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The Threat to Free Speech and Religion: Hate Crimes
Friday, April 20, 2007
Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich, has introduced legislation to protect identifiable minorities from hate. But believe me, his bill is a fraud. It is the first step towards attacking the First Amendment.
Hate crime laws exist for one reason and one reason alone - to criminalize Christianity. The reason I know this is because I live in a country that is doing it right now. I'm a Canadian and right now in Canada freedom is a relative term - at least for Christians.
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Oh, my critics laugh at me for saying this. I'm a "fear-monger" they scoff. "There is simply nothing whatsoever to worry about." But their words ring hollow.
Just try to openly and publicly disagree with the current pedigree of homosex-dom in Canada and you'll quickly discover how relative a phrase "constitutional rights" really is.
In Canada, whenever a religious right comes head to head with the new sexual revolution - Christians always loose. And that is not just my opinion, it is a fact.
I wrote a book that documents the facts. I call the book: Christophobia: The Real Reason Behind Hate Crime Legislation. In this book I not only show how Canada has taken the lead with this new draconian law, a law which ultimately betrays the very concept of democracy, but I give example after example of how our legal culture has targeted good Canadian citizens and made them pay big time for exercising "free speech".
But as I've said before, the real problem wasn't that militant secularists were serious about restricting religious freedoms, it's that Canadian Christians were so apathetic. We just didn't see the connection between hate crime legislation and the fall of our constitutional rights.
And one of the reasons was that we believed that to be against "hate crimes" was to be against homosexual people, as people. Besides many of us had bought into the notion that homosexuality was a "private affair" and that we should just have "a live and let live" attitude. We didn't see what all the fuss was about and thus we avoid "politics" like the plague.
Let me assure you this is not a movement to rail against homosexuals. Far from it. It's about a much more fundamental issue - it is about the state of free speech in the West, the state of civil freedoms and the most important of all, freedom of religion.
First, free speech is the hallmark of a healthy democracy. In fact, we believe that a democracy stands or falls because of it. That is why your forefathers had the good sense to enshrine free speech as the first principle of the American constitution. And it is that bit of political history that has made America the greatest democracy in the history of mankind.
More importantly there is the spiritual consideration. When I address Christians who feel that politics is a "dirty business" and that it simply isn't their "calling", I warn them that if the proposed hate crime legislation in the US becomes the law of the land very soon they will no longer have the luxury to focus on their ministries exclusively while they leave "politics to the unbelievers".
The fact is, it is the First Amendment that guarantees Christians the right to do ministry free from political oppression and suppression. I'm not saying that the First Amendment gives Christians the moral and theological right to do what they do - Christians already have that by virtue of God's Word and the Great Commission - I'm simply saying that we can't discount the importance of this political guarantee.
It is the First Amendment that guarantees American Christians that their government won't decide it is politically expedient to persecute - notwithstanding the fact that it is currently in vogue to vilify Christians. It is the right to free speech that gives Christians the political framework and legal right to build churches, where God is freely worshiped, build schools, where we are free to teach our children about the God of creation, and spread the gospel freely to those who are yet unsaved.
Like it or not a government has a tremendous level of influence over our lives. It has the power to either maintain our civil freedom or suppress it. That is why it is so important that Christians use the civil freedoms they still have to defend what they do have - free speech.
The First Amendment is a profoundly important article. Thank God for it, because it's that political reality that gives American Christians a level of freedom that Christians in other countries - like mine - do not enjoy.
Christians in other countries pay a heavy price for preaching the gospel, building churches and otherwise focusing on "ministry". And if you were to ask these believers under what political environment they would prefer live and "do ministry", what do you think they'd say?
I don't know anyone who would choose to be muzzled, or to be oppressed. I don't know of one Christian that would actually prefer to spread the gospel and preach repentance in Christ knowing that at any moment they could get hauled off to jail, loose a job or get sued - especially if they could avoid it all by spending a little time being politically active in order to defend the freedoms that give them the civil context to do ministry.
If American Christians remain politically indifferent, like many Canadian Christians were, you may find that your "ministry focus" will be radically curtailed. That's why as a Canadian, I implore you, for the sake of America and the next generation and the state of free speech in the world, protect your First Amendment rights.
| Yours for our culture, |
Tristan Emmanuel |
| ECP Centre President |
Hardcover
$39.95 cdn, $28.95 us
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Softcover
$23.95 cdn, $18.95 us
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WARNED
Canada's Revolution Against Faith, Family and Freedom Threatens America by Tristan Emmanuel
This book is essential reading for both Americans and Canadians even though it is more particularly directed to our American friends. Both countries face a serious challenge to their cultures. This book exposes the radical exploitation of Canada at the hands of extremist activists, leftwing politicians and a plethora of crusading activist judges, who are using their status in Canada to get at America. Their aim is marriage. But the prize is America. They want to use marriage as a weapon to systematically destroy the Judeo-Christian civilization of North America, but to do that they need America to "go gay". Gay "marriage" will open up America to the rest of the demands of the homosexual political movement. Everything from school curriculum to parental rights, adoption, the age of consent and religious freedoms will be up for grabs once gay "marriage" is made legal in America. Unless socons in both countries unite and work to resist these political opponents, we can kiss our continent good-bye.
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