{"id":23211,"date":"2010-05-02T01:00:29","date_gmt":"2010-05-02T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christian.org.uk\/article\/cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs\/"},"modified":"2016-09-30T11:24:23","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T10:24:23","slug":"cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.christian.org.uk\/news\/cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops arrest preacher over Christian beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian street preacher in Cumbria has been arrested and charged with a crime after he expressed his religious beliefs about homosexual conduct.<\/p>\n<p>Dale Mcalpine, of Workington in Cumbria, appeared before local magistrates on Friday and pleaded not guilty to breaching section 5 of the Public Order Act.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mcalpine is being supported by The Christian Institute, a leading national defender of Christian religious liberty.<\/p>\n<h2>Sinful<\/h2>\n<p>He was preaching publicly in the town on 20 April this year but he insists he never spoke about the subject of homosexuality during his public sermon.<\/p>\n<p>He says two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) approached him and one identified himself as a homosexual. <\/p>\n<p>According to Mr Mcalpine, that PCSO warned him not to say homosexual conduct is “sinful” because it would be a crime.<\/p>\n<h2>Arrested<\/h2>\n<p>The PCSO also identified himself as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mcalpine told the PCSO that it is not a crime to describe same-sex practice as a “sin”. <\/p>\n<p>Police officers later arrived on the scene. Mr Mcalpine was then arrested and held in a police cell before being charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” contrary to Section 5 of the public order act.<\/p>\n<h2>Not a crime<\/h2>\n<p>Solicitor-advocate for The Christian Institute, Sam Webster, says it is not a crime to express the belief that homosexual conduct is a sin.<\/p>\n<p>“A Christian who stands in a public place and expresses his religious beliefs in the hope of persuading passers-by of his views \u2013 that is freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<h2>Respect<\/h2>\n<p>“Yes, the police have a duty to maintain public order but they also have a duty to defend the lawful free speech of citizens. It’s not for police to decide whether Mr Mcalpine’s views are right or wrong. <\/p>\n<p>“Case law has ruled that the orthodox Christian belief that homosexual conduct is sinful is a belief worthy of respect in a democratic society.”<\/p>\n<p>In November last year, the Government was defeated in Parliament over its attempt to repeal a free speech safeguard to a law against ‘sexual orientation hatred’.<\/p>\n<h2>Safeguard<\/h2>\n<p>The safeguard, introduced by former Home Secretary Lord Waddington, makes clear that criticising homosexual conduct, or encouraging someone to refrain from such conduct, is not in itself a crime.<\/p>\n<p>The Labour party has vowed to remove the free speech protection if it wins the next general election.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008 the Lib Dems forced a Commons vote in a failed attempt to repeal the Waddington safeguard, but allowed a free vote in the Lords in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The Tories allowed a free vote. David Cameron and the shadow cabinet supported the free speech protection and in the most recent Commons vote no Tory MP voted to repeal it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian street preacher in Cumbria has been arrested and charged with a crime after he expressed his religious beliefs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cops arrest preacher over Christian beliefs - The Christian Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christian.org.uk\/news\/cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christian.org.uk\/news\/cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christian.org.uk\/news\/cops-arrest-preacher-over-christian-beliefs\/\",\"name\":\"Cops arrest preacher over Christian beliefs - 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