Yesterday, Dan posed a good question-- if the Religious Right claims about hate crimes were true, wouldn't we have heard about some state-level prosecutions for pastors preaching against homosexuality? After all, many states already have hate crimes laws on the books, including protections for actual or perceived sexual orientation.

For me, the facts of the matter-- hate crimes laws are only used to prosecute perpetrators of violent crimes-- seem sufficient. But since the Religious Right keeps circulating misinformation about hate crimes, let's see how else we can convince those who claim hate crimes legislation "provides special penalties based on what people think, feel, or believe."

How about this? Twenty-nine states already have hate crimes laws that address sexual orientation, including Kansas, home to Westboro Baptist Church, the anti-gay, anti-Semitic group that's famous for its inflammatory pickets and in the headlines again today as they prepare to protest the funeral of a murdered priest. Any yet no one from Westboro has been brought up on hate crimes charges. As horrifying as Westboro's messages are, the U.S. prides itself on the robust protection of free speech and religious liberties, and hate crimes laws don't do anything to change that. In fact, the federal legislation signed yesterday explicitly protects those First Amendment rights.

Also, federal hate crimes legislation has applied to religious identity for quite some time. And some clergy have been preaching all the while that religions other than their own are falsehoods, heresies or cults -- arguably denigrating believers of other faiths. And yet, to my knowledge, no pastor has been prosecuted for preaching, say, that nonbelievers or followers of other faiths will go to Hell.

Food for thought.