedom.
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Permalink Reply by Kurt Workman on
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Aren't ALL crimes "hate" crimes? I think we should just leave this law alone and worry with more important issues. If we stop and think about where we have been and where we seem to be headed...we appear to be losing all sense of logic!
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Permalink Reply by Jack Shepler on
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All violent crimes obviously have an element of hate - it's a matter of whether that intent was to silence a minority or make that minority afraid to be themselves in public.
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Permalink Reply by Trevor Bradburn on -
No matter what happens lawsuits about any of this will continue to grow. If the legislation does pass it will just complicate the judicial problems we already have.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Herndon on -
Are hate crimes still crimes if you liked the victim before the crime?
Frankly, having a law against crime is pretty much retarded (oops was that a hate crime?).
I say that because you will notice (regarding crime) that it is consistently done by people that disregard the law - which is what makes it a crime. The more laws you slap on criminals the more you give them to break. What difference does it make why someone beat the tar out of a gay guy, he should have treated him like a human being. I don't care if he hated him or wanted his gold bracelets it's all the same.
The point I am making is that you cannot force people to believe or feel one way or another, and crime is crime regardless of the motive.
So then, how do you decide what is and isn't a hate crime? If it is only limited to violent crimes than how do you determine when someone did not commit a violent crime out of hatred? Does it only apply to crimes against a person who is a certain race or lifestyle or all forms of hatred leading to crimes? It takes hatred to commit ANY violent crime.
On the other hand if they lump other behaviors into the hate crime description (besides clear violence)than where is the line drawn? Will this be a way to push the social issues and beliefs of the judicial and legislative powers promoting these laws?
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1. Please use your real name (first and last) when you sign up, or we cannot open your account
2. Please do not use logos or commercial images for your profile photo
3. Events should be posted in the events calendar
4. You can post pretty much anything you want on your own personal page (self promotion, etc), and you can change the style of your personal profile page to reflect your corporate identification if you so choose.
5. Please keep all comments civil and polite. It's OK to feel strongly about a subject, and it's OK to be critical of ideas, but please refrain from personal attacks of any kind.
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6. Smaller Indiana is supported by its members, and by corporate sponsors. If you're interested in learning more about sponsorship, please call Pat Coyle at 317 332 7878.
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