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Christians Charged with Hate Crimes

By Susan Brinkmann

This Rock Volume 16, Number 7   September 2005     Frontispiece By Karl Keating   Letters   Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Reader Discretion Advised) By Susan Brinkmann   Kinsey's Stranglehold on Sex Education By Susan Brinkmann   Post-Kinsey Sex Crimes By Susan Brinkmann   Christians Charged with Hate Crimes By Susan Brinkmann   My Friend the Holy Father By Tom Harmon   The Coming Hispanic Majority By Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda   Hispanic Numbers at a Glance Source: www.usccb.org/hispanicaffairs/demo.shtml   Model of Faith By Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda   A Parish Transformed By Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda   Spanish Products By Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda   Are We Dunghills or Fertile Soil? By Mike Sullivan   Where Luther Got It Wrong By Mike Sullivan   Effects of Original Sin By Mike Sullivan   Step by Step Marriage and Divorce in the Teaching of Jesus By Kenneth J. Howell   Fathers Know Best Contraception and Sterilization   Brass Tacks What Is Heaven Really Like? By Jimmy Akin   Damascus Road Obedience to the Pope Was What He Wanted By Joanna Bogle   Reviews   Quick Questions    Subscribe    Permissions

Philadelphia, 2004: Five members of the Christian group Repent America are arrested and charged with hate crimes for preaching the gospel at a gay "outfest" event. Charges were dropped only after lawmakers threatened to change the wording of the hate crimes law specifically to exclude speech (Family Research Council, Culture Facts, Jan. 2005).

Saskatchewan, 2000: A complaint was filed in Canada regarding an advertisement run in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that displayed Bible verses against homosexuality. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission recommended that the individuals who purchased the ad pay $2,000 in damages to each of the three complainants and that the defendants share the $4,500 cost for the government’s expert witnesses. The ruling was upheld by a Canadian court (Free Republic Online, Sep. 2003).

England, 2001: A broadcaster in the United Kingdom known as the "God Channel" was fined 20,000 pounds stirling (about $36,000) for an ad that described homosexuality as an abomination. The Communications Commission ruled that the ad violated several provisions of the advertising code and fined the broadcaster (National Liberty Council, NLJ Online, Dec. 2000/Jan. 2001).

Sweden, 2003: Pastor Aake Green, a Pentecostal minister in Oeland, Sweden, was convicted in 2003 under Sweden’s hate-crimes laws and was sent to jail for thirty days for calling homosexuality "a deep cancer tumor on all of society" during a sermon (Family Research Council, Culture Facts, Mar. 2005).

Netherlands, 2000: A complaint was filed in a Dutch court against Pope John Paul II for his statement that "homosexual acts are contrary to the laws of nature." The complaint was dropped when the court ruled that the Pope’s status as a leader of the Catholic Church and the Vatican state afforded him immunity from prosecution (National Liberty Council, NLJ Online, Dec. 2000/Jan. 2001).