Hate Crimes, Thought Police, and Religious Freedom

NOTE: This is a very good opinion/information article about the proposed legislation. For more info read a previous post on this site.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592), which passed in the House of Representatives in a veto-susceptible vote of 237-180, could well lead to serious infringements of our First Amendment freedom of speech protections in the United States. Such legislation has had a very chilling effect on free speech in Canada, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.

The act would establish a new federal offense for so-called “hate crimes” and add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes, as well as mandate a separate federal criminal prosecution for state offenses for crimes motivated by “the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person.”

In essence, it would codify into federal law that certain types of people—homosexuals and “transgenders,” for example—deserve greater protection under the law than others.

Here's an interesting paragraph from the article:
Also, attempts to amend the bill to include policemen, members of the military, and pregnant women as a special class deserving protection under this act failed on party line votes.

Read more of this opinion by Richard Land on The Christian Post.