{"id":7411,"date":"2014-04-11T20:05:08","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T19:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=7411"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T08:10:34","slug":"christian-preacher-wins-compensation-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/christian-preacher-wins-compensation-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Preacher Wins Compensation for Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {   var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];   if (d.getElementById(id)) return;   js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;   js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";   fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/christian-preacher-wins-compensation-arrest\/\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-action=\"like\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7414\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7414\" style=\"width: 288px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Preacher.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7414 \" alt=\"Preacher\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Preacher.jpg\" width=\"288\" height=\"172\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7414\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Craven was arrested for quoting the Bible after two gay teenagers asked what his views were on homosexuality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Christian preacher <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2593217\/Christian-preacher-wins-13-000-wrongful-arrest-telling-gay-couple-Bible-says-homosexuality-sin.html\"><strong>won \u00a313,000<\/strong><\/a> last week in compensation after being arrested and held in custody for 19 hours simply for quoting the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>The arrest occurred three years ago when John Craven was preaching in Manchester city centre. Two teenagers approached the street preacher to ask what he thought of homosexuality. Craven read from Revelation 21:8, which says that sinners will be burned in a lake of fire. He also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/religion\/10735867\/Preacher-arrested-for-saying-gay-love-is-a-sin-gets-13000.html\"><strong>quoted John 3:16<\/strong><\/a> and said that \u201cWhilst God hates sin, he loves the sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following Craven&#8217;s response the boys began kissing each other in front of Craven and making \u201cobscene gestures.\u201d Soon the youths called a mounted policeman, claiming that Craven\u2019s comments had \u201cinsulted\u201d them and caused them \u201charassment and distress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The policeman arrested Craven for possibly committing a public order offence. The officer allegedly took Craven \u201croughly by the arm\u201d and told him that he was under arrest. The officer did not ask for Craven\u2019s name or address and handled him roughly.<\/p>\n<p>Craven was taken into custody, and remained in a jail cell for about 15 hours. He did not receive food, water, or medication for his rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n<p>This event happened in 2011. On March 29th Craven was finally awarded his \u00a313,000 compensation after a three-year legal battle against the Manchester Police. This battle has cost the public purse approximately \u00a350,000. Mr. Craven won his damages under the Human Rights Act.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2593217\/Christian-preacher-wins-13-000-wrongful-arrest-telling-gay-couple-Bible-says-homosexuality-sin.html\"><strong>response<\/strong> <\/a>to his arrest, Craven said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI never intended to cause anyone harassment, alarm or distress. I preach the gospel, which means good news and the love of God for all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day God loves everybody, but homosexuality is a sin and I am not going to contradict the word of God.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Police Superintendent Alan Greene could not go into detail, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/religion\/10735867\/Preacher-arrested-for-saying-gay-love-is-a-sin-gets-13000.html\"><strong>admitted<\/strong><\/a> \u201cWe can acknowledge that we did make mistakes and kept the claimant in custody for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is just one of several incidents involving the persecution of Christians in Britain. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/persecution-christians-britain\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>one of our other articles<\/strong><\/a>, we have listed several examples of the rising totalitarianism that is spreading over Britain. Christianity is coming under fire, which results in Christians being marginalized and prohibited from freely expressing their religious views. But this victory gives us some encouragement to Christians who boldly proclaim their faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-comments\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/christian-preacher-wins-compensation-arrest\/\" data-numposts=\"5\" data-colorscheme=\"light\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian preacher won \u00a313,000 last week in compensation after being arrested and held in custody for 19 hours simply for quoting the Bible. The arrest occurred three years ago when John Craven was preaching in Manchester city centre. Two teenagers approached the street preacher to ask what he thought of homosexuality. Craven read from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,144,380,11,83,184],"tags":[1169],"class_list":["post-7411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-freedom-of-speech","category-freedom-to-preach","category-homosexuality-trans","category-justice-policing-crime","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-john-craven"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian-freedom\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Christian freedom<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian-freedom\/freedom-of-speech\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Freedom of Speech<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian-freedom\/freedom-to-preach\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Freedom to Preach<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/homosexuality-trans\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Homosexuality &amp; Trans<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/justice-policing-crime\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Justice, Policing &amp; Crime<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/uk-christian-constitution\/\" rel=\"category tag\">UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"A Christian preacher won \u00a313,000 last week in compensation after being arrested and held in custody for 19 hours simply for quoting the Bible. The arrest occurred three years ago when John Craven was preaching in Manchester city centre. Two teenagers approached the street preacher to ask what he thought of homosexuality. Craven read from&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}