Pastors' Protest Goes Bust

A group of conservative Christian ministers gathered in protest in front of the Justice Department yesterday in a truly misguided attempt to provoke arrests under the recently passed hate crimes law – the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The pastors, like Rev. Rick Scarborough and Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, waved signs with explicitly anti-homosexual messages hoping to get arrested. This in an effort to prove the falsity spread by the religious right that hate crimes legislation stifles free speech from the pulpit. To clarify: to get arrested under the hate crimes act, one has to actually plan or incite an act of violence.