September 27, 2007
Those who oppose religious freedom are often quite creative in their attempts to stifle religious speech. "Speech codes" at universities, "noise ordinances" in public places, and "restrictions" on literature distribution are just a few of the tools at their disposal. But few things rank as high on the scale of absurdity as a recent event in Zachary, Louisiana.
There, J. Todd Netherland was threatened with arrest for being ...
annoying.
On the evening of Nov. 18, 2006, Todd stood outside a local bar, approximately 75-100 feet from the entrance, and spoke about his faith in Christ. Though on public property, a police officer warned him not to "preach" there and instructed him to move.
Todd - who certainly had no intention of "annoying" anyone - politely assured the officer he would comply. Then the officer told Todd that if he continued to
preach, even in the new location, he would arrest him anyway, for "disturbing the peace," citing a city ordinance prohibiting speech that is "annoying" or "offensive" to another person.
Todd respectfully yielded to the officer's demand and left the area and then called ADF for legal help. No words can adequately convey the sheer absurdity of the ordinance - to see it for yourself, go to
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/ZacharyOrdinance.pdf.
ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit in June of this year, asking the court to halt enforcement of the ordinance. (You can read it at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/NetherlandPIMotion.pdf.)
"Christian expression is not second-class speech and should never be treated as such," said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot.
"Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened when Todd was threatened with arrest and prosecution simply because of sharing the gospel. The Constitution prohibits government officials from singling out evangelism for censorship." Please pray for Todd Netherland and his attorneys on one more pitched battle in the ongoing war for religious freedom. With your prayerful support, we will continue the good fight, defending your religious liberties from 'annoying' attacks such as these - and by God's grace - we can and will win.