When I talked about this back here, nobody commented. But what I foretold in that piece has happened. Now 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 20 something years I’ve been involved in this fight, I have never seen 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. (click here, here and here for related links)

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. The 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 here. The American Family Association prepared a 25-minute VHS/DVD in which two AFA-CLP attorneys discuss the case in detail. I suggest strongly that you order it.

Please help us with our expenses in representing these committed Christians. With your tax-deductible gift of $15, less than the cost of a cup of coffee once a month for the next year, they will send your choice of either the VHS or DVD. Watch the VHS/DVD, then share it with your Sunday school class and church. This VHS/DVD should be required viewing in every church in America.

Click here to get your copy of the Philadelphia 4 Story

Update: According to WorldNetDaily, “Homosexual attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division not only attended (the) large homosexual event…but they advised police on the scene who arrested 11 Christian protesters, says a source in the agency.” (Charges against some of the Christians have been dropped.)

The WorldNetDaily article went on to say the U.S. Justice Department is “not likely to take up the cause of the five criminally charged Christians who believe Philadelphia officials violated their civil rights.”

Did you catch that? The Justice Department will refuse to investigate the treatment of the arrested Christians because some homosexual attorneys from the Justice Department were advising the Philadelphia police on how to arrest the Christians!!!!

WorldNetDaily, quoting their source inside the Justice Department, said the Christians were charged with “ethic intimidation (hate crimes) ‘at the recommendation of some of our (Department of Justice) attorneys who were at the march.’”

In fact, Chief Inspector Tiano, who serves as liaison to the homosexual community, testified at the preliminary hearing that he met at least four times with the organizers of the Outfest event in anticipation of the protesters’ activities, presumably to discuss how to handle the “Christians” when they showed up at the event. He also said he had 40 officers on site that day. He did not meet with any of the Christians!

There appears to be collusion in this travesty of justice that goes to high levels of both the Justice Department and Philadelphia. A trail date will be set soon.

Would you stand with these Christians who are defending our constitutional right of free speech? We are asking you to stand with these four Christians by doing the following actions.

Send the email to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation of this situation. Click here to send your email.

Help us with a financial gift. AFA attorneys from the Center for Law and Policy are representing the Philadelphia 4 at no cost to the Christians. A gift of $15, less than a cup of coffee once a month for a year, will go a long way in helping AFA cover our costs. Click here to make a donation.

One final request. Please forward this to your friends and family. And thanks for caring enough to get involved.

Cao on behalf of Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman American Family Association

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.