PLEASE SELECT HERE TO SIGN, AND WE'LL AUTOMATICALLY FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER THE HATE CRIMES S. 909 AMENDMENT (SAVING YOU HOURS OF LABOR!)

QUOTING THE BIBLE IN CHURCH WILL BE PUNISHED

Not only will sexually deviant behaviors gain legal protection, this legislation also lays the legal foundation to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, youth pastors, Bible teachers, and anyone else whose speech and thought is based upon and reflects the truths found in the Bible. How will this legislation over-rule the First Amendment?  

PASTORS NOT PROTECTED BY FIRST AMENDMENT

S. 909 broadly defines "intimidation," thus a pastor's sermon could be considered "hate speech" if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on any "sexual orientation." The pastor could be prosecuted for "conspiracy to commit a hate crime" or for "inciting violence against gays" simply by quoting the Bible in church.  And the First Amendment won’t automatically protect pastors, since speech accused of "inciting violence" is not protected, and is punishable, under precedent of Supreme Court rulings. In 1993 Wisconsin v. Mitchell, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a "hate speech" law providing enhanced punishments for violent crimes based on racial motives as revealed by speech of the accused, (which would now apply broadly to punish any "anti-gay motives" in the speech of accused pastor "co-conspirators.")  But pastor, if a crazy person in your audience commits a crime against a heterosexual, don't worry, you'll get a comparative discount in your prison time.  

IS PRAYER IN JESUS’ NAME A "HATE CRIME?"

Any public prayer against the sin of homosexuality could be construed as "inciting violence" by easily offended listeners, especially if those prayers are offered "in Jesus name."  When I served our country as a former Navy Chaplain, for example, I was told in writing by Chief of Chaplains Rear-Admiral Louis Iasiello, that "any chaplain’s continued insistence on ending public prayers ‘in Jesus’ name’…could reasonably tend to denigrate those with different forms of faith."  His policy prohibiting prayers "in Jesus name" was enforced against me at court-martial, before it was later rescinded by Congress in 2006.  But this year I’ve already been falsely accused of "inciting violence" because I quoted verbatim from Psalm 109 in my public prayers, (for which secular activist Mikey Weinstein literally requested an FBI investigation against me!)  Just imagine more anti-Christian aggression by law enforcement officials AFTER this hate-crimes bill becomes law. 

PLEASE SELECT HERE TO SIGN, AND WE'LL AUTOMATICALLY FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER THE HATE CRIMES S. 909 AMENDMENT (SAVING YOU HOURS OF LABOR!) 

IS PREACHING AGAINST SIN A HATE CRIME?

As a former Navy Chaplain who was punished (in writing, three times) for quoting the Bible in chapel during optionally-attended worship, I know exactly how they'll come after us. The enemies of religious liberty will simply declare certain gospel phrases "hateful" and "offensive" like my commanding officer who punished me for quoting John 3:36 in chapel, and was supported by government lawyers for "protecting" easily offended listeners from the "offensive" gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) agrees with me, saying pastors, rabbis, or imams could be charged with encouraging or inducing a "hate crime" if they preach against homosexuality.  "Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality — they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been," says Gohmert.  (Congressmen Gohmert is my personal advocate, with whom I preached last year at a pro-faith rally in Texas...and we both agree the gospel of freedom from sin really is "love speech" not "hate speech.")

FREE SPEECH SUPPRESSED IN NORWAY

Hate crimes laws protecting homosexuals from criticism are already silencing pastors in Norway, where these dangerous laws specifically empower law enforcement officials to prosecute "intimidation" of homosexuals.  For example, Congressman Gohmert warned "I was talking to a guy from Norway who was telling me that people are even afraid to say Mary was a virgin, because just bringing up sexuality at all can raise problems with law enforcement."

PLEASE SELECT HERE TO SIGN, AND WE'LL AUTOMATICALLY FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER THE HATE CRIMES S. 909 AMENDMENT (SAVING YOU HOURS OF LABOR!) 

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN SWEDEN

In Sweden, Pastor Ake Green received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish "hate crimes" law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior.  The Goeta Appeals Court later overturned the decision.  The government demanded the pastor be punished by appealing the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, which ruled the law unconstitutional.  Yet here in America, the Reid-Kennedy-Obama trio is pushing to pass and enforce this same type of "anti-free speech" law, despite their acknowledgment that any such enforcement would be unconstitutional in America too. (They why pass the bill in the first place?)

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN CANADA

In Canada, where "hate crimes" laws already passed, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal actively forbid evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 "damages for pain and suffering" and apologize to the "human rights" activist who filed the complaint. His crime? In 2002, the pastor wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he denounced the homosexual agenda as "wicked" and stated that: "Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights."  The Canadian government tribunal ordered the Christian pastor to "cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals."  (This "re-education commission" reminds me of Big Brother from Orwell’s 1984.)

PLEASE SELECT HERE TO SIGN, AND WE'LL AUTOMATICALLY FAX YOUR PERSONALIZED PETITION TO ALL 100 SENATORS, TO OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER THE HATE CRIMES S. 909 AMENDMENT (SAVING YOU HOURS OF LABOR!)

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN PENNSYLVANIA

Can’t happen in America?  It already has.  In 2004 my friend Michael Marcavage was arrested along with ten other Christians (including two elderly grandmothers), and charged with violating Pennsylvania’s "hate crimes" laws, because they carried signs conveying God’s love at a Gay Pride rally. One member of "The Philadelphia Eleven," Arlene Elshinnawy, 75 year-old grandmother of three, was holding a sign: "Truth is hate to those who hate the truth," before she was hauled off to jail by police officers.  They were literally threatened with 50 years in jail for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a public sidewalk, because it offended gays.  That hate crimes law was so outrageous it was later found unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but now Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama want to pass essentially that same discredited law nationwide.

WE CAN STILL DE-RAIL THIS TRAIN

But together, we can still stop them.  We've identified 16 Democrats below, who are NOT YET committed as co-sponsors of S. 909, so please call them today, asking to OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER any amendment to any bill that resembles S. 909.  Sadly two Republicans (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, R-ME) have joined 43 Democrats by co-sponsoring this pro-homosexual bill, so call them too, and ask them to switch.