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“Pastor Arrested For Preaching”July 28, 2002by Tom Barrett, Editor@ConservativeTruth.org “NEW YORK CITY: The Rev. Joseph Jenkins was arrested today as he preached to his congregation of 500. As he said, ‘The Bible says it is a sin for a man to lie with a man!’ four federal undercover agents rose from their seats in the crowded church and handcuffed the pastor. He was later charged before a US Magistrate under the federal ‘Hate Crimes’ law.” “Far-fetched! Impossible! That will never happen!” Not at all. There are forces at work in this nation to deny every citizen the right to say, publicly or privately, what they know or believe to be true if it does not fit within politically correct guidelines. Ministers or rabbis who proclaim the clear teachings of the Bible regarding homosexuality will be jailed if these forces have their way. Anyone who expresses an unpopular ideology will be persecuted. Recently one of our readers sent me a short note. All it said was, “Tom, you are a Watchman on the Wall.” Of course he was referring to the fact that in ancient Israel many cities had walls around them to protect the inhabitants from enemies. Since most attacks could be expected to come at night, when the citizens were asleep and unprepared, watchmen were appointed to stand on the city walls and warn the populace of danger so that they could prepare to defend themselves. If I am indeed a “Watchman on the Wall,” I can think of few dangers more grave about which I can warn America than the so-called “Hate Crimes” legislation that is springing up everywhere. The idea behind these laws is that we can look into people’s hearts and determine what they were thinking when they committed a crime. That is a dangerous notion. Years ago novels were written about government “Thought Police” controlling what citizens were and were not allowed to believe and think. “Hate Crimes” laws will make such an improbable concept very probable if America does not heed the warnings of the serious danger of this kind of legislation. Any clear-thinking American can see that these laws are unconstitutional,
immoral, and just plain stupid. Then why are politicians falling over
each other to endorse “Hate Crimes” laws? A clue can be found
in the article, “The Hate Crime Express.” (See the Resources
Section below.) To illustrate the inequality of justice that will inevitably result from “Hate Crimes” laws, let’s imagine an altercation between two men at a soccer game. One is a middle-aged sports fan; the other a homosexual dressed in a feminine manner. They get into a fistfight over which team is best, and police arrive to arrest them. Both are charged with the misdemeanor offense of disturbing the peace, and released, right? Wrong. The homosexual claims that the other man called him a “homo.” The homosexual (now a “victim”) is set free, and the other man is charged with a serious “Hate Crime” which could land him in prison for many years. Here’s one from the news to illustrate the loss of equal protection that will result from “Hate Crimes” laws. (For more details on this story, see the article “Dual Murders…” in the Resources section below.) Two students are found murdered at a school for the deaf. One is a homosexual. Homosexual activists immediately trumpet the “fact” that this student was murdered because he was a homosexual. When the truth emerges, we find that another student murdered both boys for their money. If the murderer had been convicted using “Hate Crimes” laws, his punishment would have been much more severe for the murder of the homosexual than for the straight student. Does this mean that heterosexuals’ lives are worth less than those of homosexuals? Apparently so, if you listen to homosexual activists. These activists know that homosexuality is not popular, so they have seized on the strategy of using black people to advance their crusade for “Hate Crimes” laws. Fortunately for the nation, their wild claims of widespread “Hate Crimes” perpetrated by whites against blacks have been proven false, as this excerpt shows: “African-Americans who thought that hate crime laws would protect them against rampaging white racists are in for a shock: A new FBI study reveals that blacks are proportionally one-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested for hate crimes against whites than vice versa.” (The complete article can be found in the Resources section.) Let’s face facts. Every murder is a hate crime; people don’t murder people they like! Every physical attack is a hate crime; you don’t hit someone on the head with a brick to demonstrate love. We have thousands of laws against these crimes. We don’t need to double the penalties for existing crimes because the Thought Police believe the perpetrator might have been thinking hateful thoughts during the crime. Then what is this all about? In very simple terms, homosexual activists are determined to make it a crime for Christians and Jews to say what the Bible so clearly says - that it is against the laws of God and nature for people of the same gender to have sex with one another. They will not be satisfied until the law says that homosexuals are more equal than heterosexuals. Resources:
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