Wake up to hate crime

Here’s a term you’ll hear plenty of in 2021: hate crimes.

It’s a slippery term and means lots of different things to lots of different people. It can be just as easily weaponised by those on the left as by those on the right. For some, there’s no such thing. For others, hate crimes are happening every moment of every day and we need to use the laws of the land to make it stop.

Thought police?

From a Christian perspective, what makes the debates around hate crimes so intriguing is the extent to which they seek to regulate our thinking. By its very nature, hate crime require a collective agreement on what’s right and what’s wrong. Otherwise, how can the state pass laws that criminalise one school of thought over another? But what’s the basis for deciding what’s right or wrong?