Here’s ‘change’: End of free speech

By Janet Porter

You voted for Barack Obama? In the next few weeks in my column, you can take a look at the “change” you’ve ushered in.

The unprecedented attack on democracy and capitalism: The $787 billion socialist spending bill and the biggest deficit in world history ushered in by Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress (including Sens. Arlen Specter, RINO, Pa., Susan Collins, RINO, Maine, and Olympia Snow, RINO, Maine, was rushed through Congress without anyone having read it.

I’ve written the last few weeks about this heinous bill and the billions it includes to fund everything from ACORN’s voter fraud to a government takeover of health care – complete with rationing. I could write more, but then I wouldn’t be able to tell you about all the other attacks that are already in the works.

The unprecedented attack on our freedom: Through the official White House website, Obama has announced what’s coming next. Brace yourself for the unprecedented attack on our freedoms wrapped in rhetoric of “civil rights.” “Support for the LGBT Community” – that’s the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, ie, cross-dressing community. And with it, the silencing of those who don’t embrace their agenda.

Listed first is: “Expand hate crimes statutes.” What does that mean?

Two bills are already in the House Judiciary Committee: H.R.256 and H.R.262. We’ve been lead to believe it’s about crime, but there are already laws against crime. This thing is about speech. Don’t believe me? Rep. (and former judge) Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pointed out in the House Judiciary Committee the bill “is going to put pastors in prison.” Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, Section 2 (a) reads:

(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal. – 18 USC Sec. 2

That means if you “counsel someone,” or write a book, or read from the Bible (such as what Obama says is an “obscure” passage in the first chapter of Romans), you could be found guilty of “inducing” someone to commit a crime.

The Homosexual Triangle Foundation’s executive director, Jeff Montgomery, told the Saginaw News back in April 2005: “Vocal anti-gay activists should be held accountable as accessories to these crimes because, many times, it is their rhetoric that led the perpetrators to believe their crimes are OK.”

That’s the same thing the San Francisco Board of Supervisors said back in 1998 when we ran the “Truth in Love Campaign” featuring ex-homosexuals expressing hope for change:

It’s not an exaggeration to say that there’s a direct correlation between these acts of discrimination, like Matthew Shepard, such as when gays and lesbians are called sinful, and when major religious organizations say they can change if they try, and the horrible crimes committed against gays and lesbians.

By the way, despite the massive effort to make Matthew Shepard the poster child for hate crimes (with more than 13,500 total news stories, not including the massive TV coverage and two major Hollywood specials), according to the killers, Shepard wasn’t killed because he was a homosexual; he was killed for money to buy drugs.

But whatever case they can exploit to silence free speech, they will.

Testifying at a hate-crime hearing in 2007 pushing for this speech-limiting bill was none other than Eric Holder, the gun-control zealot that was just confirmed as our new attorney general. I remember Eric Holder. I met with him when he was the right hand of another attorney general: Janet Reno. Brace yourself for the kind of policies we saw when Holder was just a deputy attorney general. I wrote about it in my book, “The Criminalization of Christianity.” Take a look at what we can expect to see with the funding included in these new bills based on what Reno-Holder did the last time they headed up the Department of Justice:

The West Virginia Hate Crimes Task Force made use of the “National Hate Crimes Training Curricula” in police training centers at selected colleges and universities who receive grants from the U.S. Department of Justice’s division called COPS, Community Oriented Policing Services. The federal grants fund faculty and staff to conduct these “hate crimes” classes and refer to the state-based training functions as Regional Community Policing Institutes (RCPIs).

Even more disturbing are descriptions of typical offenders. Types of bias crime perpetrators for police to watch for includes the “mission” offender. This person “believes he has been instructed by a higher order (God, the Fuhrer, …)” (p. 20). Of course the belief in God and a “higher order” is as suspect as those who would placing their beliefs in the Fuhrer. You can see why they would be parallel suspects.

The manual also identifies “homophobia” as one of the identifying characteristics to spot “hate groups.” These suspect groups also “include apocalyptic Christianity in their ideology and believe we are in, or approaching, a period of violence and social turmoil which will precede the Second Coming of Christ” (p.22). If you are a Christian who believes what the Bible has to say about homosexual behavior, you’re a suspect. If you’ve noticed that reading the paper is strikingly similar to reading the book of Revelation, you are also on a police “most wanted list” of potential criminals.

Hate-crimes legislation meant nearly two years in jail for Germany’s Johannes Lerle: Eight months in jail for referring to abortionists as “professional killers” and one year in jail for comparing Germany’s 150,000-abortion rate to Auschwitz. It sent grandmothers to jail for proclaiming the Gospel on the streets of Philadelphia. Canadian Pastor Stephen Boisson was ordered to renounce his faith, banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for “damages for pain and suffering” of homosexuals who claimed to be offended.

The Amsterdam Court of Appeals ordered that Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament and maker of the film “Fitna,” be prosecuted for “incitement to hatred and discrimination” for speaking out against terrorism.

Last week, the United Kingdom refused Geert Wilders admission into the country. He had been invited to show his film – which links the Islamic holy book to terrorism – in the UK’s House of Lords.

By the way, Wilders said, “The film isn’t offensive unless you are a violent Islamist. Most of my Muslim friends think it’s a very good film.”

England wants to make speech violators against the homosexual agenda serve a seven-year jail sentence – while rapists there serve an average of five years. That’s where hate crimes lead.

California’s hate-crime bill, S.B. 1234, was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Sept. 22, 2004. The law creates a new hate-crime training requirement for law enforcement called “multimission criminal extremism.” In addition to those categories already considered for special punishment under the term “hate crimes,” the new multimission criminal extremism training adds “anti-reproductive-rights crimes.”

This “hate-crimes law” also expands “crimes” to include “speech” interpreted as “threats, intimidation and coercion.” As long as a “victim” claims the speech makes them “feel” “intimidated,” violators will be liable to penalties of $10,000-$25,000 and a year in jail.

First we got socialism. Now Obama is pushing for “hate-crimes legislation” that will send us to jail for expressing biblical beliefs. Still glad you voted for him?

 


Janet Porter

Janet Porter is president of Faith2Action*: turning people of faith into people of action to WIN the cultural war TOGETHER for life, liberty and the family. Porter is the architect of the pro-life Heartbeat Bill, which has been passed in 10 states. The author of six books, she hosts a daily radio program and a daily radio commentary heard in over 300 markets and at www.f2a.org. * Title and affiliation for identification purposes only. Read more of Janet Porter's articles here.