A Christian street preacher has been arrested and charged with a
public-order offence after saying that homosexuality was sinful.
Dale
McAlpine was handing out leaflets to shoppers when he told a passer-by
and a gay police community support officer that, as a Christian, he
believed homosexuality was one of a number of sins that go against the
word of God.
Mr McAlpine said that he did not repeat his
remarks on homosexuality when he preached from the top of a stepladder
after his leafleting.
But he has been told that police officers
are alleging they heard him making his remarks to a member of the public
in a loud voice that could be overheard by others.
“My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said,
and I was charged under a law that doesn't apply.”
Mr Mcalpine, 42, who earns about £40,000 a year in the energy
industry, was arrested and taken to the local police station in the back
of a police van after preaching in the Cumbrian town of Workington on
April 20.
After seven hours locked up in a cell, he was
charged with using abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to
the Public Order Act 1986,
introduced in 1986 to tackle violent rioters and football hooligans.
Christian campaigners have expressed alarm that the Public Order Act is
being used to curb religious free speech.
Sam Webster, a solicitor-advocate for the Christian Institute, which is
supporting Mr McAlpine, said it is not a crime to express the belief that
homosexual conduct is a sin.
“Case law has ruled that the orthodox Christian belief that homosexual conduct
is sinful is a belief worthy of respect in a democratic society."
“The police have a duty to maintain public order, but they also have a duty to
defend the lawful free speech of citizens,” he said.
Christian campaigners said last night they were alarmed that the
police seemed to be using legislation originally introduced to deal with
violent and abusive rioters and football hooligans to curb free speech.
Neil
Addison, a barrister and expert on religious law, said: ‘People should
be able to express their opinions freely as long as their conduct is
reasonable. In fact, it is part of the duty of the police to protect
free speech.’
‘Dale is an ordinary,
everyday Christian with traditional views about sexual ethics. Some
people will agree with him, others will disagree. But it’s not for the
police to arrest someone just because others may disagree with what is
said.'
- Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian
Institute
Mr McAlpine’s ordeal began when he and two other Christians went to
the pedestrianised shopping precinct in the centre of Workington. He
took a small stepladder and a rucksack of Christian leaflets and met
full-time preacher Keith Bullock from Carlisle and a friend from his
evangelical church in Workington.
Mr Bullock began speaking from the stepladder outside a mobile phone shop close to
a number of stores and coffee bars. Mr
McAlpine said he and his church colleague handed out to passers-by
leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or offering a ‘ticket to
heaven’.
He recalled: ‘It wasn’t very busy, but within about
five minutes I noticed two police community support officers in
fluorescent waistcoats and blue peaked caps watching from about ten
feet.’
Mr McAlpine said a woman came up to him and they became
engaged in a debate about his faith, during which he says he recited a
number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians in the Bible, including
blasphemy, fornication, adultery, drunkenness and homosexuality, as well
as talking about repentance and salvation.
He and the woman were standing close to each other and he said he did not raise his voice. Mr
McAlpine says that as the woman left, one of the two officers, PCSO Sam
Adams, approached her and had a brief chat before walking towards him.
Mr McAlpine asked Mr Adams if everything was OK.
According to
Mr McAlpine, Mr Adams said there had been complaints and warned him that
if he made racist or homophobic remarks he could be arrested. Mr
McAlpine said:
‘I told him I was not homophobic but sometimes I did say
that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator, but it
was not against the law to say this.'
‘The PCSO then told me
he was gay and he was the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender liaison
officer for the police. ‘I said, “It is still a sin”, and our
conversation ended. It wasn’t a loud or aggressive conversation.’
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Mr Adams has been a member of Cumbria police’s LGBT staff association
and last year represented the force at the Gay Pride festival in
Manchester, marching in the parade with a police dog named Whistle.
On the social networking site MySpace, Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Sam Adams describes his orientation as gay and his religion as atheist.
Soon after midday, Mr McAlpine took over from Mr Bullock on the stepladder and says he preached for about 20 minutes.
He
said he mentioned drunkenness and adultery, and that religions such as
Buddhism, Islam and even Roman Catholicism were not the way of
salvation, but did not speak about homosexuality.
During the
sermon he was heckled by a middle-aged man, who berated his colleague Mr
Bullock, asking what right he had to preach that drunkenness was wrong.
At that point Mr Adams, who Mr McAlpine said had been talking on his radio, intervened, and the man left. A
few minutes later three regular uniformed policemen arrived and Mr McAlpine said one asked him if he had made homophobic remarks. Mr McAlpine said he told the officers that, while he was not homophobic, he
did believe homosexuality was a sin and there was no law against saying
so.
‘I knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong so I told myself to remain calm, but it was very intimidating,’ he recalled.
‘I
was then arrested, read my rights and put into the back of a marked
police van. When we got to the station they emptied my pockets, took my
mobile and my belt and my trainers, so I was in my socks.’
Mr McAlpine was put in a cell and asked for his Bible. ‘I read it and sang
hymns like Amazing Grace as loudly as I could,’ he said.
Police
took his fingerprints, a palm print, a retina scan and a DNA swab. He
eventually saw the duty solicitor and was interviewed by an officer in a
room equipped with a table, four chairs and a recording device.
Mr McAlpine was told that the two PCSOs had alleged that they heard him
shouting that homosexuality was a sin, which had distressed them and
members of the public.
He was eventually charged under Sections 5 (1)
and (6) of the Public Order Act 1986 and released on bail on the
condition that he did not preach in public.
At a preliminary
hearing on Friday in Workington magistrates’ court, Mr McAlpine pleaded
not guilty and he is now awaiting a trial date. The two PCSOs are
expected to attend as witnesses.
Shoppers in Workington were bemused by what had happened to Mr McAlpine.
‘He hands out leaflets, he says his piece and then he leaves,’ said Mr Logan. ‘He is not aggressive or threatening. He is gentle.’
- Rob Logan, the assistant manager of the O2 mobile phone store near where Mr McAlpine preached, said he had no complaints.
The Public Order Act 1986 has been used by the
police in a number of similar cases, including that of Ben and Sharon
Vogelenzang, the Christian hoteliers cleared earlier this year of
insulting a Muslim guest at their Liverpool hotel.
In 2002
pensioner Harry Hammond was convicted under Section 5 of the Public
Order Act. When preaching in Bournemouth, Mr Hammond held up a sign
saying: ‘Stop Immorality’, ‘Stop Homosexuality’, ‘Stop Lesbianism’,
‘Jesus is Lord’.
In 2006, police arrested and charged
Christian campaigner Stephen Green for handing out leaflets at a Gay
Pride festival in Cardiff. The case was dropped.
Last night Cumbria police said there was no one available to comment on Mr McAlpine’s case.
‘As
far as I am concerned, this is about free speech. If we arrested
everybody who said something we found offensive, everyone would be in
prison.’
- The Rev Arthur Bentley-Taylor, 68, vicar of the Emmanuel evangelical church where Mr McAlpine worships
Mr McAlpine – who has delivered open-air sermons and handed out
leaflets in Workington for years, and has never been in trouble with the
police – said the incident was one of the worst moments of his life.
‘I
felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own
town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know,’ he
said.
‘My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone
who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t
apply.’
He said he was not homophobic and has gay friends, but
he feels compelled by his faith to urge people to abandon all types of
sins so they can seek salvation.
‘If you are preaching hate and calling on people to harm others, it
is right that is against the law,’ he said. ‘But I would never do that.
If we have a free society, I should be allowed to preach the Gospel as
generations have before me.’
Mr McAlpine was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or
offering a “ticket to heaven” with a church colleague on April 20, when a
woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith.
During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of
sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication,
adultery and drunkenness.
After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO who spoke with her
briefly and then walked over to Mr McAlpine and told him a complaint had
been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic
language.
The street preacher said he told the PCSO: “I am not homophobic but sometimes
I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”.
He claims that the PCSO then said he was homosexual and identified himself as
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria
police. Mr McAlpine replied: “It’s still a sin.”
The preacher then began a 20 minute sermon, in which he says he mentioned
drunkenness and adultery, but not homosexuality. Three regular uniformed
police officers arrived during the address, arrested Mr McAlpine and put him
in the back of a police van.
At the station, he was told to empty his pockets and his mobile telephone,
belt and shoes were confiscated. Police took fingerprints, a palm print, a
retina scan and a DNA swab.
He was later interviewed, charged under Sections 5 (1) and (6) of the Public
Order Act and released on bail on the condition that he did not preach in
public.
Mr McAlpine pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing on Friday at Workington
magistrates court and is now awaiting a trial date.
The Public Order Act, which outlaws the unreasonable use of abusive language
likely to cause distress, has been used to arrest religious people in a
number of similar cases.
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