Back in 2009, when Congress was working on legislation to expand hate crimes laws to include protections for sexual orientation, the Religious Right pitched a fit and mobilized to try and stop it.
They failed, but Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel was among the leaders of the movement, going so far as to not only oppose adding sexual orientation to the law but calling for all hate crimes laws to be repealed:
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — in Washington and around the country — should not only reject S. 909, but should also begin working toward repeal of all state and federal hate-crimes laws.
All violent crimes are “hate crimes.” Ever known anyone cracked upside the head in love? There may have been a time when hate-crimes laws were temporarily necessary, but that time has come and gone. When the 1968 federal hate-crimes bill passed, there were multiple and verifiable cases of local prosecutors refusing to indict whites for violent crimes committed against blacks. This was the justification for the law at the time.
We’ve moved well beyond those days, and FBI statistics bear out that reality. In today’s America, every citizen, without fail, is both guaranteed and granted equal protection of the law regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, dominant hand, favorite color or “American Idol” pick. This renders all extraneous hate-crimes laws woefully obsolete and fatally discriminatory.
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Rather than continuing down the wrong path and creating new hate-crimes laws that unfairly favor whichever boutique special-interest group screams the loudest, we should move toward inclusion and equality for all Americans. We should look to the future instead of the past. We should both reject S. 909 and repeal all outdated and discriminatory hate-crimes laws.
After it was signed into law, Barber even participated in a rally protesting the new legislation as unconstitutional … which is interesting, since today he will be participating in a press conference along with Peter LaBarbera to demand that the act of vandalism against the site hosting their anti-gay training session be treated as a hate crime:
A coalition of ministers and pro-family advocates is questioning the double-standard on “hate crimes” in the wake of an attack Saturday against Christian Liberty Academy (CLA) — which was threatened with more violence if it continues to host conservative groups like Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH).
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Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera said, “Some in the media are calling this terrorist act ‘vandalism,’ which we doubt they would do if the situation were reversed and right-wing extremists threw two large bricks through the glass doors of a gay church.”
“As conservatives we oppose the concept of ‘hate crimes,’ but since hate crimes laws are on the books they must be enforced even-handedly,” LaBarbera said. “It is scandalous that a left-wing website post taking credit for this act of domestic terrorism — and threatening more violence — is still up and running.”
Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel said hard-left groups like Gay Liberation Network create a “climate of hate” against Christians by demonizing them with vicious lies that equate the defense of Judeo-Christian morality with “hate.”
“We will not compromise on God’s truth. Neither will we be terrorized into silence,” Barber said.
