Hate has the power to transform violent crime into domestic terrorism

Congress is expected to expand federal hate crimes laws to add "sexual orientation" to a list that already includes "race, color, religion or national origin." Is this necessary? Should there be special laws against crimes motivated by intolerance, bigotry and hatred? Isn't a crime a crime?

A crime is more than just a crime when it impacts not just the immediate victim but also contributes to a reign of terror meant to keep an entire group of people “in their place”. All violent crimes are tragic and should be punished. But hate crimes are a special category of crime. “Hate” is the ultimate enemy of “love”, the greatest commandment, and so it deserves the greatest punishment.

A hate crime is defined as a traditional violent crime with a twist of bias. Hate itself is not the crime, although it is presumed to be the motivation for the crime and a sin. The crime is the violation of the person’s human rights and the civil rights of the group to which they belong. This type of crime is obviously meant to harm the individual who is the object of the violence, but in addition it is meant to send a signal to the group about their place in society and the consequences of being different. It is meant to be a threat, a form of terror.

Ironic that the U.S. government has been able to garner support for a war on terror against the U.S., however it has taken many years and the overcoming of significant political and religious leader opposition to pass a bill to combat domestic terrorism! Even more surprising is the reason often cited for the opposition – because there is concern that “hate” may become illegal under the guise of curtailing freedom of speech.

These leaders have no reason to fear for their rights, although they might want to pause to consider the risk to their souls. It’s not a hate crime until there’s an actual crime and at that point it is our obligation to protect those who are most different from us from being terrorized simply because they are different. We don’t have to agree with them or even like them but they are our neighbor. Like it or not, most hate crimes are perpetuated by Americans on other Americans. We would never stand for such behavior from an external threat to our wellbeing and we should be just a vigorous in our defense of “the other” that is treated as an outsider within our own community. They are our neighbors. We are called to love and care for them as ourselves. Because they are us.