Christian preacher arrested (video)
From the homosexuality-obsessed Chrisitian Institute (Q for the CI: Do you really think Jesus thought about it as much as you do?), we have a hidden-camera video of the shameful moment when street preacher Dale McAlpine was arrested.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12LtOKQ8U7c[/youtube]
Coming in the wake of the prosecution of atheist cartoon-leaver Harry Taylor (about which, of course, there were no protests from the CI), this shows the other side of the coin. Yes, McAlpine’s sense of morality has been perverted by his superstitious beliefs, but he was not inciting violence or promoting hatred. He was merely expressing his irrational opinion that homosexual activity is “sinful”. That should be allowed.
Let the fool speak, that his folly may be revealed unto all who hearken unto him.
UPDATE: (15 May) Charges against McAlpine have been dropped.
*heavy sigh*
Scary shit 😮 He should be able to speak his mind (even fucking fundy bigots).
I agree with Naug, everyone should be allowed to express their opinion and every one else should be allowed to agree or disagree, and express their opinion accordingly. That is by far the best way to reach the truth. Why is this so difficult for some people to understand?
If we are only to allow certain opinions to be expressed then who is to decide which opinions are allowed and which opinions are to be banned? Historically, those who have held authority in such matters do not have a very good track record for choosing the best opinions or for the methods that they used for stopping the wrong opinions from being expressed.
I would also add that the Police should be concerning themselves with more serious matters. If this guy was indeed inciting hatred, who is likely to be influenced to commit any sort of crime? Most people were either ignoring him or taking the piss.
When I read about the cartoon-leaver case, I did wonder if this would mean that all the religious street preachers could now be arrested. Well, at least they’re consistent I suppose – but yes, I don’t see any need for this law on either side. Things like inciting violence and harassment are already illegal – it shouldn’t be illegal simply to be offensive.
Although these days, it seems even being offensive above David Cameron will warrant a visit from the police: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/11/david-cameron-poster-police .
But this is also the same C.I. who orchestrated a campaign to make Anne Summers shops remove their ‘have a horny christmas’ banner from the window.
Interestingly, while I know of local authorities who tried to act on those ‘complaints’, my local police force, for one, did not respond when well known swivel-eyed lunatic preachers came into the Anne Summers shop and behaved in a menacing way towards staff and Christmas shoppers.
By the way, on the street preacher thing – if your local authority has gone in for one of those schemes where ‘street preachers’ are paid to accompany the police outside nightclubs to ‘calm’ people, you can have a lot of fun writing to your local police demanding that such loons be arrested for aggressive begging or demanding money with menaces.