Hate Speech vs. The Church
June 9, 2009One of my blog friends asked me about the newer hate speech bill passed and how it will affect the church, as the democrats were the ones who passed it (I flew my democrat flag pretty high during the elections). I’ve been thinking about this for some time. In fact, check the date on his blog here and you’ll see how long (and what I am talking about).
I guess the gist of the Hate Speech Bill is that any speech against Gays will be a federal hate crime. If this is true then pastors speaking out against homosexuality are fearful that they could be arrested for their sermons on the abominations of homosexual behaviors.
In a nutshell here are my two cents that took me forever to come up with:
What about all the sermons that are blatantly against other religions? The sermons that speak out against Islam post 9/11? What are we to do with these sermons? Are these not as bad as sermons against homosexuality? These types of sermons are still going on as well. Therefore, I don’t believe that we will see any pastors being arrested in the near future. Unless there is some kind of dramatic reaction from the church (i.e. violence), this bill is being blown out of proportion and will probably just be something that we will recieve as spam from our friends in our emails.
my prayer as a Christian, and a pastor for the moment, is that we would find ways of speaking into this issue without using anything that would even remotely look like hate. Surely the God who saw something in those people and died for them could allow us to be moved by the same love, to learn to value the same beauty in them, and without anything even near hate to call them to reconciliation with Jesus. I am not sure what good condemning or hating really does anyway.
I agree kurt. I hope we can all be sensitive. However, just hoping this will not happen is a little naive. This passage of legislation is frightfully similar to the one in Sweden, Canada and a few other countries. And Ake Green, a Pentecostal pastor in Sweden has already spent 1 month in jail after being convicted of this “hate-crime”. His sermon even ended with “What these people need, who live under the slavery of sexual immorality, is an abundant grace. It exists. Therefore we will encourage those who live in this manner to look at the grace of Jesus Christ. We cannot condemn these people. Jesus never belittled anyone. He offered them grace.”
So even stating that Jesus gives grace and that we “cannot condemn these people” (which sounds like the love, beauty and reconciliation to me) still ended in a conviction.
As a pastor… I’m greatly concerned.
fahrenheit 451
As a christian I have a hard time coming to terms with other christians saying there is “hate” being put out in a sermon or message. This totally goes against everything Jesus taught while on the Earth and all in which He died for. The Bible tells us that homosexuality is sinful, along with killing another human, lust, greed, adultry, stealing, etc… but we need not HATE the people who do these things. In fact, it should be just the opposite. We should show love and compassion to these people. We can and should hate the sin, but not the people. Christians need to inform, teach, pray for them, invite, befriend, and hopefully they may see how what they do is in fact against the teachings of Christ. Kevin, I understand your concern also, but Christ has said we shall suffer in His name. It’s not a free ride, but a free spirituality and relationship. Prepare by Prayer.