The move against Christianity in America continues.
The City of Buffalo, New York is now being sued after police are being accused of stopping a group of Christians from handing out Gospel tracts at a public event under threat of arrest. The incident took place at the 2011 Italian Heritage Festival where Gregory Owen, a friend and some of his family members were attending and handing out Gospel tracts. According to reports:
While handing out tracts to willing recipients on a public street during a public festival, Owen was approached by a police officer who declined to identify himself but told him that the Buffalo Police Department is “the law” and he should stop handing out tracts.
According to the lawsuit: “Subsequently, another police officer, Officer Slomka, arrived on the scene. She quickly informed Owen that they could not hand out tracts in the festival and explained that the prohibition was ‘by our orders.’ Owen asked for her name, and she replied: ‘Slomka, write it down.’ Owen advised that he believed the tracts to be free speech; nonplussed, Officer Slomka reiterated that they couldn’t hand out tracts there and had to go outside of the festival area to continue with their expressive activity.”
Then, “Owen inquired as to whether they would be arrested if they continued to hand out tracts in the festival area, to which, Officer Slomka replied: ‘Yes.’” (source).
The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal advocacy group that defends the right to free exercise of religion for Christians, is representing Owen in the lawsuit. “The Constitution and court precedent in these types of cases is clear: Officials cannot toss someone out of a public event simply because they don’t like the views he’s expressing,” said Nate Kellum, the lead attorney on the case. “This is a classic example of free speech that the First Amendment protects.”
According to the complaint, while Owen and his friends were being reprimanded by police officers other people at the Festival were distributing non-Christian literature and fliers freely to the people who walked by, with no interference from police. The officers explained that by giving out Christian materials, Owen was violating the permit granted to the Festival organizers. The Alliance Defense Fund disagrees with this point strongly:
“In truth, the city issued a non-exclusive use permit to festival organizers that does not prohibit members of the public from exercising their free speech rights protected by the First Amendment. The event was free and open to the public, and the street remained at all times a public thoroughfare.”
ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs argued “exercising your constitutionally protected free speech rights is not a crime.”
“Threatening to arrest Christians simply because they choose to exercise those rights in a public place is a clear violation of the First Amendment,” he said. (source)
Eventually Owen and his group had their tracts taken from them and were ordered to leave the event altogether (a video of the incident can be seen here). This is just the latest in a series of incidents where the religious freedoms of Christians are being threatened. Pray for the success of the Alliance Defense Fund in their suit against the city of Buffalo and for Christians like Gregory Owen to continue to stand for the faith and share the good news of forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Jesus Christ.
The persecution of Christians is now clearly coming to the shores of America. Spiritual forces of darkness are inciting and inspiring unprecedented hostility against Jesus Christ and those who adhere to Biblical teachings. Church denominations disagree over many aspects of the Bible but there is no confusion as to what is the primary mission of every Christian on the planet: sharing The Gospel. It is on the shoulders of the saints of The Lord Jesus Christ to tell people all over the world the good news that Jesus Christ came to die and take the punishment for the sins of humanity and through faith in Him, any person, no matter how great their sin, can be forgiven and receive eternal life. So if you are a Christian, have you been sharing the Gospel? Have you let people in your home, school or job pass by without letting them know that without Jesus Christ they face an eternity in Hell because of their sins? Let this event be a time of self-reflection on what Jesus said before returning to Heaven:
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. -Matthew 28:18-20
@Beginning and End. It’s nice to have a new article from you.Thank’s for posting this.
Thanks JW. I took a much needed vacation but am back and rejuvenated. There will be new articles every day this week. God bless.
Yes thank you B&E for your articles and am looking forward to reading more. I was wondering if maybe you could do an article on demon possession and these new drugs causing people to eat people. I’ve been to other sites and everyone seems to hint around by saying its evil but not many are saying that it is possession Even the folks who use these drugs (bath salt,cloud 9, k2 etc..) say that they have no control and that the devil is inside them. I’d love to post this link or show others what the Bible says about in your style of writing.
Done!
https://beginningandend.com/zombie-apocalypse-rise-of-demonic-possession/
You have to wonder the spiritual and moral dilemma these people (law enforcement officers, etc.) face when it involves carrying out their orders and duties in situations such as this. I don’t claim to know the personal religious beliefs of everybody on the planet; but I imagine a good portion of police officers might be Christians themselves, and then they are faced with the heartwrenching decision of either carrying out their orders from their superiors, or risk losing their law enforcement careers if they choose to take a stand and not interfere. I’m sure some of them, on an occasion or two as civilians, have handed out Gospel tracts themselves; but now, ironically, in their capacity as officers of the law, they’re being ordered to stop others from doing the same.
Talk about a spiritual and emotional quandary. You know: “Am I willing to ignore my orders and look the other way because I don’t want to prevent another person from knowing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Or do I go ahead and just carry out my orders so that I can keep my job?” I guess they will have to decide who they are more willing to obey: God or men?
Jesus told the rich man to go and sell all his belongings. Christians have to always be willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. And I can’t imagine a higher honor than being asked to give up something significant, like my job or my life for Christ. We have to be willing to – and without complaint or whining.
@YouNeedSchooling. I’m just wondering,do you have any friends or family who are police officers?Or were police officers?The only reason why Iam asking you this is because some of the comments that i read from you,makes me think that you don’t mess around when it comes to anyone doing anything or trying to do anything that will prevent the word of God from being heard.But with this article it seems like you’re giving these officers the benifit of the doubt.
Thank you for your reply, JW. I apologize if my comment seems to imply that I’m giving police officers the benefit of the doubt; I’m not hardly giving them the benefit. I don’t know any police officers personally, but as society moves further towards an inevitable police state, and particularly towards increased persecution of Christians, I’m only curious as to how many police officers (and even members of the armed services, too), if they are of the Christian faith, would be willing to resign their commissions in law enforcement to take a stand against persecution of other Christians, because really, this is all that this is – persecution of Christians and infringing upon our First Amendment rights to free speech/to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don’t know if all police officers are Christian, but I imagine some are, and the irony of them being ordered to impede the religious freedoms of other Christians is what is interesting and thought-provoking to me – hence my question: Who are they more willing to obey, God or man?” At some point or other in our lives, we’ll all be faced with this particular question, and it does interest me to know how individual members of our police forces would choose. This is the dilemma that I was speaking about in my first comment.
@YouNeedSchooling. Thank’s for going into more detail about what you meant.Now, I kind of understand where you were coming from in your first comment.
I’d just like to pass on another way to help spread the gospel and it’s simply this:-
Include a link to an online gospel tract (e.g. http://www.freecartoontract.com/animation) as part of your email signature.
An email signature is a piece of customizable HTML or text that most email applications will allow you to add to all your outgoing emails. For example, it commonly contains name and contact details – but it could also (of course) contain a link to a gospel tract.
For example, it might say something like, “p.s. you might like this gospel cartoon …” or “p.s. have you seen this?”.
Some police officers might feel Bible tracks are unnecessary. Some police officers might feel Bible tracks increase the level of social chaos. Sometimes Bible tracks are used by criminals to accomplish various crimes. However, Bible tracts are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The festival is one more example of how Americans are gradually losing their free speech on any topic from traffic tickets to food buckets to ObamaCare to just about anything. My best friend is afraid to talk on the cell phone because of the NSA issue etc… What if…some people were passing out Scientology literature at the festival? What if…some people were passing out literature on the future of gay rights? If appropriate, Bible tracks should be legal too. If not, what is happening to free speech inside the borders of the United States?