{"id":8724,"date":"2015-11-16T12:53:55","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T12:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=8724"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T08:10:34","slug":"evangelist-in-court-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/evangelist-in-court-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelist in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Northampton<\/a>
Northampton Magistrates Court where evangelist Bill Edwards is on trial twice this month: on 19th and 20th November 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

STOP PRESS 20\/11\/2015: <\/strong><\/p>\n

CASE ON THURSDAY 19th DROPPED!<\/strong><\/p>\n

CASE ON FRIDAY 20th DROPPED IN RETURN FOR BIND-OVER ORDER! <\/strong><\/p>\n

PRAISE THE LORD! <\/strong><\/p>\n

BUT WHY WERE THESE CASES EVER BROUGHT?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article continues:<\/p>\n

Another Christian evangelist is in court on alleged public order offences.<\/p>\n

Bill Edwards, well-known to this ministry for his tireless efforts for the Gospel, is to face magistrates in Northampton twice this month, on 19th November and then again the following day, 20th November.\u00a0 The cases will both be heard at 10.00am at Northampton Magistrates Court, Campbell Square, Northampton, NN1 3EB.\u00a0 Both charges have been laid under the Public Order Act 1986.<\/p>\n

PRAYER IMPORTANT<\/h3>\n

Mr Edwards has told Christian Voice he values prayer more than actual physical presence.\u00a0 He said: ‘Obviously I will be glad of support by Christians at either of the court cases but it is a very long way for folk like you to come and prayer for the Lord’s help is, of course, more important.’<\/p>\n

Despite that, members local to Northampton will surely want to support him, and those who can reach the court will wish to demonstrate how serious their prayers are by being there in person.<\/p>\n

LOCAL MP COMPLAINED<\/h3>\n

The first charge relates to a peaceful protest Bill Edwards carried out outside the house of local MP Andrea Leadsom (Conservative) in the village of Slapton on 18th July.<\/p>\n

Mr Edwards said: ‘I did not expect to be arrested and planned after an hour to move to another village for door to door evangelism. I did try to inform Northamptonshire Police beforehand about the protest but was unable to get through in time before I left home.\u00a0 I told Mrs. Leadsom why I was there and spoke to her husband and children and their friends.’\u00a0 He is charged under Sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act.<\/p>\n

ARRESTED AT SCHOOL<\/h3>\n

The following day the evangelist is charged under Sections 5 and 6 of the Act. Mr Edwards told us: ‘The second arrest and charge occurred after I carried a banner against homosexuals outside a primary school in Brackley on July 21st. There was a great deal of anger and physical opposition from certain people and again I was surprised with the outcome.\u00a0 Both of my banners employed words of Scripture.’<\/p>\n

A personal note:<\/h3>\n

Evangelists like Bill Edwards are rare.\u00a0 They often do things others of us wouldn’t.\u00a0 I should probably content myself with writing to my MP or asking to lobby him at the House of Commons.\u00a0 I am not sure, even if he refused to meet me, that I should protest outside his home.\u00a0 If I did, of course, I should expect him to have a thicker and more avuncular skin than the average person and should be extremely surprised if he were to call the police.<\/p>\n

As for the school, I know how liberal many parents are these days and have myself been shouted at when trying to encourage parents to protect their children from homosexual propaganda.\u00a0 In that situation, one really would expect the school’s head teacher to call the police, but would expect the police to defuse the situation on their arrival rather than start arresting people.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, for some years now the police have been arresting evangelists for so-called ‘homophobic’ language, to the extent that even the National Secular Society became embarrassed by the negative publicity around assaults on our freedom of speech and joined the Christian Institute to call for a change in the law.<\/p>\n

But despite that high-profile joint campaign by the National Secular Society and the Christian Institute to draw the teeth of the Public Order Act by removing the word ‘insulting’ from the list of behaviours it made illegal, nothing has actually changed.\u00a0 The police appear to carrying on with ‘business as usual’.<\/p>\n

That is why, although Bill Edwards’ approach might differ from my own (although I too was arrested under the same Act of Parliament for witnessing outside Cardiff ‘Mardi Gras’ in 2006), I am honoured to stand with him and to show the magistrates that at least one of his brothers in Christ supports him enough to turn up on the day.<\/p>\n

READ<\/b>: Deut 31:6; Psalm 103:6; Jer 1:17, 5:14; Luke 12:11-12; Acts 4:18-20; Rom 10:8; 3John 1:17.<\/p>\n

PRAY<\/b>: Thank the Lord for evangelists who are prepared to risk arrest for preaching the Gospel. Pray that Bill Edwards finds favour with the magistrates.\u00a0 Pray for his solicitor, Michael Phillips, to be a good and effective advocate.\u00a0 Pray for much support from local Christians.\u00a0 Pray for Bill Edwards, as he says, ‘that the Lord will be glorified whatever the outcomes … and that I may witness a good confession against the homofascism and antichrist attitude of the authorities of our country.’<\/p>\n

SUPPPORT<\/b>: Come to Northampton Magistrates Court, Campbell Square, Northampton, NN1 3EB at 10.00am on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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>
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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.<\/p>\n

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STOP PRESS 20\/11\/2015: CASE ON THURSDAY 19th DROPPED! CASE ON FRIDAY 20th DROPPED IN RETURN FOR BIND-OVER ORDER! PRAISE THE LORD! BUT WHY WERE THESE CASES EVER BROUGHT? Article continues: Another Christian evangelist is in court on alleged public order offences. Bill Edwards, well-known to this ministry for his tireless efforts for the Gospel, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,144,380,11,86],"tags":[1657,1654,15,1653,1655,1656,481,103,93],"class_list":["post-8724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-freedom-of-speech","category-freedom-to-preach","category-homosexuality-trans","category-secularism","tag-angela-leadsom","tag-bill-edwards","tag-christian-voice","tag-evangelist","tag-northampton","tag-northampton-magistrates-court","tag-public-order-act","tag-public-order-act-1986","tag-stepen-green"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t