The bible clearly teaches about sin. The calling of an evangelist is to confront people with the truth of God’s word as compared to their chosen lifestyle. Increasingly, however, around the world this type of confrontation will earn you jail time at the very least.
Take the case of American preacher serving on a week-long mission trip in Scotland was reportedly arrested Wednesday for openly preaching that homosexuality is a sin.
Tony Miano was giving an outdoor sermon, generally preaching against all sin and immorality. He spoke about adultery, promiscuity and — homosexuality, The Christian Post reported. This is what any bible believing preacher would declare.
As Miano, who once served as Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff, was preaching, a woman who disagreed with his message yelled out that she has a gay son and threatened to call police on Miano and Pastor Josh Williamson, another preacher who accompanied him.
“Tony wasn’t focusing just on homosexual practice — it was about all sin,” Williamson said in a statement distributed by the Christian Legal Centre, a legal group based in London. “A woman was yelling at him and her friend noticed we were filming the preaching, so she ran up to me and tried to smash my camera.”
The woman then made good on her promise and called the police.
When Scottish authorities arrived, they reportedly arrested Miano on the charge of “breach of peace with ‘homophobic’ aggravation.”
He was detained after a police officer questioned the woman about what had unfolded, according to the Christian Legal Centre, though police reportedly didn’t ask for his side of the story.
The pastor, who pleaded not guilty, was later released on bail and is expected to show up to court on April 22, though he is permitted to return to his home in the U.S. in the mean time.
Political correctness and “hate crime” laws, tools of the enemy, are trumping freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We may be talking of Scotland, but it is starting to happen here in America. How long will it be before it is hateful to condemn sin or to challenge any religion with the gospel that says Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life?
