Justice Department May Have to Intervene in Philadelphia, Attorney Says     1/3/2005
By Robert Knight

Christians who preached at homosexual street fair face up to 47 years in prison

The attorney representing four Christians facing “hate crime” charges and other felonies and misdemeanors for sharing the Gospel outside a homosexual street festival on October 10 says his clients may need intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The preaching of the Gospel on a public street “has been equated to falsely yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater,” Brian Fahling of the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy told CWA’s Culture & Family Institute.

At a December 14 preliminary hearing, prosecutor Charles Erlich, who called the defendants’ message “hateful,” “defined the preaching as ‘fighting words,’ and the judge accepted it,” Fahling said. “This is historic. This is the first time the preaching of the Gospel has been defined as ‘fighting words.’”

Fahling said he would welcome a civil rights violation investigation by the Justice Department. Calls to the Justice Department’s office of public relations were not returned as of press time.

"We sought emergency relief earlier from the federal courts," Fahling told Agape Press, "[and] I'm sure the federal courts thought that justice would be done here and didn't intervene. So we have one more route, and that would be to appeal to [Supreme Court] Justice [David] Souter, who presides over this particular territory with respect to these issues. So we may take an emergency appeal there."

“There’s no due process here. You’re not going to get justice in Philadelphia,” Fahling told CWA.

A federal court earlier denied an emergency appeal to halt the prosecution filed on the defendants’ behalf by the AFA Law Center.

The defendants were released on their own recognizance, with the restriction that they cannot come within 100 feet of a “gay and lesbian” event. Their formal arraignment is slated for January 5, 2005. The judge agreed to waive the presence of the defendants on that day and accept a plea of not guilty on their behalf.

The case originated when 11 Christians associated with Repent America began preaching and singing outside Outfest, a homosexual street event. The Christians, led by Repent America founder Michael Marcavage, were surrounded by the Pink Angels, a group of homosexuals who held up Styrofoam signs, blocking the Christians. Police arrested only the Christians. After viewing a videotape of the incident at the December 14 hearing, Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan dropped charges against seven other defendants, including a 17-year-old girl and a 72-year-old grandmother.

Fahling told CWA that the charges seemed to stem from whether the judge saw the defendants singing, holding a sign or preaching from the Bible on the videotape.

Erlich, the assistant district attorney who argued the prosecution’s case on December 14, was openly hostile to the defendants, Fahling said.

“Police only forwarded an obstructing charge. It was the prosecutor’s office that elevated this into three felonies and five misdemeanors,” Fahling said.

“If preaching the Gospel is a prosecutable offense, I guess they would have locked up Jesus in the so-called ‘city of brotherly love,’” said Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel. “This is exactly what we’ve been saying would happen to Christians if sexual orientation is included in these discriminatory hate crime laws. Hopefully, a higher court will stop this malicious prosecution from proceeding. If this isn’t a violation of their federal civil rights, I don’t know what it would take.” LaRue added.

“If anyone should have been charged with something, it should have been the Pink Angels, but even they don’t deserve a felony charge,” Fahling said.

The four defendants face a total of 47 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Michael Marcavage is charged with three felonies –criminal conspiracy, ethnic intimidation (hate crime), and riot— as well as five misdemeanor counts.

Mark Diener and James Cruse are charged with the felony of criminal conspiracy and the misdemeanors of failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstructing highways.

Dennis Green is charged with felony criminal conspiracy, and the misdemeanors of disorderly conduct and obstructing highways.

“The criminal conspiracy charge links all the defendants together so that Marcavage's ‘ethnic intimidation’ hate-crime charge will apply to all of them,” said WorldNetDaily Editor Joseph Farah, who wrote a column about the arraignment.

Farah also included some historical perspective:

Of course, Philadelphia wasn't always so inhospitable to Christians.

It's worth remembering the very first legislative act in Pennsylvania, April 25, 1682. It was called the Great Law of Pennsylvania – and great it was.

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