The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Biblical speech opposing gay behaviour, including in written form, is essentially a hate crime.
On Wednesday, the court upheld the conviction of activist William Whatcott, who found himself in hot water after distributing flyers regarding the Bible’s prohibitions against gay people throughout the Saskatoon and Regina neighborhoods in 2001 and 2002.
“The Bible is clear that gay people are an abomination,” one flyer that was found to be in violation stated, citing 1 Corinthians 6:9. “Scripture records that Sodom and Gomorrah was given over completely to gay perversion and as a result destroyed by God’s wrath.”
Another flyer, entitled Keep gays Out of Saskatoon’s Public Schools, was written in response to the recommendation of the Saskatoon School Board that gay people be included in school curriculum. The Supreme Court declared the document to be unlawful because it called the gay acts that would be taught to children “filthy,” and contended that children are more interested in playing Ken and Barbie than “learning how wonderful it is for two men to have sex each other.” The justices ruled that because the use of the word “sodomy” only referred to “two men” and not also the sex acts of heterosexuals, it was a direct target against a specific group of people.
Hmmm, how would Jesus feel about his words called “hate crimes”?
Whatcott had distributed the flyers over a decade ago to raise awareness of his concerns about both the homosexual parades in Canada, as well as the vulnerability of children in a culture that promotes homosexuality. However, when Canada’s Human Rights Commission found out about the matter, they took him to court, citing him with a hate crime.
The Supreme Court noted in its opinion, among other concerns, that Whatcott’s use of the Bible to target homosexuals was a problem.
“[Whatcott’s] expression portrays the targeted group as a menace that could threaten the safety and well-being of others, makes reference to respected sources (in this case the Bible) to lend credibility to the negative generalizations, and uses vilifying and derogatory representations to create a tone of hatred,” the panel ruled on Wednesday.
It pointed back to the lower court ruling, which asserted, “While the courts cannot be drawn into the business of attempting to authoritatively interpret sacred texts such as the Bible, those texts will typically have characteristics which cannot be ignored if they are to be properly assessed in relation to … the [Hate Crimes] Code.”
Do you feel that the court’s ruling was right or are they overreaching their boundaries?
[ChristianNews]