That doesn’t figure …

I read with disdain Mr. Dana Kelley’s assessment of the lack of hate crimes in an FBI report. There is a very old saying that “figures don’t lie; liars figure.” In this case, the figures don’t tell the whole story.

Hate crimes in our country are only those that get reported, fall into a very narrow scope, and are violent. To most, hate crimes cover a vastly larger scope and are not necessarily violent.

What about all the suicides based on bullying and persecution due to gender preference? These do not fall under the label of hate crimes researched and reported by the FBI. What about the hundreds and probably thousands of hate crimes that are not reported? Was some modicum of weight given to those in the FBI report?

I fail to see why anyone would not pass anti- discrimination laws against any legal segment of society today. In the state of Arkansas, you can refuse housing and jobs to a homosexual without legal recourse. Using religious grounds in not passing an anti- discrimination law is ludicrous. How can any government authority pick and choose which sin to discriminate against? Divorced people remarrying disgusted Jesus Christ. I don’t see any photographer, baker or florist refusing service to those marriages. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that if you do business with a sinner, you condone the sin.

Although Mr. Kelley did not cite biblical precedence, he needs to get a grip on reality and quit trying to make the lack of respect for all an accepted tenet of our society. JOHN MATTHEWS Bella Vista