Muzzled at the Pulpit?

In my most recent post, I talked about President Bush's planned veto of a new bill coming from Congress that would create a new federal hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation, gender and disability, as well as the more traditional categories of race and religion. In that post, I mentioned that the Rev. James Dobson was in favor of the veto, saying the law would "muzzle" ministers from preaching against homosexuality.

Dobson stated that “the Hate Crimes Act will be the first step to criminalize our rights as Christians to believe that some behaviors are sinful," and that “pastors preaching from Scripture on homosexuality could be threatened with persecution and prosecution."

To which I say, Fred Phelps and his congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church (which is composed mostly of his extended family) regularly appear in public (lately at military funerals) and scream "God Hates Fags" -- without being prosecuted for hate speech. The First Amendment protects him pretty well, and I see nothing in this legislation that would prevent that in the future. So I have a hard time imagining why James Dobson (who must be at least marginally intelligent) would think this is even a minor possibility.

Then I read a quote from the assistant editor at CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family ministry, discussing the same issue: “It attempts to place sexual orientation on par with race, enshrining homosexuality in federal law as a civil rights issue.” Now it all comes clear -- if the bill passes, it could be seen as federal recognition that sexuality is fixed at birth and not a choice, as the Christianists profess. And that scares the shit out of them.