THE establishment pays lip service to Christianity, parading on special occasions in cathedrals and producing ‘safe’ Christian programmes such as Songs of Praise. But when it runs into unabashed Christianity prepared to deny progressive pieties, the mask slips. There is growing alienation between Christians holding a biblical worldview and the establishment in our increasingly secular society.
Video of the arrest of Oluwole Ilesanmi, a street preacher in Wood Green, north London, has gone viral. Arrests of street preachers for causing offence have become routine. This instance reveals the underlying prejudices of the establishment.
Mr Ilesanmi was arrested by police under Section 5 of the Public Order Act for ‘using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour . . . within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress’.
During his sermon he argued there was a connection between terrorism and the text of the Quran. Two white non-Muslim political activists approached and accused him of preaching lies, and of being Islamophobic. He responded that the Bible speaks the only truth and that people need to give their lives to the Lord Jesus. Mr Ilesanmi was reported to the police for supposed Islamophobia.
Most commentators have focused on the initial attempt to stop Mr Ilesanmi from preaching. However, the most chilling part of the video comes almost unnoticed at the very end.
As the police handcuff and arrest Mr Ilesanmi, they rip his Bible from his hands.
Mr Ilesanmi pleads, ‘Don’t take my Bible away. Don’t take my Bible away.’
The police officer replies, ‘You should have thought about that before being racist!’
The handcuffed preacher is then marched off. He was later released without charge.
Many have pointed out the double standards employed by the police. The Metropolitan Police is the force which provided protection for hate-preacher Abu Hamza when he addressed hundreds of followers outside Finsbury Park mosque, later notorious as a haven for terrorists.
Others have focused on the importance of free speech for society. Unless we are free to say things others might find offensive, free speech is meaningless and conformity is enforced. An increasing number in Britain find the gospel offensive. Christians are obliged to spread the gospel in private, and in public.
However, what is of profound concern is the open hostility towards the Christian message displayed by the police officers. A police officer automatically assuming that preaching that Jesus is the only way of salvation amounts to ‘racism’ is something which should be of great concern to every Christian.
Unfortunately, this is neither new, a matter of ignorance amongst low-level police officers, nor confined to London. In Scotland the same antipathy toward biblical Christianity is apparent on a governmental and official police level.
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