Imagine
that you are listening to your pastor preach about biblical morality.
He quotes from Romans 1 and tells the congregation that homosexuality
is a sin. He isn’t yelling or inciting a riot, nor does he offer even a
hint of malice in his words. He is simply stating a Christian doctrine.
A few minutes later two uniformed police officers show up, march
to the front of the church, handcuff the minister and drag him out of
the building. He is arrested and jailed for violating laws against
“hate speech.”
It sounds like one of those cheesy doomsday movies they used to
show to church youth groups in the 1970s. You know, Big Brother
Antichrist sets up his headquarters in the United Nations building and
starts stamping his bar code on everyone’s forehead. Ridiculous, right?
If
a controversial law that was passed yesterday in the U.S. House of
Representatives is adopted by the Senate, the outlandish film plot
could become a reality right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. It looks as if
Big Brother is alive and well and working in Congress.
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, or
HR 1592 for short, was passed on the National Day of Prayer on May 3—at
the same time Christians were asking God to forgive us for our national
sins. Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition called the
ironic timing “a slap in the face” to God-fearing people.
Harry Jackson, a pastor from Washington, D.C., who directs the
High Impact Leadership Coaltion, says HR 1592 is no more than “a
surreptitious attempt by some in Congress to strip the nation of
religious freedom and the ability to preach the gospel from our church
pulpits.”
Some people will say Christians are overreacting. After all, hate
crimes happen. People have been attacked and even killed because of
their race—or because they were gay. But conservative lawmakers have
pointed out that we already have tough laws on the books to punish hate
crimes. What’s new about this sweeping legislation is that it places
gay people in a protected category and could lead to regulating speech
that might be linked to a hate crime.
Here are the facts about this dangerous bill:
* The legislation creates two federally recognized minority groups
that are vaguely defined by “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
That means homosexuals and transgendered people get special
protection—not only from violence but also from “hate speech.”
* If a violent crime against a homosexual or transgendered person
can be traced back to “hate speech,” including, I suppose, a radio
message from James Dobson or an article they read in Charisma magazine, then the offending preacher, publisher or columnist could be found liable.
* If you take all of this to its insane conclusion, a Christian
ministry that offers compassionate prayer for the healing of
homosexuality could be accused of “hate”—since the ministry maintains
in its literature and seminars that homosexuality is an unhealthy
behavior.
Will police begin dragging preachers out of their pulpits for
quoting a Bible verse? It sounds preposterous—but given the current
spiritual climate in Washington, I wouldn’t assume that America’s
time-honored freedoms of speech and religion are safe.
We should recall the case of Ake Green, a Pentecostal pastor who
went to jail for a month because he described homosexuality as a
“cancerous growth in the body of society” during a 2003 sermon he
preached in his modern, sophisticated, enlightened nation of Sweden.
In July of that year Green preached on sexual immorality to some
50 members of his small-town Borgholm Pentecostal Church, then
subsequently published the sermon in the local newspaper. He was later
charged with hate speech against homosexuals and sentenced to jail. He
was finally acquitted of the crime after two years of litigation, but
socialist leaders in Sweden’s government made it clear that Christian
views on morality are not welcome.
In fact, Morgan Johansson, Sweden’s Minister of Public Health,
recently declared in a public debate in Gothenburg that Christians are
welcome in Swedish politics—but only as long as “they do not quote the
Bible.”
Who is guilty of the real hate crime here?
It appears that gay activists, European socialists and now U.S.
lawmakers think they have the right to promote legislation that could
unleash a wave of harassment, intimidation and religious censorship on
people of faith. Thankfully, we have a president who has pledged
to veto this bill. He needs our prayers as he makes another courageous
but unpopular decision.
