Yesterday April 25, 2007 one of the most serious threats to religious freedoms and free speech wrangled its way through the Judiciary Committee. It has yet to undergo the scrutiny of the full house but Hate Crimes bill HR 1592 is the most serious threat to religious freedom since this country began.
Among the organizations and groups fighting HR 1592 are For Faith and Family, Traditional Values Coalition, Faith2Action, The High Impact Coalition, Repent America, Focus on the Family, Americans for Justice, Exodus International and the Pacific Justice Institute. These are not the only organizations in the fight but they are perhaps the best ones to refer to if you are seeking a clear picture of the seriousness and the dangers inherent in this bill.
Rev. Lou Sheldon of Traditional Values Coalition and Andrea Lafferty the CEO of the TVC sat in on the proceedings for some eleven hours both submitting material to counter the bill and monitoring the arguments and subsequent voting. While we can thank God for Christian soldiers like Sheldon and Lafferty and the groups aforementioned it seems the alarm has not filtered down sufficiently to the rank and file of the rest of Christendom.
Rather than just lambasting Christians for hitting the snooze button on this issue I would rather issue a call to action and provide a short list of what you actually can do to help stop this bill from actualization. I would say the first order of business would be to visit the organizations mentioned in this article to familiarize your self with the language and implications of HR 1592. Since the bill will reach the house and be voted on between one week and a month letters will miss the mark. The best course of action is to search online and by telephone.
Christians should be warned that it is not just pastors and evangelists who may be constrained from quoting parts of the Bible that have to do with homosexual behavior. Every Christian will be affected. You may be sharing with a neighbor or just voicing your Biblically based views on the subject in one minute and be arrested and jailed for it in the next.
HR 1592 is the most dangerous precursor to Orwellian type thought policing that has ever come down the pike. It leaves any reasonable person wondering what could be next. If carried out it could lead to the arrest of every teenager who calls someone else a geek or a jock or blurts out “I hate you" to parents who have grounded them or corrected them in any way. It would require jailing a host of Hip Hopsters who are well known for their use of the N word The B word and the H word. Writers, commentators, teachers and lecturers would have to tread the thinnest ice or face serious consequences.
If passed the bill would produce a kind of fear that has always been associated with tyranny in any nation or civilization throughout history. Even among non Christians the threat of jail hangs heavy even for simply voicing an opinion. America may be all to involved with contrived survival scenarios like those of the popular CBS series Survivor. A quick check back into the real world may be all to disconcerting. The panorama of 9/11, Iraq , Katrina and VA Tech may be the truth that is stranger than fiction that we hate to look at, but ignoring HR 1592 is what happens when we retreat to fantasy.
Living in a contrived or alternate reality is sufficient to preoccupy a nation while real life truth is under attack. Who cares may seem to cover the whole matter but the immutable laws of reciprocation will be what returns to cover the freedom of thought and speech of all the purveyors of fantasy. In warfare this is called creating a distraction. America has been summarily distracted.
Make no mistake the Christian Church was in place before the Nazi’s swallowed Germany but were to busy with theological arguments, membership, cake and rummage sales and other innocuous pettiness to create the slightest resistance to Hitler’s insanity. In America it may be more the building fund, the prosperity gospel or building cultural churches that is distracting us but the result will be the same. The lions are hungry.
What can you do? First familiarize yourself thoroughly with HR 1592. Google the sites mentioned and read up. Secondly pray and get your churches to pray about this dangerous bill. Thirdly, support those who are fighting HR 1592. Some of the organizations and ministries mentioned have spared no expense to fight HR 1592 and need your help to keep up the fight. Many of them like the Traditional Values Coalition have lists of your representatives in Congress state by state and e-mail addresses to which you can send your message of disapproval. Finally, wake up; you have very little time left to join in this fight.
We all can remember that during the decades of the cold war and the fight against communism there were a few voices saying that America was most likely to fall from within rather than succumbing to communism. Pull yourself away from American Idol and Survivor just long enough to see that we are on that slippery slope now.
If you are a believer then you already know the meaning of this verse. But now is the time to take it up one level. The enemy (unseen) is doing much more than trying to get you to curse the milk you dropped on the floor this morning. It is you and all who believe as you do he is trying to put on the floor.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
Freedom of religion and freedom of speech is what occupies the ground between diligent and dilettante. Lions can be released into that middle ground unless we all take this fight seriously.
Rev Bresciani is a Christian author and a columnist for several online sites and magazines. His articles are now read in every country in the world. For articles and news from around the world visit “The Website for Insight" http://www.americanprophet.org
» left by robert melaccio sr. (1 year 208 days ago.)
Excellent article. Yet every believer knows exactly what will happen. It is everyone else that hasn't the slightest idea and does not believe it anyway. Just this week a newspaper column was espousing two new books. To summarize it these books were advocating the doing away with Christians as mentally unbalanced. Now of course true Christians know because when someone professes something that does not mean they are. There are many who profess God and even preach his word but exploit people. If we are what we profess then the things that are happening should not be unknown to us, because evil has to reach fruition. Does that mean Jesus will return tomorrow? Only God knows, but as I mentioned in some of my articles and as Jesus stated Himself “you will know when it is even at the door”. They laugh when they speak of America’s comparison to Rome. I wonder just how close we are to that?
» left by Rev Michael from Bresciani (1 year 208 days ago.)
Mr. Melaccio, You are certainly correct about how close we are to the fruition of evil. The"day of evil" must come to the whole earth and so will the Antichrist. I suppose we can rejoice that that also signals the soon return of the Lord Jeus Christ. Keep up the good work. Respond to this comment
» left by Avis Ward(10,232) Avis Ward (1 year 208 days ago.)
Rev. Bresciani, I never understood a Pastor's explanation for running the church "like a business" [when collecting money] who never became involved in the politics that affected the 'business.' Far more religious leaders should be involved with stopping the passing of HR 1592. Too many Christians are dependent on church leadership to tell them what to do as if we do not have a responsibility for ourselves to find out what needs to be done. If I were to only read the Word on a widescreen during church services but never on my own, I would not grow but wither. Thank you for presenting this to those it will reach. Maybe we can help make an impact so that this bill will stay in the fiery pits of hell, where it belongs. A very good message, thank you! Respond to this comment
» left by Rev Michael from Bresciani (1 year 208 days ago.)
Wow, thanks for those words Avis. You have made an important point that I wish many people could see. Do you write? You should.
Rev Bresciani Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous from Missouri (1 year 204 days ago.)
I just became aware of this last night and was not even aware of a bill such as this. Christians need to stand and let their voices be heard and not just sit back and wait for it to happen. Along with contacting our Rep's, prayer is the greatest agent that we have and doesn't cost a thing. I am definitely sending this info to my family members, as well as my church family. Rev. Michael, I am standing and praying with you. Just like the other comment that was made, this bill needs to be sent back to the pits of hell from whence it came. Respond to this comment
» left by Steve Radford(810) Steve Radford (1 year 204 days ago.)
Rev. Bresciani, I'm not for hate crime legislation. Mainly because it seems redundant. It doesn't make sense to me that it's a crime to kill somebody and a worse crime to kill them because you appeared to hate them. So I'm not for the bill. But the free speech concern may be over blown. Time spent fighting this bill might be better spent making a close friend with a homosexual neighbor. Or at least going out of our way to demonstrate an absence of malice. Just a thought. Respond to this comment
» left by Rev Michael from Bresciani (1 year 203 days ago.)
Your thoughts are well taken Mr. Radford. I would like to see both in action. That is trying to reach homosexuals with genuine kindness but not limiting anyones freedom to say what the Bible says. I have to agree with Mr. Federer of the World Net Daily who said in an article recently that HR 1592 is like trying to put Christians in the closet from which the gays think they just escaped. I'm paraphrasing but the inference is obvious.
In America it seems all too un-American to start saying that special goups can speak their mind while others cannot. It would amaze me if this bill is passed if it is not challenged in the courts as unconstitutional.
None of what I am saying excludes what you mentioned because the love of God is still what brings a man to repentance. Again I would feel better equipped if I had both the freedom of speech and the love of God in my heart as tools to win even one single soul.
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