Police Told: Let Preachers Preach
Police forces have been told not to arrest preachers under the new guidance from their governing body. All officers in England and Wales will be trained to the new standard from the College of Policing from April 2023 according to a statement published on the College of Policing website.
The College of Policing CEO, chief constable Andy Marsh, said ‘Like so many areas of life, crime and the demands policing faces have changed radically. The training we provide officers needs to reflect this. We have listened to policing and the public to make sure the training helps officers tackle the core issues faced on the street. One of the issues includes traditional crimes such as burglary. But will deal with more emerging crime types like fraud and online crime’.
New guidelines
The guidelines now state that:
1 Non-crime hate incidents should not be recorded where they are trivial, irrational, or if there is no basis to conclude that an incident was motivated by hostility,
2 Individuals who are commenting in a legitimate debate. For example, political or social issues should not be stigmatised because someone is offended,
3 If a record is made, it must be done in the least intrusive way possible. For example, it may not be necessary to record the name of an individual or the location of an incident.
The updates seek to redress the balance between freedom of speech and ‘protecting vulnerable members of the public’, according to the statement.
Preaching the Gospel is commanded
The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the rights to freedom of religious belief which is seen in (Article 9) freedom of expression. This includes freedom of speech (Article 10).
However, these rights only attest to Biblical command to Christians to preach the gospel. We find this all through the Gospels and Epistles. In the words of the Lord Jesus himself: Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
The example of the early church shows how seriously the Apostles took their duty to preach: Acts 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (More Bible Read Points below.)
The exercise of their God-given right by Christians and the persecution they have faced from officers of the law is a clear threat to our freedom of speech.
Arrested during Lockdown
On April 10, 2020, Metropolitan Police arrested pastor Joshua Sutcliffe for preaching the gospel during ‘Lockdown’. The police charged Pastor Sutcliffe, but London Magistrates Court cleared him of all charges. Pastor Joshua was preaching the Gospel and handing out leaflets in Camden, North London. According to CBN News, ‘Officers told him that being outdoors was a violation of the lockdown orders’.
The court judgment stated, ‘We find that the defendant was outside and that he had a reasonable excuse as he was travelling to his place of work, as a worship leader. Their gathering was limited in duration, and they were entitled to gather for street evangelising.’ The court found that the law permitted gathering and street evangelism during the lockdown, limited only in time duration.
After Pastor Sutcliffe’s release, He said ‘At one point, I was surrounded by four police officers. It was very intimidating. They treated me like a second-class citizen. I am a Christian minister of the Gospel, which not so long ago was a treasured and respected vocation in the UK’. His statement buttresses the age-long tradition of street preaching in the UK.
Preaching in the Open Air
On 23rd April 2021, CBN News reported that Pastor John Sherwood was arrested while preaching in an open air in Uxbridge, West London. He was accused of a criminal act for preaching what the word of God teaches about marriage.
Pastor John cited Genesis 1:27. He said: ‘God’s design in creating mankind was to set human beings in families’. He added that these families should be headed by a father and a mother, not by two fathers or by two mothers. ‘The distinction within mankind of just two genders, male and female, made in the image of God, constitutes the essence of God’s created order’, he added. It appears some bystanders called the police because they felt the preacher’s sermon was ‘offensive’. Under the new guidelines, the police should explain to those complaining that they will not arrest such a preacher but protect his freedom of speech.
Pastor Sherwood was acquitted by Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on 7th April 2022. He was cleared of all charges of making ‘homophobic statements termed as offensive and discriminatory’ according to News Week.
Pastor’s arrest and ill-treatment were carried out as if he was a violent criminal as this YouTube clip reveals.
While Pastor Sherwood was being dragged away, a lady in the crowd can be heard heard saying, ‘it’s a Christian country, let him speak.’ Pastor Peter Simpson, who was preaching alongside pastor Sherwood, noted that others in the crowd had accused him of ‘hate speech’ as well. Christian Post report.
Michael Overd
Similarly, in July 2016 we reported that Michael Overd was arrested in Broadmead Shopping Center in Bristol. He and his fellow preacher, Mike Stockwell, were accused of ‘religious aggravated public order offence’ in February 2017. The pair were convicted in what we described as a biased magistrates court, and were duly acquitted on appeal to the Crown Court.
Mr. Overd was also arrested for preaching the gospel in Taunton, Somerset. The BBC reported that during his preaching he stated, ‘Even these dear men caught in homosexuality, if they ask God for forgiveness of sin, they will be forgiven. God loves them that much.’ The two men concerned subsequently made an official complaint to the police. Mr. Overd was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 for words which allegedly caused harassment, alarm or distress.
Defended by barrister Paul Diamond, Michael Overd was acquitted. The magistrates found that he did not intend to cause harassment, alarm or distress contrary to Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
Arrest at Cardiff Mardi Gras
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, was arrested by South Wales Police for distributing gospel leaflets at a homosexual event in Cardiff in 2006. He was giving out the leaflets out side the ‘Mardi Gras’ event when a police Inspector from the ‘Minorities Support Unit’ demanded he stop. The policeman arrested Mr Green when he immediately handed a leaflet to the next passer-by. Here is our report.
Mr. Green was held in a cell in Cardiff Police for four hours before being charged under the Public Order Act 1986. He was released after a brief pre-trial hearing. The Public Prosecutor admitted there were human rights issues but arrest, detention and charge were a violation of his right to freedom of expression.
The leaflet Stephen Green was giving out maintained that marriage could only exist between a man and woman. It cited Biblical passages condemning the act of homosexuality but also spoke of forgiveness and healing from ungodly desires. That was too much for the Mardi Gras organisers and the Police Minorities Support Unit. Mr Green afterwards sued South Wales Police for unlawful arrest, wrongful detentiuon and malicious prosecution and won. Even the homosexual Pink News website reported that he said: “I thank God for the honour of being locked up for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Let Preachers Preach!
On 17th July 2022, a Nigerian preacher was arrested and detained in London for preaching the gospel. In a video which went viral on Instagram, he can be heard telling the police that they were harassing him and that he had done nothing wrong. He declined to provide his name and address when prompted, stating that he would report the incident because they had only arrested him for speaking about Jesus.
Charges, arrests for breaching public order and allegations of hate speech leveled against Christian preachers have arisen because the Bible’s standards of holiness and its statement of God’s institution of marriage are so challenging. Complaining homosexuals consider such standards so offensive no-one should voice them.
Furthermore, the Bible states that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to find salvation. Muslims contend that ‘Allah’ is God and that it is blasphemous to say that Jesus is the Son of God. So Muslims have also called for preachers to be arrested, although not as frequently as have homosexuals.
The UK’s elite is of course firmly in favour of same-sex sexual rights. We see that as at odds with the foundation of our nation, which was established on the principles and values of Christianity.
Redmond-Bate case
Christian Voice has constantly defended the right of Christian preachers to preach. We were greatly encouraged by the case of Redmond-Bate vs the Director of Public Prosecutions. One PC Tennant arrested Alison Redmond-Bate when she refused to stop preaching on the steps of Wakefield Cathedral in October 1997.
Alison Redmond-Bate was convicted by magistrates of obstructing the police officer in the execution of his duty. Her conviction was upheld by the Crown Court. The landmark case eventually reached Lord Justice Sedley and Mr. Justice Collins in the Court of Appeal in June 1999. Sedley LJ wrote the judgement in which he set aside the conviction. The summary is HERE on Swarb. The whole judgment is well worth a read here on the Oxford University Press website.
In his judgment, Lord Justice Sedley said: ‘Freedom of speech means nothing unless it includes the freedom to be irritating, contentious, heretical, and provocative provided it did not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.’
He went on: ‘There was no reasonable inference available in this case to the police officer that the preacher, preaching about morality, was about to cause a breach of public peace. … The constable was not acting in the execution of his duty when he required the women to stop preaching, and the appellant was therefore not guilty of obstructing him in the execution of his duty when she refused to comply.’
The law of the land
That acquittal established the law of the land in England and Wales. As a result, every Christian preacher arrested and charged under the Public Order Act 1986, properly represented in Court, has been either acquitted or the charges have been dropped. But that has not stopped the police continuing to harass preachers. It has taken over twenty years for the police to catch up.
Just a day ago, the Daily Telegraph reported on Stephen Watson, Greater Manchester chief constable, telling his officers to told to stop wasting time on Twitter disputes ‘simply because someone is offended.’ They had been ‘overzealous’ in recording trivial online spats, he said.
And from the Evening Standard we learnt that Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones criticised her own force for sending police officers on two occasions to question and then arrest a man for an alleged offensive social media post.
The new guidance from the College of Policing aiming to put an end to arresting preachers is a welcome development. However, how much time will it take to filter down through Chief Constables to the rank and file? Will the new policy make any changes to the arrest mentality of police on patrol?
We need to pray that the Police will observe legal precedents and protect, not abuse, preachers who exercise their freedom of speech according to the newly revised Policing Policy codes.
Prayer Points
Read: Isa 52:7; Mark 1:14-15, 16:15; Matt 10:7; Matt 28:18-19; Luke 9:2, 10:1; John 3:16-18; Acts 4:18-20, 5:29, 10:42; Rom 1:16, 10:14-15; 2Tim 4:2.
Pray:
* Thank God for the victory to freely preach the word of God in the UK.
* Pray for lost souls in the United Kingdom.
* Pray for Christians in the UK and all over the world who are persecuted.
* Pray for the love and peace of God in our country.
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
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