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| Barry Soetoro... |
 Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:01 pm |
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112437
A "hate crimes" law is looming in Washington, and at least two
organizations are urging Americans to contact their
representatives and even the president to express their concern
over the plan's potential "thought control" aspects.
WND has reported on the proposal numerous times, most recently
just weeks ago when a key Senate vote happened in the wee hours
when most Americans were asleep and a warning followed.
The proposal – which creates federal protections and privileges
for homosexuals and other alternative lifestyles but denies
those protections to other groups of citizens – has been added
to a defense spending bill.
The U.S. House voted yesterday to approve the plan, and the
Senate has expressed support. Once approved, it would head to
President Obama, who is anxious to satisfy homosexual supporters
who have complained he has not done enough for them.
When the Senate earlier approved a key move, Mathew Staver,
founder of Liberty Counsel, said, "In … months President Obama
and the Democratic-led Congress have forced on the American
people the most radical and and immoral agenda.
"The administration and the Democratic-led Congress are out of
touch with the mainstream. They represent the most fringe
extreme elements of America. They will not be able to continue
their efforts to undermine moral values, socialize the economy
and trash American pride and heritage.
"The people will not remain silent forever," he said.
The House vote prompted the American Family Association to alert
its constituents and create a procedure for them to send e-mails
to Washington about the plan.
"In its never-ending quest to shred America's Judeo-Christian
value system, the left is planning to hurriedly push through a
'thought crimes' bill," the alert said. "So-called 'hate crimes'
laws are really laws that criminalize thought, because they
punish an individual not for what he did but for what he
thought. Politically incorrect thoughts about homosexual
behavior will result in enhanced criminal sanctions under this
law."
The AFA said, "Everywhere hate crimes laws have gone into
effect, they have been quickly used to intimidate, silence and
punish people of faith who express deeply held religious
objections to the normalization of homosexuality.
"Such laws not only punish officially disapproved speech and
thought, they create two tiers of victims. Under hate crimes
laws, some victims get more protections than others, which
violates the fundamental American principle of equality under
the law," the alert said. "In fact, such laws actively
discriminate against heterosexual Christians who are victims of
crime, since they will get less legal protection than homosexual
victims."
The American Family Association said since "sexual orientation"
nowhere is defined in the law, "this law will give pedophiles,
voyeurs, and exhibitionists special protections, which is why
the bill has correctly been called 'The Pedophile Protection
Act.'"
Also offering an online "contact Washington" process is the
organization Pray in Jesus Name, founded by former U.S. Navy
Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was involuntarily removed
from the U.S. military after he prayed "in Jesus name."
His organization submitted via fax almost 400,000 petitions to
Washington opposing the "hate crimes" law.
Also, a separate larger Fed Ex campaign to warn U.S. Senate
members of the dangers of the "hate crimes" plan dispatched more
than 705,000 letters to senators.
The letter-writing effort was organized by WND columnist Janet
Porter, who also heads the Faith2Action Christian ministry. It
allowed citizens to send individually addressed letters to all
100 senators over their own "signature" for only $10.95.
Concerned individuals may e-mail their respective senators or
call 1(877) 851-6437 or 1(202) 224-3121.
Klingenschmitt said, "Please call 202-456-1111 today, and tell
White House comment line operators: 'Mr. President, please keep
your promise and veto the F-35 second engine in the Pentagon
Budget, 2010 Defense Authorization Act.'"
"Several months ago, President Obama promised to veto the
Pentagon budget if it contained funding for the F-22 or a second
engine for the F-35. The Senate killed the F-22, but after
receiving nearly 22,000 faxes from us in the last 48 hours, the
House ignored Obama's veto threat and voted Thursday to fully
fund a second engine for F-35s. The House also sadly attached
the pro-homosexual 'Hate Crimes' bill, which had nothing to do
with Pentagon spending, to the budget as a poison pill.
"If President Obama vetoes the F-35 second engine, as he
promised when speaking in Phoenix last spring, he will
ironically kill the homosexual agenda and their evil 'Pedophile
Protection Act,'" he wrote.
Attempts by Republicans to add amendments stating "pedophilia is
not protected as a sexual orientation" were blocked by House
Democrats.
In fact, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., said all alternative
sexual lifestyles should be protected.
"This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on
prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans regardless of
race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability or all of these
'philias' and fetishes and 'isms' that were put forward need not
live in fear because of who they are. I urge my colleagues to
vote in favor of this rule," he said.
Further, the proposal has a broad definition of "intimidation,"
so a Christian pastor's sermon could be considered 'hate speech"
if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against
someone based on "sexual orientation."
The pastor, Klingenschmitt said, could be prosecuted for
"conspiracy to commit a hate crime" or "inciting violence
against gays" for quoting the Bible.
As it went through the House, the version was H.R. 1913, or the
Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The
Senate then worked on its own version, and it ultimately was
added as an amendment to a defense spending plan.
As WND reported, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder admitted a
homosexual activist who is attacked following a Christian
minister's sermon about homosexuality would be protected by the
proposed federal law, but a minister attacked by a homosexual
wouldn't be.
The revelations came from Holder's June testimony before the
Senate Judiciary Committee, which was taking comments on the
proposal. The measure also was the subject of discussion on talk
radio host Rush Limbaugh's July 3 show.
"This is the question," Limbaugh said. "(Sen.) Jeff Sessions (R-
Ala.) presents a hypothetical where a minister gives a sermon,
quotes the Bible about homosexuality and is thereafter attacked
… by a gay activist because of what the minister said about his
religious beliefs and what Scripture says about homosexuality.
Is the minister protected?"
No, said Holder.
"Well, the statute would not – would not necessarily cover
that," Holder stated. "We're talking about crimes that have a
historic basis. Groups who have been targeted for violence as a
result of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation,
that is what this statute tends – is designed to cover. We don't
have the indication that the attack was motivated by a person's
desire to strike at somebody who was in one of these protected
groups. That would not be covered by the statute."
Continued Limbaugh, "In other words: ministers and whites are
not covered by the hate crime statute because we're talking
about crimes that have a historic basis, groups who have been
targeted for violence as a result of their skin color, sexual
orientation. So hate crimes are reserved exclusively for blacks
and homosexuals. Everybody else can get to the back of the bus
on this one."
The bill was nicknamed "The Pedophile Protection Act" when Rep.
Steve King proposed an amendment during its trek through the
U.S. House that would specify pedophiles could not use the law
to protect their activities.
Majority Democrats flatly refused.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense
Fund, told WND the move is alarming because "this would be the
very first governmental and societal disapproval of a sincerely
held religious belief, held by a majority of Americans, namely
that homosexual behavior is immoral.
"It's the first time the federal government is writing into law
a disapproval of that belief," he said.
While he said he doesn't believe there will be "immediate"
prosecutions of pastors and churches for teaching the biblical
injunction that homosexual behavior is sin, "I think the effect
on speech and religious speech is nonetheless real."
He said he does expect that pastors soon will begin being called
to testify in "hate crime" cases in court "as to what that
pastor preaches, what the church teaches, what the Bible
teaches."
"When this happens, there will be a shock wave through
pastorates in America," he said.
Ultimately, he warned that the homosexual advocates who have
pushed the "hate crimes" plan consider this law just the first
step "toward silencing Christians."
That development already has been observed not only with the
enactment of "hate crimes" laws in other nations but in the
"hate crime" related speech codes existing on many university
campuses in the U.S., Stanley said.
President Obama, supported strongly during his campaign by
homosexual advocates, has indicated he would like to see the
legislation become law.
"I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this
important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to
protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance,"
he said. |
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