Compiled by CFN
U.S. House passes 'hate crimes' legislation
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow
April 29, 2009: The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that one conservative Christian activist says protects bizarre sexual orientations and threatens the free speech of those who dare speak out publicly against homosexuality.
By a 249-to-175 vote, the House passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act today. Among other things, the bill would add gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law. A companion bill, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, has already been introduced in the Senate.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claims the legislation "does not affect free speech or punish beliefs or thoughts. It only seeks to punish violent acts."
But Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, says Hoyer is ignoring the case of eleven Christians in Philadelphia who were charged with hate crimes for sharing Scripture verses at a homosexual pride rally.
"Ask the Philadelphia 11. We know what these supposed 'hate crime' laws are meant to do. In Philadelphia, Christians were arrested and jailed based on hate crime law," she points out. "So we know that what the other side is saying -- that it will not affect pastors or youth pastors or Christians -- we know that is not true."
Under the hate crimes bill, Lafferty contends a pastor who delivers a sermon denouncing homosexuality or transgenderism could potentially be prosecuted for hate speech.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=509992
Pedophiles and Other Bizarre Sexual Orientations Given Protection By Congress
from Traditional Values Coalition
April 29, 2009: Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition released the following statement today after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called hate crimes bill, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 2009. The vote was 249-175.
“The Anti-Christian Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives has acted today to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, youth pastors, Bible teachers, and anyone else whose Bible speech and thought is based upon and reflects the truths found in the Bible.
“A pastor’s sermon could be considered ‘hate speech’ under this legislation if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on ‘sexual orientation.’ The pastor could be prosecuted for “conspiracy to commit a hate crime.”
“H.R. 1913 is the crown jewel of the LGBT lobby because it makes ‘sexual orientation,’ and ‘gender identity’ into federally protected classes under civil rights laws. These terms were not defined in the legislation – despite Republican efforts to get Democrats to define them in the bill.
“This Democrat-controlled Congress has now elevated pedophiles and other bizarre sexual orientations, as well as drag queens, transgenders, lesbians and gay men to the level of protection of that already given to African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities in the law.” Here are the facts:
In a nation of 300 million, there is no nationwide epidemic of hate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. FBI hate crime statistics for 2007 prove this. According to FBI data, there were 16,929 murders in the U.S. in 2007. Of that number, 9 murders were classified as “hate crimes”. There were only 242 cases of actual bodily harm (aggravated assault) out of 855,856 nationally. This is no “epidemic” of hate against lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgendered persons.
Provides federal protection for "sexual orientation," and "gender identity," either “actual” or “perceived.” None of these terms are defined in the legislation.
Sexual orientation is defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The APA definition includes 30 mostly bizarre sexual behaviors--including pedophilia.
Ensures that crimes against a transgender, drag queen, gay man or lesbian are treated more harshly than a sexual assault on a child. Under this measure, pedophiles are a protected class. As a result, if a parent assaults a pedophile for molesting a child, the parent can be convicted of a hate crime and receive an enhanced sentence.
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=3628
Religious Leaders Condemn Hate Crimes Bill
by Connie Hair - Human Events
‘What’s at risk is the ability to preach the Gospel.’ So said Rev. Harry Jackson, standing with other black religious leaders and Republican congressmen at a press conference yesterday.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) led a group of members of Congress and Christian leaders yesterday in denouncing HR 1913, the federal hate crimes legislation that was passed on a straight party line vote out of the House Judiciary Committee late last week.
Jackson, a well-known leader in the black community as Sr. Pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., and chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, cautioned that this bill is a threat to religious freedom.
Jackson said, “There has not been sufficient protection for the church. We conclude that this is just bad legislation. It’s aimed in the wrong direction. It’s going to cause at a critical moment in American history a chilling effect on the pulpit where we cannot preach about biblical morality and sexuality. I know that it’s not politically correct to say that certain lifestyles are not condoned by the Bible, but in this day, those who are leaders in the faith community have got to make a choice to be biblically correct instead of politically correct.”
“This is not a partisan political issue,” Jackson concluded. “It is, in fact, a moral issue. It’s tied in to one of the great issues of our day and that is: how free will the church be to preach the word of God?”
Gohmert, a former judge, warned that this federal hate crimes legislation elevates special classes of protected people over other victims of crime and of its encroachment on issues traditionally handled by the state.
Democrats’ justification for the bill is that there is an epidemic of hate crime and that it is affecting gay people’s right to travel within the United States.
“There is no epidemic,” Gohmert said. “The numbers of self-reported crimes in which the defendant supposedly had or alleged to have had a bias or prejudice are actually fewer in number now than they were 10 years ago. Also, there is no federal nexus; every state has laws that would cover these types of crimes regardless of who you are.”
Democrat proponents of this legislation, intent on political payback for the support they received from radical gay groups, have falsely claimed that there is an urgent need to enact legislation to protect a full array of people based on sexual orientation.
“When we tried to get the term sexual orientation narrowed down to where it didn’t include something like a pedophile -- why should they deserve extra special protection -- well, that was voted down on party lines,” Gohmert said. “When you look at sexual orientation and you examine the diagnostic statistics manual that sets out all of the medical and psychological conditions and the different names, there are about 30 different types of sexual orientations, and they can include exhibitionism and voyeurism or things that are so offensive such as pedophilia or necrophilia and bestiality. The problem is that the supporters of this bill did not want to exclude any of those and even voted down the amendment that would have excluded pedophilia.”
Gohmert pointed out the absurdity of the legislation as written which would warrant the prosecution of a woman under the federal hate crimes statues if she hits a flasher with her purse after he exposed himself to her. Exhibitionism is a protected sexual orientation under this bill.
“The one who did the flashing committed a local misdemeanor,” Gohmert said. “The one who hit with the purse singled him out because he’s an exhibitionist, and therefore she has now committed a federal hate crime and is looking at felony time.”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=31656
Posted
April 29, 2009
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