Many accuse Christians of hate speech for voicing their belief that homosexual acts are immoral and contrary to human nature. In this Ready Reasons video, Karlo shows why this objection fails and explains how a negative moral evaluation of a behavior doesn’t necessarily involve hatred for the person engaging in the immoral behavior.
Transcript:
Are Christians guilty of hate speech for voicing their belief that homosexual acts are immoral and contrary to human nature? Many in our culture think so.
So what can we say in response?
First, it’s not hate speech to say a particular behavior is inappropriate human behavior given our nature as human beings. If that were true, then any negative moral evaluation of behavior would be hate speech. For example, is it hate speech to say pedophilic behavior is contrary to human nature? Of course not!
Therefore, the criterion for determining what is hate speech can’t be merely saying a particular behavior is wrong. I can judge a behavior to be wrong without hating the person. We do it all the time.
Second, the assertion is inconsistent with itself. Why are Christians slapped with accusation of hate speech when they voice their negative moral evaluation of homosexual behavior, yet the objector is exempt when he negatively judges a Christian’s behavior for opposing homosexuality? Isn’t the objector guilty of the very thing he accuses Christians of?
It’s interesting that our culture allows vocal support of the same-sex lifestyle in the name of diversity and freedom of speech. But when Christians vocalize their opposition to the same-sex lifestyle, those same rights of diversity and freedom of speech are revoked.
My friends, just because we say a particular behavior is not befitting human beings, it doesn’t mean we hate the people who do those things. We must judge actions, but we must always do so with respect for the person.
If you want to learn more about this topic and others like it, visit our website at catholic.com.
For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.