Hate Crime or Special Treatment?

There is more talk of hate crimes legislation being passed. Every time I hear the term "hate crime", I think of a book I used to have, and may still have. It was a book of cartoons drawn from a Christian perspective. On the front, was a picture of a woman and man getting held up at gun point by a gun man wearing a large smiley face mask. The woman was exclaiming "Thank goodness it isn't a hate crime!"

Why on earth should we treat crimes differently if the person is gay or black, which seems to be the main 2 special groups that this crazy legislation covers. If I understand it correctly, someone could beat up and kill an innocent elderly woman, or a little kid, and if they beat up and killed someone who was gay or black, their crime would be worse? And more punishable?

I am against crimes against anyone. Yes, it it should be a crime to beat up and/or kill a gay person, but in no way should it be any worse than the same crime against a straight person. It is ludicrous. What is behind this, is special treatment for gay people, and if passed, will go on to include "hate speech". It isn't a far reach:


Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., of the High Impact Leadership Coalition was among a group of black pastors who, two years ago, took out a full-page ad in USA Today titled "Don't Muzzle Our Pulpits." The ad, which was widely received, argued that the hate crimes bill before Congress threatened the free-speech rights of pastors. Jackson believes such legislation elevates the homosexual community to a protected class.

"It puts their claim that they're discriminated against into a real civil rights argument," Jackson contends. "And ultimately in every place around the world where this kind of legislation has been passed, we find that people have taken out lawsuits against preachers for preaching what the Bible says about sexuality and morality. And it is grounds for a kind of harassment that, I believe, will bring a cooling of our biblically-based messages."

Jackson says under an Obama administration there is a danger the legislation will pass and stick, so he's issued a challenge to Christians. "Now is not the time to be silent," he says. "Now is the time to lift our voice." (http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=379590)

I was trying to find a picture of the book I referred to earlier, and ran across an interesting article. The article is about hate crimes against ex-gays. People who have left the gay lifestyle and are trying to live a normal Christian and heterosexual life. http://pfox.org/Hate_crimes_against_exgays.html If this "hate crime" legislation is passed, I highly doubt it will cover these people. As the article states, "it seems a homosexual person is more valuable than a former homosexual." I also doubt Christians will fall into the victims that hate crime legislation would cover.

If this legislation is passed, we will be well on our way to losing our freedoms of speech. Eventually what our pastors say from the pulpit could get them in trouble. What we blog about could get us in trouble.

Motive should not matter when someone intentionally beats up and/or kills a person. It shouldn't matter if they did it because of sexual orientation, or if it was a gang hit, or for money. If we start making crimes more or less punishable because of the motive, we are on shaky ground. If this legislation comes to a vote, we all need to do our part and fight it - call & email our congressmen. Don't take it sitting down.

I would strongly suspect that if this legislation comes to be law, that any crime against a gay person, will be a hate crime. It won't matter why the crime was actually done, it will be decided it was sexual orientation. Crime needs cracked down on. Period. Not just against gay people, but all crime.

In closing, an incident that seemed to really spawn a lot of the push for hate crime legislation, was the unfortunate killing of Matthew Shepherd back in 1998. He became the poster boy for hate crime legislation, and the incident was sad, and horrible that anyone should ever have to go through something like that. Yet, something the media will never make a news story out of, is in an interview with the killers a few years ago, the killers both tell that his sexuality was not the issue. The whole deal was about drugs. But it makes a better cause for hate crimes if they never tell that part.

A week from tomorrow, Barrack Hussein Obama will take over the country, and begin putting his agenda forth. That is more scary than the scariest horror movie or book out there. By the time he is through, we may not have any freedoms left. I hear and read all this stuff that we need to pray for him and pray blessings on him, etc. I disagree. Pray for him if you want, but pray that God somehow guards our freedoms and stops him from destroying our country and freedoms.

We live in scary times. We need to do our part. Watch for bills like hate crime legislation, and others that may do more harm than good, and pray that God has mercy on us as a nation during this incoming administration, and that at the end of it, in spite of the liberal agenda, that America will still be free, and will still be the greatest nation on the earth.