Persecution of “incorrect” Christians continues

Trial this week

“It is a story that has the Christian community on the edge of its seat. In Philadelphia [on Oct. 19th, 2004], 11 Christians were arrested and charged under Pennsylvania’s hate crimes law (the Ethnic Intimidation Act), for preaching the Gospel. The arrests took place at a homosexual event last October, and five of the 11 still face serious criminal charges. Twenty-five-year-old Michael Marcavage is at the center of a case that could determine whether preaching the Gospel is a hate crime; specifically, whether preaching against homosexuality is a hate crime. Marcavage, who has a ministry called Repent America, and 10 other Christians, took their message “Homosexuality is sin, Christ can set you free” to Outfest, Philadelphia’s annual gay “coming out” celebration, last October.

The video of the event shows the Christians being surrounded by an aggressive homosexual security force that was holding giant pink styrofoam angels and blowing loud whistles. Marcavage’s lawyer, Scott Shields, says the video is key to their defense. Shields said, “Because a picture tells a thousand words, it shows exactly what happened and when the Christians appeared at this event. Michael Marcavage and the other defendants were met by this hostile, lawless mob—and they really were. They had these gigantic, pink styrofoam boards to block their written messages, and they were blowing these obnoxious whistles, and when you see the whole video, you can tell that the police are just getting very tired of hearing all of this noise. And the only way to stop that wasn’t to tell them to stop and put down their pink boards and put their whistles away. They arrested our clients.”

Marcavage is seen on the video questioning police about his First Amendment rights. Later, he and the others are led away from the crowd, handcuffed, and put into a paddy wagon and taken to jail. Once behind bars, Marcavage discovered just how serious the charges were: three felonies and five misdemeanors. The felonies include: ethnic intimidation and inciting a riot found under Pennsylvania’s hate crimes law. The charges could mean 47 years in prison, if convicted. Marcavage said, “Well, it was absolutely astonishing. I had no idea that I would be one of the first victims in our nation to be charged under hate crimes legislation, which I see as the criminalization of Christianity. When you look at the target audience of these hate laws, it is the Christians—they want to silence our message.”

The case is unprecedented, because, according to Shields, “It’s the first time in America that preaching the Bible has become the evidentiary basis for a hate crime.” Shields remarked, “In my estimation, this is sort of the `last gasp’ of this whole movement. They want to go into the public square, they want to have their open celebrations of sin, as Mr. Marcavage states; yet when the Christians come with a message that’s completely antithetical to what their message is, they act like a lawless mob and they put the Christians down.” Shields said that the case is a clear violation of his clients rights to free speech, provided not only under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but even more strongly under Pennsylvania’s free speech laws. And Shields added, “I think it’s disturbing, because it’s a complete and absolute abuse of power. Our government officials are going to do everything they can to protect any special interest group out there, and I think that these prosecutions are all about getting the Christians to just go back into the closet.”...

Philadelphia is a city rich in history. The signing of the Declaration of Independence happened here, the Liberty Bell is here, this is the birthplace of American freedom, including religious freedom, but it may also go down in history as the city that jailed 11 Christians, and charged them with a hate crime for preaching the Gospel. It is a charge that the founder of Pennsylvania himself was familiar with. William Penn, who now looks down from his perch atop city hall, was once arrested for preaching the Gospel in public. But that happened in England. He came to America to escape religious persecution.

Marcavage fears Christianity itself is now on trial. He said, “What does this mean for the pastor in the pulpit, or the Christian sharing his faith in the workplace? We’re going to find more and more Christians who are going to be targeted under these types of laws in the future, and our hope is that Christians would awaken to the fact that if we don’t say something now, we’ll end up saying something behind bars.”

Philadelphia’s District Attorney Lynn Abraham, who is one of the architects of Pennsylvania’s Hate Crimes Law, is aggressively pursuing the criminal charges against the Christians. She is up for re-election, and some charge, trying to cater to the homosexuals…

Although there is a possibility that the case could be thrown out later this month, many say the fact that it ever made it this far should send chills to every Christian in America. The Department of Justice is looking into the legal charges surrounding the action, and apparently the judge is not too impressed with the Commonwealth’s case. She remarked, “If they don’t want to hear messages they don’t like, there are plenty of other countries they can move to.”“

More here

As a result of the above abuse of the law by the aggressively Leftist female DA, there are now moves to scrap the law as it applies to homosexuals. See here and here, which could result in REDUCED protection for homosexuals - a fine example of foot-shooting!

Note the contrast of the above events with this note of events elsewhere by Thomas Sowell: “When pro-life demonstrators tried to hold a peaceful march in San Francisco on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a pro-abortion crowd not only followed them, shouting to drown them out and hurling insults at them, some sat down in their path to block the march and force them to detour”. Christians are apparently fair game and those who oppose them are sacrosanct.

Posted by jonjayray on Sunday, February 13, 2005 at 04:40 PM in Liberalism & the Left
Comments (5) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Geoff Beck on February 13, 2005, 05:00 PM | #

The recruitment of homosexuals, feminists(women), and minorities is worrisome. The solidarity they embody is much stronger than that of the oily bourgeois middle class.

One year ago, a white man was shot to death by three hispanic police officers in Los Angeles. There was no suspicion of racism, of course.

Posted by Niki Raapana on February 13, 2005, 06:39 PM | #

This goes to the heart of the dialectical madness that pervades American politics. Both sides to this contrived conflict are feeding the flames necessary to bring on the ultimate Third Way. Without conflict there can be no resolution. And we all know change agents are specially trained in street tactics such as these.

Now we have a State Court with the opportunity to set precedent in a “hate crime” trial. When these Christians used their constitution to help promote the conflict, were they participating in a communitarian formula for establishing communitaraian caselaw? Can Americans really defend themselves using their constituions if the new laws they’re charged under exist outside their national law?

When Dawson v. Seattle lost their Fourth Amendment lawsuit I realized I had helped to establish for the Seattle Police that invasions of privacy are “standard operating proceedure.” Now it is established U.S. caselaw that U.S. cops can enter homes and take hostages without a legal search warrant.

It won’t suprise me in the least if these Christians are not unwittingly being used in the same way we were used. Hiibel went to the US Supreme Court and established the precedent for cops requiring ID on demand. Across the country our laws are being challenged and lost in cases just like these.

The place to enforce U.S. Constitutional Law is not in the streets. These cases based on street actions are merely an extension of the street agenda and can serve no other purpose than to further it. Devout Christians are putty in their hands.

Posted by John S Bolton on February 14, 2005, 01:43 AM | #

This just represents the degeneracy of the government schools’ anticulture, the unprincipled, Orwellian contemporary left aspect of which is most prominent. Seeing that this is a barbarous echo of the views of the government professoriate, what could be clearer than that the way to stop it, is to put down that professoriate, which is funded on mere aggression?

Posted by Guessedworker on February 14, 2005, 04:25 AM | #

Niki,

How “hard” do you view the conspiratorial aspect?

It appears to my not very sharp eyes that a long-established liberal zeitgeist has matured to the point where it is progressive, and on the progressive cutting edge discursive politics have been replaced in large part by governmentalism.

In other words our elected governments, our bureaucracies and their specialised advisors are staffed by progressives who are constantly feeling for ways to advance their agenda, whether through conventional politics or not. They are arch-opportunists.

If they do not talk to one another, do not spread their modus operandum that way, then there is no conspiracy. If they tacitly do so there is, albeit a weak one. If there is top-down direction there is a much stronger one. If there is deep planning, involving the manipulative provocation of civil groups, there is a crime in progress against the American people and the Constitution.

I just wondered where you place your mark and why.

Posted by Niki Raapana on February 15, 2005, 06:08 AM | #

Guessedworker,

We have found much evidence of planning that goes back before the origins of our country. We are of the “camp” that sees UN Agenda 21 as a blueprint for world government, based on what we have verified to be happening in the U.S.

I believe there is a crime in progress, not only against the American people and the Constitution, but also against every individual on the planet. I think the upper reaches of academia may be privy to large parts of the agenda, but most participants are unaware of what and whom they work for. I think most people will never know what’s happening.. and a lot of them prefer not to know anything.

Communitarianism is real, and so is the founder, Amitai Etzioni. He’s the one who’s been pushing for a National ID; his network did the grading of State Driver’s Licenses last year. Now the U.S. Congress is implementing his suggestions. Yet most people in this country have no idea who he is. The communitarians didn’t just drop out of upper academia like they claim. He has a lot more suggestions for how Americans should serve as volunteers for their country, and the database they’ve been building since the 1980s includes some very interesting personal information. He deserves a lot more scrutiny.

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