Gloucester City Council apologises to Christians over public distribution of tracts
I didn’t know anything about this case even though I live in Gloucestershire, but on the face of it, it certainly appears the council official was overzealous in their attempt to prohibit Christians handing out tracts in Gloucester City Centre.
A group of Christians banned by a council from handing out leaflets containing passages from the Bible has won an apology.
Gloucester City Council admitted it was wrong to stop worshippers distributing material at a Bible Day celebration.
The council issued its apology a day after The Mail on Sunday contacted officials to ask how it justified the ban.
Church leaders in Gloucester complained after an official interrupted the event in June, where more than 30 Christians, including a retired Church of England vicar, had gathered at The Cross, a pedestrianised part of the city.
They say the celebration, which included Bible readings and the distribution of a leaflet called Jesus The Suffering Saviour, was ruined by a council employee who told them that distribution of leaflets contravened a 2002 bylaw on anti-touting.
Christian Concern threatened the council with legal action.
Tags: Christianity, Religion Society
August 5th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
It is a difficult one… the arrest of the autistic young man for street preaching, a few years ago, was taking it a little too far… or so I thought. Then a few months later I came face to face with the same autistic young man who for some reason was in London and distributing tracts at the south side exit of Oxford Circus tube station at 8.50am (at the peak of morning rush hour). I was en route to a meeting, he was blocking the way so I pushed him out of my way. It is potentially very dangerous to block the exit of a tube station and if the police had carried him off on this occasion, I would have cheered them on!
If I am in one of my more acerbic moods – and I have the time – I will occasionally take a leaflet from someone handing out a tract, smile sweetly and say: ‘I hope that makes you feel better about yourself…’; alternatively I sometimes stop and ask ‘For whom are you doing this? Is it for you or are you really intent on spreading the Gospel? How many people do you know who have come to faith through this waste of paper?’
Harsh I know, but I was once among their number and I am reasonably confident that in the main the purpose of standing at street corners handing out tracts is more for the needs and wants of those handing out the tracts than any real thought about the people on the receiving end. I will add that I believe the same is true for those who hand out tracts about Islam, Hare Krishna or the JWs (and I treat them in just the same way).
Whatever, I don’t think the Christian religion would have prospered if at the outset Paul’s missionary zeal was confined to hanging around the streets of Corinth, handing out phylacteries!
As regards Christian Concern’s comment ‘ We… refuse to live in a totalitarian regime where political and religious opinion is banned.’ I think is a bit OTT, in a totalitarian regime there would have been no redress. Oddly and ironically enough, until quite recently in Britain’s (and much of Europe’s) history, when Christianity was a dominant religious and political force in society, censoring and persecution of religious or political thought at odds with the status quo was common (think of the Inquisition!!). Whatever the faults of council bureaucrats, we live in a far more tolerant and open society than when religion had greater social and political power.
As for Christian Concern taking legal action, the implications of Matthew 5:39 etc. seem to just pass these militant Christians by. Perhaps if there was some REAL persecution, met with humility (as was Jesus’ and the early Church’s way) it might prove far more powerful in spreading the Gospel than some tacky leaflets!
August 6th, 2012 at 9:53 am
“Fr Richard” may not want people handing out tracts and, if a council official starts bullying (extra-legally) he sneers at those who attempt to defend their legal right to do so. Such apologetics for wrong doing are a bit sick.