Does the bible say anything about copying and pasting? Thatâs another question for pastor Gary Randallâwho has stopped answering my questionsâthe president of a trinity of organizations called Faith and Freedom.
A quick recap: Randall makes money off of running his bigoted, anti-gay organizations in Washington State, his group plans to run a referendum to repeal the state's domestic-partnership bill, he isnât registered to vote in Washington, and he owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. He sounds like an original piece of work, but, alas, BlackWhite finds that not all of his work is original.
In a post in 2007, Randall asks:
Does free speech extend the right to question the legitimacy of one's own government, whether the homeland has a moral and legal right to exist, and to rewrite history by denying that events ever happened or for that matter, denying the founding principle on which this country was built?
Which is such an interesting question that Tom O'Connor pondered exact same thing in a paper a year before:
Does eccentricity extend to the right to question the legitimacy of one's own government, whether the homeland has a moral and legal right to exist, and to rewrite history by denying events ever happened?
Indeed, Gary, one day we're granting free speech to homosexuals and the next day Nazis are writing Jews out of Germanyâs history. But what about other countries? Randall calls laws against hate crimes laws elsewhere in Europe a âslippery slopeâ that could lead to punishing people for their âthoughts.â For example, in September 2007, he writes:
⢠Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are "threatening, abusive, or insulting and are intended or...are likely to stir up hatred" on the basis of sexual orientation.
⢠Iceland forbids "ridiculing, slandering, insulting or threatening" protected classes including homosexuals.
⢠Sweden's hate speech law even bans expressing "disrespect."
⢠In Italy, an atheist has taken a priest to the European court of Human Rights on a complaint of "religious racism" for teaching that Jesus existed.
Those are dangerous thoughts indeed. And common thoughts. In fact, Stephen Adams had the exact same thoughts a month before writing for Focus on the Family:
⢠Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are âthreatening, abusive or insulting and are intended or ⌠are likely to stir up hatredâ on the basis of oneâs sexual orientation.
⢠Iceland forbids âridiculing, slandering, insulting, threateningâ protected classes, including homosexuals.
⢠Swedenâs hate-speech law bans even expressing âdisrespect.
⢠In Italy, an atheist is taking a priest to the European Court of Human Rights on a complaint of âreligious racismâ for teaching that Jesus existed.
What to make of all this? Perhaps Randall isnât really going to run a referendum after all. Maybe he lifted the idea from another website.
