Would Jesus be prosecuted for hate speech? by David Robertson for Christian Today
“You dogs! Snakes! Morons! Fools! Hypocrites! Swine!”
Can you imagine the uproar if a Christian leader were to use such terms on Twitter or Facebook? I suspect a ban would not be far away. At the very least, this could be considered ‘hate speech’ – and it hardly seems very loving. I can imagine the rebukes from fellow Christians accusing the perpetrator of not being very ‘Christlike’. The only problem is that it is Christ who used those words. And he was not done there. Take these strong words from Matthew 23.
“You blind fools!……..You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the inside but are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean……..You snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matthew 23)
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We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Our notion of moron comes from the word that Jesus used for fool – not just an ignorant person, but a wicked and immoral person.
I thought of these when I heard that the Scottish parliament this week narrowly (by 31 to 30) passed the first stage of the proposed new hate crimes Bill – which is in effect a new blasphemy law. I have written before about the incredible dangers in this Bill – dangers which have been picked up by journalists, police, lawyers and politicians.
But others are enthusiastic, not least the Scottish Justice Secretary and lobby groups like the Equality Network (note that these lobby groups are largely funded by the Scottish Government and tend to lobby the Government to do what the Government intends to do anyway).
But also, some Christians seem unaware of the problems. One Christian MSP, John Mason, spoke in the Parliament in support: “I believe we as a Parliament and as Parliamentarians have a duty to at least restrain hatred in society, even if we cannot actually force anyone to love their enemy.”
