Now praying gets 7 Christians arrested

[Soldier4Christ]

Now praying gets 7
Christians arrested 
Cops call holding Bibles while
lying prostrate 'disturbing peace'

Christians have been arrested recently at "gay" festivals for nothing more than having a protest sign that is "wider than their torso," but now police have gone even further, targeting Bible-carrying ministers for praying on public property and for standing on a public sidewalk near a "gay" festival.

One of the new cases comes from Elmira, N.Y., where police arrested seven Christians who went into a public park where a "gay" fest was beginning and started to pray, faces down, while holding their Bibles.

They were cited for "disturbing the peace," and Assistant Police Chief Mike Robertson told WND that the seven are accused of a "combination" of allegations under that statute, which includes the "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."

The second such case arose in Wichita, Kan., where police arrested Spirit One Christian Center Pastor Mark Holick, who had received permission earlier from officers to be on the public sidewalk adjacent to the park where the festival was occurring but then was arrested doing exactly that.

Julian Raven, a street preacher, told WND his group of seven assembled to pray for three hours the night before Elmira's recent "pride" festival in promotion of the homosexual lifestyle.

"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."

He said he contacted police, who told him he had no free speech rights in the public park.

"The female officer, she said, '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,'" he told WND.

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

Raven said he told the officer "she was violating the Constitution that she had sworn to uphold, and she was very agitated and adamant, and couldn't look me straight in the eye."

Raven asked for the justification for such a threat and was not given a response.

He said his team of Christians then went into the park, holding Bibles over their heads to signify their subservience to God's Word, and lay on their faces to pray.

Within three minutes, police officers had put handcuffs on the seven, to the cheers of the homosexual crowd, he said.

He said a court date is pending for the seven July 23.

"I have the highest respect for the police officers. They have a very difficult job to do. But we were treated unfairly in a public setting. This was a hasty show of force. It was not called for," he said.

He said if the situation is left unchallenged, the city of Elmira will be in the position of being able to control the content of people's messages in a lawful assembly – or even thoughts if they are nearby.

"We didn't say boo to a goose, still we were arrested," he said.

The local newspaper reported the arrests came just "moments" after Elmira Mayor John Tonello delivered a speech "celebrating diversity."

And the actions prompted some immediate criticism from newspaper readers.

"I was appalled and disgusted by the gay stories strewn through the … paper. … What was even more disturbing was the way the city acted. Since when is it illegal to sit on the ground in a public park and recite Bible verses? Are they not protected by the same Constitution that allows gay people to have their gay pride event. These Bible thumpers had their constitutional right to free speech and assembly trampled on by the city. They should not have been arrested," said Kevin Raznoff.

Robertson told WND the Christians "certainly" have a right to assemble, but not on public property when there's an "organized" event there. Asked repeatedly about how the "disturbance" statute relates to First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, he did not answer.

"Obviously, they caused a disruption to an event that was taking place," he said.

But Raven confirmed to WND the seven Christians did not approach a single person, did not speak to anyone and did not even make any audible statements until after they were arrested.

Pastor Holick's case in Wichita was even more drastic. He had gone, with a team from his church, to pass out flyers and pray at a recent "pride" festival held there.

He had checked with the police department and was told, "The sidewalk is your friend."

"Upon arriving we began to set up," he said. "Immediately, I was approached by WPD and told that we could not go into the park (a public park mind you where everyone else – except the Christians – was allowed in) and that we could not be on the sidewalk on that side of the street but that we could go to the other side of the street.

"In other words, one side of the street is open to Christians but the public park and the public sidewalk next to the park is not," he said.

But then Holick was arrested within about four minutes of his arrival.

"It is obvious that the WPD did not keep their word and that they wanted to arrest as quickly as possible. The First Amendment … was cast aside like so much garbage," he said.

"The sin is 'coming out' further and further and the church is now being pushed further and further back inside the four walls of the church building; we are the ones that are seen as 'the trouble makers.' The police arrest the Christians and allow all manner of perversion to flaunt itself in the streets of Wichita. And we the church … well … I'm not sure we care," he said.

Police alleged that they asked Holick five times to "leave" the festival, even though he never purchased the required admission fee or went in.

As WND reported , Holick already had been targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for the moral statements he posted on the church's sign.

The notice he got from the IRS warned him about putting his Christian beliefs on the sign, and he responded that he would continue to preach the Word of God.

Just a week earlier, WND reported police in St. Petersburg, Fla., arrested five Christians for carrying signs "wider than their torsos" outside an officially designated protest area at that city's homosexual festival.

Pastor Billy Ball, Assistant Pastor Doug Pitts, Frankie Primavera and Josh Pettigrew, all of Faith Baptist Church in Primrose, Ga., were arrested after leaving a small area set aside by city officials for protest activities. Bill Holt, of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Jefferson, Ga., was also taken into custody.

According to Lighthouse Pastor Kevin Whitman, the five men were told by police their signs were not allowed outside the protest area because they were wider than their torsos. When the men refused to put them away, they were arrested for violating a controversial city ordinance that governs permitted events.

As WND reported, St. Petersburg officials, following disturbances at a previous homosexual pride festival, implemented rules governing outdoor events that set aside "free speech zones," where protesters are allowed.

The resulting ordinance came under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance Defense Fund for being too broad. It allows the city to create prior restraints of speech on an event-by-event basis, with virtually no predictable limits. It also criminalizes certain free speech behavior around public events and authorizes the police to enforce breaches of permits – the penalty for such breaches being arrest.

[Soldier4Christ]

IRS to church: Shut up. Church to IRS: No way
Pastor under investigation says he 'will not stop preaching God's word'


A Christian church in Kansas has told the Internal Revenue Service that it will not stop teaching and preaching God's Word, "even if it relates to contemporary issues in the world," after the federal agency demanded answers to 31 questions about its beliefs and warned about "political" activity.

Spirit One Christian Center Pastor Mark Holick told WND that the IRS, perhaps, should brush up on the freedoms assured U.S. citizens regarding religion and speech before making such demands in the future.

He said the issues the church addressed – and will continue to address – concern issues that the Bible addresses, such as killing and protecting the defenseless.

The response came to a series of questions from the IRS questioning whether the church was involved in "political" activity. In specific, Holick said, the IRS cited a sign that read: "Sebelius accepted $300,000.00 from abortionist Tiller, price of 1000 babies."

But that, he said, was just part of a responsibility on the part of a Christian church to comment on abortion, a red-hot topic in the church's home city of Wichita.

That's also the location of the abortion business of George Tiller, whose political connections in Kansas have been documented by Operation Rescue, a pro-life organization, and reported by WND.

A Christian organization needs to be able to talk of the moral issues of the day – including abortion, Holick noted. The sign just told of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' connections to the abortion industry.

Holick told WND that the IRS letter challenged a variety of the church's activities, including the posting of various pro-life messages on the building marquee.

"They felt like they had a reasonable concern that we had been involved in political activity," he said.

But politics are of no interest to the church; issues of moral character addressed in the Bible are, he said.

The church does not intend to engage in political intervention activity as prohibited by federal law and the United States Constitution," he told the IRS. "But the church will not stop communicating its Biblical message, even if it relates to contemporary issues in the world.

"Thus," Holick continued, "the church cannot agree to not engage in any activity that may favor or oppose a candidate. Simply preaching the word of God on a moral issue which a candidate is opposed, may be deemed to oppose a candidate. While it is the church's policy not to oppose or endorse a candidate for office, it will not stop preaching God's word."

He continued: "The United States Constitution guarantees that Spirit One will be able to freely exercise its religion, and that Congress will not pass any law restricting that right. This is all Spirit One wants to do – communicate God's word.

"The 1st Amendment of the Constitution is a respected and renowned oracle celebrated all over the nations of the world. It is quite specific and clear; 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...,'" Holick said.

He said the IRS also raised questions about a voter information guide that was handed out in Wichita, although his church did not sponsor it, as well as an abortion-issue related e-mail he had forwarded.

He said he didn't know who would have filed a complaint about his church with the IRS. "We're a very vocal pro-family, pro-life church," he said. "That creates enemies."

"These are not political issues, these are Gospel issues, Christian issues," he said.

He noted that the IRS even wanted to know whether Phill Kline, the Republican state attorney general who was defeated in his re-election bid in 2006, had ever spoken at the church, and what were the details of his address.

"It's crazy," Holick told WND.

"Please provide a detailed explanation of Mr. Kline's speech. Include details such as the topic of the speech, whether he solicited votes during this speech to the congregation, whether he discussed the election during the speech, and whether he discussed other candidates in the election during the speech," the IRS wrote.

"He ministered from the Bible, mostly the book of Genesis, and on truth. He did not speak about elections or political candidates. But because it was so long ago (2003 and 2004), the church does not remember any more specific details," Holick responded.

To another question about whether certain signs were "political," Holick wrote:

"The signs were not political activities, but rather, were examples of how Spirit One communicates its religious message. The signs all pertained to respect for life and family, a key and fundamental teaching of the scriptures (see Ps. 139:13-15, Jer. 1:4-5, Lk. 1:41-44, Lk. 1:15, Ge. 25:23, Gal. 1:15, Ge. 1:27, Job 10:12, Pr. 24:11-12, Jr. 7:2, Jr. 22:3, 17, Ex. 23:7, Ex. 20:13, Rv. 21:8, Ge. 9:6, 2 Ki. 17:16-20, Jr. 32:35, Jr. 7:31, Mt. 19:5.)."

Holick said the congregation of about 100, meeting as a church for 16 years already, has been strong throughout the challenge by the federal government.

Holick also told the IRS that the signs all "are spiritual messages that communicate God's truth, or are directly related to messages in the Bible." And to the question "why," he said: "The purpose is to obey the Lord, proclaim His Word (the Gospel), and establish His kingdom."

"The following are just a few of the many Scripture references related to the purpose of the signs:

    -to lift up Jesus (Ps. 24:7-9)
    -to rebuke sin (Lk. 3:
    -to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:
    -to save babies (Lv. 20:1-5)
    -to be honest (Is. 59:14)
    -to take a righteous stand (Ps. 9:
    -to rescue the weak and needy (Ps. 12:5)
    -to demonstrate true religion by loving preborn neighbors (Jm. 1:27)
    -to call a wicked city to repent (Ex. 23:7)
    -to educate and inform about Jesus who IS truth (Jn. 14:6)
    -to obey the call to preach, including rebuking (Acts 16:10)
    -to stand in the gap against evil (Ez. 22:30)
    -to confront hypocrites (1 Ki. 18:17-18)
    -to confront immoral politicians (1 Ki. 18)
    -to declare the whole counsel of God (Jn. 14:26)
    -to disciple children (Pr. 22:6)
    -to save America (Dt. 28)
    -to stop the shedding of innocent blood (Jr. 22:17)
    -to not allow the city to be comfortable while babies are murdered (Pr. 1:32)
    -to glorify God (Ps. 86:12)
    -to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:
    -to make the Pastor’s calling and election sure (2 Pe. 1:3)
    -to work out the Pastor’s salvation with fear and trembling (Ph. 2:12)
    -to take dominion for King Jesus over this wicked city (Dn. 7:14)
    -to promote the fear of God, for it is the beginning of wisdom (Pr. 9:10)
    -to spark a Revival (Jl. 2:12-13)
    -to separate the wheat from the chaff in this church and other churches (Is. 40:24)
    -to obey Ephesians 5:11 and reprove the fruitless deeds of darkness (Ep. 5:11)
    -to act like a Christian (Jm. 1:27 – what the Bible calls true religion)
    -to train others how to act and speak (Jm. 2:22)
    -to expose and confront evildoers (Ez. 20:4)
    -to prophesy against wickedness (Is. 58:1)
    -as an act of worship (Jn. 14:15)"

[Shammu]

/This is happening more, and more here of late.  My prayers are with those arrested, for praying.

[ibTina]

a public park mind you where everyone else – except the Christians – was allowed in

Go ahead you ungodly people of this world ... keep on pushing out the Christians. We will soon be going to a place that YOU won't be allowed in!!!!!!!! When the Chruch is "Caught up" ... and all HELL has come full force on the Earth ... just remember those pesty Born Againers who tried to help you and pray for you! May God have mercy on your soul!

[Faithin1]

Each time I read stories of Christian persecution in this country, it seems almost unreal.  Who would have thought this would happen here?  More and more, everything praising God and His Word is considered 'hate' and everything endorsing immorality is embraced.  Then again, this shouldn't be surprising since the Bible has warned us of just these times.