Christian Right: The government is denying us our rights to assault, rob, and murder gays

[ck4829]

A conservative "civil liberties" group has challenged the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act. The Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center is suing U.S. government on behalf of three pastors and the president of the American Family Association of Michigan. The suit alleges that the law violates the plaintiffs' freedom of speech and freedom of religion under the First Amendment, the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment, Federal jurisdiction constraints of the 10th Amendment, and, for good measure, the Constitution's Commerce Clause. That's three Amendments and one Clause, which is an awful lot of unconstitutionality for one bill.

According to Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, "the sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible." It's other sole purpose, he claimed, is to use the threat of prosecution "to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin." It's other other sole purpose is to elevate "persons who engage in deviant sexual behaviors," i.e. perverts, "to a special protected class of persons." And it's other other other sole purpose is to "pay off" homosexual advocacy groups for supporting Obama in the last election. That's an awful lot of sole purposes for one bill.

http://dagblog.com/persecution-politics/persecution-politics-conservatives-challenge-new-hate-crime-law-3115

Here's the thing, the bill only punishes violent acts, not speech, not thoughts, it even mentions that there shall be no prosecutions based on speech or thoughts. This bill is also in line with the other hate crime protections that all Americans enjoy.

So this bill doesn't violate anyone's religion, unless one of the 10 Commandments is "Thou shalt smite TEH GAY wherever thou may find it."

Christian Right, have you ever considered that you might be in the wrong religion if your religion demands that you attack and kill gay people?

[Initech]

1. Honestly our talliban is no better than the one we're fighting.

:banghead:

[Divine Discontent]

4. unfortunately, the MSM hasn't got the memo on that

because if they did, they'd be doing stories on the insanity of the right wing nuts!

[Initech]

5. One of my favorite RW talking points is the "global war on religious extremism"

Meme that they use to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If they're so concerned about religious extremists, why not start at home? It's clearly an "us vs. them" mentality at this point.

[Divine Discontent]

8. yes, that's the approach my former employers out west have taken - it's us vs them in an all out

religious war!

Look, I believe the Lord will one day return to judge the 'quick and the dead', but the LAST thing anyone who believes such a noteworthy and controversial thing should be doing is going all bad-ass Rambo on another religion because they think if they don't kill them first - we'll be killed! What ever happened to loving your neighbor as yourself - even if they don't think just like you do? Doing away with the Muslims, as they want to do, most even want nukes, is the kind of crap that did in tribe/village one after another as neighboring people treated the people they didn't know as evil and unworthy of life. Hatred of what you don't understand is a common social ill.

Seriously, I have to believe these people will either break away from the Repub party and start their own viable party (tea bag is trying), or they'll end up taking over the Repub party. That only happens if the Democrats keep moving to the right on civil rights issues (like ignoring the slow crawl back to banning abortions and ignoring the civil rights of all people to live as they wish and believe what they want or don't want).

[Divine Discontent]

2. K&R - they give real Jesus-loving-following Christians an unfairly bad name. They are abhorrent!!

and yes, you nailed it - if they ran some fiery rhetoric against GLBTers and show a slick commercial and dramatized all the bad things that all types of people do, and then said, 'we need to eliminate the homosexuals', a very LARGE percentage (30-50?) of GOPers would say yes to it! crap, even a small slice of "Democrats" would, too.


They will reap what they sow in harming the joy of God's children (imo we all are).

[lonestarnot]

6. They surely do.

[AndyA]

3. F*ck these people. Really.

The Bible also condemns adultery. You aren't supposed to work on Sundays. You aren't supposed to judge others. Or hate them. You are supposed to accept others and love them. Do unto others, etc.

So, if they really want to follow the teachings of The Bible, they have a LOT of work to do themselves. And when done, they won't be pursuing this suit because it also goes against The Bible's teachings.

These people are nothing but a bunch of hate filled hypocrites, who pick and choose what parts of The Bible they want to follow for themselves, and which parts apply to others.

[movonne]

7. I always thought that Christians were suppose to LOVE not HATE...

all of a sudden all I hear is kill and hate coming from the Christian right...this really turns me off of religion..

[AndyA]

9. Is it any wonder that the number of people around the world who identify themselves as Christians

has dropped in recent years?

True Christians aren't diverted by such things. They figure it's none of their business. (And it isn't.)

[stillwaiting]

10. They want to be able to pass a law that actually kills gay people.

Like they think the Bible commands.

Of course, NONE of the other commands to kill citizens of our country as found in the Bible ever receive the same attention.

It's always the big, bad gays.

And they also refuse to consider the scholars who state that the very few verses they use to bash gay people's morality, in all
likelihood refers to outdated societal practices such as male/male temple sex worshiping other gods and pederasty.

They have NO consistency with Jesus's teachings at all. Not one bit.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. Thomas Moore Law Center is a Monaghan invention

Part of his Catholic Cult of Personality. Tom Monaghan is a real piece of work, look him up with Ave Maria University, Dominios Pizza, and Ave Maria Radio to name a couple. His rich Catholic Millionaires Club is actually hosting Newt Gingrich as a speaker for some private event to honor W for some lifetime "pro-life" award this month. It is extreme GOP to the core.

[badgerpup]

12. Somebody 'splain me sumpin...

Since WHEN is 'Not being targeted for getting the shit kicked out of you for merely existing' considered a "special right"?

:wtf:

[kevinbgoode]

13. Just because the Thomas More Law Center claims to represent

"Christians" doesn't mean THEY are "Christians" or know anything about the religion - or the Bible. I don't recall any election, or constitutional privilege, which named the Thomas More Law Center as the sole and undisputed arbiter of biblical interpretation, nor the appointed representative of the "Christian" religion.

I wish someone would get the balls to stand up to these circus performers and make them prove that their own bearing of false witness somehow makes them "Christian." Moreover, people of the "Christian" religion whose churches interpret the bible differently should be pulling these clowns on the carpet for misrepresenting scriptural interpretations for political and legal purposes.

I've really had my fill of these faux "Christians" claiming that all they have to do is toss out the word "Christian" and they are suddenly entitled to the special right to persecute others as liberally as they happily change biblical interpretation to support their personal hatred.

[Bluebear]

14. While i get your point, they self-identify as Christians, so I have to take them at their word.

People don't see the results of terrorism committed by Muslims and say "those aren't real Muslims!"

In both cases, they are extreme examples of their religions gone far-right awry. But they are still members of those religions.

[kevinbgoode]

15. Why give them special privilege?

Do they take gay people at their word? Hell no -- in fact, they profess that being gay is a choice which must be changed and invent evidence to support their claim, then demand that public policy and laws be enacted to legally hold gay Americans as second-class citizens because their willfully selected "religious" belief tells them they can't practice their beliefs unless the rest of the world is forced to adhere to them.

They don't even give gay Americans the same sort of PRIVILEGE for making choices that they demand for themselves - instead they demand that gay Americans should be demonized, vilified, denied equal rights and persecuted at their pleasure. And they have shown time and again that they would violate one of the commandments of their own claimed "religion" in order to carry out that persecution - which in my mind automatically revokes taking their "word" for being "Christian."