Christians claim hate crimes law an effort to ‘eradicate’ their beliefs

i don't get it, the christians i have been privileged to know oppose hate in any form.

One needs to look back in history of evils that were done in the name of God. The killings of innocent people during the Crusades. The years of the Inquistion when one was put to death for right to Think. The use of force upon the Indians to make them all good Christians.

The use of religion in the by the GOP God's Only Party. Get sick of hearign that only true Christians vote Republican.

If only that were true, I would actually have a reason to support hate crime legislation.

Also, just so everybody realizes, the group does not want to make it legal to beat up gay people. A hate crime is a charge filed along with the actual crime. They think it is unfair that if a person like me beats up a gay person I (hopefully) will only get charged with assault, while if a person of their group, which has very strong anti-gay views, would get charged with assault and a hate crime.

I do not support hate crime legislation. If I drag a teabagger or a Bernie Madoff behind my truck then I should have the same punishment as someone who drags a homosexual or a minority. You can't categorize hate. There are too many different kinds.

We need to start treating violence a little more seriously to begin with, and immediately educate when bigotry rears its ugly head. Both are far too acceptable in our society to begin with.

Good illustration of my point , kurthsb27 . Those who hurt others are NOT doing it out of some spiritual center . They are centered in base impulses , fear and rage , that are destructive in and to nature .

how about i go around and beat the shit out of some Christians i mean its only fair, right? cause there not even people there like little morons with a god complex.

Religious activists who seek out attention however they accomplish it seek a platform from which to espouse their views under constitutional guarentee. Most of what they say is an afront to many individuals and the activists themselves are a distinct minority. The claim of persecution by religious groups by anyone or any group is an attempt to redirect attention from their own misgivings and hypocracy. The intolerance of religion and its followers is a constant through history no person can deny. I do believe we as a nation should pass laws where no person in the name of their religious belief can sponser any bill where its blatantly obvious of their intent. It is time for our legislative representitives to end the influence of religion on political decisions and base their decisions on logic, we'd be much better off.

why should anyone else have rights?

I would agree with danitassin is seems the only group of conservatives you hear on TV or news of any kind are the extremist type I’m a liberal atheist but that is a personal choice and not an assault on Christians in general the religious and conservative movement is facing a real problem much like liberals in the 60s small but loud extremist groups go out and do or say crazy violent things and they are made the spokesman for an entire movement this happened in the 90s the right leaning groups and it is happening again I can sympathize as a liberal progressive people like glen beck go out and make bs accusations that we are associated with Nazis and hard core communist and socialist and are behind the holocaust miss construing neo liberal interventionist policies with liberal progressive policies much like a Baptist church and say the Westborough Baptist church who like to protest funerals for fallen soldiers Jewish synagogues and funerals for hate crimes victims like Mathew shepherd its only in name that these groups are alike

They said the same thing about the civil rights laws just look at the KKK groups and their entire thing was equal rights is an assault on white Christians. Many white Christians have found this to be not case at all. if after the civil rights act we still have kkk and neo Nazi groups still exist having speeches and crying a whining about blacks and Mexicans such as myself being mean am sure the Christians will still be allowed to hate people like gays, Jews, blacks, non-Christians, pagans, feminist, abortionist just like Jesus told them in the bible you know before liberal Jews in the holy land rewrote in all this peace and love nonsense

So... in the same sense that we should just let this group of Christians kill gays because it's their "religious freedom" on the line... do you think that they would agree that we should let Muslims kill infidels (which is basically, all people who are not Muslim) because it's part of their "religious freedom?" We should just let terrorist attacks happen?

jesus would be so proud.

I would like to see a clear line drawn . Between a religion (personal imaginary friends) , and criminal insanity (Harming another person) .

Knowing your own rights is also knowing the rights of others.

God these extremist Christians need to stop with their whinings of victimhood. They will be considered to be persecuted when we start feeding them to the lions. Which shall commence shortly.

Stereotypes are stereotypes no matter who they're directed toward.
For instance if someone is hanging around a bunch of druggies, most will think they're a druggy as well. It's how things work, guilt by association. It sucks, but it's true. All the "good" christians can do, is stand up to those who give them a bad name. Don't let them win this arguement. That's how you change the stereotype. Don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in. The ones with the wrong agenda seem to be the only ones with balls enough to do it. If that's not who you are then lead by example.

does any one really believe that this post is a good indication of what real christians believe.i hope not because that in its self would almost be a joke

All these "Christians are haters" comments are pretty brutal. Not every Christian is like this! Hate crimes are NOT Christ-like! I'm a firm believer in the teachings of Jesus but also believe it's not my place to tell someone who they are allowed to love! This group of people trying to stop hate crime laws from coming into effect have absolutely misconstrued the whole WWJD in my opinion. Matthew Shepard should be a lesson in intolerance to all! My point is not all of us are out to get "the gays", some really do care, understand, and struggle with you!!

I would like anyone here on this site to quote where Jesus orders Christians to condemn and murder homosexuals. I challenge all of you right wing Christians to justify this political lawsuit with Jesus own words.

These Christian koo-koo clocks need to get a life. It's not just gays that think they're all nuts, many of their own in the heterosexual communities thinks they're all crazy too

Without religion, christianity especially, the world would be a better place. Plain and simple. This is how I feel.

Ever since Constantine made Rome a Christian state there has been nothing but blood shed. Their leader said when faced with violence to turn the other cheek. They took it to mean if you offer the right we will kill the left. The moment they established the rules their flock were to follow nothing but blood shed, FIrst the pagans then the various sects of Christianity, along comes their Inquisition taking out more Christians who don't follow the Vatican, Jews who won't denounce their faith then the Muslims. Running out of heretics they turn their attention to witchcraft. Never mind that inside the Vatican popes were being killed by their replacements or that they strayed from Vatican teachings or used astrology to determine what to do,to putting a cadaver on trial to overlooking the mass murder of a people. Now they are being targeted. Bullshit it is just another play in their book to deprive people of their rights. The world would of been a better place without them.

There is an old saying from the civil rights movement that applies in this case. "You can not pass a law to make any man love me, but you can pass a law to prevent a man's hatred from taking my life."

I, personally, take offense at overly-religious types who are misinterpreting the bible and holding back the development of all mankind (evolution is REAL... but that doesn't disprove god. Grow a brain, tool boxes!). You could almost say it's my "religion" to rise above that intolerant mindset... So as someone opposed to the closed-minded beliefs of Christian zealots... by that logic it's well within my religious expression "rights" to burn a church, right?

That makes sense. They can have hate crimes as long as it's okay for me to torch the house of a god that would allow that kind of hate/stupidity/ignorance to exist.

Fair, right?

They would prefer to have hate enshrined in law to make them feel better about their intolerance and malignancy. Shame on these Christians who support this kind of thinking.

Religous freedom doesn't include religous oppression and intolerance.

Add a comment (You can paste links too)I understand the "Christian Fundamentalist's" argument, even though I completely disagree with it. The justification used is similar, but not as extreme as the logic used to justify the original language of the constitution. If I am not mistaken, which I could be, the original language defined those who where descendant from the African continent as 1/5 of one "white". male who was also a landowner. Meaning it would take five Men with African heritage, to make one "complete" Anglo-Saxon male. The mentality is just a way to create an society with an inherit inequality, a comparison would be like the Aristocracy versus the "commoners/pheasants" of Old Europe. I believe that any level of discrimination will always cause suffering. People can have their beliefs, as they are entitled to them, but I do have one basic question. If the "Christian" god is nothing but love, why does he teach and preach so much hate?

How dare we infringe upon their right to infringe upon other people's rights?!

At least they're being honest.

Another media fail. This is the type of lawsuit that would be laughed out of court if the MSM was telling the people the whole truth. Instead they feed on the frenzy created by their lies. (Cuss and spit)