Sign of the times of the day (UK Edition): Police tell cafe owner: Stop showing Bible DVDs, or we will have to arrest you
Police have threatened a Christian cafe owner with arrest –- for displaying passages from the Bible on a TV screen . . . .The Salt and Light cafe in Blackpool has for years repeatedly played the entire 26-hour-long Watchword Bible, a 15-DVD set produced in America in which a narrator reads the whole of the New Testament, on a small flatscreen TV on the back wall . . . .
The sound is turned down but the words flash on to the screen against a series of images . . . .
Mr Murray said the two uniformed officers from Lancashire Constabulary arrived at lunchtime on Monday, the cafe’s busiest time of day. WPC June Dorrian, the community beat manager, told him there had been a complaint and he was breaching the Public Order Act 1986 . . . .
[Mr Murray said.] ‘I said, “Are you really telling me that I am facing arrest for playing the Bible?” and the WPC fixed me with a stare and said, “If you broadcast material that causes offence under the Public Order Act then we will have to take matters further. You cannot break the law.” ’ . . .
Note: Section 29E of the Public Order Act warns that people who play images or sounds that stir up hatred against homosexuals could be guilty of an offense. A police spokesman said: “At no point did the officer ask the cafe owner to remove any materials or arrest the man and we took a commonsense and objective approach in dealing with the complaint.”
(Via: Eugene Volokh )
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