Organized by the left-leaning Interfaith Alliance and Fellowship of Reconciliation, this protest was supposedly aimed at simple hate and violence. Many could even be called far-left. It was a not very deeply disguised effort to stigmatize conservative and traditional religious beliefs as the torpid spawning waters of prejudice and violence. Religious Left groups comprised the majority of the anti-hate coalition. The America described the anti-hate coalition is quite an ugly one.
Violence inspired by that hatred is rampant in our midst.
The Rev. Steven Baines of the Equal Partners in Faith agreed. The killers of young Shepard were bar lizards, not altar boys. Their apparent objection to Shepard's homosexuality, if in fact that was their motive, was not likely based on anything they overheard in a church. They obviously were ignorant of, or indifferent to, basic Christian teachings about human decency, as found in the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. Thanks, but no thanks.