I met Joe Murray a few years ago when I was guest hosting Mike Signorile's radio show while Mike was on vacation. I first saw Joe on O'Reilly, representing one of the lead, and most hateful and homophobic, religious right organizations, the American Family Association. Joe was one of AFA's lawyers, and often served as one of their spokesman. I don't know why, but in spite of Joe's defense of AFA, I had the sense that he might not be all that bad. So, I had him on Mike's show, we hit it off, and kept in touch.
Over the years, Joe's views began to mellow and shift. He became increasingly opposed to the war in Iraq, and increasingly understanding of the concerns of the gay community. He's still a conservative Catholic, and staunchly pro-life, but true to what I thought I saw inside Joe when we first met, he's a Christian who actually believes what he says. I remember reading once that the true believer poses the greatest threat to a totalitarian regime - he's the one to become first, and most, dispirited with the lies. That would be Joe.
In addition to a couple of kick ass columns Joe has written in the past few weeks, he's also done a series of interviews with blogger Pam Spaulding over at Pam's House Blend. I highly recommend you check them out. Here is her first interview. And here is her second.
As an aside, this is an example of something I learned from Senator Kennedy's staff in the early 1990s. Don't necessarily write someone off just because you disagree - even if you disagree violently. There's a core of humanity in (most) everyone - it's only a matter of finding it, or helping them find it in themselves.
Here is Joe's latest column on hate crimes and the religious right. Joe is an incredible writers, and public speaker - it's good to finally have him on the good side. Here's Joe's column:
Whether Americans realize it or not, there is already a federal hate crimes law on the books. In 1968, while Mississippi was burning and the racial tensions in America had reached a boiling point, Congress passed a hate crimes law that covered biased attacks based on the victim's race, ethnicity, national origin and religion.The article continues. Read it.
After the bill was enacted into law, the world as we knew it did not cease. The First Amendment survived, the southern tensions began to cool, and life went on. Some four decades later, Conyers thinks it is time that the federal hate crimes law is updated....
While it is true that this writer has reservations about the need for a hate crimes law period, he also sees the blatant hypocrisy that exists when people, who are protected by current hate crimes laws, vehemently seek to exclude groups, like the LGBT community, from the same benefits.
If hate crimes is to be law, than why exclude gays? It is one thing to be against hate crimes, it is another to intentionally deny protection to a class of individuals when one enjoys the protection he is denying. This is shameful.
