<\/p>\n
Clive Johnston, a 78-year-old retired pastor in Northern Ireland, has been convicted and fined for preaching a Gospel-centered message near a hospital.<\/p>\n
District Judge Peter King at Coleraine Magistrates\u2019 Court convicted Johnston on May 7 of breaching a so-called \u201csafe access zone\u201d outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine on July 7, 2024,\u00a0according to Fox News.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland\u2019s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act bans \u201cinfluencing,\u201d \u201cpreventing or impeding access,\u201d or \u201ccausing harassment, alarm, or distress\u201d to a protected person within 100 meters \u2014 or about 328 feet \u2014 of any facility where abortions are performed. A woman in the U.K.\u00a0was targeted by police\u00a0for praying silently under similar pretenses.<\/p>\n
Johnston, for his part, was found guilty of \u201cinfluencing\u201d within the perimeters of the protected zone and, as such, was fined 450 pounds, or about $614.<\/p>\n
The septuagenarian may very well be the first person prosecuted under the law for preaching a sermon that did not mention abortion, according to the Christian Institute, which advocated for Johnston.<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Not only was the former pastor not speaking about abortion \u2014 he was preaching about one of the most fundamental passages to the Gospel message, John 3:16, which states, \u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life\u201d (ESV).<\/p>\n \u201cIt effectively redefines peaceful Christian witness as a form of unlawful \u2018influence,’\u201d Johnston told Fox News. \u201cIf simply reading the Bible, praying, and preaching on God\u2019s love can now be considered harmful because someone might overhear it within a certain area, then we have crossed a very serious line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJohn 3:16 is one of the most well-known and hope-filled verses in the Bible \u2014 a message about God\u2019s love and salvation,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf even that can be criminalized because of where it is spoken, then how can any public expression of\u00a0Christian belief\u00a0be truly safe from restriction?\u201d<\/p>\n One of Johnston\u2019s friends, a Kentucky-based pastor named Danny Davis,\u00a0told Kentucky Today\u00a0he was surprised to learn about Johnston\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n Telling the outlet that Johnston plans to appeal the ruling, Davis warned the court\u2019s ruling could send a chilling effect to other Christians in Europe and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this thing stands,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s a terrible precedent that others would build upon to silence Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n Ciar\u00e1n Kelly, director of The Christian Institute, described Johnston\u2019s case as an instance of \u201ccreeping censorship,\u201d adding, \u201cIf the ruling stands, it will represent a shocking new restriction on freedom of religion and freedom of speech, so we will be helping Clive consider his options for appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Please sign up for\u00a0Faithwire\u2019s daily newsletter\u00a0and download the\u00a0CBN News app\u00a0to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clive Johnston, a 78-year-old retired pastor in Northern Ireland, has been convicted and fined for preaching a Gospel-centered message near a hospital. District Judge Peter King at Coleraine Magistrates\u2019 Court convicted Johnston on May 7 of breaching a so-called \u201csafe access zone\u201d outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine on July 7, 2024,\u00a0according to Fox News. Northern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3076,4150,2973,226,2204,983,5140],"class_list":{"0":"post-28602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jesus","8":"tag-convicted","9":"tag-hospital","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-john","12":"tag-northern","13":"tag-pastor","14":"tag-preaching"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}