Last week I wrote about the Obama agenda that includes federal "hate crimes" legislation (H.R. 256 and H.R. 262) aimed at silencing our freedom of speech. It's no longer conjecture – there are now so many cases where this has been applied, I couldn't even list them all. I left out people like:
- Pastor Mark Harding who was sentenced to 340 hours of "community service" at the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, Ontario, for the "hate crime" of speaking out against the Quran being handed out in public schools there;
- The two evangelical pastors were charged with violating the State of Victoria's "hate crimes" laws last year for criticizing Islam in Australia;
- Northern Ireland's "first lady," Iris Robinson, who is being investigated for hate crimes because she spoke out against homosexual behavior – suggesting a Christian psychiatrist who could help – on the BBC;
- The Catholic priest in Canada who is now being investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for the "hate crime" of citing biblical passages in the public debate over same-sex marriage;
- The Catholic city councilor who was fined $1,000 for publicly stating that a gay couple's lifestyle was "not normal and not natural";
- The Mayor of Ontario who was fined $10,000 for not "celebrating" a "gay pride" weekend;
- The French member of parliament who was fined the equivalent of $10,000 for speaking against the homosexual agenda;
- The 16-year-olds who were charged with felonies in Chicago for handing out flyers that criticized homosexuality; and
- Those arrested for sharing their faith at homosexual events in St. Petersburg, Atlanta and Emiro, N.Y. – where seven Christians were told by police: "You're not going to enter the park and you're not going to share your religion with anybody in this park."
But you think you're safe, because you're not printing up flyers or out sharing your faith on the public sidewalk? Think again. If you own a business or have a job, Obama's homosexual agenda is now targeting you. The next attack listed on the official White House website is:
Fight Workplace Discrimination: President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or "ENDA" is "hate crimes" – or more accurately, "thought crimes" – for the workplace. It means the "ENDA" freedom of speech, the "ENDA" freedom of religion, the "ENDA" freedom of association and the "ENDA" freedom of conscience.
It's what targeted people like Tim Bono of Virginia. Bono owns a motion picture film lab and came under fire from the Arlington, Va., Human Rights Commission because he refused to duplicate objectionable, pro-homosexual material. He asked a question at the Values Voter Presidential Debate to the seven candidate's who attended: "If elected president, would you protect business owners like me from being forced to violate our moral conscience by vetoing the so-called 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' and any other legislation that would add the phrase 'sexual orientation' into federal law?"
Regretfully, Obama's answer is a resounding "no." He not only won't protect businessmen like Tim Bono from the homosexual agenda, he will personally make sure that all businesses endorse, embrace and subsidize this radical agenda no matter what their beliefs.
Like the photographer in New Mexico who was fined $6,600 for refusing to take pictures at a homosexual's "commitment ceremony." Get this – homosexual "marriage" isn't legal there, but the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission still fined this photographer nearly $7,000 for turning down business he couldn't in good conscience take.
But maybe you don't duplicate movies, or take pictures. You don't want to become an activist; you just want to be left alone to operate your business. That's how Scott Brockie must have felt with his print shop in Canada … just before he was fined $5,000 and slapped with $170,000 in legal fees because he didn't want to print radical homosexual materials.
Or the Catholic Knights of Columbus in Canada, who were fined $1,000 for not renting their facilities to host a homosexual "marriage" reception. Or the Christian Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in New Jersey, which was found "guilty of discrimination" for standing by their beliefs instead of renting their facilities to a homosexual couple who wanted to use the Christian camp for their same-sex union in March 2007.
You're thinking you don't need to speak up against this radical agenda, because maybe your focus is helping children. That must have been what Catholic Charities in Massachusetts thought. They were the largest and most respected adoption agency in Boston, and there was a reason. They wanted to make sure the best interests of the children were served. That's why they placed those innocent children with a mom and a dad rather than with homosexual activists. And when the law sought to bring an "ENDA" their freedom to put the well-being of children first, they closed their doors. Yes, rather than be forced to place vulnerable children in the homes of homosexual activists, they went out of business.
With the judicial activists' legalization of homosexual "marriage," the radical agenda of the homosexual activists is now in high gear in Massachusetts where civil service workers are forced to perform homosexual "marriage" ceremonies or be fired. That little gem was enforced by none other than the pseudo-conservative, Gov. Mitt Romney.
And that is why the vote for Proposition 8 in California was so vital. Clerks there, like Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett, announced that their offices would stop performing all weddings rather than be forced to preside over homosexual "marriages." Had the marriage amendment lost in California, the homosexual agenda would have affected more than county clerks.
It would have affected lawyers like it already has in Massachusetts. If you refuse to answer the homosexual "marriage" questions that are now on the Massachusetts Bar Exam, they will fail you. So much for practicing law. They have also forced all insurance providers to cover homosexual "marriages."
If freedom of speech (and freedom of religion) matters to you, now would be a good time to use that freedom before it's ripped away. Call those who claim to represent you at 202-224-3121 and tell them to stop the radical "thought crimes" legislation (H.R. 256 and H.R. 262), and "thought crimes" for the workplace: the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act," which would put and ENDA to our freedoms and put Christian and pro-family business owners out of business.
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