Gordon Klingenschmitt

President Obama hasn't even signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act yet, but right-wing activists are already "challenging" it ... or at least their warped version of it.

Here is the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission vowing to defy the legislation:

"The fact the hate bill had to be passed in such an unscrupulous and cynical manner (attaching it to the Defense Authorization Act) reveals the depth of President Obama's commitment to a radical, anti-Christian agenda. He will stop at nothing to undermine the will of the majority of Americans to pay back militant homosexual activists who raised millions of dollars for his campaign and worked to get him elected."

"To sign the bill in the Rose Garden is another slap in the face and shows the level of contempt President Obama has for the majority of Americans who oppose the "homosexualization" of marriage and public education."

"The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission will soon be announcing its plans, along with other leading pro-family groups, to defy, counter and challenge this unconstitutional attack on our religious liberty."

And here is Gordon Klingenschmitt daring Obama to prosecute him:

In other words, A) pastors may quote the Bible publicly if their "intention" is the free exercise of religion or speech, but B) pastors may not quote the Bible publicly if their "intention" is to conspire with listeners to commit an act of violence. This begs the question, if the pastor never announces whether the unspoken "intention" of his heart is A or B, how can any prosecutor, judge, or jury know whether the pastor's secret thoughts intended A) free exercise or B) conspiracy? Without revealing the secret intention of my own heart, whether A or B, I hereby publicly quote both Romans 1:32 and Leviticus 20:13:

Romans 1:32 -- "Men with men working that which is unseemly...who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death."

Leviticus 20:13 -- "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

I further invite President Barack Obama, as the chief law enforcement official of America, to discern the secret thoughts and intentions of my heart, and to prosecute me for conspiracy or inciting the violent crimes of others who might read my words and act upon them, if he dares to think he knows or can prove my motives were not pursuant to the free exercise of religion or speech.

Of course, neither CADC or Klingenschmitt nor anybody else is going to be prosecuted for speaking out or "defying" this and they know it.  After all, the legislation expressly protects free speech and religious freedom:

(4) FREE EXPRESSION- Nothing in this division shall be construed to allow prosecution based solely upon an individual's expression of racial, religious, political, or other beliefs or solely upon an individual's membership in a group advocating or espousing such beliefs.

(5) FIRST AMENDMENT- Nothing in this division, or an amendment made by this division, shall be construed to diminish any rights under the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

(6) CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS- Nothing in this division shall be construed to prohibit any constitutionally protected speech, expressive conduct or activities (regardless of whether compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief), including the exercise of religion protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States and peaceful picketing or demonstration. The Constitution of the United States does not protect speech, conduct or activities consisting of planning for, conspiring to commit, or committing an act of violence.

But just because the legislation poses no threat to their religious freedom or right to free speech, amazingly that is not going to stop some on the Right from trying to use the legislation to turn paint themselves as martyrs.

Last night, Gordon "Chaps" Klingenschmitt and his allies staged a rally in Lodi, California outside the City Council meeting demanding that the council continue to open its meetings with prayers that mention Jesus, where they were met by counter-protesters.

Various local news stations covered the spectacle which, by most accounts, was mostly peaceful:

At Lodi City Hall, you didn't have to look hard Wednesday evening to figure out where people stood on the issue of the wildly controversial call to end prayers before city council meetings.

There were, in large numbers, those in favor of prayer before meetings. Meanwhile, in a more modest, but still prominent showing, others marched in support of a moment of silence during government affairs.

"I think everyone should be able to pray if they want to, just not as part of a government meeting," said Lodi resident Brad Westover.

"I have no problem with these atheist groups," said Gordon Klingenschmitt, a chaplain from Colorado. "I love them all in Jesus' name."

For nearly two hours, both sides protested within feet of each other in front of City Hall and City Council chambers. At the beginning, there was a brief exchange of shouting between several people on different sides of the issue.

Despite some loud debate, cooler heads prevailed and no one was hurt.

"Nobody's been kicked out yet. It's actually been very peaceful," said David Diskin, Lodi resident and rally organizer for the people opposed to prayers before meetings.

His group was outnumbered, but he was still happy with the turnout.

"It's exceeding my expectations by all means," said Diskin, who only two weeks before had begun efforts to organize the rally.

Klingenschmitt had been working on his rally for nearly two months. A resident of Colorado, he regularly travels around the country to organize events in support of Christianity and use of Jesus' name in prayer.

"As long as God blesses our efforts, I'm very pleased," said Klingenschmitt.

The conflict began brewing in May when the Lodi City Council went through with their usual public prayer before a meeting. But during that meeting, someone in the crowd took exception to the display of religion in a government setting.

That person complained to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the complaint soon got back to the city council.

Since then, the prayers have been non-specific to any religion, and the council is still preparing to fully resolve the issue.

You can find more coverage here and here, both including more video coverage of the protests, with the second one containing an odd clip of local resident declaring he does "not believe that a Christian can be lead by anything but a Christian or a Jew." I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

Interestingly, the issue of the prayer wasn't even on the agenda, so the Council made no decision, though it did schedule a special meeting to discuss the topic on Sept. 30 in a theater that can seat up to 900 people.

So presumably we'll see Klingenschmitt and the others descend on Lodi to do it all again late next month.

Last week, we mentioned a few times that Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had called upon the United States Chief of Naval Operations to investigate the fact that Gordon Klingenschmitt has been "attempting to create the false impression that he is still an active-duty member of the U.S. armed forces."

Klingenschmit quickly added a disclaimer to his website, explaining that his views “do not represent the views of the U.S. Navy” and that the picture of Klingenschmitt in uniform “is a picture of his former self, taken while he was serving on active duty, therefore he was not impersonating an officer,” but was none-too-pleased with AU and MRFF, saying that both “Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein are bone-heads.”

But apparently insulting them was not enough for Klingenschmitt, because AU reports that he is now calling on his supporters to launch “imprecatory” prayers against both men:

“Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty, including Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein, who recently issued a press release attacking me personally,” prays Klingenschmitt on his Web site. “God, do not remain silent, for wicked men surround me and tell lies about me. We bless them, but they curse us. Therefore, find them guilty, not me. Let their days be few, and replace them with godly people. Plunder their fields and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants. And remember their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

As AU explains, imprecatory prayer is basically asking God that bad things will happen to your enemies – things like death, loss of income, loss of property, etc. In other words, Klingenschmitt is asking God to curse both AU and MRFF.

This is actually the second time that AU has been the target of imprecatory prayers from some fringe Religious Right figure, as Wiley Drake issued a similar call back in 2007 after they contacted the IRS when Drake endorsed Mike Huckabee using church letterhead. 

Last week Secular Coalition for America and Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers held a press conference to release a proposed "set of policy recommendations in a memo to President-elect Obama as he considers staffing and policies regarding the military" because the current regulations fail to adequately accommodate "the hundreds of thousands of atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nontheists currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces."

We all know what this will lead to - the End Times:

Gordon James Klingenschmitt is a former naval chaplain who says, unfortunately, the Secular Coalition for America will eventually get its way. "There is a day coming in the end times when the military will be forced to be atheistic because, in order for the eventual man who is the man of sin -- the Anti-Christ -- as it is describe in the Bible, for him to come to power and to stamp out Christianity around the globe, he's going to need a good strong atheist military," he contends. "That is the first step toward Armageddon, and I'm concerned about that. And I pray that President (elect) Obama is not foolish enough to lead us down that road."