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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 365
condition resulting from a national disaster.”
1389
2002 – Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his desire to establish prison camps
for US citizens whom he regards as “enemy combatants.” The LA Times reported that his plan
“would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them
of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants.”
1390
2002 – The Patriot Act (H.R.3162) was passed by Congress and signed into law. Under
Section 802 of the Patriot Act a “domestic terrorist” is defined as someone who is involved in an
act that is dangerous to human life and a violation of criminal laws and appears to be intended to
“to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion.” This could be easily construed to include an unauthorized peaceful
Christian demonstration.
Demonstrations are meant to influence the public or Government and the government
could easily stretch this to mean coerce. The Executive Director of the San Fransisco National
Lawyers Guild, Riva Enteen agrees. Enteen is a constitutional lawyer; she said the following in
regards to the Patriot Act's “domestic terrorist” definition: “Now intimidation or coercion are
very mild words when you think about it. What about people going out on strike? What about
Rosa Parks sitting in front of the bus? What about the sit ins at the lunch counters? Those are all
intended to intimidate or coerce government institutions. And if somebody had the possibility of
being injured as a result, that would have been domestic terrorism. Martin Luther King would
have been a domestic terrorist.”
1391
The Patriot Act could eventually limit a Christians right to publicly quote from the Bible.
Reading or quoting from the Bible is increasingly being construed as “hate speech” and “hate
speech” may soon be a crime. Hate crime legislation that affords special status to homosexuals
has already been passed in California and Pennsylvania. Under the California law an act of
violence can be a threat or a perceived threat by an individual or group which someone fears will
be carried out. Therefore, if one were to read Leviticus 20:13 (“If a man also lie with mankind,
as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put
to death; their blood shall be upon them”) in public they could be found guilty of a crime and
imprisoned and/or declared a terrorist under the Patriot Act. Jody Brown of Agape Press agrees,
she writes: “individuals could claim that someone expressing their deeply held beliefs, whether
political or religious, presents an ‘intimidating’ threat that is punishable.”
1392
Pennsylvania already had a hate crime law and amended it to include “sexual
orientation.” The Pennsylvania law does not only target violent criminal acts, it also targets
harassment. Under the recent amendment the definition of “harassment” was expanded to
include a person's spoken words.
1393
Like the California law this is a direct attack on a person's
political and religious speech.
This attack on Biblical teachings and truths comes not only from atheists but Christians
themselves. In 1999 the Southern Baptist Convention was asked to cancel plans to hold a
convention in Chicago in the summer of 2000 “on the grounds that the large Christian group
might foment 'hate crimes' against minorities.” The request came from the Council of Religious
Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago who represented 40 mainline Christian denominations, Jewish
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