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(Los Angeles, California) A conservative Christian group says it has been vindicated by an ABC news program that claimed Matthew Shepard's death was not a hate crime.
Focus on the Family is demanding an apology from NBC News "on behalf of Christians disparaged by Today show co-host Katie Couric's 1998 insinuation that biblical principles incited the murder".
FOF, which condemns homosexuality, opposes same-sex marriage, and has worked to block the inclusion of gays and lesbians in hate-crimes laws nationwide, says it is making the demand "in light of Nov. 26's report on ABC's "20/20" debunking the longstanding characterization of the slaying as an anti-gay "hate crime."
"When Katie Couric took to the air in the days after Matthew Shepard's tragic murder to suggest that groups like Focus on the Family were somehow responsible for the killing, it was religion- baiting at its worst," said Don Hodel, president of Focus on the Family. "There never was any evidence to support her outrageous implications -- in fact, there now seems to be evidence contradicting them.
"To suggest that the scriptural standard on homosexuality leads to murder was unconscionable then -- and it's all the more unconscionable now in light of the revelations of ABC's report."
In a letter to NBC News President Neal Shapiro, Hodel calls on the network to apologize
"Our faith tells us that same-sex marriage and other policies that tear down the traditional definition of the family undermine the fabric of our civilization," Hodel wrote. "But just because we are opposed to efforts to normalize homosexuality does not in any way mean we are antagonistic to the people involved in homosexuality -- or that we believe or encourage others to believe that violence against homosexuals is acceptable. Our Christian beliefs mandate a different response, one centered in love for the individual, as well as in moral truth."
An apology is in order, Hodel added, because "there are millions of Christians who watch NBC, and they deserve more than this network's reckless contempt."
But the ABC 20/20 report has been discredited by those connected to the prosecution of two men serving double life sentences for the killing.
Police officers and the district attorney who prosecuted the case say the pair admitted at the time of their arrest that Shepard had been targeted because he was gay.
The program has also been sharply criticized by Matthew Shepard's parents.
There has been no response from NBC to the FOF demand.
©365Gay.com 2004
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