Friday, July 02, 2010

Judge Rules Christians Arrested, Now Free to Evangelize

Whereas Christians distributing Bibles at the Twin Cities homosexual festival last summer were arrested for distributing Bibles without permission from the homosexualists, this year, a judge protected the rights of the Christians.

-- From "Judge rules evangelist can hand out Bibles at Pride Festival" by Abby Simons, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune 6/25/10

After a week of intense debate that culminated in arguments about the Constitution in a federal courtroom, a judge Friday affirmed a Wisconsin evangelist's right to hand out Bibles at this weekend's Twin Cities Pride festival in Minneapolis' Loring Park.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim ruled that the First Amendment gives Brian Johnson the right to evangelize there as long as he's not disruptive.

Tunheim wrote that although organizers paid $36,000 for a permit to use the park, that did not afford them the right to restrict the speech of those in it.

Pride organizers had filed for a temporary restraining order to keep Johnson from handing out materials without a vendor's permit, something they had denied him in the hope of preventing him from diluting their message of tolerance toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.