CHRISTIAN arrested for preaching bible at court house? What ever happened to freedom of speech?

I think it was dumb for them to be preaching at the DMV any way. If all they had to do was move to the side walk, and it would have been ok...Well maybe they wanted to be arrested. I don't know, it just seems pretty crazy to me.
Like why go out of your way to cause trouble in the first place? They had to of know it was against the law right

People need to learn the fundamentals of rights. If practicing your rights impedes or takes away someone else's it stops being a right.

It's like saying to protect your home and person it's okay to go around shooting would be thieves.

Another thing, the freedom of speech doesn't mean you can walk into any place and start preaching, shouting, yelling or being a general asshat.

It means you won't be persecuted for your views, opinions or prose. And you are able to express yourself in any forum which doesn't impede on someone else's rights.

If you stand on the highway stopping traffic, or decide to go into a crowded theatre reciting King James' version of Jack and the Beanstalk the bible, expect to get arrested.

If you do like the video in the OP, expect the same thing.

reply to post by Ex_CT2


Well we have heard two things....a court house (most people don't attend court with out being required, thus they are a captive audience and it certainly is state sponsored.) The DMV, which the video states clearly (most people are required to have some form of state sanctioned ID, they can only get it there and are again a captive audience.). So he is violating those people's rights as they are a captive audience. He was asked to leave and did not...which likely landed him a trespassing charge.

As someone else pointed out they were charged under cali penal code 602.1 which states in section (a)"and who
refuses to leave the premises of the business establishment after being requested to leave by the owner or the owner's agent, or by a peace officer acting at the request of the owner or owner's agent, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for up to 90 days, or by a fine of up to four hundred dollars ($400), or by both that imprisonment and fine." and again in section (b).

The crime occurred after they were asked to leave.

reply to post by 2WitnessesArrived


Well some people don't understand the g=v yet, that's it is. They can do whatever they want pretty much. No one has the power to change anything or do anything about it.

reply to post by ParanoidAmerican

Hmm.... Changing my response. I'm not sure whether that was a rebuttal of something I said. Sorry. I'm just not clear on whether we're having a disagreement of some sort, or what it might be....

reply to post by Ex_CT2

I see what you are saying...lol. Apologies. I misunderstood your reply and didn't read your first post.

reply to post by ParanoidAmerican


Ah. Thanks.

Also, I have reconsidered your earlier comment about separation of Church and State. I consider that if a government office were to allow the preaching to continue without interference, it could be construed as a silent assent, or even encouragement of religious activity on State property. Then the separation doctrine might apply. That could also be quite troublesome for the government.

Something to think about....

ETA. Up past my bedtime, as usual. No more for me....

reply to post by charles1952


Charles did you watch the video? If you had you wold see the officer had no choice but to cite them. As others have pointed out this video clip appears on here every so often. The police tried to explain what it is they were doing and why they couldn't and gave them a chance to just stop and go home. They were only charged because they chose to ignore what he told them and continue to create faux outrage.

reply to post by charles1952

Interfering by obstructing or intimidating? The business wasn't interfered with, no one was intimidated, no one was obstructed.

How can you be so sure, do you have a mental tap into those peoples heads? What if they were followers of another religion?

But.... to play that out to it's logical conclusion....

it's perfectly within my rights to stand infront of you in line and start droning on about how god is a lie, and a distraction used to keep you in line instead of thinking for yourself, and how religions have spawned countless wars and countless deaths, blah blah blah blah blah

Or I suppose I could attempt to be more offensive, as is my right apparently, to irritate and obstruct business in a government office.

This highlights an alarming situation. Using "freedom of speech" as a defense for spreading religion where it has no business being.

That said, I don't think the person should be charged with anything, maybe a ticket for public nuisance or something. I'd expect the same type of reaction if I were to stand in line at the DMV and make loud annoying sounds until they ask me to leave.

This is an example of what is soon to become world wide for all Christians who spread biblical testimonies for the sake of World Peace, One World Order, and One World Religion under the One World Church.

So this isolated incident in a single US city represents the entire globe, most of which isn't Christian? Wow. World peace? Really? By preaching hatred of those who don't believe what you believe, that's some how working towards world peace? Well, I suppose, there will be a peaceful period between the Christians killing/converting everyone over, and the time after when they start killing each other over petty differences.....

One world religion? HAH, good luck with that, you can't even accept basic scientific fact, why on earth do you assume Christianity would be able to merge with other religions? Oh, that's right, because you won't, the Christian goal, much like every other religion, is to assimilate or destroy.

One world order? Really? That's what you want? That's what most of us here are fighting against my friend, we don't want one world government, be it secular or dogmatic.

reply to post by 2WitnessesArrived


Interesting about the "captive audience" definition!

Jesus certainly interfered with normal business in The Temple when He chased out the money lenders. The early Christians interfered with normal business, like when Paul preached at the temple of Diana. There are many more examples.

Christian behaviour certainly does interfere with the normal business of this world.

In the U.S and Europe we are now in a kind of Marxist public environment. It is in the work place and public places, where a climate of sterility of spirituality presides.

Religions are not being tolerated like they used to be.

It is all a battle and always has been. We live in a political world! That is more corrupt than anything else, yet that is allowed in our lives. I wish politics could be termed as interfering with normal business because it surely does interfere with us all big time.

If any politician comes canvassing at my home am I allowed to have them arrested for interfering with normal business and trying to preach to me at my home address where I can not run away from?

We have to tolerate the politicians everywhere; in the newspapers, on the TV and all their ideology we are forced to accept as government of our very lives.

I peacefully resist their interference every day. It is not wanted yet I am FORCED to tolerate that.

Just making a point here!

reply to post by Revolution9


My own opinion is that these Preachers should not have really preached there. They should do as Jesus and His Disciples did and preach at public places where audiences are expecting that and looking for it.

For instance, Paul and Barnabas taught in the Synagogues and in the other temples where it was being done already; where that was the normal business.

The last thing any of us want is to be stuck in a crowd waiting to do stressful and bureaucratic things with that on top of it. I am one who does accept Jesus, too.

It was definitely provocative to do that in such a place.

reply to post by 2WitnessesArrived


Simple open and shut case of "Disturbing the Peace", if you ask me.

Disturbing the peace is a crime generally defined as the unsettling of proper order in a public space through one's actions. This can include creating loud noise by fighting or challenging to fight, disturbing others by loud and unreasonable noise (including loud music), or using offensive words.
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by charles1952

At least there's good publicity from it.

?? So an omniscient being that created everyone on the planet needs publicity ? What the cat got his tounge or something ?

I would be the first to defend this mans' right to believe what he wishes and speak of his beliefs, as long as he doesn't incite ,encourage, condone or indoctrinate harm or distress to others or become a nuisance in such a way that may cause a breach of the peace.

This I'm sure anyone would agree is quite a reasonable position to take, in fact many of our laws (in the eu and uk at least) do generally support this position.

The claim is, that these men were sharing something good with the strangers allthough without any invitation to do so . This in fact is a untruth as the video clearly shows the evangelists "Preaching" AT the strangers having "TOLD" them he would do so, and as the Police Officer rightly pointed out the strangers were in fact a "CAPTIVE AUDIENCE" .
Should any of the people stuck at the DMV find him or herself distressed by the Xtians this could well have resulted in some form of breach of the peace but the security guard rightly intervened and as we can see politely and reasonably asked the xtians to leave.

What was the response of the arrested xtian ?

SIR I'M GOING TO KEEP READING YOU GO AND DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

And as we saw the guard did what he needed to do and got the police to shift the arrogant bastard by arresting him.

Well good enough I say, people are sick and tired of delusional xtians disrupting their peace by trying to ram their bible down throats uninvited.

We also seriously need to consider what the xtians are trying to promote to captive audiences, particularly the young, uneducated and desperate. An absolute adherence through fear, to a xtian instruction manual of life.
Said book promoting Misogyny, Bigotry, Homophobia, Racism, Infanticide,Genocide and the acceptance of Peadophilia and Slave Ownership.

Should these men have been arrested ? Damned bloody right they should have !!

Xtians when are you going to listen ?? Believe what you wish but keep your delusion to yourselves until asked, this is only bloody polite, not much to ask is it ?

Oh, and one more thing while we're at it.

"LEAVE OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN ALONE !!"


This post was written with 100% recycled sincerity and politeness

These types of actions that happen daily around the world and with ever increasing speed should come as no surprise to any Christian who's eyes are truly open.
Jesus warned his followers then what would happen to them because of his name and his word and that warning carries into the 21st century when the purge and outright hatred of Christianity is now becoming a trendy fad in the west fueled by the media and other special interest groups that I won't mention.
It won't be long before the Bible is outlawed in western countries and real Christians will die for their faith and phoney Christians will renounce their faith to save their own lives. Neighbors are already turning in neighbors who have weekend bible studies in their homes. Why is a group of pacifists in a home talking about peace and love a threat to anyone? Christians are only a threat to Satan and right now it seems to be his world.
These few verses sum up the next few years in a nut shell and believe me all of these things are happening right now as I type this post.
Mathew chapter 24 verses 7 to 12.

For nations shall rise against nations, and kingdoms against kingdoms, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places, all these are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you.AND YE SHALL BE HATED OF ALL NATIONS FOR MY NAMES SAKE.
and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many.and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.

As clear as day Jesus tells us that many people will be offended by their Christian friends and afraid to be associated with them for fear of persecution in some form , be it social or work related etc. Also he tells us that their will be so much iniquity in the world, as we have right now, that people will want to stay trendy and be just like the rest of the sheep, so their belief in Jesus and his teachings will wax cold.
All of these things are going on as we speak and its only going to get worse as the months and years go on.
So this arrest is just the beginning and will become more and more common as time goes on.
It's time now for people to take sides, its not a matter or right or wrong anymore, or left versus right, or Democrat versus Republican, or Christianity versus Islam, or straight versus gay, or black versus white. It has come down to one factor and we all have a choice and all know the difference. Its up to you whether you have the courage to stand up and face it with your eyes open and your head up.
Its all about Good versus Evil. Your either on the side of love,compassion,tolerance,and individual freedom, or your on the side of hate, greed, intolerance, and control.

reply to post by mark1167

It won't be long before the Bible is outlawed in western countries and real Christians will die for their faith and phoney Christians will renounce their faith to save their own lives

So which are you, a real christian or a phoney christian how do I tell ? When xtians are rounded up to be eliminated how would we know which ones are the real ones in order to eliminate the right ones??

Perhaps the old christian method would solve the problem, after all it worked every time when applied -

Kill them all and let the Lord decide

Surely the simplest and most reasonable thing to do would be to edit out all the bigotry, hatred and such out of the bibles, after all xtians have been editing the bibles for centuries.

If all they had to do was move to the side walk, and it would have been ok...Well maybe they wanted to be arrested

reply to post by maryjo44


Like some kids at school, they want to be picked on so as to get attention , oh woe is me a martyr for jesus

reply to post by ChristianJihad


You make my case perfectly. You have obviously chosen your side.Your hatred towards Christianity is quite evident.
What happened to you to in your past that has created so much vile?
You don't want Christians around your children but your ok with the militant homosexual agenda being taught in your children's schools? Drag queens and openly gay sexual acts parading down your street and preaching gay rights is ok with you, but a preacher also exercising his right to free speech is not?
Selective tolerance based on the trend of the day.
Like I said its trendy to hate Christians,and you want to keep up with the Jones judging by your rants.

You just come across as an angry bitter sheep jumping onto whatever trendy bandwagon drives by you.

reply to post by 2WitnessesArrived


You know. Not everyone wants to hear someone elses brand of crazy.
When I'm going about my business I don't want some guy shouting bible verses at me.

Your freedom to say anything you want shouldn't overwrite my freedom to be left alone.

The way you titled the post puts a bad taste in my mouth. The all caps CHRISTIAN makes it seem like you think it is absurd that this could happen to a CHRISTIAN, and a CHRISTIAN only. If it was a Muslim, or a Jew, or a scientologist, this thread wouldnt exist. On another note, the only possible way to make the DMV worse would be to have someone screaming at me about the love and acceptance of Jesus, and in the next breath explain to me how this loving guy will sentence me to eternity in a lake of fire. This thread has nothing to do with free speech at all - and that's annoying.