Post by oap001 on Mar 25, 2007 19:28:51 GMT -5
Dozens protest ordinance requiring permit to preach on street
The Associated Press - HENDERSONVILLE, N.C.
Some 45 people from several states protested a city ordinance Saturday that prohibits street preaching without a permit.
Demonstrators, who said they came from North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, said they also came to show support for a pastor who was jailed Friday for violating the ordinance.
"Our main objective is to preach the gospel and this ordinance prohibits us from doing that," said Randy Bryson, a pastor from Easley, S.C., who joined the demonstration. "We're street preachers, and were just trying to fulfill the Scripture."
Billy Ball, a pastor from Primrose, Ga., was arrested Friday for violating the ordinance. It was his third preaching trip to Hendersonville, about 18 miles south of Asheville.
Participants said Ball doesn't want his $110 bond posted so he can challenge the ordinance in court. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
"If you're preaching without a permit on the sidewalk its a class three misdemeanor," Police Capt. John Nicholson told the group's attorney, Joel Thornton. "This isn't about preaching, it's about the law."
Nicholson said the only permit the city has denied in the past 30 years was to a Ku Klux Klan group because they were disorderly and used profanity after receiving a permit the previous year, The Times-News in Hendersonville reported. .
Saturday's protest dispersed peacefully at the urging of Nicholson. There were no arrests made and no citations issued.
"I preach and pass out tracts on Red Square in Moscow without any problem," said Randy Bane, an evangelist from Zirconia. "I come home to my hometown and I'm in violation of a local ordinance."
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The Associated Press - HENDERSONVILLE, N.C.
Some 45 people from several states protested a city ordinance Saturday that prohibits street preaching without a permit.
Demonstrators, who said they came from North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, said they also came to show support for a pastor who was jailed Friday for violating the ordinance.
"Our main objective is to preach the gospel and this ordinance prohibits us from doing that," said Randy Bryson, a pastor from Easley, S.C., who joined the demonstration. "We're street preachers, and were just trying to fulfill the Scripture."
Billy Ball, a pastor from Primrose, Ga., was arrested Friday for violating the ordinance. It was his third preaching trip to Hendersonville, about 18 miles south of Asheville.
Participants said Ball doesn't want his $110 bond posted so he can challenge the ordinance in court. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
"If you're preaching without a permit on the sidewalk its a class three misdemeanor," Police Capt. John Nicholson told the group's attorney, Joel Thornton. "This isn't about preaching, it's about the law."
Nicholson said the only permit the city has denied in the past 30 years was to a Ku Klux Klan group because they were disorderly and used profanity after receiving a permit the previous year, The Times-News in Hendersonville reported. .
Saturday's protest dispersed peacefully at the urging of Nicholson. There were no arrests made and no citations issued.
"I preach and pass out tracts on Red Square in Moscow without any problem," said Randy Bane, an evangelist from Zirconia. "I come home to my hometown and I'm in violation of a local ordinance."
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