Jackson Free Press

He is actively lobbying against a hate crime bill that would give homosexuals recourse if they are the victim of a crime related solely to their sexual orientation.

Jerry feels this might disturb the ability of Pastors and congregations to speak out against this horrible crime. (the crime of homosexuality, that is)

I am very troubled by the expansion of a bill that would allow federal prosecution for crimes based on "actual or perceived" sexual orientation. Critics—and I am one—believe the bill, which has passed in the House, would, if signed into law, pose a serious threat to pastors and religious organizations that hold biblical views on morality.

The hate crimes provision is in the Senate Judiciary Committee as SB 1145 (Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act), with no action being taken on it since May. But in September, the same Act was tacked on as an amendment to the Child Safety Act (H.R. 3132) and passed in the House, moving on to the Senate with the amendment (Title X of the Child Safety Act) being renamed as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005.

The hate crimes bill would be the first law by the federal government that affords special protection or benefits based on the status of sexual orientation.

I certainly agree that we must work as a nation to halt sex crimes and to make information available to families regarding dangerous predators. However, the supplemental hate crimes amendment is terribly perilous for pastors and churches.

Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, says that giving special protection to specified groups devalues the lives of others who are not members of those groups. He says that all crime victims suffer, and all should be treated equally under the law.

All crime victims should be treated equally under the law? Yeah, the same way that all people are treated equally in life, right?

This is the part that REALLY gets to me. Check out this statement

"...make information available to families regarding dangerous predators"

Who are these dangerous predators of which you speak?

ARE THEY DE GAY? Are gay men predators of small children?

Well, who would know more about this than the Catholic Church, right?

I would like to draw your attention to this PDF file that talks about that very thing. (Now, that IS done by this Institute for Gay and Lesbians Studies)

But, if you don't like that one...here's an actual Catholic perspective

Please pay attention to this tiny little part

No mainstream researcher would suggest that there is any link between homosexuality and true pedophilia, that is, sexual attraction of an adult to prepubescent minors. In addition, most adults in society who sexually molest minors are not homosexually oriented.

I know that people don't really like to talk about things like this. But, we should get it right.

Pedophilia is a mental illness. A sick disgusting mental illness from which there is little hope of a cure.

Homosexuality is NOT a mental illness. It is an orientation just like heterosexuality.

I am sick to death of religious fanatics painting homosexuals with the strokes of hate and hoping that the American religious class takes it up and runs with it.

I definitely believe that we should work as hard as we can to make sure that true pedophiles have no access to children whatsoever, but I also believe that you can only do that when the TRUE definition of pedophilia is known.

Most pedophiles are straight men.

I wish they would stop muddying the damn water with outdated, hateful lies that have been proven wrong with scientific research.

This concludes your Sunday morning sermon of TRUTH.

Now, onto Julep for brunch...TALLYHO!

Previous Comments

ID

103252

Comment

What cracks me up about Jerry's example is that only one involves U.S. citizens being arrested under hate crime laws. Yes, we know that Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands criminalize hate speech; this bill does not and, because of a peculiar little article called the First Amendment, people like Falwell are free to make idiots out of themselves in this country as much as they like. Anyway, the example he cites is: "Eleven Christians were jailed under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law in 2004 for singing in a public park and speaking out against homosexuality." Snopes has already gotten on top of this. Their description of the event (which can be corroborated begins): "On 10 October 2004, Philadelphia's OutFest National Coming Out Day Block Party was disrupted by a group of eleven Christians intent upon preaching the Gospel at the assembled crowd. Bible The evangelicals (now commonly referred to as the 'Philadelphia 11') had, according to police, acted in a disorderly manner at this gay pride event, blocked a public street, and disobeyed police orders... Quite a different version of events, isn't it? Imagine if a group of gay protesters had done the same thing at one of Falwell's events. Assuming they didn't get lynched on the spot by our loving Christian brethren, they certainly would have also been arrested. What Falwell and his satanic ilk want is carte blanche permission to harass gays. He assumes that his followers are willing to be arrested for disorderly conduct--that's a small price to pay--but that increased jail time under hate crime laws would make the cost:benefit analysis less appealing. Too bad. It already passed the House of Representatives, and there are more than enough moderate Republicans to put it into law in the Senate. And Bush has never vetoed a bill in his entire term in office; it's doubtful that he'll want history to record that this was his only veto. In other words: Unless it somehow dies in committee, it's practically on the books already. Sucks to be you, Jerry. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-10-16T18:31:58-06:00

ID

103253

Comment

(Apologies for the horrible grammar above--I typed that up in a hurry.)

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-10-16T18:33:18-06:00