The persecution has begun

"Four Christians are facing up to 47-years in prison and $90,000 in fines
for preaching the Gospel on a public sidewalk, a right fully protected by
the First Amendment. On October 10, 2004, the four Christians were arrested
in Philadelphia. They are part of Repent America. Along with founder Michael
Marcavage, members of Repent America-with police approval--were preaching
near Outfest, a homosexual event, handing out Gospel literature and carrying
banners with Biblical messages.
When they tried to speak, they were surrounded by a group of radical
homosexual activists dubbed the Pink Angels. A videotape of the incident
shows the Pink Angels interfering with the Christians' movement on the
street, holding up large pink symbols of angels to cover up the Christians'
messages and blowing high pitched whistles to drown out their preaching.
Rather than arrest the homosexual activists and allow the Christians to
exercise their First Amendment rights, the Philadelphia police arrested and
jailed the Christians! They were charged with eight crimes, including three
felonies: possession of instruments of crime (a bullhorn), ethnic
intimidation (saying that homosexuality is a sin), and inciting a riot
(reading from the Bible some passages relating to homosexuality) despite the
fact that no riot occurred. " (excerpt from American Family Assoc. with permission)

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crabcake said:

That sounds a little extreme. Is there a link to read the rest of the story?

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crabcake said:

That sounds a little extreme. Is there a link to read the rest of the story?

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The police report filed by Chief Inspector James Tiano and Capt. William Fishersays the protesters blocked pedestrians from vendors and ignored orders by police attempting to ensure their safety when a crowd of 500 gathered around them.
A video of the protest shot by an independent filmmaker (which you can see at www.afa.net/clp/philly4.asp) appears to show conflicting police orders. It also shows a group of "Pink Angels" counter-protesters attempting to peacefully cordon off Marcavage's group and drown out their message.

One would think the experience of police action against protesters at the 2000 Republican National Convention (in which most charges were dismissed and the city eventually was forced to settle civil suits) might give the D.A. pause.

"As far as the convention is concerned, we believe those people were properly arrested and charged," said D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Abookire. "Every case is unique; every case has its own set of facts."

Abookire added, "We don't see [the "Outfest" case] as a freedom-of-speech issue at all."

We do. It seems to us the D.A. must prove that the actions of the Christian protesters, no matter how repulsive, were, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, "likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance or unrest."

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Tonio said:

I doubt that the Philly police were deliberately harrassing Christians. True, the police force has a history of brutality and abuse of power, but usually targeted to black groups. Back when Frank Rizzo was commissioner and later mayor, he had a secret police force that targeted his political opponents.

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carolinagirl said:

I am all for free speech, but when we lived in NC we had "street preachers" on the downtown Mall and some of them were very hostile in their preaching and I found them very offensive. There were some that were fine, but I remember at least two guys that would actually walk up and get in front of people while they were walking and they would be hollering and basically calling them sinners to their face. I find that inapporpriate and un-christianlike!

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Tonio said:

I doubt that the Philly police were deliberately harrassing Christians. True, the police force has a history of brutality and abuse of power, but usually targeted to black groups. Back when Frank Rizzo was commissioner and later mayor, he had a secret police force that targeted his political opponents.

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2ndAmendment said:

Proclaiming the Gospel is not non Christian. Not proclaiming the Gospel is not Christian. And free speech is not only that which you agree with but also that which may be contradictory to your point of view.

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carolinagirl said:

Calling a person you know nothing about a sinner is un-Christianlike. None of us are free of sin and therefore you should not judge others, lest you be judged. I beleive you, described yourself as a work in progress earlier this week. So, I have no problem with someone preaching the gospel, but when you resort to calling people names I feel that is inappropriate.

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carolinagirl said:

Calling a person you know nothing about a sinner is un-Christianlike. None of us are free of sin and therefore you should not judge others, lest you be judged. I beleive you, described yourself as a work in progress earlier this week. So, I have no problem with someone preaching the gospel, but when you resort to calling people names I feel that is inappropriate.

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crabcake said:

I don't care what people are "preaching" in public; it's the worst way to try to gain my interest or support for your cause.

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2ndAmendment said:

Don't think I called anyone a name. Proclaiming that homosexual behavior is sin is not un-Christianlike. To allow or encourage someone to continue in sin is a problem.

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2ndAmendment said:

I don't think it is particularly effective either. Even posting here brings conflict and persecution although I have received several PMs asking to saying it helped them. So if my being here posting scripture helps just one person, it is enough.

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crabcake said:

But if that person doesn't believe the same thing/s you believe (which is likely the case here), they don't see homosexuality as a sin; thus, you're (not you, 2A, but the protestor) harrassing/offending them by shouting such in their faces. To me, it's no different than walking up to a black person, and calling them the "N" word.

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