Stone the Preacher

A well-known street preacher has been convicted of two federal crimes for preaching the gospel on the public sidewalk outside Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

It was back on October 6 last year when Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America, was arrested by National Park rangers for refusing to leave the public sidewalk outside the Liberty Bell Center. He explains what happened:

“I was instructed that I needed to go to the ‘free-speech zone,’ which was on the other side of the Liberty Bell Center, away from the people that we were attempting to speak with and reach with our [gospel] tracts,” says Marcavage. “This was a main thoroughfare where there are, throughout the day, thousands of people that pass by. So this was a prime location for us to be able to witness to as many people as possible.”

On Friday, Marcavage was convicted of two federal offenses, fined $445, and ordered not to return to the National Independence Historic Park for a year without first notifying Park Service officials and obtaining a permit if he planned to engage in any evangelistic activities. Read the rest here at OneNewsNow!

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An organization is taking up a battle in favor of a U.S. Marine who was sent home from an assignment in Iraq because he handed out coins with a Christian message to Muslims in Iraq.

The organization is Christian Freedom International whose president, Jim Jacobson, says the Marine distributed coins with the words of John 3:16 on one side. The other side asked, in Arabic, the question: “Where will you spend eternity?” The soldier is now on home turf awaiting further word on possible punishment. Read the rest here from OneNewsNow.

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The Alliance Defense Fund continues to challenge an Ohio university’s policy that silences Christians on school grounds.
In October 2002, Jim Gilles was witnessing on the campus of Miami University when he was approached by security officers, who told him that without a permit, free speech was not allowed throughout the entire university. Click here to read the rest from One NewsNow!

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Philadelphia-based street preacher Michael Marcavage has been found guilty of disorderly conduct for proclaiming the gospel in Salem, Massachusetts.

Marcavage is president of Repent America, a ministry that calls America back to its Christian roots. On Halloween night last year, Marcavage was street preaching in Salem, a community also known as “Witch City.” Marcavage was eventually arrested after police charged him with using an amplified megaphone to preach. The charge was later dropped, after lawyers argued that he was arrested before 10:00 p.m. — the hour when the noise ordinance takes effect. However, the Christian activist was found guilty of disorderly conduct. Click here to continue reading!

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The police department in Hastings, Nebraska, has been forbidden by a federal court from interfering with Christians witnessing on public sidewalks. 

Kevin Pulver just wanted to stand on a public sidewalk adjacent to Hastings College and share his faith with anyone who was interested in listening. But according to Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Nate Kellum, local authorities objected to Pulver’s presence and his message.
 
“He met much resistance from the Hastings Police Department,” says Kellum. “They came out there no less than 13 times, coming up with various reasons as to why he could not be there, and finally they threatened him with arrest if he continued to express his faith in public.” To continue reading, click here!

A Texas man can once again freely witness at a public transit station after being told by police that he would first have to buy a ticket if he wanted to share the gospel. Click here to read the rest!

The director of Christian activist group Repent America will be arraigned today in a Philadelphia courtroom on charges of unlawful preaching. Michael Marcavage had been preaching to people on a public sidewalk outside the Liberty Bell Center this past October when he was arrested by officers from the National Park Service. The arrest came after he refused to move to a so-called “free-speech zone” across the street from the building housing the Liberty Bell. The incident occurred during Repent America‘s annual pro-life evangelism tour, and according to Marcavage, he was just exercising his constitutional right to free speech.”It’s a very dangerous case and another example of how our nation is headed down this path of destruction when people are not free to speak,” he cautions. “Then we find ourselves in a society in which we’re no longer enjoying the liberties God has bestowed upon our nation.” And it is ironic, he adds, that his right to free speech was challenged in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American freedom.The chief ranger at the site told Marcavage that due to policy changes, freedom of religion and speech are prohibited anywhere on the public park grounds without a permit, and only then if in the free-speech zone. From OneNewsNow.com

Beginning in 2009, the national motto “In God We Trust” will return to the front or back of the $1 coin.

According to the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan, newly minted $1 Presidential coins — under a 2005 law — had relegated the phrase “In God We Trust” to the “virtually unreadable edge of the coin.” The result, says the legal group, is that the national motto “appeared to be merely scratches on the edge, unless one looked for it with a magnifying glass.” But President Bush recently signed into law a massive omnibus spending bill that included legislation returning the national motto to the face of the coin. The “In God We Trust” provision was sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and newly appointed Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi). (Read the rest here from OneNewsNow.)
Read my previous article about this called “The USA: Unsalty. Silent. Apostate.” here.

An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund says a small Georgia town is being targeted by a liberal group that is trying to intimidate city officials into removing a nativity scene.

Representatives of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) are offering to defend officials in Dallas, Georgia, against a threatened lawsuit from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Senior legal counsel for ADF, Mike Johnson, says the liberal group is trying to bully small towns into banning Christmas. (Read the rest here.)

Attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund are offering free legal assistance to officials in a small Arizona community who were threatened with a lawsuit over the town’s Christmas tree.

City leaders in Queen Creek have replaced the name “Christmas” with “holiday” on the community tree after a liberal legal group threatened a lawsuit over the use of “Christmas.”
(Click here to read the rest!)

A businessman cited for displaying a gospel message on his own property is suing the town of Gouverneur, New York, accusing it of violating the U.S. Constitution’s protection of free speech and private property rights.

Daniel Burritt placed the evangelistic message on a trailer located on his commercial property adjacent to U.S. Route 11, and was issued a criminal citation for violating a local ordinance that allegedly requires a permit to display such a message.
(Read the rest here from OneNewsNow)

A strip club owner in Ohio is pursuing legal means to stop the campaign of a local church whose members witness to patrons coming to visit his business.

“Foxhole” owner Thomas George has accused New Beginnings Ministries of harassing patrons, and even causing an explosion outside his property — while law enforcement just looks on. The church’s pastor, William Dunfee, says the federal lawsuit’s charges are over-exaggerated and reflect the desperate attempt by George to stop the effective outreach of parishioners who have helped to bring the club’s business in New Castle and Coshocton County to a trickle. Click here to read the rest from OneNewsNow!

A Colorado city is considering a plan that one attorney calls the epitome of the war against Christmas.

Tonight, the Fort Collins City Council will meet and decide the fate of a task force report that urges the city to decorate with white lights, winter symbols not traditionally associated with any particular holiday, and unadorned garlands of greenery. City staffers are also encouraged to remove ornaments or stars from trees and red ribbons from wreaths. (Read the rest here.)

A Gideon member who was threatened with arrest while handing out Bibles near a Florida public school has been granted a preliminary injunction by a judge in a federal civil lawsuit. The motion will allow Thomas Gray to freely witness and hand out literature in a disputed 500-foot zone around the school.

Gray was handing out Bibles on a public walkway inside the alleged zone outside of Key Largo school in January, along with Gideons International team members Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson when confronted by authorities. (Click here to continue reading.)

A Georgia judge has granted a preliminary injunction against a Cumming city parade ordinance after the jailing of a man who was distributing tracts and witnessing on a street corner. Click here to read the rest from One News Now.
Read the background here.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a man who was told by government officials that he couldn’t distribute gospel tracts at the Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Read the rest here.

An evangelist in Illinois is suing the city of Naperville for being ticketed while street preaching last month, allegedly because a sign he carried was a violation of an ordinance regulating street sign location.

In September, Elmer Joe Christopherson of Burning Hearts Outreach Ministries says he and his colleagues had been witnessing for about three hours before the incident occurred, and he had been using the sign the entire time.

“It’s a 4′ x 6′ sign on a twelve-foot pole. It said, ‘Lied? Stolen? Lusted? Abortion? Stop sinning. Call on the Lord Jesus and escape hell fire,” explains Christopherson. (Read the rest at One News Now here.)

Orange County, Florida, has settled a lawsuit with a woman who claimed her First Amendment rights were violated when county employees prohibited her from distributing religious literature in a local public park. Read the rest here.

A man who says his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested for passing out religious literature has filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Cumming, Georgia. His attorney says it’s an attempt to make sure the ordinance under which he was arrested is removed from the books.
 

This man was arrested for having a parade without a permit! Read the rest here!

Every now and then, there is some good news to report when it comes to our religious/free speech rights:

Florida Judge Dismisses Charges Against Gideons
Charges have been dropped against two individuals after they were accused of trespassing on a sidewalk outside of a Florida public school.
The two men had been handing out Bibles. (Read the rest here.)

Free Speech Back After Ordinance Withdrawn
A Jacksonville, Alabama, man who was prevented from speaking on a public sidewalk about his faith while using a speaker for amplification has won the repeal of a city ordinance that was responsible. The repeal was part of a settlement in the lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court over the incident. (Read the rest here.)

Judge Dismisses Charges in Case of One Man’s ‘Witnessing Parade’
Charges against a Georgia man have been dropped related to his witnessing efforts and distribution of tracts. A Forsyth County Superior Court judge agreed that a parade ordinance cited in the arrest of Frederic Baumann did not legally apply. Read the rest here.