Hate Crimes Prevention Act

[davidoffinland]

From Finland.

Eventually, this may affect every believing church, pastor and christian in the States and Europe. It is the "Hate Crimes Prevention Act" H.R. 1592. What do you think?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1592

I understand there are 3 different versions of this bill.

In Him, david.

 

[imind]

Eventually, this may affect every believing church, pastor and christian in the States and Europe.

how so? do christians plan on committing violent crimes against people because of their perceived race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disabilities? cause the bill explicitly says...

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.

...so i can only assume our reason to disallow passage of this bill is because we intend to harm these people. or is there some other reason i am not aware of?

 

[Hunterkirk]

From Finland.

Eventually, this may affect every believing church, pastor and christian in the States and Europe. It is the "Hate Crimes Prevention Act" H.R. 1592. What do you think?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1592

I understand there are 3 different versions of this bill.

In Him, david.

I am STRONGLY against any Hate Crime Law, and have been ever since I first heard of them. I am against them because they punish thoughts and beliefs and not crime. The crime in every one of those cases already has any number of laws that deal with it. The concern is that the hate crime laws will break free from other crimes and become a crime in of itself. Thusly it becomes a crime to simply believe something. Then, depending on how hard they look, they can attack and punish any group whoms belief are considered hate by the State.

It is thought police, and saddly it is drawing its aim on many Christian Churches and believers. If people dont come to their senses one day and over turn these laws we can expect a repeat of the "red scare" and Inquisition but with Christians being the targets, among others.

 

[Murdock]

how so? do christians plan on committing violent crimes against people because of their perceived race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disabilities? cause the bill explicitly says...
...so i can only assume our reason to disallow passage of this bill is because we intend to harm these people. or is there some other reason i am not aware of?

Doesn't the bill require Christian organizations to hire homosexuals? if so, then it is infringing on the separation of church and state. So if the government wants the church out of its affairs, then then government needs to say out of church affairs.

 

[MelissaShae]

I am against hate crimes and no one should be treated the way that minorities have been treated for years, but we already have a hate crime bill and this one is really not needed.

 

[MelissaShae]

Doesn't the bill require Christian organizations to hire homosexuals? if so, then it is infringing on the separation of church and state. So if the government wants the church out of its affairs, then then government needs to say out of church affairs.

 

[imind]

I am STRONGLY against any Hate Crime Law, and have been ever since I first heard of them. I am against them because they punish thoughts and beliefs and not crime. The crime in every one of those cases already has any number of laws that deal with it. The concern is that the hate crime laws will break free from other crimes and become a crime in of itself. Thusly it becomes a crime to simply believe something. Then, depending on how hard they look, they can attack and punish any group whoms belief are considered hate by the State.

It is thought police, and saddly it is drawing its aim on many Christian Churches and believers. If people dont come to their senses one day and over turn these laws we can expect a repeat of the "red scare" and Inquisition but with Christians being the targets, among others.

i, too, am strongly against hate crime laws, as it criminalizes thought.

though i disagree completely with the scare tactics being employed against them, and i find it disgusting that only now are christians awakening to this problem, as it now may affect us.

Doesn't the bill require Christian organizations to hire homosexuals?

it does no such thing, and i'm not even certain this is the same bill. the one in question would simply prohibit not hiring someone based solely on his sexuality, etc.

these laws already exist, for instance, with regards to race. its illegal to deny employment to someone based solely on his/her race. the law would simply extend this to homosexuals, as it should. churches would not be required to hire anybody, and i believe religious institutions would be exempt, as long as they are not accepting federal funds, again, as it should be.

I am against hate crimes and no one should be treated the way that minorities have been treated for years, but we already have a hate crime bill and this one is really not needed.

it is correct that hate crime laws do already exist, but not for homosexuals. though i am against these laws, in general, if they are going to exist, they should include homosexuality in them.

 

[davidoffinland]

From Finland.

Wondering after I posted #1....would there be a back-lash against those who hate, racial slur, etc.. against the christian believer? Would they be punished for their thoughts?

In Him, david.

 

[Voegelin]

Department of Justice crime stats for 2005:

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus05.pdf

Scroll down to page 54: "Percent distribution of single-offender victimizations, based on race of victims, by type of crime"

Those 88 Duke University professors who were sure charges against members of the Lacrosse team were symptomic of white racism must be living on another planet.

If one wishes to prevent crime, the first place to start is to address who commits crime. But don't hold your breath waiting for any politician or the media to report the reality of crime in America as shown in that FBI report.

 

[imind]

From Finland.

Wondering after I posted #1....would there be a back-lash against those who hate, racial slur, etc.. against the christian believer? Would they be punished for their thoughts?

In Him, david.

a review of the law, which obviously few have done, would note that religious beliefs are covered, as well. yet somehow this became known as the 'homosexual bill'. i think its indicative of the bigotry some of us unfortunately feel toward them.

 

[gwynedd1]

a review of the law, which obviously few have done, would note that religious beliefs are covered, as well. yet somehow this became known as the 'homosexual bill'. i think its indicative of the bigotry some of us unfortunately feel toward them.

Maybe its because it is being used as a wedge in that context agaist the scriptures in countries besides the US.
I know Canada is really, really far away and culturally dissimilar to the US with the funny way they say the bass en stuff...
But It has not one little bit to do with Homosexuals.

[FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]Certain passages of the Bible can be construed as hate literature if placed in a particular context, according to a Canadian provincial court. [/FONT][FONT=Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Georgia, Times]The Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatchewan upheld a 2001 ruling by the province's human rights tribunal that fined a man for submitting a newspaper ad that included citations of four Bible verses that address homosexuality. [/FONT]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31080

 

[StrangerThings]

I don't agree with hate crime laws either, but if we're going to have it so that if a group a gay guys beats up a Christian for being Christian, or anti-gay, that they get punished more for that, then we should have we if a group of Christians beat up a gay for being gay, they should suffer the same consequences.

 

[ElijahFalling]

This act is just making us one step closer to complete totalitarian nazi dictatorship. The greed for power at the federal level of the U.S. government is continuing non-stop, from domestic spying acts / anti-terror rhetoric to bogus global warming propaganda to the nafta superhighway and now to this. The current state of the U.S. government is something Hitler could have only dreamed of in his wildest dreams.

 

[Christiangal01]

i'm going to do more research
But I am suspicious of a bill and am not presuaded just because it has a name 'hate crime' you know...
I smell anti-Christian sentiment...

 

[invisible trousers]

What do I think?

I think the answer is pretty simple. The reason so many christians speak out against hate crime laws is that they simply don't believe that perceived sexual orientation/identities deserve the same hate crime protections that religions already have.

I also think the only people who should be concerned about this are those whose speech consists of hitting someone with a bat.

I'm quoting this again because a lot of you missed it the first time:

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.

 

[StrangerThings]

There is no anti-Christian sentiment, and it wouldn't even come closs to silencing preachers or putting christians in jail for anything less than an actual crime.

 

[Mikedatigah]

From Finland.

Eventually, this may affect every believing church, pastor and christian in the States and Europe. It is the "Hate Crimes Prevention Act" H.R. 1592. What do you think?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1592

I understand there are 3 different versions of this bill.

In Him, david.

This should be a very frightening trend for Christian and non Christian alike, or rather for those who at the very least believe wholeheartedly in Free Speech. It's not new though. Canada has laws on the books I believe as well, and in Sweeden a Pastor actually went to jail for preaching scripture as it is written. People better wake up, and quick.

 

[StrangerThings]

That's Sweden. This bill has nothing to say about speech. Don't spread lies.

 

[imind]

That's Sweden. This bill has nothing to say about speech. Don't spread lies.

3 times it was posted in this thead already, yet some still ignore it.

bigotry is scary.

 

[BigBadWlf]

From Finland.

Wondering after I posted #1....would there be a back-lash against those who hate, racial slur, etc.. against the christian believer? Would they be punished for their thoughts?

In Him, david.

Actually existing hate crime legislation already protects Christians form such things.