HATE LAWS' REAL AGENDA
By Harmony Grant
8 Apr 08
In the UK, 7000 citizens signed their name to a petition to
expand hate crime laws. They want the laws to punish anyone who commits
violence because someone looks different. The petition responds to
the murder
of a young Goth-dressing woman and her boyfriend in a park.
The assailants didn’t know the girl. Presumably they attacked
her because she was wearing black lipstick. That’s how the argument
goes. The thuggish kids who attacked her should get tripled penalties
because their violence was motivated by her weird looks.
So, it would have been less heinous had she been an upper class,
pearls-wearing babe attacked because she looked rich? What if she’d
been a gorgeous blonde cheerleader and they attacked her because they weren’t
getting any? The list goes on forever.
It is hideously unjust to label the value of various victims, stiffening
penalties for some murders and not others, for some assaults and not
others, etc. Every violent crime is a tragedy to be redressed. Endlessly
add to the list of special “hate crime” victims, and someday
everybody will be on it. Then we’ll be right back where we started:
equal law.
But unjust penalties for violent crimes aren’t the greatest
danger of hate crime laws. Their greatest danger is that they criminalize
free speech. They criminalize certain beliefs and animosities—emotions
with which the government has no business meddling. The government
has no more right to say you can’t be biased against homosexuals
than to say you can’t be biased against professional athletes
or workaholics or overbearing mothers-in-law.
Hate crime laws were created by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith, a Jewish organization committed to demonizing—and
yes, defaming—beliefs and values it opposes. Specifically, the
ADL opposes anti-Israel and anti-homosexual activism and Christian
evangelism. Hate crime laws were not created primarily to respond to
violent crime (which is, obviously, already illegal). They were created
to marginalize and then criminalize certain kinds of speech and “bias” – primarily
Christian.
The Case at the Lakefront
Last July in Sacramento, a Fijian died after slamming his head on
the concrete after being punched by an irate Russian immigrant. The
Russian and his family had been picnicking beside the Fijian at a public
lakefront where the islander, Satender Singh, was dancing in a sexually
explicit way and hugging other men.
“Witnesses told authorities that the two camps on the shoreline
traded insults for hours.” Slavic authorities call it a “street
fight,” and decry the scapegoating of a 21-year-old Russian friend
who faces 3 years if convicted even though he never threw a punch.
The Russian whose blow led to the death of the Fijian should justly
be convicted of manslaughter. But under California 's tripled penalties
for "bias-motivated" crimes, he could spend most of the rest
of his life in prison for his alleged bias against homosexuality.
LA Times quotes the founder of a Sacramento-based group that “monitors
the religious right.” He said, “The roots of what these
guys did to Satender Singh can be traced to what's being preached in
their churches. Some sitting in those pews believe they've heard it
straight from God: that homosexuality is an abomination."
The Slavic Christian community in California offers some of the state’s
most vocal opposition to homosexuality. The LA
Times article on the story points out that the Russian was “fresh
from morning church services”. Many Slavic Christians in California
participate in the Christian group Watchmen
on the Walls. The Watchmen website is available in Russian as well
as English. Its mission states, “Watchmen On The Walls is the
international Christian movement that unites Christian leaders, Christian
and social organizations and aims to protect Christian morals and values
in society.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center counts Watchmen as a “hate
group.” LA Times notes that, “Using battle-tinged rhetoric,
the Watchmen have called for evangelicals to step aggressively into
the political realm to fight what they see as a gay agenda threatening
the traditional family.” Is Watchmen the only group to
use “battle-tinged rhetoric” to try and galvanize political
activism? Are “fundamentalist” Christians the only ones
to moralize about the behavior of others?
Of course not. But homosexual and hate law activists (like ADL and
SPLC) seize every opportunity to marginalize evangelical and Christian
beliefs. This is one example of using the rhetoric of “anti-hate” initiatives
to blacken the reputations of basic, long-standing Christian beliefs.
More and more evangelical leaders must speak up about the basic injustice
of hate crime legislation, recognizing it deeply threatens their own
freedom. Beliefs, thoughts, and words must not be criminalized—no
matter how unpleasant we (or powerful leaders) find them.
Harmony Grant writes and edits for National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog group.
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.
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 Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase
this gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at 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
topic. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
