Last week we looked at the foolish and dangerous law signed by South Dakota Kristi Noem that incorporates the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) “working definition of antisemitism” into state law. According to the IHRA’s definition, “claims that Jews kill[ed] Jesus” are considered antisemitic.
The problem with this is that the Word of God clearly and repeatedly teaches that the Jews did, in fact, kill Jesus Christ. Stephen the deacon went even further in his description of the Jews who put him on trial. He called the “betrayers” and “murderers” of Christ. Any law that criminalizes, or, potentially criminalizes, teaching what the Word of God says is unjust, as it contradicts the Word of God. Thus, there are good reasons for opposing South Dakota’s “model legislation,” which the Governor says will be replicated in states nationwide.
Now I doubt the South Dakota state police will be kicking down church doors next Sunday and dragging Christian ministers out of their pulpits for preaching from Acts 7:52. More likely, the South Dakota law will function similarly to a law recently passed in Georgia. There, Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill in January of this year. According to one of the supporters, “the definition will only come into play after someone has committed a crime.” [1] This is still objectionable, dangerous, unconstitutional, and unchristian as it criminalizes speech, if only indirectly, and is, in my opinion, designed to conceal the tyrannical intent behind such laws of attacking the First Amendment, if only indirectly. But who’s to say charging Christian ministers for preaching the Word of God is not the end goal of those who promote legislation of this sort? Given the attacks on free speech throughout the West, preventing Christian pastors from honestly teaching about the role the Jews played in the murder of Christ may very well be the end goal of those who lobby for such legislation.
Lux Lucet 