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My best buddy Donald Wildmon sent me this e-mail just a little bit ago. I'm trying to figure out if it's bullshit or not...
What we have been saying has now happened. You cannot quote what the Bible has to say about homosexuality in public or you will be charged with a "hate crime." Philadelphia is only the beginning. If we fail to take a stand here, this "crime" will soon be applied across America.
In the 27 years of this ministry, I have never witnessed a more outrageous miscarriage of justice than what is happening in Philadelphia. Four Christians are facing up to 47-years in prison and $90,000 in fines for preaching the Gospel on a public sidewalk, a right fully protected by the First Amendment.
On October 10, 2004, the four Christians were arrested in Philadelphia. They are part of Repent America. Along with founder Michael Marcavage, members of Repent America—with police approval--were preaching near Outfest, a homosexual event, handing out Gospel literature and carrying banners with Biblical messages.
When they tried to speak, they were surrounded by a group of radical homosexual activists dubbed the Pink Angels. A videotape of the incident shows the Pink Angels interfering with the Christians’ movement on the street, holding up large pink symbols of angels to cover up the Christians' messages and blowing high pitched whistles to drown out their preaching.
Rather than arrest the homosexual activists and allow the Christians to exercise their First Amendment rights, the Philadelphia police arrested and jailed the Christians!
They were charged with eight crimes, including three felonies: possession of instruments of crime (a bullhorn), ethnic intimidation (saying that homosexuality is a sin), and inciting a riot (reading from the Bible some passages relating to homosexuality) despite the fact that no riot occurred.
You may think I am exaggerating. I'm not. Our AFA Center for Law and Policy is representing these four individuals at no cost. We will take this case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary to get justice.
There is so much more about this case I don't have room for it in this letter. We have prepared a 25-minute VHS/DVD in which two AFA-CLP attorneys discuss the case in detail.
All I can find about this case is on fundie sites and, of course, Free Republic--all of which are using the Exact Same Text from the Repent America website about how these innocent, downtrodden Christians went to preach the "gospel truth" and got busted for it. But the eleven charges include:
Criminal Conspiracy, felony (this one is obvious)
Possession of Instruments of Crime, misdemeanor (the BTs keep screaming that the Bibles they carried were the "instruments of crime" but it turns out to be only the bullhorn they brought)
Reckless Endangerment of Another Person, misdemeanor (when one goes somewhere with the intent of causing a riot, like the Repenters did, this is a proforma charge)
Ethnic Intimidation, felony (an interesting way of putting "gay bashing")
Riot, felony (one can be charged with inciting a riot even if no riot was incited, if your intent is to incite one--there are some great photos of the Pink Angels holding sheets of Owens-Corning Pinkboard up around the Repenters, which would be one hell of an ad for O-C if they wanted to exploit it--"Owens-Corning even insulates you from hate!")
Failure to Disperse, misdemeanor (another proforma charge)
Disorderly Conduct, misdemeanor (once again, proforma)
Obstructing Highways, misdemeanor (is the sidewalk considered part of the highway? I think it is; it's clearly within the highway's right-of-way.)
So basically you've got eleven fundamentalists who wanted to start a riot to prove how hateful gay people are, and who got hauled off to jail for their trouble...and now, in the third month since the incident, the fundies are only now getting pissed off about this?
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