A pastor is facing a court date after sharing the gospel with Muslims -- in Kansas.
About 14 people, including three senior pastors, went to the local mosque to distribute to Muslims packets containing the books of John and Romans in English and Arabic and a DVD with testimonies of former Muslims. Pastor Mark Holick of Spirit One Christian Center was one of those passing out the packets to people leaving the mosque.
Holick tells OneNewsNow that when local police officers arrived on the scene, he was handcuffed then detained in a patrol car, where he repeatedly asked what crime he had committed.
"And then about 15 minutes later, 20 minutes later, something like that, they finally came over and told me that I was being charged with 'loitering' and 'failure to disperse,'" the pastor shares.
Asked if this episode occurred in Saudi Arabia, he replies, with a chuckle: "No, this was in Wichita, Kansas."
The pastor says it was very disconcerting to see the gospel squelched -- especially on a public sidewalk in a country with a constitutional guarantee of free speech. Holick believes police are suggesting that he was blocking traffic on the driveway.
"Of course we never did do that," he assures. "There would be no reason for us to block vehicles -- and they probably have no idea how much I like all of my organs and bones perfectly in the position they're in right now."
Holick says serious free-speech rights are in question, so he is asking the Alliance Defense Fund to represent him. There has been no decision on that so far. Source.
Hmmm. Why does this sound familiar?
9 comments:
Lebanon it seems has more freedoms. Freedom to streetpreach, pass out tracts etc...
It seems that we have more freedom to do evangelism in Lebanon. We are able to setup a bible table and not have any issues from the police. They actually are there to protect us.
@Oddchild
Are you being sarcastic?
Saw it double posted my comment. I had a connection burp so it did two, sorry about that.
Actually no, I am not being sarcastic. Each day we get out around 300 Bibles.
If we have any kind of problems with people, we can call the cops and they will come and calm things down.
You can see some video at arabsforChrist.org of outreach there.
OddChild:
Would you say Muslims are more open to the gospel in your region? If so, why do you think that is?
Meanwhile +ians are continuing to be silenced in europe.
In Feb' 2008 a police community support officer (PCSO) told 2 church workers who were handing out +ian tracts in Birmingham, UK, "You can't preach here; this is a Muslim area." The PCSO told Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham that they were committing a hate crime by attempting to convert Muslims to +ianity and threatened to take them to the police station. The pair later made a formal complaint to West Midlands Police, but no formal apology was given.
Brit' comedian Rory Bremner said:
"When [I'm] writing a sketch about Islam, I'm writing a line and I think, 'If this goes down badly, I'm writing my own death warrant there.' Because there are people who will say, 'Not only do I not think that's funny but I'm going to kill you' – and that's chilling."
We get a lot of folks in Iran visiting from Iran. The people from there are very receptive to the Gospel, perhaps because they can see clearly that Islam is not a peaceful / loving religion while living under the sword.
We also run into a lot of Muslims that have seen visions or dreams of Jesus. Unfortunately, there are few doing evangelism.
I hope that this is not becoming a trend in the U.S.! We will keep praying.
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"
-Romans 10:15
A fatwa issued against the novelist Salman Rushdie in Britain (1989).
Film-maker Theo Van Gogh was killed in the Netherlands in 2004.
Death threats were made against the politicians Ayaan Hirsi and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands in 2004 and later Jyllands-Posten editor Flemming Rose and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard were threatened with death in Denmark in 2005.
In 2010 it was alleged that there had been a plot to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks in Sweden.
It's a growing trend!
Brit' comedian Ben Elton said the BBC was too scared to make jokes about Islam.
"There is no doubt about it, the BBC will let vicar gags pass but they would not let imam gags pass. I believe that part of it is due to the genuine fear that the authorities and the communities have about provoking the radical elements of Islam."
So we have no-go zones in certain U.S states and U.K/Europe. There are no-go jokes about Islam but +ianity is fair game.
"Islam entered Europe twice and left it...Perhaps the next conquest, Allah willing, will be by means of preaching and ideology. The conquest need not necessarily be by the sword.. Perhaps we will conquer these lands without armies. We want an army of preachers and teachers who will present Islam in all languages and dialects."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Sunni Muslim cleric, head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, on Al-Jazeera tv, 01/24/99.
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