Category: Religious Freedom

Family group: McCotter vote on “hate crimes” threatens religious free speech

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Thaddeus McCotter’s vote to give special federal legal status and protection to individuals involved in homosexual activity violates the concept of equal protection under law and threatens the religious free speech rights of Americans who believe such behavior is morally wrong, a statewide traditional values group charged Monday.

The American Family Association of Michigan, in a letter to McCotter and Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis, blasted McCotter for being “one of only thirty Republican congressmen nationwide to join Democrats in supporting an amendment to establish special enhanced prison sentences for crimes allegedly motivated by disapproval of homosexual behavior.”

The amendment — offered by Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, to HR 3132, The Children’s Safety Act of 2005 — would “create a federal offense for violence motivated by the actual or perceived…sexual orientation…of the victim.” Republican House members opposed the amendment, 194 to 30, while House Democrats supported it, 192 to 5.

Roll call vote here.
Associated Press story here.
Focus on the Family statement here.

“Rep. McCotter’s vote violated the concept of equal protection, providing the outrageous result that a criminal who assaults a pregnant mother, a small child, or a senior citizen would be punished less severely than someone who attacks a grown man, solely because that grown man chooses to engage in homosexual behavior with other men,” AFA-Michigan President Gary Glenn wrote.

“Rep. McCotter’s vote also puts at risk the religious free speech rights of Christians and others who believe homosexual behavior is destructive and morally wrong,” Glenn wrote. “The language Rep. McCotter supports adding to federal law threatens to make any public expression of opposition to homosexual behavior, even from the pulpit, a crime, and has already led to the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of Christians and others in Europe, Canada, and under state law, even in the United States,” Glenn wrote.

Glenn cited numerous examples of Christians and others being threatened, intimidated, and even prosecuted under “hate crime” laws that include so-called “sexual orientation” among motivating factors that trigger enhanced criminal penalties:
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Dear Friend of the Family,

Allstate has fired a manager because he expressed his Christian beliefs concerning homosexuality. Matt Barber was a manager in Allstate’s Corporate Security Division. On his own time, and without identifying himself as an employee of Allstate, he wrote a column posted on several websites which was critical of same-sex marriage.

An outside homosexual group complained to Allstate about the column. Because of their support for the homosexual agenda, Barber was immediately fired and ushered off company property.

The message is clear: To work for Allstate one must not publicly express their Christian belief in the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality. Barber was fired because he did. Homosexuals can criticize and condemn the Bible’s teaching and they are welcomed, but Christians must remain silent.
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Persecution
How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity

by David Limbaugh

Chapter Seven: “Muzzling Public
Officials, Employees, and Appointees”
Congressional, State, and Local Chaplains, page 182

In Ferndale, Michigan, a volunteer chaplain, Pastor Tom Hansen, came under attack because he was an outspoken critic of the homosexual lifestyle. He argued against the city’s plans for a downtown gay pride festival, and at council meetings reportedly called homosexuality “an abomination to the Lord.” But Hansen denied that opposing homosexuals was the focus of his ministry…(and) said his opinions on homosexuality never came up in his work with prisoners. …Nevertheless, homosexual groups demanded that the city terminate Hansen, and…charged that Hansen’s views amounted to “spiritual violence” to homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender persons. Ferndale police captain Tim Collins said that Hansen had not expressed “any discrimination of any type to anyone.” The American Family Association said that it would sue the city in a civil rights action if it dismissed Hansen, and Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said that being chaplain doesn’t mean you forfeit your constitutional rights. “I can’t help but marvel at the reported sight Monday night when the so-called ‘tolerance’ and ‘non-discrimination’ crowd so clearly demonstrated their intolerance for Pastor Hansen’s sincerely held religious views, and demanded that he be discriminated against and fired for daring to express those views.”

Chapter Nine: “State Endorsement of Non-Christian Values”
Diversity Sticker, page 244

In some cases, local governments affirmatively endorse the homosexual lifestyle and try to impose acceptance of it forcibly on their employees. Traverse City, Michigan, inaugurated a “diversity” sticker campaign in which it placed on city vehicles stickers that were modeled after the rainbow flag homosexuals use to celebrate their lifestyle. Over the rainbow stripes was the message, “We are Traverse City.” The campaign was ostensibly in reaction to a number of race- and sexual orientation-motivated crimes and was aimed at unifying the city. It did the opposite, as citizens bombarded the city with complaints over the campaign. American Family Association (of Michigan) President Gary Glenn said, “Homosexual activists’ allies on the city commission have quickly moved from preaching tolerance of homosexual activity to forcing city police officers to display the official flag of ‘gay pride’ militants.” One Traverse City policeman, David Leach, a thirty-year veteran, registered his strenuous objection to the campaign during an interview with a local Christian radio station. He said he found it “offensive driving a vehicle proclaiming (the homosexual) lifestyle.” He later told the Associated Press, “It is a sign of the homosexual, and it’s on my patrol car.”