Stone the Preacher

Here is an article from the website of The Daily Pennsylvanian concerning the evangelists who were arrested while preaching outside a mosque on a public sidewalk that I posted on Tuesday. (Michael Marcavage, one of the evangelists arrested, contacted me personally about my post. See his comments from the Tuesday article here.)

Two evangelical Christian missionaries plan to file a federal suit against the University of Pennsylvania for what the missionaries said was an infringement upon their right to proselytize. Read the rest here.

***Here’s more info on the evangelists arrested at the Dearborn, Michigan Arab-American Festival. Hmmm, I’m beginning to see a pattern….

This falls into the “What did you expect?” category. For the record, I wouldn’t do what these evangelists did. What’s interesting is that one of the men in this group is a friend of mine, Mike “Mad Mike” Stockwell, who was profiled here a couple of years ago when I first met him at the Ambassadors’ Academy. (Read about him here.)

This is a press release from “Repent America,” so the coverage will be, of course, one-sided.

PHILADELPHIA - Two Christian evangelists plead “not guilty” yesterday to false charges relating to their arrest for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ at Philadelphia’s largest Islamic mosque over the Fourth of July weekend. Their case now heads to trial.

One of the nation’s top legal teams regarding civil and religious rights has stepped into a dispute stemming from an Arab Festival in Dearborn, Mich., where police are accused of enforcing Islamic law.

“Officers arrested four Christian missionaries and illegally confiscated their video cameras, which were recording the events surrounding their arrests,” said a statement today from the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Officials in the police department with the city of Dearborn declined to comment to WND.

But the law-center announcement said the incident has been described as “police enforcement of Shariah law.” The organization said it would represent the Christians.

“These Christian missionaries were exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently the Constitution carries little weight in Dearborn, where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center. Read the rest here.

A Wake-Up Call

Now read this perspective from Michael Youseff at OneNewsNow: Every freedom-loving person should be extremely alarmed at the dreadful trend of silencing Christians from the streets of London to the streets of Dearborn, Michigan.  In both places, Christians were arrested and imprisoned for preaching the gospel on public streets…in what Muslims considered to be Islamic territories. (more…)

Mall’s “Don’t Talk to Strangers” Rule
to be Argued Monday in Court of Appeals

Sacramento, CA – The California Court of Appeals will hear arguments Monday in a case testing the validity of a shopping mall’s attempt to prevent adult patrons from talking to each other about hot-button topics such as religion and politics.

The case arose after a youth pastor, Matthew Snatchko, was arrested at the Roseville Galleria Mall in 2007 for striking up a casual conversation with two other shoppers about faith. (more…)

A report from the front of England’s war on Christianity. Will America be her ally in this effort as well? If video won’t play then click here.

Read about what happened when I gave an “illegal”  invocation at a local City Council meeting.

Rancho Cucamonga, CA - A city in the greater Los Angeles area that sparked national outrage for its attempts to shut down a home Bible study has conceded defeat while hinting that it might try to shutter similar groups.

The City of Rancho Cucamonga had sent a letter to a small home Bible study, demanding that it stop meeting unless it secured a costly and potentially unobtainable permit that is not required of comparable non-religious gatherings in homes. After receiving a letter from Pacific Justice Institute – and negative publicity nationwide – the City has reversed course and dropped its enforcement action.  The Mayor and other City officials even visited the Friday night Bible study. Read the rest here from the Pacific Justice Institute.

Board members of the Poway Unified School District [in California] voted to appeal a ruling siding with math teacher Brad Johnson, whom the board ordered to take down two banners with references to God, including “In God We Trust” and “God Bless America.” Click here to read the rest.

Sacramento, CA - The California Court of Appeal is considering the constitutionality of a Sacramento-area shopping mall’s attempt to prevent adult patrons from talking to each other about hot-button topics such as religion and politics.

The case arose after a youth pastor, Matthew Snatchko, was arrested at the Roseville Galleria Mall in 2007 for striking up a casual conversation with two other shoppers about faith. Although Snatchko had first obtained the shoppers’ permission to broach the subject, a nearby store employee disapproved and called mall security guards, who arrested Snatchko. Criminal charges were later dropped, but attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute filed suit to challenge the mall’s tight restrictions on speech.

Under the mall’s rules, shoppers are not allowed to engage in conversations about potentially controversial topics like religion or politics, unless they already know the person they are talking to. Another mall rule bans the wearing of any clothing with religious or political messages. (more…)

EDINSON, N.J. — A court has issued an order dismissing criminal charges against a New Jersey man whom police arrested after he shared the Gospel on a sidewalk outside a public high school after the end of the school day. At the request of the principal of Edison High School, Robert Parker was taken into custody after his toe touched the grass on the school’s side of the sidewalk. He was charged with trespass and disorderly conduct.

“Christians shouldn’t be arrested and charged as criminals for expressing their beliefs on public property. They have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America,” said ADF-allied attorney Demetrios Stratis of Fair Lawn. “A person cannot be charged with a crime just because a school official has a complete misunderstanding of the First Amendment or doesn’t like what that person has to say. We are pleased that we prevailed in court in getting these unwarranted criminal charges dropped.” Click here to read the rest from the Allied Defense Fund.

NH Christians arrested, asked: ‘Where is your God now?’

State law against ‘unreasonable or loud’ noise used to arrest Christians sharing gospel but not enforced against town-sponsored concerts

HAMPTON, N.H. — Alliance Defense Fund allied attorneys filed suit Wednesday in federal court on behalf of two Christians arrested for sharing their faith and singing worship songs on a public sidewalk in the Hampton Beach area. Police arrested the two men, charging them under a state law against “unreasonable or loud” noise, but the law has not been used against other much louder activities in the very busy beach district, including bands sponsored by the village precinct to increase business in the area. —From the Alliance Defense Fund, Oct 8, 2009

A principal and an athletic director are facing criminal charges for a lunch-time prayer. Read the rest from OneNewsNow.

***Read about what happened when I prayed illegally at a city council meeting by clicking here.***

If you value the freedom of speech we have in America then please sign this petition from “Focus on the Family Action,” telling the representatives in Washington that you are against the “Hate Crimes” legislation that is currently up before them. Two bills, the Hate Crimes Act and ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) are both designed to ultimately silence any moral opposition to homosexual behavior – thus threatening our Christian beliefs.

If this passes, sharing your Christian faith might become illegal. Click here to read more and to sign the petition.

Last Tuesday I asked you to pray for a Messianic Pastor friend of mine, Rabbi Greg DeValera, as he was heading to Michigan to share his faith with Muslims in Dearborn. Here is the unfortunate result: 

DETROIT, MI - A federal judge has denied an evangelical group’s request for permission to hand out Christian literature on sidewalks at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Anaheim, Calif.-based Arabic Christian Perspective’s request for a temporary restraining order. The group describes itself in its court filing as “a national ministry established for the purpose of proclaiming the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims …(that) travels around the country attending and distributing Christian literature at Muslim festivals and mosques.” Read the rest here from OneNewsNow.

Archived here: (more…)

I have a friend, Rabbi Greg DeValera, who is a Messianic Jewish Pastor, and he’s heading to Dearborn, Michigan today to share his faith and pass out Bibles to the 300,000 Muslims living in the area, especially at an Arab festival in Dearborn. Read what he wrote to me:

We leave Tuesday morning with a large group from Arabic Christian Perspective (ACP) to head to Dearborn, but even before we board the plane, there is already trouble.

The City of Dearborn has informed ACP that we cannot distribute tracts and Bibles ALONG THE PUBLIC SIDEWALKS of the city around the festival area. Apparently some of the locals who have attended the festival in the past were offended by our activities and have convinced the police that our activities should be restricted. A Christian public-interest law firm sent a letter to Dearborn yesterday informing them of our constitutional rights to do what we plan to do. Nevertheless, the police dept has threatened to arrest us if we attempt to talk to Muslims and give them literature in the public, taxpayer-paid areas of the festival grounds.

Please pray for Rabbi Greg and his team.

A few years back I started a weekly column called “Lost Liberties” after a mission trip to China. I was amazed at the freedoms we have in America—freedoms taken for granted—that the Chinese don’t have to enjoy their Christian faith.

I would post various articles that showed the coming persecution in America and archive them for future reference. Unfortunately, my archive disappeared when the main source of these articles changed their name and website to ONE NEWS NOW, and I lost all the links.

I have noticed, however, that more and more articles of Christian persecution are appearing in many sources, so I am reviving this column again as an archive of the liberties we are losing as Christians in America. If you spot a ”Lost Liberties” article, please send it to me.

 Court Bans Bible from Kindergarten Show-and-Tell

NASHVILLE – Christian broadcasters have vowed to keep preaching the gospel regardless of social, political, or regulatory opposition.

At the first convention of the National Religious Broadcasters since the November election, NRB president Frank Wright said, “The proclamation of the gospel is now opposed at every quarter. In the political arena, in the cultural context, in forces of the regulatory arena and the legislative environment — all these forces today seem to be arrayed against the gospel.”

But Dr. Wright said the NRB board has issued a declaration pledging to “obey the command of Christ to preach the gospel, even if human governments and institutions attempt to oppose, constrain, or prohibit it.” Read the rest here from OneNewsNow.