Rage, this is of interest to you and Tomslick-it’s the frightening trend against people who have Faith and preach the Bible~and demonstrates why I am so fearful of the proposed hate crime laws. This is happening right there in your backyard–Pennsylvania. Hate Crimes have been passed in Canada, so it is illegal there to speak against things like homosexuality or preaching the bible. This article, “The Bible as ‘hate literature’?
Canadians advance bill that chills speech about homosexuality” shows that there is enough vagueness in the Canadian version of the law that it would be left up to judges to interpret the appropriateness of quoting the Bible.

During October 7, negotiations to reconcile House and Senate versions of the 2005 defense authorization bill, negotiators for the GOP-led House succeeded in removing an amendment that would have added ’sexual orientation’ to the categories protected under federal “hate crime” statutes. The measure, co-sponsored by Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon and Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, would also have ‘eliminated restrictions limiting hate-crime prosecutions to cases where the victims were engaged in federally protected activities, such as voting,” observed the October 8 Boston Globe.

Describing removal of the amendment as “reprehensible,” Senator Kennedy vowed: “We will be back again and again…and we will continue to bring this legislation up until it is signed into law.”

An incident that occurred in Philadelphia just a few days later foreshadows the “justice” Kennedy and his comrades seek to impose on our nation.

On October 10, a group of 11 Christian activists, ranging in age from 17 to 72, were arrested during the city’s “Outfest”–a pro-homosexual event, staged to celebrate “National Coming Out Day.” Led by a controversial evangelist named Michael Marcavage, founder of “Repent America,” the group arrived at the event carrying protest signs, Bibles, and hymn books. As they conducted their evangelism, they were confronted by a militant homosexual group calling itself the “Pink Angels”.

According to an account published by Agape Press (A Christian news service), the homosexual radicals harassed the Christian activists, “screaming obscenities, hooting and whistling to drown out their message. Some of the Pink Angels carried large signs alongside the Christians to block their message and prevent them from speaking with other Outfest attendees.” (These incidents were captured on videotape.) In short order, the Philadelphia Police Departments’ Civil Affairs Unit ordered that the Christians be arrested and taken into custody.

Marcavage and his associates were charged with a variety of offenses, including “ethnic intimidation”–a second-degree felony “hate crime”–”criminal conspiracy”, and “possession of instruments of crime” (which would apparently refer to the bibles and protest signs) Pennsylvania’s “ethnic intimidation” law includes “sexual orientation” as a specially protected category.

It is not outrageous, therefore, to conclude that soon it will be illegal to preach the Bible in public.

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