Hello

[Simon]

Hi everybody,

My name is Simon, I have been writing researches on the subject of social justice and political rights, for a couple of years, and the recent activism of Soulforce, including this Equality Ride thing, has sparkled my interest. I have studied the independence movement of Gandhi and the civil rights movement of King, so this is also what also brought me here. Speaking of the Ride, I have been following a couple of threads in the past few weeks, and I noticed how a number of posters, presumably the students of those colleges, have expressed their strong beliefs about human sexuality, their schools, their rights etc, which has caused a lot of heat. I hope you didn't get too offended by what they said, because from I what I saw, it wasn't their intent to attack any one of you, personally. They just wanted to share what they believed, as it seemed to me. Although, some comments seemed to be quite preposterous, like the ones coming from a guy named Drizz, where he said that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong. Who is he in a position to say who is right and who is wrong? Is he God? Anyway, I hope you folks don't feel too angry about them.

Like I said, I have been writing about social justice and political rights, therefore I would like to discuss these issues with you here, because it is my intellectual interest. I have been following Soulforce in the news, reading your publications, including both of Dr. White's books "Stranger in the Gate" and "Religion Gone Bad," but I am still unsure what specifically is that you want to accomplish. I'd like to ask a couple of questions for you, and I hope you could answer them for me.

It's getting late and I must hit the hay for now but I hope I can chat with you tomorrow.

Peace.

[u-dog]

ASK AWAY ! This group will talk about anything. Read the guidlines for participation because there are some restrictions that may not apply on other sites.

I woul encourage you to read the thread "Concerning our Dialogue" where members of the group have been evaluating and discussing our responses to some of our recent visitors and how we might do better in the future.

Dave

[Simon]

Thanks Antony and Dave,

Perhaps I should start a thread of my own, where I'm going to present questions. I'll try my best to fall within the posting guidelines.

[Zerbie]

Hi Simon,

thanks for the intro. :)

I posted a reply to your comments about the hate crimes bill.
Will keep an eye out for your questions, too.

[Simon]

Hi Simon,

thanks for the intro. :)

I posted a reply to your comments about the hate crimes bill.
Will keep an eye out for your questions, too.

I read your comments and it was very informative. Just to touch base briefly, I hope you didn't get the impression that I was personally directing at you by saying that our laws are not based on people's feelings. It's just I observed that many people that I know of who are in favor of hate crime law, not only GLBTQs, are for it because they feel scared that somebody might hurt them because of their unique identities. This makes them think that they are unprotected. However, the legislative branch has different criteria for making laws. I studied prelaw in college, and I found out that it is mostly based on ideological logical reasoning.

Furthermore, I wanted you to know that whatever feelings you have that might give you a hard time, you can talk to me about it. The same goes for Rick, since I quoted you both.

I am planning on making a separate thread on Soulforce Activism forum, but I won't do it until maybe tomorrow or Sunday. I am pretty busy this weekend and I got to wake up early in the morning. But, I guarantee that we will definitely stay in touch.

Peace:)

[Zerbie]

Interesting chat. :)

Thanks for your words and the offer to talk further.

There was one personal thing that put me off a bit.
You claimed to know how I feel, then proceeded to misconstrue entirely what I was feeling angry ABOUT (the lies about what hate crimes legislation would do). So, actually, you didn't know where I was coming from.

As for the legislation itself: Like you, I get the sense that some of those in favor of hate crimes legislation want to think it would actually prevent and deter violent crime. But that is not what it's really for, as discussed on the other thread. I can't imagine a new federal bill is going to have an effect on an angry young person who thinks he hates gays, maybe is drunk, and has a baseball bat handy - odds are, he won't be thinking about federal legislation. The hate crimes bill is really about investigation and prosecution of violent bias crimes which do not receive attention or resources from local jurisdictions. The legislation is not a mere token. It has a practical application: bringing violent perpetrators to justice. It institutes no restrictions on freedom of speech or expression. It just HELPS see justice done. That's why I support it.

I'll look forward to what you have to say in your upcoming posts. Have a pleasant weekend. :)

Oh - curious, pre-law in college, huh? What do you do now? What's your expertise? (mine is music)