STATES SKIRMISH OVER 'ANTI-HATE' LAWS
By Harmony Grant
27 Feb 08
Next month former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and Foundation
for Moral Law attorneys will continue to challenge Pennsylvania ’s
state hate law. In 2004, eleven Christians were shocked to find themselves
in jail as hate criminals. They
were arrested for peacefully protesting a gay pride parade. Christians
across America were justly horrified. Bill O’Reilly and others
featured the story of persecution in “the land of the free.” The
Pennsylvania Commonwealth dismissed criminal charges against the Christians.
The proactive Christians then sued the governor and legislative leaders,
arguing that the hate laws were not passed in a Constitutional way
in 2002. They won.
Today the Commonwealth is appealing to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,
trying to keep special legal protection for privileged groups, including
homosexuals. For decades, states and nations have been complicating
their legal systems with such “anti-hate” statutes. These
laws stiffen punishment for crimes motivated by “bias” or “hate.” They
lead to speech restrictions and end up criminalizing legitimate criticism,
especially from Christians and conservatives. For example, in Canada
and now in the California public school system, it becomes illegal
to express our “fundamentalist” bias against anal, same-sex
intercourse or to negatively point out that homosexuals have higher
AIDS rates. (See, How
the Bible Became 'Hate Speech' in California) Bias crime laws are
used to silence all criticism—legitimate, thoughtful, or venomous,
it doesn’t matter—of protected social groups.
Christians don't have such protection. While the Philadelphia Commonwealth
is trying to save homosexuals’ special privileges, another group
of Pennsylvanians—Catholics—aren’t feeling the love.
A Catholic church was recently vandalized. Thugs defaced a statue of
Mary and the church’s front doors with words, “God is dead” and “[Obscenity]
Jesus.” They planted a fake pipe bomb so convincing a bomb squad
was called in.
But if they’re caught, they won’t be prosecuted for a
hate crime—just “institutional vandalism.” Philly
columnist J.
D. Mullane wrote about this crime, which he notes was hardly motivated
by love. But that’s the unequal treatment that results from hate
crime laws. We argue that no one should benefit from the increased
punishments and complex investigations of hate crime laws. No crime
should carry a heavier sentence based on why it’s committed.
But it’s worth pointing out that as various groups are added
to hate crime statutes, conservative Christians are not among them.
While advocates battle in Pennsylvania , the
fight over hate laws also continues in Georgia . Georgia is one
of five states without a hate crimes law. This means it is one of
five remaining states with a simple, equal-to-all legal system that
punishes a murder or beating as a murder or beating, no more or less.
Georgia ’s state laws promise to punish your assailant whether
you wear a drag queen’s stilettos or a pastor’s oxfords.
Their wise Majority Whip recently advocated a bill calling hate laws
repugnant, as a dike against militant homosexual advocates who want
a hate law. His bill said that “encouraging police to treat
victims differently depending on whether they fit into a special
status created by statute causes victims of similar crimes to be
treated disparately, a concept repugnant to the Georgia and United
States constitutions.” He’s so right. But his bill was
defeated. Things are in a kind of stalemate. Last year, a Georgian
bill to define hate crimes never made it to the Senate floor. But
that bill was reintroduced and stands a chance of passage this year.
Meanwhile, hate crime laws are also debated in other states. In Massachusetts
, pending legislation will add transgender people to hate crimes protected
status. Maryland lawmakers
seek to include the homeless under hate crime statutes. A
local news source explains, “Under the bill, someone who
commits crimes --including defacing private property or murder-- because
someone is homeless, could be charged separately for committing a hate
crime.” Maine
already did that last year. A federal bill, now pending, wants
to do the same.
I’m repeating myself for the fifteenth time—but hate
laws are no good because they create special categories of victims;
they criminalize bias, thoughts and beliefs not actions; they complicate
law enforcement; they end up criminalizing speech; and they confuse
the process of law enforcement which should be equal for all people,
for all crimes, at all times.
But there’s not a lot of critical thought in the Maryland halls
of justice, apparently. Their
Senate passed the bill by a whopping vote of 44-4.
One of the four senators with brains (David Brinkley, who deserves
to be named) said: “Someone murders someone, they murder someone,
there shouldn't be a separate category for it. If they beat someone
up, assault and battery is assault and battery. And if the rules are
too lenient for some, then let's change them up for all."
Apparently this sunlit logic can’t penetrate the dense clouds
of identity politics and victim lobbies, led mostly by Jewish groups
such as the freedom-hating Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
If that 44-4 majority support of hate crime laws is even halfway mirrored
at the federal level, we stand little chance of defeating a national
hate crime law. Especially under a liberal President.
This story says the
homeless bill only succeeded because of advocates for the homeless
who championed it. This is what happens with hate crime laws: They
pass because they have ardent minority defenders, and the silent majority
doesn’t know enough to care. If Americans truly understood hate
crime laws, these laws wouldn’t stand a chance. But evil laws
can pass when small groups lobby hard and no one else really speaks
up. When the majority realizes its doom, it’s too late. Just
look at the neighbors.
Canadians are slowly waking up to the reality of hate speech laws,
as conservative commentators face jail time for criticizing Islam.
Canadian National Post blogger Jonathan Kay openly admits that Jews
created these speech codes, which are now being used to punish even
mainstream figures like Mark Steyn.
“Ironically,” he
says, “the censorship regime that well-meaning Jewish intellectuals
helped put in place to fight anti-Semitism a generation ago is now
being applied to prosecute the pundits blowing the whistle on the
one truly genuine threat that Jews are facing worldwide: militant
Islam.”
This quotation matters not because it’s wholly true (Were Jewish
intellectuals really well-meaning? Is militant Islam really the greatest
threat, not Jews’ anti-Semitism-generating evil leaders?). It
matters because this pundit casually assigns blame for increasingly
unpopular laws to Jews—and that’s been taboo for a couple
decades.
Maybe the tides can shift. Maybe more Americans can learn that hate
crime laws pose the single greatest threat to our domestic freedoms,
and this threat isn’t going away.
For that to happen, more people need to talk truth about hate crime
laws—what they are, why they’re wrong, and also who’s
writing them. The ADL is a strong force. Far too many Christian
leaders are afraid to criticize hate laws because they will be smeared
as “anti-Semites,” especially if they point out the ADL
as architects. But that’s just simple reality. This fight is
here to stay. Americans need to keep fighting. The people who want
to take away freedom aren’t taking a nap.
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
