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"The legislative powers of government reach to actions only, not
to opinions."
Thomas Jefferson, "Separation of church and state" letter,
Jan. 1, 1802: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Thomas Jefferson, to Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800:
"Inasmuch as no one, except perhaps Islamic terrorists, advocates
injuring innocent people, the question has to be raised:
"Is 'hate crime' legislation about preventing crime, or is it designed
to promote the homosexual agenda by silencing opposing viewpoints?"
The current wording of "hate crime"legislation actually commits
a hatecrime against those who "think" differently than the
State.
Jefferson was against this, as Europe, at the time America was founded,
had established: "Whatever the king believed the kingdom had to
believe."
Not wanting government to dictate their beliefs was a major reason why
religious refugees fled to America.
England established Anglican beliefs, passing the Oath of Supremacy
in 1559 and the Test Act in 1673, which barred all nonconformist Protestants
and Catholics from holding public office.
Today's radical left is establishing a new State-authorized belief,
a new Oath of Supremacy, a new Test Act.
On June 29, 2004, Sweden arrested 63-year-old Pastor Ake Green for
reading Bible verses at church. The prosecuting attorney stated: "One
may have whatever religion one wishes, but this is an attack on all
fronts against homosexuals. Collecting Bible cites on this topic as
he (Pastor Green) does makes this hate speech."
France and Canada fined legislators for voicing opinions that did not
embrace radical homosexuality.
In Boston, the State ordered Catholic Charities to violate their religious
beliefs and place children in gay households or cease all their adoption
operations.
Siding with radical homosexuals are Islamic jihadists who want the "hate
crime" bill passed to muzzle those who expose them.
Jefferson would be against taxing people to promote a sexual agenda
in which they disbelieved, as he wrote in his Draft For a Bill For Establishing
Religious Freedom,
1779:
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation
of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
Jefferson would oppose the U.S. Congress coercing with "civil incapacitations"
those who "think" differently than the State, those who hold
traditional American religious beliefs regarding sex and marriage, as
he wrote in his Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty, Jan. 16, 1786:
"Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested His Supreme
Will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible
of restraints."
"That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or
burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy
and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of
religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to by
propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to
do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone. ..."Be it
therefore enacted ... that no man ... shall be enforced, restrained,
molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer,
on account of his religious opinions or belief. "But that all men
shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions
in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish,
enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."
In light of the Democrat Congress promoting the gay agenda, Jefferson
gave interesting insight in his Draft For A Bill For Establishing Religious
Freedom, 1779: "The impious presumption of legislators ... being
themselves but fallible ... have assumed dominion over the faith of
others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only
true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others.
..."Proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by
laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust ...
unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion ..."The
opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its
jurisdiction. ..."To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his
powers into the field of opinion ... destroys all religious liberty."
The Danbury Baptist Association complained to Jefferson, Oct. 7, 1801,
that the state government of Connecticut established the Congregational
denomination, thus discriminating against the religious opinions of
Baptists: "Sir ... Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of
Religious Liberty – That Religion is at all times and places a
Matter between God and Individuals– That no man ought to suffer
in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions –
That the legitimate Power of civil Government extends no further than
to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. ...
Jefferson agreed with the Baptists, Jan. 1, 1802: "Believing with
you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his
God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that
the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions,
I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'
thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."
Traditional Judeo-Christian religious doctrine believes sex is sacred
between a man and a woman. The proposed "hate crime" bill
would amount to the U.S. Congress assuming authority over religious
doctrine, something Jefferson's "wall" was to prevent, as
he wrote to Samuel Miller, Jan. 23, 1808: "I consider the government
of the United States as interdicted [prohibited] by the Constitution
from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline,
or exercises. ... "Certainly no power to prescribe any religious
exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated
to the General government. ... "I do not believe it is for the
interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises,
its discipline, or its doctrines. ... "Every religious society
has a right to determine ... their own particular tenets."
Prior to the Revolution, Jefferson opposed the Intolerable Acts passed
by the British Parliament in 1774, which treated individuals loyal to
the Crown as "more equal" before the administration of justice
than American rebels. If "all men are created equal," as Jefferson
wrote in the Declaration, then criminals who commit the same crime should
be punished equally, regardless of their victim's sexual preferences.
To punish criminals more based on who the victim is establishes that
all other victims are of less value, unequal. It is a zero sum equation
– to give special rights to one group is to take rights fromanother
group. The "hate crime" bill before Congress would amount
to a "don't ask don't tell policy" for those of traditional
Judeo-Christian beliefs. Radical gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered,
etc., not only want to come out of the closet, they want to push Christians
into it. They want to commit the crime on others that they have accused
others of having committed against them.
Jefferson would have hated a "hate crime" bill where the legislative
powers of government censored people who held traditional Judeo-Christian
religious opinions regarding sex. Could it be that the real hate crime
is about to be committed by the radical left against those who hold
traditional American values?
President Reagan asked the Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, Aug. 23, 1984:
"The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion
claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance. ... Question: Isn't
the real truth that they are intolerant of religion?"
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ABOUT Thomas Jefferson:
Our 3rd Presidnet: This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743
in Albemarle
County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor,
some 5,000 acres of
land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied
at the College of
William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton,
a widow,
and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.
Jefferson
succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy
for the French
Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson
was Secretary of
State in PresidentWashington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.
When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed.
He slashed Army
and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey
so unpopular in the
West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval
squadron to fight the
Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean.
Further,
although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new
land, Jefferson
suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity
to acquire the
Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.
He died on July 4, 1826. Learn more at www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tj3.html |
