This post from the Ashbrook Center blog “No Left Turns” tells us about our future under a liberally tolerant regime:
Free Speech and ?Liberal Tolerance?
A Christian preacher in England was arrested over the weekend for telling a woman that engaged him in conversation that he believed God disapproves of homosexuality. While the arrest alone is foolishly deplorable in a country nominally committed to free-speech, the details are more interesting.
[The preacher] was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or offering a “ticket to heaven” with a church colleague … when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith.
During the exchange, … he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness.
After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO [police community support officer] who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to [the preacher] and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language.
The street preacher said…: “I am not homophobic but sometimes I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”.
…the PCSO then said he was homosexual and identified himself as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria police. [The preacher] replied: “It’s still a sin.”
… Three regular uniformed police officers arrived …, arrested [him] and put him in the back of a police van.
First, what is a “police community support officer” and are tax-payers funding the local police’s “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaisons?” Second, is there any doubt that this PCSO is the one with the complaint, and not the woman he approached? Third, is there any doubt that the PCSO’s intention was to intimidate and silence the preacher because he personally disagreed, as a gay man, with the message? Fourth, does this arrest, and others like it, for simply having a conversation in public, not demonstrate the comparative weakness of personal liberty in the face of European-style liberal tolerance?
The Public Order Act was intended to curb rioters and (no kidding) football hooligans in England. It was immediately used by liberal activists, however, to target Christian groups for messages with which they disagree. Yet Democrats, inspired by such events, are staunch supporters of “hate crimes,” the conservative-talk-radio-targeting “fairness doctrine” and university “speech codes” – all intended to duplicate the European model in the U.S. This is not the “freedom” intended by the Founders.
