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Religious Freedom

Bauer Suddenly Concerned About Hate Crimes

Gary Bauer writes that Jews are under attack here in America and seems to think that the best way to stem anti-Semitism is for more people to become Christians:

It is true that the citizens of the U.S. are more pious than those of many European countries, where the decline of faith has been much reported. Still, in the U.S., legal attacks on Christmas have become as much of the tradition as the holiday itself, and church attendance among American youths has reached all time lows. Those are only a few of the signs of declining faith ... America’s secular momentum coincides with an increase in persecution of American Jews. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently released 2008 hate crimes statistics showing that 65.7 percent of religion-motivated hate crimes were anti-Jewish. There were 1,013 cases of hate crimes motivated by anti-Semitism last year, the most since 2001.

...

Theologically, Christians believe God came into this world through the Jewish people and that the Jewish faith is the foundation of all that was to come. That God has directed Christians to love His people is a great counter weight to increasing anti-Semitism in the U.S ... Christians and Jews have also reached an important time in their relationships with one another. In an increasingly hostile world, Christians and Jews must stand together to defend against attacks on Judeo-Christian values. It is a friendship as old as Abraham, as new as a baby in a manger.

And since when did members of the Religious Right start caring about hate crimes?  I thought all crimes were hate crimes and it didn't matter what the race or religion or sexual orientation was of the victim.

Apparently Bauer only believes that hate crimes laws "are neither necessary nor constitutionally authorized" when it comes to sexual orientation.