Yesterday, in close alliance with the Human Rights Campaign, Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) filed their "hate crimes" legislation for consideration as an amendment to the Department of Defense reauthorization that is currently being debated in the U.S. Senate. The "hate crimes" amendment has numerous problems that should raise concerns for all Americans. First off this bill would usurp the jurisdiction of state and local governments and would federalize each and every state and local crime of violence, so long as there exists the possibility that the crime was motivated by "hate," as defined under this bill. Secondly this bill attacks religious liberty. Current federal law allows an individual to be prosecuted as an "accessory" to a crime, or if the individual somehow "incited" violence. Thus, if a preacher were to denounce the act of homosexuality as a sin and someone who heard him committed a violent crime towards a homosexual it is plausible that the pastor could be charged with inciting violence or as an accessory to the crime. Lastly, but far from least, the concept of "hate crimes" destroys the principle that all men are created equal, as stated in the Declaration of Independence. All human beings should be valued the same regardless of what "category" that person defines himself in. Please contact your U.S. senators TODAY and tell them to vote against the Kennedy/Smith hate crimes amendment.
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