The petitions ask President Bush to veto any “hate crimes” measure that reaches his desk and asks Sen. McConnell to build a coalition of senators to stop the legislation from ever reaching the President.

The petition delivery comes as Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) have attached a “hate crimes” amendment to the defense spending bill under consideration in the Senate this week.

The Kennedy-Smith amendment allows for enhanced penalties for crimes committed against victims, such as homosexuals, who, under the bill, are made members of a federally protected group. A House version of the bill passed in May, but did not garner enough votes to override a presidential veto.

Similar legislation has been used in countries such as Sweden and Canada to fine and arrest Christians for both preaching the Gospel and citing the Bible’s classification of homosexuality as sin. As such, the bill threatens both religious liberty and the Constitutional right to free speech.

If the measure becomes law, a pastor who opposes homosexual behavior could be prosecuted for what he said if someone in his audience attacked a homosexual. Dr. Kennedy has previously warned, “hate crimes” laws “could shut down churches and send pastors to prison for simply reading a part of the Bible.”

“This is the single most dangerous piece of legislation we have seen in the recent past, because of its threat to silence the Church on the subject of homosexual behavior,” said Jerry Newcombe, Senior Producer of The Coral Ridge Hour, CRM’s TV broadcast. “I shudder to think what the impact on free speech will be if this law is enacted.”

In response to the threat, CRM partnered with the Family Research Council this past spring to develop a special video, entitled Hate Crimes Laws: Censoring the Church and Silencing Christians. This groundbreaking video, available at www.defendthebible.org, peers into the destructive results of adopting “hate crimes” laws. It is hosted by FRC President Tony Perkins.

“Ultimately, ‘hate crimes’ laws pave the way to label the Christian message as ‘hate speech’ and lead to criminalizing Christians,” said Newcombe, co-producer of the Hate Crimes Laws video. “How can we as Christians get the vital message out that Jesus died to free us from the consequences of all our sinful lifestyles, when ‘hate crimes’ laws threaten to silence us? Now is the time to speak up, before we can’t speak at all.”

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Coral Ridge Ministries is the radio and television outreach of Dr. D. James Kennedy. Its programming reaches more than three million people weekly through more than 750 radio outlets and more than 600 TV stations.