Have you been following what’s going on in the U.K. these days? Believe me, it’s not pretty. Trouble is, it might be coming this way sooner than we think. The U.K. is creeping down a path that leads only to the extinction of public morality and the destruction of a once renowned system of justice. Here are just a few examples…
Teacher Fired For Being Christian. Okay, teachers get fired all the time, and for all kinds of reasons. But have you ever heard of a Christian college firing one of its teachers because he openly expressed Christian teaching?
Homosexuality is invading the Church.
Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they're busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it's true.
This *is* a "Gospel issue", by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.
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I agree completely, and I especially like his last line. But it seems the presiding powers at Cliff College were displeased when his little social media post went viral. Not only did they fire Dr. Edwards, but also threatened to report him to the U.K. counter-terrorism police, an ever-vigilant team of professionals who apparently look for terror in all the wrong places. That Dr. Edwards is a politically incorrect father of five might also have placed him in the counter-terrorism crosshairs. How un-Green of him to sire so many little polluters.
Dr Edwards is appealing the decision. He claims the college’s accusation that he violated the school’s social media policy ignores his right to express freely his religious beliefs. He also denies that his beliefs are in any way homophobic, but merely express theological insights that to many Christians are certainly not controversial. As he said when interviewed by The Telegraph: “Anyone concerned about academic freedom, Christian freedoms, and free speech should be deeply concerned about what has happened to me.” We are concerned, and troubled, and will pray that Aaron Edwards’ appeal is successful.
U.K. Street Preacher’s Conviction Overturned. Here we have some good news, a successful appeal of an unjust conviction. On June 8, 2021 Dave McConnell, a Christian street preacher, was doing his thing in Leeds when a transgender individual came up to him and asked if God accepts the LGBTQ community. Mr. McConnell, who encourages questions, said that God hates sin, but then referred to the questioner as a “gentleman.” The crowd didn’t like this and responded with hostility and profanity. The unruly crowd continued to abuse the preacher, and some even stole several of his possessions. All of this, of course, drew the police.
The police officer who responded, sporting a pentagram tattoo, arrested Dave because he went on to call a biological man a man, and not a woman. Apparently, the U.K. has a law (Section 5 of the curiously named Public Order Act) that empowers police to arrest anyone who causes “harassment, alarm, or distress” within the hearing of those who might be nearby. It’s one of those marvelous laws that can be applied to anyone in almost any circumstances. The local police station, where Dave was detained for 14 hours, proudly flies an LGBTQWhatever flag.
Note that Isabel, this potentially violent praying woman, was arrested not by one, but by three police officers (actually, there was a fourth present) who were apparently patrolling the streets of Birmingham searching for latent terrorists engaging in dangerous thinking or praying.
As it turned out, the charges against Isabel were dropped on February 3, but she said they might well be revived. In her subsequent statement she said, "It can't be right that I was arrested and made a criminal, only for praying in my head on a public street." She then added, "So-called 'buffer zone legislation' will result in so many more people like me, doing good and legal activities like offering charitable support to women in crisis pregnancies, or simply praying in their heads, being treated like criminals and even facing court."
Dr Edwards is appealing the decision. He claims the college’s accusation that he violated the school’s social media policy ignores his right to express freely his religious beliefs. He also denies that his beliefs are in any way homophobic, but merely express theological insights that to many Christians are certainly not controversial. As he said when interviewed by The Telegraph: “Anyone concerned about academic freedom, Christian freedoms, and free speech should be deeply concerned about what has happened to me.” We are concerned, and troubled, and will pray that Aaron Edwards’ appeal is successful.
U.K. Street Preacher’s Conviction Overturned. Here we have some good news, a successful appeal of an unjust conviction. On June 8, 2021 Dave McConnell, a Christian street preacher, was doing his thing in Leeds when a transgender individual came up to him and asked if God accepts the LGBTQ community. Mr. McConnell, who encourages questions, said that God hates sin, but then referred to the questioner as a “gentleman.” The crowd didn’t like this and responded with hostility and profanity. The unruly crowd continued to abuse the preacher, and some even stole several of his possessions. All of this, of course, drew the police.
Dave McConnell was convicted by a local judge and sentenced to pay costs of £620 and given 80 hours of community service. And then, to top it off, his probation officer reported him to the U.K. Prevent counter-terrorism police because McConnell was “viewed to be persistently and illegally espousing an extreme point of view.” Just reflect on those words and their impact on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and even freedom of thought.
Fortunately, the Leeds Magistrates’ Court overturned the conviction, although the presiding judge in the appeal offered a rather squishy comment, stating: “We live in a time when free speech is important and vital and we live in a time when people’s attitudes towards gender are very different from how they were years ago…All these issues need to be properly respected, so I make no criticism whatsoever of the Crown bringing a prosecution in this case.” Two cheers for the appeals court. Three cheers for Dave McConnell.
Woman Arrested Again for Silent Prayer. When I mentioned above that freedom of thought is under attack, I wasn’t kidding.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was first arrested back on December 6, 2022, outside an abortion clinic (the BPAS Robert Clinic) in Birmingham, England. At the time she was asked by the arresting police if she were praying. She replied that she “might be praying silently.” That was enough to arrest her. Yep, engaging in silent prayer — that is, your unexpressed internal thoughts — is now illegal in the U.K. If those thoughts might be considered by an observer to be prayer, especially if that prayer reflects opposition to politically correct activities such as abortion, you'll probably be arrested.
Isabel Being Arrested for Silent Prayer
Two weeks after the earlier charges were dropped, the Birmingham police arrested Isabel once again, and on the same charges. In a video of her arrest, a police officer informed her that silent prayer "is the offense." It violates the Public Space Protection Order banning any protest that includes "Graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counseling." The officer told her, "But people know who you are and they know why you're here...And it's their perception of events, isn't it?"
Just consider this. Public Spaces are now "protected" from such evils as prayer, especially Christian prayer. Perhaps I'm taking too far a leap here, but I suspect there would be no arrest if a Jihadist prayed openly and loudly on the streets of Birmingham and asked Allah to destroy the United Kingdom. The increasingly woke establishment seems to consider Christianity their primary enemy, so we can expect to encounter more frequent and more intense attacks on Christians and Christian institutions.
Keep Isabel Vaughan-Spruce in your prayers. She is a courageous woman. I wonder what would happen if a few thousand people wandered into that buffer zone and simply prayed together in silence.
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Pray for the United Kingdom, which provided our nation with the much of the foundation of our system of justice. And pray, too, that as a people we Americans will continue to respect the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.
Keep Isabel Vaughan-Spruce in your prayers. She is a courageous woman. I wonder what would happen if a few thousand people wandered into that buffer zone and simply prayed together in silence.
__________________________
Pray for the United Kingdom, which provided our nation with the much of the foundation of our system of justice. And pray, too, that as a people we Americans will continue to respect the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.
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