(RNS) Three Michigan pastors and a conservative Christian law firm have filed a legal challenge to the federal hate crime law that was expanded last year to include sexual orientation.
The civil rights suit was filed Tuesday (Feb. 2) in U.S. District Court in Bay City, Mich., by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of Gary Glenn, head of the American Family Association of Michigan, and three pastors: Rene B. Ouellette of First Baptist Church in Bridgeport Township; Jim Combs of Faith Baptist Church in Waterford Township; and Levon R. Yuille of The Bible Church in Ypsilanti.
The suit names U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. as the defendant and targets a law that makes it a federal offense to assault someone because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
Glenn and the pastors claim the law makes it a crime for them to preach against homosexuality and therefore infringes on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, association and free exercise of religion.
The suit also alleges the law creates an Orwellian society, setting up a special class of citizens who receive special protections. The plaintiffs list biblical prohibitions on homosexuality in their statement of facts.
“According to the Bible, homosexual acts are acts of grave depravity that are intrinsically disordered … (and) Homosexuality is an illicit lust forbidden by God,” the complaint reads.
As opponents of “homosexual activism, the homosexual lifestyle and the homosexual agenda,” the ministers and their churches could be subjected to unfair and increased scrutiny and federal investigations under the new law, the men said.
