A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality

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Avenara

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June 14, 2007

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.

A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality

Message to pastors and other Christians: Just keep your mouth shut

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality.

The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class. If churches and individuals want to keep the government from telling them what they can and cannot preach and teach about homosexuality, they better get involved now!

House bill H.R. 1592 and Senate bill S. 1105 would make negative statements concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a “hate crime” punishable by law. This dangerous legislation would take away your freedom of speech and your freedom of religion. Consider what has already happened:

A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words “natural family,” “marriage” and “union of a man and a woman” a “hate speech” crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs!

CNN and The Washington Post both reported that **General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was fired because he publicly expressed moral opposition to homosexual behavior. **

For the Alliance Defense Fund’s summary of this bill, click here.

**Take Action
We are looking for one million Americans willing to take a stand and not allow a small group of homosexual activists to take away our freedoms. Can we count on you? Click on the link below to sign our Petition to Congress in Defense of Religious Freedom.

Please forward this to others, especially your pastor, and ask them to get involved in protecting our freedoms of speech and religion. This threat to our religious freedoms is real!**

Sign the Petition to Congress Today

I know I have…
 
Avenara said:
June 14, 2007

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.

A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality

Message to pastors and other Christians: Just keep your mouth shut

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality.

The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class. If churches and individuals want to keep the government from telling them what they can and cannot preach and teach about homosexuality, they better get involved now!

House bill H.R. 1592 and Senate bill S. 1105 would make negative statements concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a “hate crime” punishable by law. This dangerous legislation would take away your freedom of speech and your freedom of religion. Consider what has already happened:

A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words “natural family,” “marriage” and “union of a man and a woman” a “hate speech” crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs!

CNN and The Washington Post both reported that **General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was fired because he publicly expressed moral opposition to homosexual behavior. **For the Alliance Defense Fund’s summary of this bill, click here.

**Take Action **We are looking for one million Americans willing to take a stand and not allow a small group of homosexual activists to take away our freedoms. Can we count on you? Click on the link below to sign our Petition to Congress in Defense of Religious Freedom. Please forward this to others, especially your pastor, and ask them to get involved in protecting our freedoms of speech and religion. This threat to our religious freedoms is real!Sign the Petition to Congress Today

I know I have…
Click to expand...
I’m opposed to the bill because I think it’s unnecessarily redundant (we already have hate crime bills in place so we don’t need to single out special groups to enforce them) but my understanding is that this bill would not make it a hate crime to preach from the pulpit a moral and religious teaching such as that homosexual relations are a sin…it’s only a crime if the individual preaching were to encourage others to use violence to promote their views. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
 
If that’s the case, I won’t be so worried…but if you are wrong and it would…I just don’t know WHAT I would think. No one should preach to harm people. That I understand, but to flat out not let us even talk about it? That wouldn’t be right.
 
AFA’s summary of the bills indicate that they would provide federal assistance to local law enforcement officials when a “hate” crime is committed, not what is stated in the title of this thread. If that’s all there is to it, I don’t see what the big deal is, although I think such legislation is totally unnecessary.
 
Avenara said:
June 14, 2007

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.

A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality

Message to pastors and other Christians: Just keep your mouth shut

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality.

The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class. If churches and individuals want to keep the government from telling them what they can and cannot preach and teach about homosexuality, they better get involved now!

House bill H.R. 1592 and Senate bill S. 1105 would make negative statements concerning homosexuality, such as calling the practice of homosexuality a sin from the pulpit, a “hate crime” punishable by law. This dangerous legislation would take away your freedom of speech and your freedom of religion. Consider what has already happened:

A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words “natural family,” “marriage” and “union of a man and a woman” a “hate speech” crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs!

CNN and The Washington Post both reported that **General Peter Pace, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was fired because he publicly expressed moral opposition to homosexual behavior. **

For the Alliance Defense Fund’s summary of this bill, click here.

**Take Action
We are looking for one million Americans willing to take a stand and not allow a small group of homosexual activists to take away our freedoms. Can we count on you? Click on the link below to sign our Petition to Congress in Defense of Religious Freedom.

Please forward this to others, especially your pastor, and ask them to get involved in protecting our freedoms of speech and religion. This threat to our religious freedoms is real!**

Sign the Petition to Congress Today

I know I have…
Click to expand...
This isn’t true. The bill would punish “crimes of violence” as defined in the federal criminal code that are also hate crimes and felonies. So, first, it would have to meet the following legal definition:
The term “crime of violence” means -
(a) an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use,
or threatened use of physical force against the person or
property of another, or
(b) any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature,
involves a substantial risk that physical force against the
person or property of another may be used in the course of
committing the offense.
Click to expand...
18 U.S.C. section 16.

And, obviously, preaching from the pulpit is not an act of violence (or, if it is, you’re doing it wrong).

I suspect that the advocacy group talking about this bill is exaggerating the bill’s effect for its own political purposes – witness their citation of the Ninth Circuit’s decision that supposedly made the phrases “natural family,” “marriage,” and “union of man and woman” hate speech (it did no such thing; see the thread on CAF on that subject, available here).

In any event, even if the bill did have a provision banning preaching (as opposed to advocating violence) against homosexuality, it would clearly be unconstitutional; no court in this country has ever allowed the government to dictate what can and cannot be preached in a church – again, except for preaching along the lines of “Now let’s go kill them!” And no court in this country ever would.
 
You people who don’t think these bills are a threat to pastors are DEAD WRONG, I am sorry to say.

You fail to understand that the militant gay groups fully intend to use these laws, once enacted, for that exact purpose and in their magazines, they make it clear. One article in a gay magazine that I read was very bold about it. It was called, STOP THE CHURCH and called for every kind of action to stop the dissemination of church teachings on homosexuality, and concluded with the words,
STOP THE CHURCH BEFORE IT STOPS YOU.

The article was several years ago in the gay publication called
THE ADVOCATE, I don’t remember which issue, but these militants have been working for these laws for a long time and with silencing the church specifically in mind, and don’t delude yourselves into thinking otherwise just because the WORDING of the bill doesn’t specifically single out pastors. They know how they and their attorneys plan to use these laws. You all had better stand up and be counted.

God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
Jaypeeto4 said:
You people who don’t think these bills are a threat to pastors are DEAD WRONG, I am sorry to say.

You fail to understand that the militant gay groups fully intend to use these laws, once enacted, for that exact purpose and in their magazines, they make it clear. One article in a gay magazine that I read was very bold about it. It was called, STOP THE CHURCH and called for every kind of action to stop the dissemination of church teachings on homosexuality, and concluded with the words,
STOP THE CHURCH BEFORE IT STOPS YOU.

The article was several years ago in the gay publication called
THE ADVOCATE, I don’t remember which issue, but these militants have been working for these laws for a long time and with silencing the church specifically in mind, and don’t delude yourselves into thinking otherwise just because the WORDING of the bill doesn’t specifically single out pastors. They know how they and their attorneys plan to use these laws. You all had better stand up and be counted.

God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
Click to expand...
You are so right. If we don’t keep vigilant, big brother is going to take over every phase of our lives. This bill will only preclude banning churches altogether.
 
That’s why I posted it. I’m afraid of them taking away certain liberties. Those who believe the government will do the right thing because it’s the right thing are naive, unfortunately. The government has proved time and time again that they will do whatever is in their best interest, despite the consequences. I think any attempt to ban any words are bad. Now the ACTIONS of hurting homosexuals should definately be banned. You shouldn’t hurt people just because they think differently.
 
Here’s the breakdown of Catholics in the Senate:
Note that for these purposes, “NO” = is not a co-sponsor of the senate bill, “YES” = is co-sponsor of the senate bill S.1105
**
Catholic Democrats - “NO”*
None

**
Catholic Republicans - “NO”**
Brownback
Bunning
Murkowski
Martinez
Domenici
Sununu
Vitter
Voinovich

**
Catholic Republicans - “YES”**
Collins
Snowe (Greek Orthodox)

**
Catholic Democrats - “YES”**
Dodd
Biden
Durbin
Kennedy
Reed
Leahy
Cantwell
Murray
Harkin
Kerry
Landrieu
Mikulski
Salazar
Casey
Menendez
McCaskill
 
under_the_dome said:
Here’s the breakdown of Catholics in the Senate:
Note that for these purposes, “NO” = is not a co-sponsor of the senate bill, “YES” = is co-sponsor of the senate bill S.1105
**
Catholic Democrats - “NO”*
None

**
Catholic Republicans - “NO”**
Brownback
Bunning
Murkowski
Martinez
Domenici
Sununu
Vitter
Voinovich

**
Catholic Republicans - “YES”**
Collins
Snowe (Greek Orthodox)

**
Catholic Democrats - “YES”**
Dodd
Biden
Durbin
Kennedy
Reed
Leahy
Cantwell
Murray
Harkin
Kerry
Landrieu
Mikulski
Salazar
Casey
Menendez
McCaskill
Click to expand...
Please don’t confuse Collins and Snowe with Republicans. They are Rhinos.
 
There are many laws “on the books” that have been misused and misinterpreted by the courts. Just look at he fact that it is now against the “law” for faith based groups to mention where they stand on issues close to any election.

So everyone needs to be vigilant for laws that can be abused by the secular agenda driven minorities.
 
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