Court tries to silence Christian response to Homosexuality
WEYBURN, Saskatchewan, March 1, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After this week’s Supreme Court ruling finding him guilty of “hate speech,” Canada’s most controversial Christian activist says he will continue publicly witnessing against homosexuality.
Bill Whatcott plans to hand out flyers March 6 warning of the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle. “I do believe God wants me to [do it],” he told LifeSiteNews.com.
Though his message has won widespread scorn, even among many faithful Christians concerned about his strident language and tone, Whatcott insists that his message is not motived by hate but by Christian love. Before giving his life to Christ, Whatcott had used homosexual sex to pay for his drug habit.
The activist knows handing out the flyers next week could result in legal action and that this time there is no higher court in the land to which he could appeal.
But he says he is accountable to a higher judge and that he is not the first Christian to face persecution for unpopular beliefs, pointing to the Christians who suffered loss of freedoms under the Eastern Block.
Whatcott called the Supreme Court decision a “dark day for Canada.” He said that he had been hoping that his case would “give the gift of religious freedom to this country” but that the Supreme Court justices instead chose “sexual anarchy over truth.”
In an unanimous decision, the judges decided that two out of the four flyers that Whatcott handed out in 2001-2002 contained speech that would expose homosexuals to hatred. In the flyers Whatcott used the words “filth,” “propaganda” and “sodomy” to describe homosexuality and gay activism.
Ezra Levant, a lawyer, political activist, and broadcaster for the Sun News Network slammed the ruling saying that it means that “it’s open season on Christians now.”
Whatcott said the decision will make many Christians “shut-up” about biblical views on sexuality and that “those that don’t are going to face heavy, heavy penalties.”
The Court ordered Whatcott to pay the Human Rights Commission’s legal fees, which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and to pay $7,500 in compensation to two homosexuals who were offended by his flyers.
But Whatcott told LifeSiteNews he will not pay the legal fees or fines.
After Wednesday’s decision, he told reporters that God and religion comes first for him.
“I have to follow Christ first. What I have said is true. There’s not a sentence that I retract, so likely future fliers will be more of the same,” he said.
The Christian activist is soliciting prayers from people of faith so that he will receive the spiritual support needed to get through this time.
