Why is it that some local pastors are AGAINST a House bill (supported by Steve Cohen) outlawing hate speech? Read Wendi’s take on it here.
Responses to “Shake off the pastors?”
August 6th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Sheri, a few paragraphs after Wendi asks the questions you refer to, there is this: “Still, the ministers are of little faith, suspicious that their free speech is not safe, despite language in the bill that reads: “Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct.” “.
So can you explain to Wendi (and I guess, to me) why it is that a preacher feels he or she cannot preach against Homosexuality? Why can they not say, as Wendi suggests, “Hate the sin, not the sinner?” That in and of itself will not be considered a hate crime. I think if the preacher told their congregation that homosexuals are to be stoned to death, then that might be considered a crime. I’m pretty sure God doesn’t say that, so why would a preacher?
August 6th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Quick – which of these is “hate speech”:
– Muslims calling all non-Muslims “infidels”, calling for their slaughter?
– Rap music with lyrics containing the “n” word and calling women “hoes”?
– A Sunday sermon preaching that gay people are “immoral and indecent, abominations in the sight of God”?
Yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater results in immediate and terrible consequences. Love it or hate it (there are always people on both sides), as long as “hate speech” doesn’t cause immediate, terrible consequences, then as Americans we need to accept and respect it, no matter how it opposes our own personal feelings and beliefs. Legislating limitations on the American right of free speech is unconstitutional (although the current administration sure has been trying to poke some pretty big holes in the Constitution these days…)
This is a slippery slope people…
August 6th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Nothing in the Hate Crimes bill prohibits free speech. Not one word. Preachers can get up in their pulpits every Sunday and say that the world is going to Hell because of the Gays and no one can do / say anything to stop it from happening. What this bill is intended to do is to stop someone beating someone to death while saying that they are going to Hell or referencing their skin color or remarking on them in a hate filled manner.
The thing that bothers me the most is that the preachers and their followers can read every word of the bill, they just either choose not to or don’t understand it.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Wendy, your questions in your article regarding why preachers are against the federal hate crime legislation were, “What exactly do these preachers want to say? And how do they want to say it?” They are expressing God’s inherent, infallible, eternal word. Homosexuality is a sin. Preachers are not trying to express their own opinion in their sermons. To pass this bill will inhibit preachers from telling others what God says. Don’t you want your own children to be exposed to the truth of God? Secondly, preachers want to say it with firm, unfaultering love. Christians do not hate homosexuals. We hate the sin, as God does. If preachers are no longer allowed the freedom in America to preach God’s word, we are doing ourselves quite an injustice.
Sheri