AG Eric Holder said preachers are not covered under the Hate Crimes bill. So does that mean?

Scumbag

If the person killed the preacher because of their religion it would be a hate crime. A preacher cannot sit at their pulpit and tell people to go hurt and kill a certain group of people because of their race, religion, sex, etc. That is what a hate crime is. If a preacher speaks against homosexuality that is not a hate crime and is protected. That is what Eric Holder meant.

Carls, you are very ignorant. Read the bill in its entirety and think for yourself instead of listening to right wing propaganda. Sexual orientation is defined by the government, and pedophilia and other illegal philias will remain as such and not considered a protected class under the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill. Sorry for your ignorance, but it is simply not true.

The standard right-wing talking point on this issue is to claim that if a pastor speaks out about homosexuality from the pulpit and then some parishioner goes out at beats up a gay person, the pastor will be charged with a hate crime and tossed in jail.

But apparently even that false claim was too complex for Robertson and his viewers, so he just skipped it entirely and went straight to warning Christians that they would be imprisoned for opposing homosexuality.

In either case, the claim is untrue.

The version that passed the House contains this provision:

Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by, the Constitution.

The version that is now in the Senate contains an even more specific provision:

CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit any constitutionally protected speech, expressive conduct or activities (regardless of whether compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief), including the exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment and peaceful picketing or demonstration. The Constitution does not protect speech, conduct or activities consisting of planning for, conspiring to commit, or committing an act of violence.

FREE EXPRESSION- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to allow prosecution based solely upon an individual's expression of racial, religious, political, or other beliefs or solely upon an individual's membership in a group advocating or espousing such beliefs.

How would they handle it if Fred Phelps was murdered? He's a "preacher" and all, but his primary message is "God hates fags". So, would it be a hate crime or poetic justice? All the hate crime legislation is BS. Crime is crime, regardless of motivation.

The hate crime law is unconstitutional because it creates a separate rules for people based on race, gender, and religious beliefs not on peoples actions. A gay man gets killed by one knife wound to the heart for the money in his pocket the killer gets 20 years. The gay man gets killed by one knife wound to the heart for being gay his killer gets life without the possibility of parole. Is he any more dead. How does making two different penalties for the same criminal act make us safer?

Hate against religion has been going on since it's beginnings

Tortured for Christ

http://www.amazon.com/Tortured-Christ-Founder-Voic...

Source?? Fox??

It means Eric Holder is a hater.

Yeah, but they decided to put pedophiles in there and even after Republicans tried to remove it. Democrats refused to do it.

Murder is murder. Assault is assault.

You don't need a special category for that.

Sounds like a FOX News lie