I agree with Graeme, Benji, and glomph
Exactly, a good analogy is that random acts of violence, like say a drive by shooting in which the perpetrator doesn't know the victim, is a hell of a lot scarier than say a drive by shooting in which the perpetrator is killing someone who slept with his wife, or got him fired, or whatever.
The reason is because it makes me (and others) think "It could have been me!" If someone is killed for a reason beyond their control it's scary. I can do my best to avoid becoming entangled with unstable, potentially homicidal individuals but there's nothing I can do if a random stranger wants to kill me. (I'm not saying it's the victims' fault at all, just that there's a little more warning and control that goes into it with the murderer is someone you know).
Similarly it's scarier if someone is just going around killing gay people. I'm gay and I cannot and will not/would not change that, but if I'm minding my own business I should be left alone!
There's a difference there, IMO. If the person threw a Christian (or atheist) in the toilet (or let's say the Bible for instance) simply because of their religious views that would be comparable, and I think they should receive the same treatment. Similarly someone who produced a "vulgar" work of art that seemed to be undermining any religion should potentially receive the same praise (based on merit of course).
Art is a more civilized, subjective, creative form. Personally a "Piss Christ" offends me as a Christian, but I don't equate it to someone making a big deal about throwing the Bible in a toilet.
I have no trouble ascribing a crime to what the perpetrator thought. To me it's all about motives. If someone backs over my cat I'm going to be really upset, but it's going to piss me off alot more, and I'm going to be spitting nails angry if the person did it on purpose to be malicious. Conversely if it was a total accident and the person is obviously sincerely sorry I'm still going to be sad, but I'm not going to be angry and I may very well try to make the person feel better and assuage their guilt.
Exactly, it's the same difference that's always existed between 1st and 2nd degree murder and manslaughter. We have a long history of saying "It's worse that you carefully planned this dude's murder" vs. "Your negligence resulted in this guy's murder and you're going to be punished but we'll take into consideration that you didn't mean to".
Motives are very important and crimes that affect whole classes of people are more serious. I've always held that the judicial system shouldn't be blind and completely objective; it needs to carefully weigh all the circumstances and decide on a case by case basis. No two crimes are equal.
Just my thoughts,
Kevin