laneys.info Beware of Yankees, drunks, and loose women.

I got an email forwarded to me today, asking me to take action and contact my representatives in Congress in opposition to House of Representatives bill HR 254.  The alert warned of dire consequences if this bill should become law, not because of the contents of the bill itself, but because of the slippery slope the bill would create.

Unfortunately, the alert originally came from the American Family Association, a group that I long ago added to my email filter because of their propensity for reactionary, alarmist hyperbole.  This alert was no different.  The problem I have is with the message that the AFA sends with such opposition.

The actual bill expands on Federal "hate crimes" legislation.  "Congress finds that... the incidence of violence motivated by the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability of the victim poses a serious national problem." Therefore, the first section provides for additional penalties to crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person," while the second section provides for additional penalties to crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability of any person."  The legislation appears generally sound, though I would say that it's a bit of a stretch to say that violence "affects interstate commerce."  It is a long way from making it illegal for Christians to proclaim the Bible's views on homosexual activity, and the AFA admits that.  The AFA wants you to believe that this legislation is just the beginning - the "elephant's trunk" under the tent that will soon become the elephant in the room.  However, this is a logical fallacy - the "slippery slope" fallacy.  The AFA presents no argument for why the passage of this bill will inevitably result in the laundry list of doom that they shared in their email.

But the real problem is the message the AFA is sending with their opposition to this bill.  There are plenty of reasons to oppose "hate crimes" legislation, not the least of which is because they are completely ridiculous and redundant, but the opposition here is specifically due to the protections afforded to homosexuals.  If the provisions mentioning sexual orientation were left out of this bill, it wouldn't have ever come to the attention of groups like the AFA.  Apparently, hate crimes are bad and need more severe punishment if they are committed against some groups of people, but not when committed against homosexuals.

Certainly, if presented with this question, groups like the AFA would equivocate, citing instead the creation of "special protections" and "unequal treatment under law."  However, this doesn't change the fact that the message is inconsistent.  It says that people are made in the image of God and have intrinsic value, unless they choose to commit certain particular sins, in which case the gloves come off and they are fair game for the worst life has to offer.  Whatever happened to "hate the sin, love the sinner?"  Events like this make the line between the "mainstream" Christians and the "God-hates-fags" freak show start to get a little blurry, if you ask me.

If you listen to the groups like the AFA, the only important issues in U.S. culture, specifically politics, are the same two hot-button issues, abortion and homosexuality.  These two keep coming up among the more fundamentalist Christian activist groups, but those same groups are strangely silent on the whole wide world of issues that seem appropriate to me as I read my Bible.  Where is the concern for poverty?  Where are the calls to action against hunger?  Where are the Christian voices in the debate on global warming and other environmental issues?  Oh yeah, I forgot - only the "liberal" Christians talk about that stuff.  Apparently, the "true" Christians know that God didn't really mean it when He called for people to take care of the world and the people in it, and He doesn't really hate all sin, just these select few.

I was greatly surprised and encouraged Sunday to hear that churches are beginning to organize against the global slave trade.  Some estimates put the number of slaves at 27 million people world-wide, many of them women and children.  Now there is something worthy of some grassroots lobbying.  Christians are called to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ that frees people from slavery to sin.  How much better is it to free them from physical slavery as well?  I just hope too many of those slaves aren't gay, or they might be left out.