Randy Thomas, Vice President of Exodus International:
Freedom of speech which expresses a difference of opinion on morality and spirituality is not a crime.
The following is a case of one of the hackneyed headless monsters that the anti-gay industry loves to trot out, especially in regard to hate crime legislation that includes protections for minorities on the basis of sexual-orientation and gender identity.
In an article on the EI blog called “Canadian Decision Protects Freedom of Speech For Religious Views,” Mr. Thomas links to another article titling “Alberta judge rules anti-gay letter not hate speech, overturns ruling”:
A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled an anti-gay letter written by a former Alberta pastor in 2002 was not a hate crime and is allowed under freedom of speech.
Justice E.C. Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling by the Alberta [Canada] Human Rights Commission that the letter by Stephen Boissoin that was published in the Red Deer Advocate broke provincial law.
Mr. Thomas then had this to say:
The step backwards came when freedom of speech was taken away by the oppressive will of the government through the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
Alberta Human Rights Commission:
Discrimination re: publications, notices
3 (1) No person shall publish, issue or display or cause to be published, issued or displayed before the public any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that:(a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a class of persons, or
(b) is likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt…
The reasoning goes; since it happened in Canada, it will can happen here. Except for the fact that Canada does not have the First Amendment which protects religious hate-speech from interference by the U.S. government. (Westboro Baptist Church, anyone?)
Despite the absence of this protection in Canada, their judicial system sided in favor of Mr. Boissoin. Ergo, even their system worked in favor of free-speech.
One of the things Mr. Thomas, et al, neglects to mention, is that Egale Canada (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) refused to take up the case against Reverend Boissoin:
We believe that sunshine is the best disinfectant.
I concur. The suppression of hate-speech does not solve the root of the problem—the climate that allows for hate-speech to flourish.
But let’s take a look at the example Mr. Thomas chooses to defend free-speech with on a moral level.
Here is the full text of Stephen Boissoin’s letter to the Red Deer Advocate that Mr. Thomas describes as “provocative”:
[Quote]
Homosexual Agenda Wicked
From the Jun 17, 2002 issue of the Red Deer Advocate:
“The following is not intended for those who are suffering from an unwanted sexual identity crisis. For you, I have understanding, care, compassion and tolerance. I sympathize with you and offer you my love and fellowship. I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied. Many outspoken, former homosexuals are free today.
Instead, this is aimed precisely at every individual that in any way supports the homosexual machine that has been mercilessly gaining ground in our society since the 1960s. I cannot pity you any longer and remain inactive. You have caused far too much damage.
My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume. With me stand the greatest weapons that you have encountered to date – God and the “Moral Majority.” Know this, we will defeat you, then heal the damage that you have caused. Modern society has become dispassionate to the cause of righteousness. Many people are so apathetic and desensitized today that they cannot even accurately define the term “morality.”
The masses have dug in and continue to excuse their failure to stand against horrendous atrocities such as the aggressive propagation of homo- and bisexuality. Inexcusable justifications such as, “I’m just not sure where the truth lies,” or “If they don’t affect me then I don’t care what they do,” abound from the lips of the quantifiable majority.
Face the facts, it is affecting you. Like it or not, every professing heterosexual is have their future aggressively chopped at the roots.
Edmund Burke’s observation that, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” has been confirmed time and time again. From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators.
Our children are being victimized by repugnant and premeditated strategies, aimed at desensitizing and eventually recruiting our young into their camps. Think about it, children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.
Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that men kissing men is appropriate.
Your teenagers are being instructed on how to perform so-called safe same gender oral and anal sex and at the same time being told that it is normal, natural and even productive. Will your child be the next victim that tests homosexuality positive?
Come on people, wake up! It’s time to stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness that our lethargy has authorized to spawn. Where homosexuality flourishes, all manner of wickedness abounds.
Regardless of what you hear, the militant homosexual agenda isn’t rooted in protecting homosexuals from “gay bashing.” The agenda is clearly about homosexual activists that include, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Supreme Court judges, and God forbid, even so-called ministers, who are all determined to gain complete equality in our nation and even worse, our world.
Don’t allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These activists are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.
The homosexual agenda is not gaining ground because it is morally backed. It is gaining ground simply because you, Mr. and Mrs. Heterosexual, do nothing to stop it. It is only a matter of time before some of these morally bankrupt individuals such as those involved with NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Lovers Association, will achieve their goal to have sexual relations with children and assert that it is a matter of free choice and claim that we are intolerant bigots not to accept it.
If you are reading this and think that this is alarmist, then I simply ask you this: how bad do things have to become before you will get involved? It’s time to start taking back what the enemy has taken from you. The safety and future of our children is at stake.
Rev Stephen Boissoin”
[End Quote]
“Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.”
Randy Thomas: Harsh provocative letters to the editor may not be criminal but they may not be helpful either.
“Provocative,” “may not be helpful,” and “difference of opinion” were the strongest terms Mr. Thomas was able to muster in defending against statements like that.
I wrote a piece on this subject last year in which I explained that Mr. Boissoin is a supporter of Paul Cameron’s work, and that he uses the Dutch Study in an effort to depict gay relationships as inherently promiscuous, despite the fact that that study purposefully excluded monogamous couples.
The next day, in the comments section, I was promply advised by Mr. Boissoin to “get my facts straight”:
Get your facts straight….I said “homosexual rights activists and those that support them (homosexual rights activists)…”
In other words, anyone who’s out of the closet (save for those in the GLBT community who enjoy being persecuted 
.)
He also had this to say about Paul Cameron:
…he offers some great resources.
And finally:
…my personal opinion is that homosexuality is unnatural, unproductive, immoral, destructive and outright disgusting.
Hate speech = hatred = hate crime
Or, as Mr. Thomas would blithely put it:
“Harsh provocative letters to the editor may not be criminal but they may not be helpful either.”
_________________
-Patrick Fitzgerald, aka Emproph.
I guess Randy Thomas thought two recent comments of mine were to harsh for the Exodus blog and not worthy of any free speech. The first was to question whether Don Schmierer truly got his redemptive message across when Stephen Langa whose FLN sponsored the conference at which Schmierer talked went on a homophobic rampage in the media just after it. Ironically, Thomas left a trackback to Dr Throckmorton’s blog post that questioned the same thing.
The second was to question Schmierer’s most recent comments on the blog in light of what was reported to have transpired between Schmierer and a man on the flight from America to Europe just before the conference in Uganda which was posted on an Australian ski forum.
All I can think of is Exodus would rather not hear some facts that seem to not be in line with what they’ve been saying.
Unfortunately I think you’re basing part of your argument on a false premise. While Canada doesn’t have a First Amendment literally, we certainly do have a consitution with guaranteed rights. Canada’s constitution, The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, states:
Thus the judge did not rule in favor of free speech in the absence of such rights, he in fact ruled inline with Canadian law.
Of course this whole issue is much more nuanced and free speech is somewhat less protected in Canada than in the United States, but it’s simply incorrect to say we have no enshrined right to free speech.
Awesome.
I guess I’m more American than Canadian because I agree with the judge.
Lets say a man named Phree is on trial for manslaughter because someone was trampled to death after he yelled “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. Dozens of audience members and fire department personnel testify that there was no fie.
Then Randy Thomas testifies for the defense, saying: “This is a freedom-of-speech issue because Phree and the other members of the audience, along with the fire department, simply had a difference of opinion.”
@Richard
These instances are completely different in the eyes of the law. You’re over-simplifying.
Canada’s free speech is limited by anti-hate speach laws which limits the individual from inciting hatred against others, particularly regarding religion, race, gender, and sexual-orientation; that’s what this case was about. The US does not have anti-hate speech laws. The government cannot limit your hatred.
The fire-theater analogy, however, refers to issues of public safety where the individual is using speech to knowingly hurt others. The US does prosecute this type in some cases.
Patrick, I think it’s safe to say you are the most colorful writer here on XGW. 8)
I think there’s a little more to consider here – namely the idea that freedom of speech does not necessarily mean freedom of speech without consequences.
I don’t think that we should be giving a free ride to the kinds of hate-filled lies that get repeated so often by people like Boissoin. It’s not just about countering the lies, but it’s also important NOT to ever allow those lies to be repeated often enough to become a commonly held truth.
The problem I see with organizations/people like Exodus, Mr. Boissoin, etc, is that I don’t believe that they believe in what they say. They may quote from their rulebook/playbook…”God loves the sinner, but not the sin”, but their real feelings come out eventually. It’s the whole “me thinks he doth protest too much” phenomenon. Somewhere, right now, I venture to say, some pastor on the other side of the world is preaching about the evils of homosexuality. Why is this such an obsession with christian fundamentalists? Is it because they have a genuine concern for the homosexual’s eternal soul? I won’t even dignify that question with an answer (I lied…we know the answer is no!)
Mr. Boissoin can proclaim from the mountaintops that he doesn’t hate gay people, but you can’t kid a kidder, ladies and gentlemen. I know first hand what lying SOB’s heterosexual christians can be…I’ve been the brunt of their “love the sinner” shtick way more times than I care to count.
And yes, I agree with the author of this post, Mr. Thomas has succumbed to the lure of celebrity, where he is now not any good to the homosexual community or those who desire to leave it.
Ouch. That article really didn’t mince its words. I’m a christian, and I believe that all sex outside of marriage is a sin. So I suppose you wouldn’t call me a moderate.
I have to say though, that it seems really strange that people tried to prosecute boisson. Insulting though it may be to the homosexual community, it was hardly posted on peoples windows or somewhere where they are likely to read it. So the insults can be avoided quite simply – if you don’t like what he is saying, don’t read it.
Then there is his call to action, a battle cry for war. I doubt any of his audience would read it as a cry to go out, buy an AK47 and go find some gays to shoot. He was calling for political activism, and to criminalise him for that is to destroy the very purpose of free speech, that people can have a say on what happens in their country.
Oh, and as far as the hate the sin, love the sinner stuff goes, that is not written anywhere. We are commanded to love everyone, especially our enemies. We need to avoid sin because it damages our relationship with God, and so we advise others to do the same. I can say from experience that it hurts everything, even the most secret sin.
S