- Allan Carlson, president of the World Congress of Families,
warned that making homosexuals a protected class for civil rights purposes
could threaten free speech and is a subtle attack on the natural family.
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- ROCKFORD, IL (Christian
Wire Service) -- In September, for the first time, the House of Representatives
voted to add "sexual orientation" to federal hate-crimes law.
A companion bill is pending in the Senate, which has passed similar legislation
before. Observers believe this measure soon will be approved by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, paving the way for a Senate vote shortly thereafter.
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- Carlson noted that in both Canada and Sweden similar
laws have been used to punish expression. In Sweden, in 2004, Pentecostal
Pastor Ake Green was sent to prison for a month for a 2003 sermon in which
he described homosexual acts as "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor
in the body of society." The Christian Democratic government of Slovakia
formally protested Green's imprisonment.
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- In the Canadian province of Alberta, Rev. Stephen Boissoin
is being threatened with thousands of dollars in fines by the province's
Human Rights Tribunal, for writing a letter to the editor decrying public
school indoctrination in favor of the gay lifestyle.
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- Said Carlson: "While it's presented to the public
as a way to stop physical attacks on gays, adding so-called sexual orientation
to existing hate-crimes law could be used to crush dissent. After all,
gay activists have told us repeatedly that objections to homosexuality
spawn anti-gay violence. It then becomes a short step from adding an extra
punishment for physical acts to penalizing controversial views."
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- In the past, hate-crimes laws have been based on race,
religion, ethnicity or sex - mostly immutable characteristics. If homosexuals
are added to federal law here, for the first time a protected class would
be designated solely on the basis of sexual behavior."
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- Said Carlson, "Homosexuality isn't biologically
determined. The much-touted search for a 'gay gene' of several years back
has elicited no scientific evidence. While everyone's rights should be
protected, and physical attacks on individuals should always be punished,
the purpose of adding gays to hate-crimes laws is to suppress dissent and
legitimize conduct which all of the world's great religions view as immoral."
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- Carlson added that civil-rights laws for gays will promote
curricula which seek to indoctrinate children in the view that all forms
of sexual expression are equally valid. "But the future of society
and civilization is based exclusively on one relationship - the monogamous
relationship of a man and a woman, sanctified by law and tradition,"
Carlson declared. "For Congress to pass such legislation is a move
fraught with danger - for families and society."
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- Dr. Carlson is founder and convener of the World Congress
of Families (WCF). At WCF III in Mexico City, in 2004, more than 3,300
delegates from around the world adopted The Mexico City Declaration, an
international declaration of principles affirming the natural family as
the fundamental unit of society.
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- To date, World Congresses of Families have been held
in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999) and in Mexico City last year. World Congress
of Families IV is planned for Warsaw in 2007. For more information visit
http://www.worldcongress.org.
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- The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society is
an independent, non-profit research and education center that strives to
be the leading source of fresh ideas and new strategies for affirmation
and defense of the natural family, both nationally and globally. The Howard
Center is also the founder and organizer of the World Congress of Families
project which unites people of goodwill who recognize that the family is
the fundamental unit of society and coordinates the efforts of pro-family
groups from more the 60 countries worldwide.
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- http://www.profam.org/
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- http://www.worldcongress.org/
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- http://www.christianwireservice.com
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