Editorial by a conservative Christian paper on the sentencing of Aaron McKinney

1. Be certain to condemn the actions

1.1. Condemn all crimes of this type (beating, murder etc)

1.2. Say that this sort of thing should never happen; intolerable and he should indeed be punished

2. Hint at mitigating factors

2.1. Gay panic

2.2. How being gay is against 'God's word' (à la Fred Phelps, but much more muted)

2.3. Hint that it is not really a hate crime, just a crime

3. Diminish the landmark nature of the case

3.1. Say that gay people are trumping the motivations of the crime too far

3.2. Wonder why the murder should be any more important than a few of those that occurred at the same time (reference the Laramie Project to find what these murders were)

4. Audience

4.1. People who are on the fence about what sort of crime this is

4.2. Those who are somewhat shocked by the conservative Christian point of view.

5. Purpose

5.1. To defend the conservative Christian point of view and persuade others of it's correctness

5.2. While not to defend serious radicals like Fred Phelps, it is to say that being gay is wrong, no matter how serious the crime was