Subject:  Jefferson hated "Hate Crime" legislation
Date:  Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:56:29 -0500
Jefferson hated 'Hate Crime' legislation

By William J. Federer

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55479

"The legislative powers of government reach to actions only, not to
opinions."-Thomas Jefferson, "Separation of church and state" letter,
Jan. 1, 1802

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every
form of tyranny over the mind of man."-Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin
Rush, Sept. 23, 1800

Inasmuch as no one, except perhaps Islamic terrorists, advocates
injuring innocent people, the question has to be raised: "Is 'hate
crime' legislation about preventing crime, or is it designed to
promote the homosexual agenda by silencing opposing viewpoints?"

The current wording of "hate crime" legislation actually commits a
hate crime against those who "think" differently than the State.

Jefferson was against this, as Europe, at the time America was
founded, had established: "Whatever the king believed the kingdom had
to believe."

Not wanting government to dictate their beliefs was a major reason
why religious refugees fled to America.

England established Anglican beliefs, passing the Oath of Supremacy
in 1559 and the Test Act in 1673, which barred all nonconformist
Protestants and Catholics from holding public office.

Today's radical left is establishing a new State-authorized belief, a
new Oath of Supremacy, a new Test Act.

On June 29, 2004, Sweden arrested 63-year-old Pastor Ake Green for
reading Bible verses at church. The prosecuting attorney stated: "One
may have whatever religion one wishes, but this is an attack on all
fronts against homosexuals. Collecting Bible cites on this topic as
he (Pastor Green) does makes this hate speech."

France and Canada fined legislators for voicing opinions that did not
embrace radical homosexuality.

In Boston, the State ordered Catholic Charities to violate their
religious beliefs and place children in gay households or cease all
their adoption operations.

Siding with radical homosexuals are Islamic jihadists who want the
"hate crime" bill passed to muzzle those who expose them. It is, in
essence, the establishment of the "dhimmi" status in the United
States, where Christians and Jews are treated as second-class
citizens before Islamic sharia courts.

Jefferson would be against taxing people to promote a sexual agenda
in which they disbelieved, as he wrote in his Draft For a Bill For
Establishing Religious Freedom, 1779:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the
propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and
tyrannical."

Jefferson would oppose the U.S. Congress coercing with "civil
incapacitations" those who "think" differently than the State, those
who hold traditional American religious beliefs regarding sex and
marriage, as he wrote in his Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty,
Jan. 16, 1786:

"Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested His Supreme
Will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible
of restraints."

"That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or
burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to begat habits of
hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy
Author of religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose
not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty
power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone. ...

"Be it therefore enacted ... that no man ... shall be enforced,
restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall
otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief.

"But that all men shall be free to profess and by argument to
maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same
shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil
capacities."

In light of the Democrat Congress promoting the gay agenda, Jefferson
gave interesting insight in his Draft For A Bill For Establishing
Religious Freedom, 1779:

"The impious presumption of legislators ... being themselves but
fallible ... have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting
up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and
infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others. ...

"Proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying
upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust ... unless
he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion ...

"The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor
under its jurisdiction. ...

"To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field
of opinion ... destroys all religious liberty."

The Danbury Baptist Association complained to Jefferson, Oct. 7,
1801, that the state government of Connecticut established the
Congregational denomination, thus discriminating against the
religious opinions of Baptists:

"Sir ... Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of Religious
Liberty-That Religion is at all times and places a Matter between God
and Individuals-That no man ought to suffer in Name, person or effects
on account of his religious Opinions-That the legitimate Power of
civil Government extends no further than to punish the man who works
ill to his neighbor. ...

Jefferson agreed with the Baptists, Jan. 1, 1802:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely
between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith
or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach
actions only, AND NOT OPINIONS, I contemplate with solemn reverence
that act of the whole American people which declared that their
legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a
wall of separation between Church and State."

Basic Judeo-Christian doctrine as set forth in the Book of Genesis
defines sex as sacred between a man and a woman.

The proposed "hate crime" bill would amount to the U.S. Congress
violating the "wall of separation" by assuming authority over
religious doctrine, something Jefferson's "wall" was intended to
prevent, as he wrote to Samuel Miller, Jan. 23, 1808:

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted
  by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious
institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. ...

"Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume
authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General
government. ...

"I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the
civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its
doctrines. ...

"Every religious society has a right to determine ... their own
particular tenets."

Prior to the Revolution, Jefferson opposed the Intolerable Acts
passed by the British Parliament in 1774, which treated individuals
loyal to the Crown as "more equal" before the administration of
justice than American rebels.

If, as Jefferson penned in the Declaration, "all men are created
equal," then criminals who commit the same crime should be punished
equally, regardless of their victim's sexual preferences.

To punish criminals more based on who the victim is establishes that
all other victims are of less value, unequal.

It is a zero sum equation-to give special rights to one group is to
take rights from another group.

The "hate crime" bill before Congress would amount to a "don't ask
don't tell policy" for those of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs.

The radical gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered agenda is to not
only come out of the closet, but to push Christians into it. They
want to commit the crime on others that they have accused others of
having committed against them.

Jefferson would have hated a "hate crime" bill where the legislative
powers of government censored people who held traditional
Judeo-Christian religious opinions regarding sex.

Could it be that the real hate crime is about to be committed by the
radical left against those who hold traditional American values?

President Reagan asked the Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, Aug. 23,
1984:

"The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim
they are doing it in the name of tolerance. ... Question: Isn't the
real truth that they are intolerant of religion?"

--

Get Federer's "America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations"
at www.AmericanMinute.com <http://www.americanminute.com/

--

William J. Federer is a best-selling author, former U.S.
congressional candidate and president of Amerisearch, Inc. A frequent
radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast
nationally via radio, television, and Internet.

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