So, what’s the big deal? Aren’t “hate-crimes” laws really just aimed at people who commit violent crimes and at extremists like Fred (“God Hates Fags”) Phelps?
No. They’re also designed to govern the speech, actions — even thoughts — of the general population. That’s me, you, your friends, neighbors — even your grandmother.
Just ask Philadelphia grandmothers Arlene Elshinnawy and Lynda Beckman.
Elshinnawy, 75, a grandmother of three, was holding a sign that said “Truth is hate to those who hate the truth” when she was arrested with Beckman, grandmother of 10, and nine other Christians on a downtown Philadelphia street in October 2004. This Repent America group, later dubbed the “Philadelphia 11,” was conducting a counterdemonstration near homosexual activists celebrating National Coming Out Day.
They spent the night in jail, but that wasn’t the worst part.
“When we were released and given this piece of paper — which were three felonies and five misdemeanors — if they had found us guilty of these things, it was worth 47 years in prison, plus a $90,000 fine for each of us,” Elshinnawy told an interviewer for the DVD Censoring the Church and Silencing Christians, produced by the Family Research Council and Coral Ridge Ministries.
The charges were dismissed a few months later, but not before some sleepless nights for the Philadelphia 11. Pennsylvania’s hate-crimes law is styled “ethnic intimidation.”
“In my case, pretty ironic that I would be charged with ‘ethnic intimidation,’ ” said Elshinnawy, who is black. “But since when does your sexual preference qualify you as making up an ethnic group?”
Also interviewed on Censoring the Church was Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“Hate-crimes legislation is a bad idea on steroids,” Land said. "We should never allow the government to decide what is acceptable speech and what is unacceptable speech. We should penalize behaviors, not opinions and not speech. If you start trying to regulate speech and start trying to regulate thoughts, start trying to regulate beliefs rather than behaviors, there’s no way that you’re not going to abridge the constitutional rights of millions of Americans.”
Mats Tunehag, president of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance and spokesman on Religious Freedom for the World Evangelical Alliance, recently sparked major national debate when he published a critical article on hate-crimes laws in Sweden’s second-largest newspaper. He told CitizenLink that support for such laws is weakening in Europe.
“It may be helpful to remember that the messages of many biblical prophets – including Jesus’ message – were broadly perceived as offensive,” Tunehag wrote in his article. “… The ramifications [of hate-crimes laws] are huge, a threat not only to religious liberty but to democracy itself – and thus, to everyone.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you like to order a copy of the Censoring the Church DVD, visit the Family Research Council Web site.
