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Christian Ministers Arrested for Praying Near Gay Fest
LifeSiteNews.com ^ | Tuesday July 10, 2007 | Elizabeth O'Brien

Posted on 07/10/2007 6:19:28 PM PDT by monomaniac

ELMIRA, NY, July 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Police arrested seven Christians who were praying prostrate and holding Bibles in a public park where a gay festival was just beginning, WorldNetDaily (WND) reports.

36-year old born again street preacher Julian Raven and his group called the "Magnificent Seven" came to pray at Wisner Park in downtown Elmira the evening before the Southern Tier Pride Festival. After telling the police what they were planning to do, the Christian group was informed that if they went ahead, they would be arrested.

When they tried to enter the public park, a female officer told them, "You're not going to cross the street. You're not going to enter the park and you're not going to share your religion with anybody in this park."

Raven told the officer that she was violating the Constitution. For the first time in his life as a Christian, he said, "I felt now my freedom of speech is threatened or challenged. I was being told I could not share my religion with anybody in that park."

According to their own account, without making any sound or approaching any people, the seven entered the park while lifting up their Bibles, lay face down on the grass before the stage, and were promptly handcuffed by officers in front of homosexual onlookers.

"We weren't protesting or trying to get arrested," Julian says in the Star Gazette. "We were there to pray for their sins. We planned to lay down, pray for a few minutes and leave peacefully. It wasn't our idea to disrupt the rally. But if it happens, it's out of our control."

Raven commented in WND, "We have a legal right to be at an event held in a public square. We're not a hate group," he said. "We're Christians and we're going to be there to pray."

Assistant Police Chief Mike Robertson said they were accused of "disturbing the peace" which includes "intent" to cause a public inconvenience, any "disturbance" of a meeting of persons, obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic, or taking part in "any act that serves no legitimate purpose," WND reports.

Another example of the growing public restrictions on free speech was the case of Pastor Holick in Wichita, Kansas. Holick was arrested only minutes after he and his church team arrived to hand out pamphlets on a sidewalk near the park where a gay fest was being held. Similarly, this June five members of the Faith Baptist Church were arrested in Petersburg, Florida, after carrying gay pride protesting signs that violated city regulations by being "wider than their torsos."

Read WorldNetDaily coverage: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56544

Read related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Freedom of Speech Rights for Christian Pastors Confronting Gay Pride Upheld in Pennsylvania http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052408.html

Media Labels Pastor 'Gay-Hating' for Preaching Against Homosexuality http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06091302.html

Attack on Religious Freedom Begins in Earnest in Canada - Battleground Homosexuality http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06100601.html

Christian Arrested for Distributing Bible Quotes Opposing Homosexuality http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/sep/06090703.html


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: christian; freedom; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; pastors; prayer
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To: Cicero

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,


21 posted on 07/10/2007 7:00:21 PM PDT by diverteach
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To: monomaniac

So - if it had been a Christian gathering in the PUBLIC park, and homosexual advocates decided they were going to go to the park and even quietly “protest” in whatever way they intend, would they automatically be barred from the Constitutional rights?

I doubt it...

Now - did this guy and his followers do this to get attention - quite possibly. But on the other hand, if all they did was enter the park carrying Bibles, lay down and pray (quietly at that), then exactly what law were they breaking?

If you don’t want the public to show up for your event, don’t have it in a public park.


22 posted on 07/10/2007 7:02:19 PM PDT by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

“How come Fred Phelps never gets arrested??”

I think he’s really working for the athiests. He obviously tries to make Christians look like jerks.


23 posted on 07/10/2007 7:21:01 PM PDT by keats5 (tolerance of intolerant people is cultural suicide)
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To: wayne_b24

No flameproof underwear needed here. But say that on DU on the other hand....

;-)


24 posted on 07/10/2007 7:21:44 PM PDT by SerpentDove (See you at the bill signing. NOT.)
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To: diverteach

To be more historically accurate, the first amendment outlaws establishment of religion by congress, and guarantees religious freedom unfettered by congress, but it didn’t at first prevent states like Massachusetts from establishing a particular religion within the state.

Christmas was outlawed in Massachusetts until late in the 19th century, and factory workers were forced to go to work on that day by their Puritan bosses.

But those few states which did that sort of thing gradually moved to imitate the religious freedom clause of the federal government. I believe that is true of New York.


25 posted on 07/10/2007 7:38:12 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: monomaniac

Free speech for me but not for thee...


26 posted on 07/10/2007 7:47:30 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: monomaniac

I’m glad Christian activists are doing more to confront anti-God, anti-American, anti-family, anti-decency, anti-freedom fags.


27 posted on 07/10/2007 7:54:49 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: SerpentDove

i agree with # 19
and our last 2 sermons were on Ephesians 6:11 - 19


28 posted on 07/11/2007 6:56:59 AM PDT by wayne_b24 (tag line in shop. this is a rental ... does it make me look fat?)
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To: ButThreeLeftsDo

Fred Phelps never gets arrested presumably because he flashes his ACLU card when approached by law enforcement personnel.


29 posted on 07/11/2007 6:59:00 AM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: wayne_b24

Thank you for the reference. Can’t get much plainer than that, can you? I particularly like the way it starts: “Woe to those....


30 posted on 07/11/2007 7:20:24 AM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: twonie

yer welcome.
see post # 16 for more info...


31 posted on 07/11/2007 7:24:24 AM PDT by wayne_b24 (tag line in shop. this is a rental ... does it make me look fat?)
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To: wayne_b24

“any act that serves no legitimate purpose.” Sounds like gay Marriage doesn’t it?
“You’re not going to share your religion with anyone in this park.” Those are the magic words by which the officer will be hung by.


32 posted on 07/11/2007 8:36:53 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: monomaniac

Being arrested in America for praying... something I didn’t think would happen in my lifetime.


33 posted on 07/11/2007 10:03:46 AM PDT by Kevmo (We need to get away from the Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party ~Duncan Hunter)
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To: Aria

Same with Rush Limppaw and Sean Mancandy. They don’t have the guts to talk about stuff like this either.


34 posted on 07/11/2007 10:08:23 AM PDT by stevio
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To: massgopguy

“You’re not going to share your religion with anyone in this park.”

that’s our whole job in life.


35 posted on 07/11/2007 10:45:47 AM PDT by wayne_b24 (tag line in shop. this is a rental ... does it make me look fat?)
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