By Asaiah Logan –
An Irish pastor has been criminally convicted for preaching John 3:16 too close to a hospital, even though he didn’t mention anything about abortion. The idea of the “Safe Access Zones” law was to prevent verbal harrassment to mothers seeking an abortion.
“This is dark day for Christian freedom,” remarked Pastor Clive Johnston, 78, grandfather of seven.
“This is creeping censorship, quite clearly,” said Attorney Ciarán Kelly, director of the U.K.’s Christian Institute which took up his case.
Pastor Clive, the former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, will be forced to pay a whopping £450 fine. He is expected to appeal the ruling, which if stands will be his first ever run-in with the law.
“If someone is out there causing trouble, stirring up violence, harassing or verbally attacking people, then, absolutely, go ahead and prosecute them,” Pastor Clive said. “But I wasn’t doing any of those things as the police video shows and as everyone involved in this case accepts.”
Attorney Kelly says the law designed to safeguard mothers seeking an abortion is being misapplied to impinge on freedom of speech.
“Prosecuting Pastor Johnston for preaching ‘God so loved the world’ near a hospital on a quiet Sunday is a shocking new attempt to restrict freedom of religion and freedom of speech in a part of the world where open-air Gospel services are a part of the culture,” said Simon Calvert, deputy director of The Christian Institute.
The case is being watched internationals and especially by the White House as free speech is a pillar of Western Civilization, Kelly says.
Related content: Europe continues its nosedive by letting Islam takeover, European leaders stick to the woke script of diversity and islamophobia while the world if up in flames, one king is clear the other has blurred vision. Sources: Christian Post, others.
