The Slippery Slope Can Slant the Other Way

Tony Perkins’ (Family Research Council) latest alarm about
hate crimes legislation:

Britain's ruling Labor Party government has announced plans to introduce a new "hate crimes" law that would result in jail terms of up to seven years (more than the average penalty for rape) for "incitement to hatred" against homosexuals. The law is not limited to people who commit violent acts or incite violence, but the Justice Ministry claims the law "would not prohibit criticism of gay, lesbian and bisexual people" -- as long as it done in a "temperate way," said one homosexual activist. … Colin Hart of the U.K.'s Christian Institute put it bluntly: "A homophobic hatred law would be used by those with an axe to grind against Christians to silence them." …Although the "hate crimes" bill which the U.S. Senate recently attached to a defense bill is ostensibly limited only to acts causing "bodily injury," the situation in Britain perfectly illustrates the slippery slope such laws would set us upon. Congress should oppose, or President Bush should veto, any bill that adds "sexual orientation" to federal hate crimes law.

“…an axe to grind against Christians to silence them.” But, that theory could never apply here, Tony, since we’re such a Christian country founded on Judeo-Christian principles! Gasp!

I checked on the U.K.’s Christian Institute and I noted that while Colin Hart looked as if he had just scrubbed his face with Mop ‘N Glow, Tony Perkins still has him beat in the “I-look-like-a-choirboy”* department.

Now, Tony, let’s go back about, oh, 1600 years: a Christian mob dragged the great mathematician Hypatia from her chariot, dragged her to what had been the Great Library of Alexandria (the one they’d burned down twenty years earlier for not having enough Christian books), took sharp oyster shells and flayed her alive in front of her students. That same mob, by the way, was slightly encouraged by the local bishop, Theopholis (who supposedly headed up a kind of ecclesiastical mafia) and was acting on the “slippery slope” started by the Roman Emperor Theodotius when he declared paganism a crime.

So, Tony, it seems the slippery slope can go both ways. BTW: were any of Hypatia’s murderers put in jail?

*”…and I’m a protégé of God himself, um, I mean Pat Robertson.”