May 14, 2007

On Thursday, May 3, the House of Representatives voted 237 to 180 to dramatically expand the federal hate crime law to include violence against a person because of his or her actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. With the passage of H.R. 1592, and the likely passage of a similar Senate bill within weeks, Americans are facing the hate crime legislation that would effectively regulate speech, tampering with the bedrock liberties in our democracy of free speech and religious liberty.

In the aftermath of the House vote several arguments have been advanced opposing hate crime legislation. Some, like Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) protest on constitutional grounds, arguing that H.R. 1592 is contrary to the 14th Amendment, providing unequal protection under the law. Others oppose the bill because it elevates sexual orientation to the same status as race or gender. Still others argue from a federalist perspective that all hate crime legislation should be left to the discretion of the states.

While each of these arguments has merit, the paramount threat of H.R. 1592 and similar legislation is the undermining of freedom of speech and religious liberty. It is not a stretch to see the day when the articulation of religious beliefs is subject to prosecution as a hate crime (or an accessory to a hate crime).

Alliance Defense Fund attorney Glen Lavy argues that hate crime laws are “an effort to enforce the orthodoxy of political correctness and to curtail freedom of speech.”  Remember, there is not a single violent act that hate-speech legislation advocates have in view that is not a crime already. What distinguishes this area of law is the involvement of the federal government and the effort to judge the thoughts or motives, not just the behavior, of an “offender.” Lavy points out that, “There is a legitimate concern that once Congress makes any ‘hate’ crime a federal offense, the categories of crime will expand to include speech that causes someone to ‘feel’ intimidated, just as they have in other places such as Australia, Canada and Sweden.” What he sees in hate crime legislation is the specter of the federal government policing not merely the action of violent crime, but the emotion of the perpetrator and a government definition of “hate.”

Chuck Colson sees the chilling effect on speech as the motive behind proponents when he argues that, “the intent of the law is not to prevent crime, but to shut down freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of thought. Its passage would strike at the very heart of our democracy.” Writing in the Washington Post, the Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Lanham, Maryland is clear about his ultimate fear: “This law can be applied in a way that can keep the church from preaching the Gospel.”

In recent years the publishing industry has been pumping out book after book warning of an encroaching “theocracy” in America—the steady advance of the religious right and their efforts to inundate government at all levels. From American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips to Randall Palmer’s Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America the stated or implicit goal is the same: warn America about conservative evangelicals’ covert mission to abolish the separation of Church and State and establish a Christian theocracy.