When daylight-saving time ends in October, be prepared to set your clock back one hour and 23 years.

After all, it just might be 1984.

The haunting George Orwell novel 1984, after all, predicted a future in which Thought Police were sent by Big Brother government to punish the wrong kind of thinking.

Indeed, Orwellian tactics may be coming to a Congress near you: The U.S. House on Thursday passed the innocently named "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act," which would essentially criminalize politically incorrect thought about homosexuality by enhancing penalties for crimes involving sexual orientation or gender identity.

Churches are particularly concerned about the bill, since it has the potential to render biblical teachings about homosexuality criminal.

Does it feel like the bill came out of nowhere? It did. It was fast-tracked by Congress, then largely ignored by the mainstream media. A check of the Google News Web site reveals that, at least in the run-up to Thursday's vote, it's mostly advocacy groups that have paid any attention to H.R. 1592, or its companion legislation in the U.S. Senate, S. 1105.

Similar hate-crime laws in other countries have been used to punish Christian thought - including England, Sweden and Canada, according to Christian author and activist Chuck Colson.

"The media's silence and the unprecedented speed of this legislation are not accidental," writes author Harry R. Jackson Jr. of Hope Christian Church in Washington, D.C.

"The true intent of the legislation is not to punish what is already illegal," says Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. "It is to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality.

"That means that as a Christian - if you read the Bible a certain way with regard to morality - you may be guilty of committing a 'thought crime.'"

Under the bill, the Virginia Tech massacre would be a federal hate crime only if it involved, for example, transgendered victims, says Focus on the Family's senior vice president of government and public policy, Tom Minnery.

Setting up special classes of victims is bad enough, but for the law to attempt to punish thought is frightening - Orwellian.

We also believe it happens to be unconstitutional - particularly if it infringes on religious beliefs.

We're confident a reasonable court would strike such a law down.

But we're hopeful either the Senate or the president won't give the courts that chance.