Felony violence against gay people should be a protected form of expression if it is committed by pastors, according to the text of a fund-raising e-mail dated Friday from the Family Research Council.
In the message, FRC President Tony Perkins — who in 1996 paid Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list, and who as recently as 2001 addressed the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens — argues that an expansion of existing federal hate crime laws (which punish felony violence) to include sexual orientation could be used to arrest pastors.
Here is the full text of Perkins’ message. Emphasis is FRC’s:
Hate Crimes legislation to silence you!
April 17, 2009The enactment of so-called “hate crimes” legislation is a long stated objective of the homosexual agenda.
What “hate crimes” legislation does is lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose actions reflect their faith.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark-up the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 this Wednesday, April 22. They need to hear from you.
It was in a similar hearing last Congress that Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) admitted that under the legislation pastors could be arrested for hate crimes.
The act would establish a new FEDERAL offense for so-called “hate crimes” and add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes. It will mandate a separate federal criminal prosecution for state offenses.
Adding “sexual orientation” to thought crimes legislation gives one set of crime victims a higher level of protection than it gives to people like you and me.
ALL people deserve to be protected from crime, not just certain groups.
Sign our Petition TODAY to say equal protection under the law means equal protection for ALL. Please join the over 22,000 people who have already signed this petition. If you have already signed, please forward to ten of your friends and ask them to sign.
Sincerely,
Tony Perkins
President
Contrary to the wishes of Perkins, we believe that pastors who commit felony violence against gay and lesbian Americans should be punished to the fullest extent possible. But they won’t be punished equally, unless sexual orientation is added to existing federal and state hate-crime laws, because at present most such laws treat violent crimes against a victim’s race or religion more harshly than violent crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived sexual orientation.
FRC believes that “pastors, business owners, and anyone else” are entitled to a special right to commit acts of violence on the basis of their faith.
We disagree.
Growing U.S. public support for hate-crime laws suggests that Americans are slowly realizing that false appeals to religion must not be used by right-wing extremists as a blank check to justify violence against people with different religious and moral beliefs.
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mr airhart
sounds to me that you want pastors and ministers
to be persecuted for speaking out against
homosexuality! by the way wayne besen showed himself
to be the close minded intolerant bigot
he really is on the o’reilly factor last
tuesday night. I’m glad o’reilly exposed
his intolerance and took him to task! one last
question can you really guarantee me that
should gay marriage become the law of the land,
that christian pastors and ministers won’t
be taken to court for not marrying gay couples?
I look forward to your response (you can send
it to my e-mail)
Comment by brad anderson — April 23, 2009 @ 2:30 am
The federal hate crimes law explicitly protects religious freedom of speech:
A defendant’s opinions or statements cannot be used to convict someone of a hate crime unless those expressions were directly related to the commission of the violent crime in question:
Christian pastors already have the right not to marry Jews, Muslims, or anyone else who doesn’t fit their religious views. The hate-crimes law does not change that.
It seems to me that Brad Anderson wants violent criminals to be given lenient sentences if their victims are gay.
Comment by Michael Airhart — April 23, 2009 @ 9:26 am
Adding “sexual orientation” to thought crimes legislation gives one set of crime victims a higher level of protection than it gives to people like you and me.
…Silly me, I thought heterosexuality was a sexual orientation also.
Comment by David — April 23, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
Precisely, David.
Comment by Michael Airhart — April 23, 2009 @ 9:04 pm
Hey Mike,
You quoted something from the proposed hate crime law. I am doing my Sociology term paper on hate crimes, and I would like a copy of the text of the hate crime law to use as a source, where can I find this???
Comment by James — April 23, 2009 @ 9:53 pm
Here is the current federal hate-crimes law, as amended several times.
Public Law No: 103-322
Here is the current House legislation to amend the hate-crimes law:
H.R. 1913
The Senate is awaiting action by the House before introducing hate-crimes legislation.
Comment by Michael Airhart — April 23, 2009 @ 10:28 pm