Signs of the Times

Oppressive Intolerance in the UK

The Barnabas Fund recently published a booklet on the beginnings of state persecution in the modern era against Christians in the UK.  It describes the following case study:

In February 2017, a CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) lawyer in England told the Bristol Magistrates Court that publicly quoting from the King James Bible "in the context of modern British society, must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter.

The lawyer was speaking at the trial of two men arrested in 2016 for preaching in a Bristol shopping area. The police arrested the men not because of how they were preaching but because of what they were preaching.  During the trial, the CPS lawyer went on to claim:

"To say to someone that Jesus is the only God is not a matter of truth.  To the extent that they are saying that the only way to God is through Jesus, that cannot be a truth."

After the trial, the street preachers' solicitor, Michael Phillips, expressed his concern at the actions of the CPS: "This prosecution is nothing more then a modern-day heresy trial--dressed up under the Public Order Act." 

This is not an isolated case, as the Barnabas Fund booklet goes on to demonstrate.
  Whilst it provides some comfort that the courts have rejected this and similar prosecutions, the real issue is that such prosecutions could have been taken in the first place.  The British police and CPS have acted shamefully, and illegally, insofar as their actions violate hundreds of years of settled practice.

The Barnabas Fund booklet continues its discussion of the case above:

If the manner in which the men had been preaching had caused a problem, the police could have prosecuted them under the public nuisance laws. (For example, if they amplifier had been too loud and they had refused to turn it down).  However the preachers were arrested and then prosecuted for the content of their preaching, even though everything they said was consistent with orthodox Biblical Christianity down through the ages. 

We know exactly what happened because one of the street preachers was wearing a body camera.  This recorded what he and the other preacher said and also what was said by some of the hecklers who were disrupting the meeting.  From this recording it appears that some in the crowd were deliberately trying to "set up" the preachers by asking them questions about Islam and homosexuality and then calling the police.  Even though some of the hecklers were abusing and swearing at the preachers, the preachers were always respectful and never swore back.  Nevertheless, the police chose to arrest the preachers, not the hecklers.

Even though the charges were eventually dismissed, the CPS lawyer's claim that in modern Britain it is now a criminal matter to quote publicly from the King James Bible is particularly disturbing.  . . . The two street preachers were later acquitted in an appeal to the crown court.  However, the decision of both police and CPS to prosecute the men for the content of their preaching and the CPS lawyer's claim that it is illegal to publicly quote Scripture, represent a massive assult on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. 

The Barnabas Fund booklet is entitled Turn the Tide: Reclaiming Religious Freedom in New Zealand.   It is available free of charge from:

The Barnabas Fund
PO Box 276018
Manukau City,
Auckland , 2214.

Telephone:
(09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805
email: office@barnabasfund.org.nz