This is from www.faith-freedom.com the story behind the open air pastors being arrested.
Last February, a team of individuals from Calvary Chapel Hemet, California, headed to their local Department of Motor Vehicles to fulfill the Great Commission through “street evangelism.” They found a spot about fifty feet from the entrance, where people were lining up waiting for the DMV to open, and Mark Mackey began to read passages from the Bible aloud.
Shortly thereafter, a security guard approached Mark and told him that he needed to leave. However, Mark was on public property and appropriately believed that he had a First Amendment right to free speech on that public property. Mark continued to read the Bible aloud. About 10 minutes later, an officer from the California Highway Patrol approached Mark, took the Bible out of his hands, and arrested him.
When Mark asked why he was being arrested, the officer said “you can preach on your own property … but you’re not allowed to preach here because this is a captive audience.” Of course, there is no such law that actually says you cannot communicate with a so-called “captive audience.”
Assistant Pastor Bret Coronado and Ed Flores watched the scene unfold and asked the CHP officer, “What law was he breaking?” However, the officer could not cite any actual law. Pastor Coronado asked if they were breaking the law and the officer said, “You are if you preach.” After continuing to ask the officer to cite an actual law that was being violated, Pastor Coronado and Ed were both arrested.
The question these men asked was a valid one…”What law was he breaking?” The one they came up with was “impeding an open business.”
Well, there are two things wrong with this classification. First, the DMV was closed when Mark was reading the Bible aloud. Second, they were standing at least fifty feet away from the doors to the office, and this law was specifically meant to protect businesses from protesters who block their doors or seek to intimidate persons from entering.
Advocates for Faith & Freedom has filed a lawsuit on behalf of these three men for violation of their right to free speech, for false arrest and for false imprisonment. A copy of the Complaint can be found here.
While some fellow Christians might disagree with the evangelistic approach taken by these men, we must defend the right to engage in religious speech on public property in all circumstances, or our right to do so will be infringed upon to a greater extent in the future. Our constitutional right to speak freely on public property is fundamental to our liberty, whether the speech is political or religious in nature. This Nation was founded upon the ideas of our founding fathers that were discussed and debated openly in town squares and public places. Any infringement of that right must be defended to the greatest extent possible to preserve the right for future generations. Consider what would have happened if Martin Luther King’s message could have been censored merely because it was disagreeable to some.
This scene was caught on video (click here), because this evangelism team has been assaulted in the past while street witnessing. Additionally, they don’t want any false accusations to be made, and they now make it a practice to record their activities.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Please watch the five minute video of what occurred at the DMV that day. If you are bothered by the false arrest and religious intolerance shown to these men, please share this video with your friends and get the word out that we will not stand for the silencing of Christianity in our nation!
We want this video to spread throughout the country to help bring awareness to Christians about how fragile our religious liberty might be if we fail to act.
This information is provided by Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a non-profit religious law firm dedicated to protecting religious liberty in the courts! To help us in our ongoing battle for religious freedom, click here to donate to Advocates.
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