by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A 70-year-old British Pastor was arrested in London last month for publically preaching on the Biblical view of marriage and sexuality, Christian minister Peter Simpson reported in an article for the Conservative Woman. Pastor John Sherwood was arrested on April 23 while preaching from the Bible in the center of Uxbridge (PM Boris Johnson’s constituency).
Explaining that he had been preaching the Gospel together with Sherwood at the time of the pastor’s arrest, Simpson explained that the two of them regularly preach in the open air in Uxbridge. However, as Sherwood preached from Genesis 1 on God’s design for family and gender on this particular Friday, several police officers arrived and told him they had received complaints about his preaching.
“The pastor stopped preaching to speak to the officers, in a courteous and reasonable manner for some considerable time, whilst adhering firmly to all that he had said. The accusation made by police was that ‘alarm and distress’ had been caused to members of the public,” Simpson reports.
One of the officers also told Simpson that the subject matter of the preaching could not be discussed in public places “because there is no freedom to make statements which offend people.” In response to this, Simpson pointed out there is no law against offending people and that “the police would have no objection whatsoever to a Pride parade being held in Uxbridge, yet that would be highly offensive to Bible-believing Christians.”
However, when Pastor Sherwood refused to stop preaching - pointing out that his message was not about hating anyone or any group and that people were free to ignore him - an officer took his Bible from him and pulled him down the steps on which he stood. He was then placed under arrest and handcuffed by three officers. Sherwood was taken to a police station and detained overnight until noon the next day, Simpson said. During the police interview, he was asked what he would do if one of his children were homosexual. Although he was eventually released, Sherwood was told he remains under investigation.