It’s increasingly and terrifyingly clear that the First Amendment is dying in America, and that religious persecution is becoming more mainstream. A young street preacher was just arrested in Wisconsin for peacefully protesting and reading Bible verses near a drag queen event for families.
Men in dresses sexually grooming children are not a problem, but a young man reading Bible verses into a microphone on a public sidewalk is apparently a problem. The young street preacher, Marcus Schroeder, was arrested by multiple burly cops, and he was accused of resisting arrest after slightly twisting away from the mob of cops and objecting when they snatched his microphone.
Schroeder was charged with “unlawful use of sound amplification and resisting arrest.” Incidentally, a group of people with Nazi symbols were parading around also protesting the drag event, but were not arrested, according to The Post Millennial. In America now, police actually object more to Bible verses than to swastikas. So much for freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Related: Maine: Drag Queen Gets Paid to Make Recruits in Public School
Police arrested and detained several young people in Watertown, Wisconsin, on Saturday while they were preaching the gospel at a public drag queen event targeted toward children.
Video circulated on social media showing multiple police officers arresting Marcus Schroeder as he was reading from the Bible. One officer was recorded aggressively pulling a microphone out of his hands and walking him away in handcuffs. Nick Proell, another young Christian, was detained and removed from the venue but later released with a warning.
Jason Storms, who recorded the viral video, said in remarks provided to The Sentinel that the young people, who attend Mercy Seat Christian Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, were some of more than 200 individuals from various groups assembled to protest the drag show.
“The police, per orders from city leaders, arrested several young people. Three were arrested earlier in the day while inside the park praying and talking to attendees, and then released with warnings,” said Storms, who serves as minister of evangelism at Mercy Seat Christian Church. “It was open to the public, thus the public’s right to free speech carries with them. One was arrested later in the day for preaching on the public sidewalk outside the venue and is being charged with unlawful use of sound amplification and resisting arrest.”
🚨BREAKING: Young man arrested for sharing the Bible on a public sidewalk
Blatant violation of the 1st amendment of The Constitution. Every one of those cops should be fired and sued. pic.twitter.com/ef8zBXSf5c
— TONY™️ (@TONYxTWO) August 1, 2023
One policeman grabs at Schroeder’s microphone and then disconnects it. “They said we can speak out on the sidewalk freely?” Storms says, also clarifying that the group wasn’t told they couldn’t use amplification. “You can speak but there’s no amplified devices,” an officer announces. This would seem to be the real-life version of what Elon Musk calls “freedom of speech but not reach,” which suppresses free speech while pretending to allow it.
Eventually, the police grabbed Schroeder. “You guys are acting like thugs,” Storms, Schroeder’s pastor, said as they handcuffed him. “He has every right to be out here engaging in speech!”
But Schroeder refuses to be intimidated by his experience. ”It was worth it. It’s actually an honor to be counted worthy to stand with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and been arrested for the sake of spreading Christ and his kingdom,” he told The Sentinel. “If the police wanted to try and set an example for others or anything like that, the only thing I’ve seen is actually the exact opposite, where more and more people are seeing the severity of what’s going on and being called to more action.”
Nick Proell, a fellow young Christian also detained and removed from the venue, said that he has no regrets either. “I’d do it all over again if it gives me an opportunity to share the good news and rescue innocent children being sexualized by their parents,” he declared. “God will use it for good. We will stand for truth even if we stand alone.”
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