Hello,
First let me say that I came across the video protests of Don Feder, and was well, not impressed with the conduct of those protesting him, nor Feder himself. I understand the frustrations that he was experiencing, but he failed to keep his cool, only causing the fire to ignite further. Just the same, it does not excuse those protesting, as it is pretty clear that this was their intent from the very beginning.
I personally feel that the problem with hate speech laws that people fail to see, is that by definition nearly every act can be considered an act of hate. If we look at what hate speech is, it is any speech designed to degrade an individual based on numerous factors (including sexual orientation, religion, social status, occupation, and ideology). And if we look at the definition of degrade, it can mean to lower one in dignity, or moral.
Under this definition, a pastor could be charged with a hate speech law simply for telling someone who comes to church that he is a sinner. A Republican could be charged with a hate crime for speaking out against a Democrat’s ideology... or the very people protesting, could be charged with a hate speech for speaking against Barack Obama.
And like a snowball going down hill, once you protect one specific class from hate speech, others will start piling up. In the UN recently was a bill to call any speech against Islam hate speech, however, this bill avoided any other religion such as Christianity or Judaism.
Now I do not think that hate speech should be tolerated by those hearing it, but at the same time, by definition these laws are relative to the group(s) we apply them to. In Canada, just recently a pastor was arrested for telling a gay man that homosexuality is a sin, yet he was protested against by many who attacked his religion. The end result, the pastor alone went to jail for hate speech. The very laws designed to protect us, can in fact very quickly turn against us if they are not carefully thought through.
What I find interesting is, that when Hitler refused to let anyone speak against his government, we as Americans found it to be an abomination... yet now we are looking at laws would could snowball into this, in essence removing our freedom of speech.
As a Christian, there are many people who disagree with me, and are more than too happy to use words I dare not repeat in addressing both myself and my beliefs. Being with a black woman, and being a white man, I have dealt with racism on both sides of the fence. Yet, these are the rights constituted to people, the right to their opinion, and the right to express their opinion. I can only imagine if those who struggled to free to slaves and to make interracial marriage had been silenced simply because their opinions were not popular. I can only imagine what would have happened, if their words were outlawed (which happened many times illegally).
Yet with hate speech laws, this is the very thing we are trying to strip people of. The intentions of the laws are good, but the end result of this single snowflake will most likely be a disasterous avalanche.
As I am sure you know, this issue is too important to let die, as our future freedoms depend on hate speech laws failing. If you are ever looking for future speakers, I would be more than happy to come down and address not only those who agree with me, but enjoy dialogue with those who do not.
Keep up the fight for conservative values... it is a fight we are losing, but perhaps we can at least delay what I feel to be the inevitable.
Thank you for your time, and for your efforts.
Sincerely,
Michael Stowe
Simple Devotion Ministries
http://www.simpledevotions.org
