Skip to main content

Has it really come to this?

A street corner preacher was arrested and locked up for seven hours for saying that according to the Bible homosexuality is a sin.
Dale McAlpine was handing out leaflets to shoppers when he told a passer-by and a gay police community support officer that, as a Christian, he believed homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the word of God.
Mr Mcalpine said that he did not repeat his remarks on homosexuality when he preached from the top of a stepladder after his leafleting.
But he has been told that police officers are alleging they heard him making his remarks to a member of the public in a loud voice that could be overheard by others.

Mr McAlpine has been charged under the Public Order Act of 1986, an act designed to deal with football yobbos but which has now been deployed to shut down those who would quote Holy Scripture in public.

How long before St Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans are banned as offensive?

Can't be too far away if this incident is any anything to go by.

Comments

  1. Andrei, it HAs to come to that in the UK, and one more reason for NZ to become a republic. The much vaunted protection of the crown has been shown for the sham it always was.

    I support Dale's right to be as bigotted as he likes.

    Are you prepared to support Harry Taylor, who has been sentenced to 6 months jail, 100 hours of unpaid work, £250 in court costs, and an anti-social behaviour order banning him from carrying religiously offensive material in a public place.

    Or does your outrage only go one way?

    http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/04/atheist-harry-taylor-liverpool-religion-offence-paul-sims-ophelia-benson/

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LRO, I just had a read. Maybe not arrest, but it was in very bad taste to leave that sort of thing purposely in a prayer room.

    I don't discriminate against anyone who believes what they want to believe and says what they want but there is a time and a place. This guy wasn't just speaking his mind; he was deliberately mocking religion (not just Christianity) with bad taste cartoons. What did he hope to accomplish?

    He just seems a bit infantile.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Or does your outrage only go one way?


    Take a wild guess, LRO.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Reading your story again LRO - a prayer room in an airport, with material that mocks Islam (among other religions) was probably more a security scare than an infringement against good taste.

    ReplyDelete
  6. IMF, is there a single, valid reason why religion, amongst all other human endeavours, should not be mocked?

    Is there a single, valid reason, why the law should be used to prosecute "bad taste"?

    Let alone the queation of why a public place needs to have a prayer room at all, and even if it does, why there should be a restriction on the type of invocations that may be made therein.

    How would you respond if a homosexual christian enetered that same prayer room and found the leaflets Dle MAlpine was handing out? Outrage? Infantile? Or McAlpine's right to hold and disseminate his deeply held beliefs?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Whilst decrying the attack on freedom-of-speech, the gentlemen you paint as some sort of victim was described by his neighbours on the news-broadcast I saw as “the town crank” and “a pest” and you can better get an idea of the annoyance he has become in his local streets, by looking at this You Tube shot last year:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBBZe2z1mQ

    This isn’t the first time this “fire and brimstone” preacher has been charged with breaching the peace and looking at the array of scary You Tubes on him –it won’t be his last.

    Why should the public put up with him and his ranting at 100 decibels?

    Clearly McAlpine has mental-health issues and too much time on his hands.

    Regardless of his intentions and what he wants to say – this annoying loony is best kept in a padded cell rather than a police one.

    See ya later.

    Paul.

    PS: Would you have been so outraged had he have been stopped ranting Islamic drivel rather than Christian drivel?

    ReplyDelete
  8. The original news story suggests he was charged for what he said, not how loud he said it (which is disputed)

    After seven hours locked up in a cell, he was charged with using abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.

    He spoke out against this too:

    He said he mentioned drunkenness and adultery, and that religions such as Buddhism, Islam and even Roman Catholicism were not the way of salvation

    ooh, err, attacking Roman Catholicism...and yet Andrei still made his post. Want to take a wild guess that answers your question Bearhunter, and your "PS"
    Paul?

    And Paul paints him as a full time loony and keen to lock him away after a single trial by you-tube.

    On the other hand, some witnesses dispute Paul's version:

    Shoppers in Workington were bemused by what had happened to Mr Mcalpine.

    Rob Logan, the assistant manager of the O2 mobile phone store near where Mr Mcalpine preached, said he had no complaints.

    ‘He hands out leaflets, he says his piece and then he leaves,’ said Mr Logan. ‘He is
    not aggressive or threatening. He is gentle.’

    ReplyDelete
  9. So this is totally not about an unintended application of a law, but another bleat about how Christians are not allowed to proclaim what they believe, and atheists are allowed to demand that everyone else just STFU?


    Right, glad we got that sorted.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And I bet when libertarians were bleating (as we do) about the unintended consequences of this law passed in '86, there was a cry of "that would never happen!"

    But it has.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "Regardless of his intentions and what he wants to say...."

    So if he was a homo ranting on about the joys of bum sex at 100 decibels in public and got arrested for it, you wouldn't have a problem with it either CA?

    I'll understand if you find it difficult to answer and become very busy all of a sudden.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Even Conservatives can bleat about these things Shane. Have a look at my next post "Smoking!"

    ReplyDelete
  13. One of the best things about the US is that loonies of all descriptions can spread their nonsense, which is as it should be. The Fred Phelps of this world get exposed for how off the planet they really are.

    In a public place, the only issue should be threatening behaviour, such as if someone shouts in your face or follows you around. Offence should not be an offence.

    I'll defend Christians, Muslims, atheists, communists and nazis all doing the same - and of course the right of all others to do the same in return.

    The best thing about this is that it can expose how few of the real extremists are willing to show their faces, and how one can laugh at them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please be respectful. Foul language and personal attacks may get your comment deleted without warning. Contact us if your comment doesn't appear - the spam filter may have grabbed it.