Assembly Of God Church Sues Street Preacher

By NEAL HORSLEY

On Sunday morning November 4, 2001, in front of the First Assembly of God Church – a mega-church with over 4000 members in Rockford, Illinois – six people protested and displayed pictures of baby Malachi, a very graphic picture of death and mutilation at the hands of an abortionist, and two banners that read "Why Is The Church Silent?"

As a part of their protest against the silence of churches to the evil in this nation, they preached, using a hand-held megaphone, as people entered and left the services. Associate Pastors, at least one Church board member, a former Mayoral candidate and Alderman, a private investigator, and several lay people confronted them during the course of the protest to try to get these six people, as they said, "to just go away."

But the protestors would not leave because, according to the protestors, they believed they had the right to preach God’s word on public sidewalks in the USA.

During the course of the four hours that the protestors were in front of the First Assembly Church, bystanders report that there were requests, demands and "even physical intimidation" used in an attempt to remove the protesters from proximity to the church.

But none of the people who came outside to complain indicated that the preaching outside the church was loud enough to disrupt the service inside the church.

Adrian Horien, the group’s organizer and leader, reported that Dave Nelson, A Church board member, told him, "Inside the sanctuary you can only be heard in the near end of the balcony even though what is being said cannot be understood."

Vicki Johnson, who had been inside during the church service, came out to speak with the protesters. She said, "Nothing could be heard in the sanctuary . . . there was nothing unusual about the service itself other than Pastor Mayo making a few relevant comments about the protest."

In spite of the fact that no one was accusing the street preachers of disrupting the service, the Police were called.

According to witnesses, after thirty minutes of conferring with the complainants and – via cellular phone – with city officials, Police Sergeant Piper walked up to Mr. Horien and cautioned him, "Make sure you stay on the right-of-way."

Sergeant Piper then took a picture of the protestors and walked away.

According to Adrian Horien, the protesters understood the actions of the police officer to mean there was nothing illegal about the presence of the six people and the protest itself, so they continued preaching.

To their surprise on the following Tuesday, Adrian Horien was arrested for "Disturbing a religious or lawful meeting." The charges were filed as a result of complaints initiated by the leadership of the First Assembly of God in Rockford, Illinois.

Adrian Horien stated that he had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact the church leadership to appeal to them to take their complaint out of the courts since the resort to the courts violated Scriptural admonitions contained in Matthew 5:23-24; 18:15 and 1 Corinthians 6:1-7.