Witnesses named in Senate hate-crime hearing

Guess which side each person will take on 'Pedophile Protection Act'

Posted: June 25, 2009
12:00 am Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced its selection of six witnesses to testify in tomorrow's hearing on the "hate crimes" plan – and the list has many guessing which side the witnesses will take.

A witness list has been posted on the Senate Judiciary Committee website. The following people will testify in a hearing entitled "The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009" at 10 a.m. Thursday:

Attorney General Eric Holder – Holder has publicly expressed support for hate crimes legislation. "If there was ever a doubt about the need for this legislation, I think that has been pretty much done away with by the events that we've seen in our nation here in Washington, D.C." and elsewhere, he said this month in a hearing. "I think the time is right, the time is now for the passage of this legislation."

Janet Langhart Cohen – Wife of former Sec. of Defense William Cohen, Janet wrote a play titled "Anne and Emmett" that deals with eradicating hate crimes. It includes an imaginary conversation between Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Emmett Till, a black man lynched in Mississippi during the 1950s. The play was canceled after the recent shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She told ABC News that the shooting shows "hate still lives."

Mark Achtemeier – Theology professor from Dubuque Theological Seminary. An article in The Layman alleged he made homosexual-friendly statements to his class, but Achtemeier called the allegations "categorically false."

Gail Heriot – Commissioner for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Heriot has signed a letter urging House representatives to vote against the hate-crimes legislation.

Brian W. Walsh – Senior Legal Research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, Walsh has expressed opposition to the hate bill, claiming it would "actually be counterproductive to prosecuting violent crime."

Michael Lieberman – Washington counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, Lieberman has written about and fought for federal hate-crimes legislation for years. He has participated in seminars and workshops on violent bigotry and served on advisory boards for hate crime projects, according to "Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls. and Controversies."

As WND reported, a special Fed Ex campaign to warn U.S. Senate members of the dangers of the "hate crimes" plan dispatched more than 705,000 letters to senators.

The letter-writing effort was organized by WND columnist Janet Porter, who also heads the Faith2Action Christian ministry. It allowed citizens to send individually addressed letters to all 100 senators over their own "signature" for only $10.95.

Joseph Farah, WND founder and editor, said, "We don't know of any campaign in history that can document more letters going to all U.S. senators than this one.

"If somebody knows of one, please tell me. Win or lose, this was a unique effort and certainly won't be the last of its kind," he said.

WND has also reported, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 would provide special protections to homosexuals, essentially designating them as a "protected class." However, it could leave Christian ministers open to prosecution should their teachings be linked to any subsequent offense, by anyone, against a homosexual person.

Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention, has said such a law – by definition – requires judges to determine what those accused of crimes were thinking.

"This could create a chilling effect on religious speech, connecting innocent expression of religious belief to acts of violence against individuals afforded special protections," he wrote. "The criminalization of religious speech, such as speech against the practice of homosexuality, has already been seen in other countries with similar hate crimes legislation in place."

Here's the outline of why Christians are being silenced across America. Get it now!

Radio talk icon Rush Limbaugh has also warned his audience about the advancing threat of "hate crimes" laws.

"Some people are going to be put in jail for things that they say," he said. "Hate crime legislation. That's where they determine what's in your mind when you commit a crime. That's when they decide what you were thinking … If you were thinking unapproved thoughts, that would make the crime you committed even worse."

President Obama, supported strongly during his campaign by homosexual advocates, has indicated that he would like to see the legislation become law.

"I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance," he said.

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