Michael Foust<\/a>(Christian Headlines<\/a>) May 8, 2021 | 400 words 367 Comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n MORE:NEWS<\/a> VIDEO<\/a> TRENDS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally appeared at: Christian Headlines<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n John Sherwood, who is 71 and the pastor of a north London church, was arrested April 23 in the center of Uxbridge, London, under the Public Order Act for making \u201callegedly homophobic comments,\u201d according to The Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A video<\/a> shows him standing on top of a step stool before being handcuffed and led away by police as a crowd watched. One person can be heard gasping in shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor a man preaching about Christianity!\u201d a woman says in the video, critical of police action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was later released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t making any homophobic comments. I was just defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman,\u201d he said, according to The Daily Mail. \u201cI was only saying what the Bible says \u2013 I wasn\u2019t wanting to hurt anyone or cause offense. I was doing what my job description says, which is to preach the gospel in open air as well as in a church building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen the police approached me, I explained that I was exercising my religious liberty and my conscience. I was forcibly pulled down from the steps and suffered some injury to my wrist and to my elbow. I do believe I was treated shamefully. It should never have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian Concern, a UK-based organization that defends people of faith, criticized the arrest. Police had received three complaints about Sherwood, Christian Concern said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The organization called it a \u201cbrutal arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is an idea that if people are offended, you should arrest someone, but in this country, we also have freedom of speech,\u201d Andrea Williams of Christian Concern told The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sherwood was arrested after preaching \u201con the final verses in Genesis 1<\/a>, where it says that God created mankind in his own image,\u201d Christian Concern reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Simpson, the pastor of Penn Free Methodist Church in Buckinghamshire and a friend of Sherwood, also defended the minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything he said was Bible-based,\u201d Simpson said, according to The Daily Mail. \u201cHe was not saying anything abusive; he is a Christian minister. There did not seem to be any recognition from the police that Christian ministers and such views exist. If there was a Pride parade in Uxbridge, the police would support it even if Christians were offended. You don\u2019t have to be an evangelical Christian to be shocked by this. Anyone who cares about liberty should be concerned about what happened in Uxbridge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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