Ever since Marcus purchased a portable sound speaker to present the law and the gospel, there has been an increase in harsh reactions from hecklers. We have gotten these kind of reactions mainly when the preaching was done in front of bars or clubs. One man said that he would be willing to kill Marcus and rape me, another threatened to get violent if Marcus did not stop preaching, things have been thrown at him and I, he has been smacked below the belt, a man we believe had a good chance of being demon possessed tried coming after Marcus, one man followed Marcus around blowing smoke in his face for four minutes while he preached, people have thrown liquid at the sound system and a man came out of the bar one night to come after me I'm assuming to scare me into not filming him because he got angry when I videotaped him while he was heckling Marcus. I have listed the videos below.
Even with all of these harsh reactions from people, I still want to go out and evangelize. There are people in the bars and clubs that scare me at times. It hasn't stopped me yet from going out there though because I expect that people will be offended and some of those people will take action against us because they hate the truth and in the videos below, they try to stop Marcus from proclaiming it.
Scriptures tell us that if we follow Christ, we will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12, John 15:20, Matthew 5:10-12, Romans 5:3-5, 1 Peter 4:12-14, etc.). The behavior directed towards Marcus and I in these videos is not what I would classify as persecution, but would call it hostility.
Assault on Preachers: Heckler tries to Grab our Camera (Caution: Profanity)
Heckler Gets a Little Physical on Mill (Caution: Profanity)
Heckler After Heckler and Police Come to my Aid (Mill Ave.)
Assault (from Self-Proclaimed Murderer) and more while Preaching (Mill Ave.)
Smacked, Threatened and more while Evangelizing, PLUS BROWNIE (#2) Viewer Discretion Advised
Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Christians Threatened with Arrest at City Park (Video Below)
While evangelizing last Friday at Freestone Skate Park in Gilbert, AZ; a police officer approached Mark (not my brother) and told him to stop open air preaching. He complied with the officer and stopped preaching even though he disagreed with this request.
Prior to Mark preaching, my brother Marcus had open air preached, presenting the law and the gospel. We spent the first part of our time at the skate park handing out Million Dollar Bills. Jeremy also did his blog talk radio show and Tish attempted to get passersby to take the Intelligence Test.
Anyway, Marcus proceeded to ask Officer Palmer if any of us would be arrested if we continued to preach in the skate park to which he affirmed that we would. Joshua then read Officer Palmer the First Amendment to which he asked Joshua if he had graduated from law school or the police academy. Officer Palmer told us we could not preach inside the park or hand out gospel tracts. He told us we could do this from the sidewalk. In addition to this, he also stated to Tish that this park was private property and that the town of Gilbert owns it. When Tish inquired if tax payer dollars funded the park, he claimed that this is irrelevant because the park is just like a high school and is considered private property. According to Officer Palmer, the tax payer funded schools in Gilbert are owned by Gilbert Unified Schools.
On Monday 7-13-09, Tish spoke with a representative from the Town of Gilbert's Parks and Recreation Department who stated that Freestone is a public owned park and an open forum for discussion is allowed to take place there. In other words, according to this official we should be allowed to evangelize at Freestone Skate Park as long as our activities do not provide a safety hazard for anyone or we are not forcing anyone to take our tracts.
We will continue to pursue this matter, so please pray that God will be glorified and His will be done. We plan on speaking at a future Gilbert City Council Meeting and are seeking legal counsel from the Alliance Defense Fund. We hope to resolve this matter in the near future, so we can go back to the park and reach out to the lost once again.
Prior to Mark preaching, my brother Marcus had open air preached, presenting the law and the gospel. We spent the first part of our time at the skate park handing out Million Dollar Bills. Jeremy also did his blog talk radio show and Tish attempted to get passersby to take the Intelligence Test.
Anyway, Marcus proceeded to ask Officer Palmer if any of us would be arrested if we continued to preach in the skate park to which he affirmed that we would. Joshua then read Officer Palmer the First Amendment to which he asked Joshua if he had graduated from law school or the police academy. Officer Palmer told us we could not preach inside the park or hand out gospel tracts. He told us we could do this from the sidewalk. In addition to this, he also stated to Tish that this park was private property and that the town of Gilbert owns it. When Tish inquired if tax payer dollars funded the park, he claimed that this is irrelevant because the park is just like a high school and is considered private property. According to Officer Palmer, the tax payer funded schools in Gilbert are owned by Gilbert Unified Schools.
On Monday 7-13-09, Tish spoke with a representative from the Town of Gilbert's Parks and Recreation Department who stated that Freestone is a public owned park and an open forum for discussion is allowed to take place there. In other words, according to this official we should be allowed to evangelize at Freestone Skate Park as long as our activities do not provide a safety hazard for anyone or we are not forcing anyone to take our tracts.
We will continue to pursue this matter, so please pray that God will be glorified and His will be done. We plan on speaking at a future Gilbert City Council Meeting and are seeking legal counsel from the Alliance Defense Fund. We hope to resolve this matter in the near future, so we can go back to the park and reach out to the lost once again.
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