The Thought Police Are On Their Way

Posted by Larry Miller on October 29, 2009 under How | 2 Comments to Read

Barack Hussein Obama signed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as congress took upon itself the task of attempting to negate teachings such as I Corinthians 6:9 that says “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders” and Leviticus 18:22 that says “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” In creating special protections for these practices those they are also disregarding Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.”

Setting aside the ultimate consequences for the people involved, this is a clear violation of the First Amendment which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” We have reassurances from Attorney General Eric Holder who said, “It is the person who commits the actual act of violence, who would be subject to this legislation, not the person who is simply expressing an opinion,”

I would imagine that these claims of innocent intent would rank right up their with promises that gun registration would not lead to weapon confiscation. These assurances things may be entirely sincere, but our government in general and the majority party in particular do not have a stellar record in this regard. One has to remember the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me seventy times seven… shame on me.” We will forgive them, but our experience has imprinted on our psyches that we have been lied to so often in the past. We must remember that they would not tell us these things if they didn’t want us to believe them. Some things are just too important to leave to chance or to people with spotty reliability records.

Our government is now in the area of policing people’s thoughts and motivations, based on actions, assumptions and accusations. Later reports indicate that Shepard was not exactly minding his own business when he encountered his attackers. I have nothing but sympathy for Matthew Shepard’s mother who lost a son that she raised and loved, but his murderers have been caught and are paying the price for their crimes. He is no more dead than if he were killed in a garden variety armed robbery. What the killers did to him is totally unacceptable to do to any human being and they should be punished for the suffering they put the boy through… the reason is irrelevant! We cannot in any way excuse his death, but one has to wonder if the hate crimes rules would be applied to Christians under a similar attack… particularly under attack by the government itself.

In signing the bill, the President declared, the bill would “help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray”, which sounds open minded and caring. Yet, Obama did not spend time wooing groups religious groups, other than perhaps the Muslim communities, the obese or the cosmetically challenged. He did spend time with groups like the Human Rights Campaign whose president Joe Solmonese exhalted, that the law was “our nation’s first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” He knew the inside scoop.

So we have one more intrusion into the areas of state sovereignty. They have been handling these violent crimes pretty well as Senator Jeff Sessions has said. Congress can make laws determining what is legal and what is illegal, but they cannot change what constitutes right and wrong. Politicians are a slippery bunch… we need to be wary of the fact that they may well not directly attack us for our teachings, but then next time some thugs attack someone like they did Matthew Shepard, those in power may well use this new found power to accuse preachers, bloggers and miscellaneous Christians of inciting hatred. Sure it’s unconstitutional… but when has that stopped our government recently?

Even if our worst fears about this governmental action materialize and restrictions are placed on speech and teachings, especially if they materialize… we need to be prepared to decide the relative scope of the authority that will guide our lives. Will it be the short sighted expressions of those who would transform us into a valueless society or will it be the ultimate authority of the universe. The choice and the consequences are ours.