Hate crimes have a long history. Followers of Christ living under the Caesars were victims of torture and death. So were Jews under the Third Reich, Native Americans in the land of their birth, and Africans who were kidnapped, sold into slavery, used, bred, and traded like domestic animals.
By nature, hate crimes are contrary to everything Christ stands for.
So, once again, why have some followers of Christ taken a public stand against attempts to strengthen the punishment for violent hate crimes?
I’m discovering there are several reasons. Some point out that violent crimes are already illegal. Others fear that laws against “hate crimes” will eventually be expanded to include a definition of “hate speech” as well. This, some believe, will eventually lead to certain groups of people using “hate speech” laws as a cover for their immoral choices. Voices for truth will be silenced.
With such concerns in mind, congressional sponsors of current hate crime legislation claim that their bill only applies to bias-motivated violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any way. They point out that their measure “includes an explicit First Amendment free speech protection for the accused modeled on the existing Washington state hate crimes statute.”
But even if I join others in suspecting that constitutional protections for free speech will eventually crumble, questions remain for me. What has happened that we are willing to risk misunderstanding and harm to the name of Christ because we are afraid of being accused of hate speech? Why wouldn’t we use the occasion to remind ourselves, that when addressing difficult truths of the Bible, we need to lean over backwards to make it clear that we are speaking with a motive and manner of love, mercy, and humility? Why wouldn’t we be reminding one another that it as hurtful to the reputation of Christ to speak truth without grace in his Name as it is to speak grace without truth in his Name?
But someone says, what about those groups who are quick to claim a violation of their civil rights if anyone speaks out against their behavior? What about those members of the homosexual community who are quick to ask for legal protection if anyone speaks out against certain same sex behaviors? Doesn’t the Bible itself speak against such behaviors?
Yes, the Apostle Paul wrote about the sin of homosexuality. His point, however, is often missed. While describing the self-destructive results of same-sex behaviors, he described, at the same time, a whole list of other behaviors that touch all of us. With the same pen he included greed, and envy, and strife, and malice. He wrote about the depravity of deceit and envy, gossip and slander, arrogance and self-congratulations. He wrote about our shared slide into senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless thoughts and actions (Rom 1:29-32).
Yet a chapter division at this point has caused many of us to miss the whole point of what Paul was saying. His next inspired words were, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Rom 2:1). Paul then goes on to write about the law of God that, whether written in stone or conscience, will judge all who commit any of these sins.
When read in context, these are some of the most honest, loving, Christ-centered words ever written. Paul didn’t minimize the seriousness of any sin. But neither did he target any one group for hatred. Paul’s point in his letter to the Romans was just the opposite. All of us are sinners. All of us need to know and accept what Christ has done for us.
If we are going to be motivated by fear, shouldn’t we be far more afraid of the kind of self-righteous hypocrisy that Paul writes about in his 2nd chapter? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about misrepresenting Christ than we are of being persecuted for lovingly and mercifully speaking the truth? Shouldn’t we be most afraid of breaking ranks with the One who said, he did not come to condemn, but to rescue?
Jesus never encouraged any sin. Yet he never spoke against wrong without love. Even his famous “woes” against the Pharisees are often misunderstood. A woe is a lament– not a condemnation.
So now, what are you thinking?
Am I creating a “straw man” argument that misses the point of the wide spread resistance to hate crime laws?
Do you think it is possible to be an outspoken critic of hate crime law without doing more harm than good?
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