The UK Government is continuing its war on words and they’re now setting its sights on those who verbally insult other people for the way they look.
UK Home Office shared a minute-long video on social media on Friday saying it is now a “hate crime” to insult someone’s appearance.
“No one should be abused and insulted because of the way they look,” Home Office tweeted. “If you are – it’s a hate crime.”
The video features a number of individuals with facial birthmarks, scarring and deformities recounting negative comments they’ve received because of their appearance.
“Every day we get abuse because of how we look. Why do people think that’s ok? We will fight until every person that looks different is free to walk down the street, post online, and live without fear.”
I get it! It’s absolutely appalling to insult anyone’s appearance, especially those who suffer medical abnormalities. But policing speech, criminalising words and protecting emotions will never be a proper solution to the problem.
It will never be a proper solution because hurtful words are merely a symptom to a deeper issue. And that’s an issue the government now refuses to acknowledge. Jesus said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
In other words, those who spit venom and vile insults do so, not because they have a mouth and word issue, but a heart issue. And that’s something the government simply cannot fix with legislation.
They’ll certainly try to suppress meanness with countless laws and threats of prosecution, but the underlying issue will always remain, and inevitably manifest itself elsewhere and in other ways, provided those threats are even taken seriously.
It’s been rightly said that dying societies accumulate laws like dying men accumulate remedies. But it wasn’t a multitude of laws or oppressive governments that made the West great. It was the two things many in the Western world are now waging war against, Christianity and personal liberty.
But when you drive out Christianity, when you persecute Christians and suppress the spread of the Gospel, is it any surprise you end up with a Godless and uncharitable society?