Back in '96, the Inner City Church in Knoxville was firebombed and vandalized. The instant assumption was that this was a hate crime because the church had a primarily black congregation, and racial slurs were left painted on the walls.
OK, fair enough.
Sunday morning, a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus was vandalized at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Specifically, an inverted cross was painted in red on the statue, and the Baby was decapitated, and his arms broken off. The pieces were thrown into the Cathedral. Despite the symbolic nature of the damage, this is being treated as vandalism, not a hate crime.
Go figure.
VAndalizing one church is a hate crime, but another is just vandalism. The only real difference here is the makeup of the congregations. I guess this just points out the silliness of hate crime legislation to begin with. It's the act itself that is punishable, not the thought behind it. Arson is arson, and I'm not real sure, but I've never heard of anyone burning down a church because they liked the place. It seems to me that hate is involved in there somewhere.
Posted by Rich at December 14, 2004 8:23 AM | TrackBack