Are They Toeing the Constitutional Line?

Harry Knox, director of HRC's Faith and Religion Programs has his hands full. He is enlisting clergy across the nation to educate their congregations on the issues and to let their senators and representatives know where they stand on pending legislation. Lucky for him, most clergy consider advocating against hate as important today as it was during the civil rights struggles in the ‘60s.

“What resonates most with clergy is that this is a pastoral issue,” says Knox, director of the HRC’s Religion & Faith Program. “They can’t fail to get involved in politics because there’s a pastoral need to do so. They have congregant families that are hurting around hate crimes and employment discrimination.”

Unfortunately, he says, during the 2004 election cycle, conservative forces “callously used clergy” to slam the gay marriage amendment from the pulpit as a means to shore up support for political candidates. Knox makes the distinction that the push to pass hate crime and nondiscrimination legislation is not political.

What do you think? Is the push for clergy to support hate crime and nondiscrimination legislation political?