At the end of April, the Scottish Government published its Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill which aims to modernise and extend the existing hate-crime law. The legislation as it is presently drafted introduces new measures that would bring in new offences of “stirring up hatred”. The current law covers only racial hatred but it is to be extended to include age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. The Bill is drafted in such a way that it will not be necessary to prove that an accused person intended to stir up hatred, it would only be necessary to prove that hatred, regarding a particular protected characteristic, is “likely to be stirred up thereby”.
During 2019 the Scottish Government held consultation meetings throughout the country, the purpose of which was to gather opinions from representatives of churches, social work, care workers etc, and feed them back to the legislators. The document under consideration provided the recommendations of Lord Bracadale, with accompanying explanatory notes, on which the proposed Hate Crime Bill was to be based. There was unanimity among the delegates at the meeting the writer attended in Glasgow that hate crime in any form should not be tolerated. However, it was made equally clear that freedom of speech should not be inhibited by any new legislation. Individuals ought to be at liberty to hold, and express, views different from someone else’s, or even the majority of people, without being accused of hatred. The civil servants who were present at the consultation took comprehensive notes and presumably relayed the discussions back to the legislators.
As Christians it is not difficult to see the potential threat that lies in a liberal interpretation of a hate crime. We already read and hear of people who are persecuted on social media for upholding biblical views of marriage and sex. Will this new legislation open up the potential for the prosecution of a minister for preaching scriptural truths about the current morass of morals, sexual orientation and unbiblical “marriage”? There seems to be a high degree of subjectivity in the statement that hatred is “likely to be stirred up thereby”.
Thankfully the Bill does contain protections for free speech. It permits criticism of religions, sexual conduct and other behaviour to which a Christian may be strongly opposed. Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Conservative MSP, has said, “It is precisely because in a free society, we need to protect people’s right to hold unpopular opinions and express them, and to say wrong things, that legislation on hate crime needs to be fair and balanced”.
We hope that MSPs will consider this new law very carefully in case it threatens our freedom to express our opinions fairly. Unless free speech is clearly and strongly safeguarded, there will be those antagonistic to scriptural truths who will chip away at free speech until condemning sin will become a breach of the law. If there is the slightest risk of such a thing, the questionable areas of the legislation should be redrafted, or the Bill thrown out. FRD