(WND)—The United Kingdom is on the stunning precipice of making it illegal to deliver a “basic Christian witness” by preaching the Gospel and reading from the Bible.
And now it’s up to an appeals court to determine which direction the nation will move.
The situation comes in the case of a minister, Clive Johnston, who recently was convicted for preaching a biblical message on the edge of a pro-abortion censorship zone.
“This ruling sets a deeply troubling precedent. I was not protesting abortion. I was peacefully preaching the Gospel, reading from the Bible, and pointing people to the hope found in Jesus Christ,” Johnston said in a report at the Christian Institute.
“If this conviction is allowed to stand, it will signal that basic Christian witness and public expressions of faith can be criminalized simply because they take place in the wrong location.
“That should concern every person who values freedom of religion and freedom of expression, regardless of their views on abortion.”
The report said on appeal, his legal team will argue “the conviction represents a disproportionate interference with fundamental rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights and codified into U.K. law under the Human Rights Act, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of peaceful assembly.”
Simon Calvert, of the Christian Institute, explained, “This case was never about harassment or intimidation – nobody has alleged Clive Johnston engaged in anything close to this form of behavior. It is about whether the state can criminalize the peaceful expression of Christian faith in a public place.”
His warning? “The implications of this dangerous ruling reach far beyond one individual pastor in Northern Ireland. If public authorities can prosecute someone for reading the Bible and preaching on God’s love, then fundamental freedoms are at risk.”
Johnston is a former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland.
He was convicted on two counts under the nation’s “Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act” for holding an open-air service on the fringes of a buffer zone opposite Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital last year.
Key, however, is that he made no mention of abortion, there were no pro-life banners or posters.
Even so, he was found guilty of being “reckless” regarding its actions and whether they might influence someone going for an abortion.
On the fight, Samaritan’s Purse chief Franklin Graham said, “Pastor Johnston didn’t even mention abortion; he just preached the Gospel in a public space. I hope his legal team at @ChristianOrgUK will have success in appealing this. Religious freedoms are being threatened not only in the UK, but here in the US, Canada, and around the world.”
WorldNetDaily reported on his conviction that he was fined about $500 for his offenses.
Johnston was convicted by Peter King, a judge who ruled against allowing the Christian message from John 3:16, the Bible’s famous verse expressing God’s love for mankind.
Previously, Ciarán Kelly, the chief of the CI, said, “Despite assurances to the contrary when this legislation was being considered, we now see that an already controversial and deeply unjust law has now been selectively applied to criminalize gospel preaching. This is creeping censorship. If the ruling stands it will represent a shocking new restriction on freedom of religion and freedom of speech so we will be helping Clive to consider the options for appeal.”
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, which has been monitoring the case, said, “The United States is still monitoring many buffer zone cases in the U.K., as well as other acts of censorship throughout Europe. The UK’s persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech and religious liberty, but also a concerning departure from the shared values that ought to underpin US-UK relations.”
In the U.K., and the U.S. as well, pro-abortion radicals have insisted on censoring, literally shutting down, all speech that could be perceived as opposing abortion in vast swaths of public property around hospitals and abortion businesses.
There even have been cases where people were arrested for thinking thoughts about abortion in those speech-limited zones.
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