The legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions…Thomas Jefferson

    Currently the House of Representatives passed The Local Law Enforcement hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592)and it’s now pending in the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The act would forbid (read: illegal) forbid people of religious or sincerely held moral beliefs from being able to hold or freely speak out against homosexual behavior. When other groups were being considered, such as pregnant women, military personnel, Christian welfare workers, and etc, these groups were denied this special extra protection.

  While criminal law treat all criminal activity relatively equally (with a few notable double standards dealing with female teachers molesting their students compared with male teachers doing the same thing) this new law would add a perpetrators thoughts in how they view certain people and if a victims sexual orientation was a factor in whether this crime was committed-then an enhancement penalty would be added. The problem with this is even if a victims homosexual orientation wasn’t known, a perpetrator would still face the enhancement penalty.

   By adding an enhancement to certain victims, and not all victims of crime violates the Equal Protection Clause (14^th Amendment) to the US Constitution that states some people are more valuable to society than others.

  The broader picture to consider is; Does society have a duty to remove religious expression from open public debate? Which views will be politically correct to discuss, which views won’t be, and who decides? (Hopefully it won’t be Rev. Al Sharpton with his Greek white homo speech from 1996 or Barney Frank from New York). Is it a Judeo-Christian world view with its many doctrinal divisions or is it moral relativism with its basis in atheism and/or eastern mystism?

  The answers to all of these questions is resounding NO and tolerance in application for all diverse points of view with respect to the US Constitutions 1^st Amendment is critical to being able to discuss this issue in a rational manner. While there will be arguments of the separation of church and state, a casual reading of The Federalist Papers should alleviate any concerns about a Judeo-Christian caliphate being established.

  Unfortunately people of Christian faith are routinely targeted for by the “thought police” for dare questioning homosexuality as normal and they range from; the Philadelphia 11 being arrested and jailed, a Swedish pastor was given a 30 day jail sentence, and in Canada-a group of Christian pastors were fined for a radio broadcast with the common factor being: They hold a biblical world view that homosexuality is morally, and ethically wrong.

  Not once did these people advocate violence (and if they did, I would be their strongest critic) against gays, but these people of faith demonstrated love in word, deed, and action-Yet, were targeted because they expressed an unpopular view point. While gays claim that they are for freedom of expression, association and speech, their actions in conjunction with governmental authority shows differently.