Victory for street preachers in England
Martyn McGeown examines a significant legal case in the United Kingdom involving street preachers Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell who were convicted under the Crime and Disorder Act for religiously aggravated harassment. The article defends the importance of religious freedom and freedom of speech for Christian evangelism, questioning how broadly harassment and distress laws are being applied to criminalizeorthodox Christian preaching on controversial topics.
In recent years, there has been a troubling trend in the United Kingdom, in which the freedom of speech of street preachers has been increasingly curtailed. Whatever one might think of the practices and methods of street preachers, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are precious gifts that we enjoy (for now) in Western democracies, something our brothers and sisters in other lands do not enjoy. Americans have the First Amendment, while in the United Kingdom freedom of speech is generally...
Full article available on sb.rfpa.org