A renown Christian senator from Texas recently expressed his belief that following the push for same-sex marriage in America, it is possible that those who speak out against the lifestyle will face hate speech charges.
In an interview with David Brody of CBN, Senator Ted Cruz was asked if he sees the issue of homosexual “marriage” leading to other concerns for pastors.
“There are a lot of Christian scholars, when they talk about the marriage issue, they see it in essence going down this line of potential hate speech from the pulpit,” Brody said. “What is your sense about where this potentially could be going?”
“Well, if you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step where it gets enforced,” Cruz replied. “It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage.”
“And that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government,” he continued. “And I think there’s no doubt that the advocates who are driving this effort in the United States want to see us end up in that same place.”
While some state that Cruz is pushing “religious right lies,” others believe that his assertions are not that far fetched.
As previously reported, a Los Angeles-area evangelist was recently arrested and jailed in England while open-air preaching from the Bible about sexual immorality. When a passerby heard Tony Miano reference homosexuality in his sermon, she became offended and called the police.
Moments later, officers arrived and notified Miano that he had allegedly violated Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which prohibits public language that is threatening or insulting.
“The words that the police officers used was that I was guilty of using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult,” Miano explained in a video blog about the incident. “I tried to explain to the officers that there is nothing homophobic about my speech because I am not afraid of homosexuals — that I love homosexuals enough to want to bring them the truth of the Gospel.”
Miano was then taken into custody, interrogated and jailed.
“It was surreal because I was interrogated about my faith in Jesus Christ,” he said. “I was asked if I believe that homosexuality is a sin. I was asked what portion of the Bible I was reading. I was asked if a homosexual was hungry and walked up to me, would I give them something to eat.”
While he was later released without criminal charges–after initially being told that prosecution would be moving forward–Miano is now working with a UK Christian legal group to in an effort to protect free speech in the country.
Like Cruz, he warned that similar prosecutions are possible in America.
“I was interrogated because I was a Christian. Again, it was surreal,” Miano stated. “It’s coming. It’s coming to the United States. No doubt about it, the day is coming when Christians will be arrested not only for what they say, but for what they believe.”
Similar circumstances took place in 2004, as Christians witnessing at a homosexual pride event in Philadelphia, who later became dubbed “the Philadelphia 11,” were arrested and charged with a hate crime for their evangelistic activities. The charges, which could have landed them in jail for over 40 years and cost $90,000 in fines each, were dropped nine months later.
The Supreme Court of Canada also recently upheld the conviction of a man who distributed flyers expressing his concerns about homosexuality in the country, stating that certain protected groups could not be targeted.
Photo: Gage Skidmore
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