The religious right has been running around with its hair on fire about the hate crimes bill currently working its way through Congress. Every organization has been sending out emails about how many deviant “sexual orientations” are going to be protected including pedophilia.
Right Wing Watch has done a great job at dispelling these ridiculous claims:
Like I said, religion is currently protected by existing hate crimes law and attacks targeting someone because of their real or perceived religion are subject to increased penalties – this has been the law for more than a decade.
Yet, in that time, I know of not one instance where someone in this country who has rebuffed an attempt to proselytize or spoken out against the right-wing agenda has been charged with a hate crime. In fact, I do nothing BUT rail against the right-wing agenda, so if anyone should be terrified of hate crimes laws, it should be me. But I’m not, because I know that hate crimes laws don’t shut down my right to free speech or get me tossed in jail for exercising it.
Read the entire post, it’s worth printing off and memorizing the next time some angry right winger goes off about how the bill protects pedophiles.
Founder of Motley Mystic and the Jubilee! Circle interfaith spiritual community In Columbia, S.C., Candace Chellew (she/her) is the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians (Jossey-Bass, 2008). Founder and Editor Emeritus of Whosoever, she earned her masters of theological studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, was ordained by Gentle Spirit Christian Church in December 2003, and trained as a spiritual director through the Omega Point program of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. She is also a musician and animal lover.