Posted on 12/16/2004 5:51:20 PM PST by ChristianDefender
Four Christian protesters who demonstrated at a Philadelphia homosexual event face a possible 47 years in prison if convicted of felony charges filed against them, while a prosecutor referred to Scripture verses they read as "fighting words."
The four are part of 11 demonstrators who went before the Philadelphia Municipal Court in a preliminary hearing this week. Judge William Austin Meehan Tuesday ordered four of the Christians to stand trial on three felony and five misdemeanor charges. If convicted, they could a maximum of 47 years in prison.
As WorldNetDaily reported, on Oct. 10, the group was "preaching God's Word" to a crowd of people attending the outdoor Philadelphia "OutFest" event and displaying banners with biblical messages.
After a confrontation with a group called the Pink Angels, described by protesters as "a militant mob of homosexuals," the 11 Christians were arrested and spent a night in jail.
Eight charges were filed: criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation, riot, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstructing highways.
None of the Pink Angels was cited or arrested.
A video of the arrest, provided by the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy can be seen here [Windows Media].
"First, symbols of Christianity are removed from the public square; now, Christians are facing 47 years in prison because they preached the gospel in the public square. Stalin would be proud," Brian Fahling, AFA Center for Law and Policy senior trial attorney, said in a statement.
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia denied emergency relief earlier this week despite video footage Fahling calls "undisputed evidence" that shows the Christians cooperating with police and being harassed by the Pink Angels.
Fahling's group says the Philadelphia city prosecutor in the case, Charles Ehrlich, attacked the defendants as "hateful" and referred to preaching the Bible as "fighting words," a characterization, the law group says, with which Judge Meehan agreed.
Charges were dropped against the remaining seven Christians, apparently because they were not seen quoting Scripture on the videotape.
The ethnic intimidation charge stems from Pennsylvania's "hate crimes" law – to which the newest "victim" category of "sexual orientation" was recently added.
I give up...I am digging a hole in the ground! It seems like the only way to get away from these freaks!!!!!
I don't understand, I truly don't.
I wish someone would charge the prosecutor with a "hate crime" for calling the Scripture "fighting words".
Oh, that's right...only white, heterosexual Christians can be charged with hate crimes.
I watched the video and it is bad. One thing that I noticed were that the pink flags or whatever they were looked an awful lot like those Nazi flags. I don't know what to call them. Long flags with a symbol on top. If anyone should have been arrested it was the queers.
That's truly disturbing. They really come out in force at Christmas time. Pretty soon the Bible will be banned as hate speech like it is in Canada.
Streaming video. Typical left wing tactic, scream down or drown out speech that you do not agree with. Free speech is only for the screaming homos with the police totally deferential to the fudge packing freaks.
http://www.afa.net/clp/videos/philly11.wmv
Philadelphia is a toilet! Whatever happens to them, Their City Govt and their state(Commonwealth) Govt they deserve it!
Worse. The Soviet Union, China and Rome all combined.
This is prophesy being fulfilled. Nothing more, nothing less.
I've been waiting for it; I've seen it happening everywhere in the world.
Now it's here.
Welcome to the End of Days.
It's going to get a lot uglier.
Does his mother know about this?
Amen
Pray hard.
And that's the irony in all this. For all the excuses and reasons liberals give us for why Islam hates us...it is our very "progressive" idealism that they hate most.
I should say "their" progressive idealism.
We are indeed in the last days. But that doesnt mean that God wont help us, he will always make a way to show His love and faithfulness to His children in times of persecution... sad to say, these persecutions happened inside America and it seems that the widely known christian country is contaminated by worms of deceit and immorality, i hope the government will stand on American traditions not on homosexual demands. If these gays disobey the law... send them to Saudi Arabia, let their pink flags wave inside Mecca and we'll see what happens to them.
When Montag fails to show up for work, his fire chief, Beatty, pays a visit to his house. Beatty explains that it’s normal for a fireman to go through a phase of wondering what books have to offer, and he delivers a dizzying monologue explaining how books came to be banned in the first place. According to Beatty, special-interest groups and other “minorities” objected to books that offended them. Soon, books all began to look the same, as writers tried to avoid offending anybody. This was not enough, however, and society as a whole decided to simply burn books rather than permit conflicting opinions. Beatty tells Montag to take twenty-four hours or so to see if his stolen books contain anything worthwhile and then turn them in for incineration. Montag begins a long and frenzied night of reading.
FARRENHEIT 451. I GUESS WE ALL BETTER START MEMORIZING THE BIBLE.
I saw at least two badged Detectives in suits wearing pink armbands on the video.
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