8 March 2023
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“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[2] Scripture: The Church’s Only Prototype
Additional Articles of Interest
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A Christian lettings agent who became the first street preacher to be prosecuted and reported to counter-terrorism for alleged ‘misgendering’, is set to appeal his conviction this week at Leeds Crown Court.
Dave McConnell, 42, from Wakefield, was reported by the Probation Service to the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog, Prevent, after he was arrested under section 4A Public Order Act 1986 and convicted for ‘offending’ a member of the public in Leeds City Centre on 8 June 2021.
Mr McConnell was convicted, made to pay costs of £620, forced to do 80 hours of community service and reported to Prevent despite there being no legal obligation to use anyone’s preferred pronouns in the UK.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Mr McConnell’s case represents a growing disturbing trend of professionals and members of the public losing their jobs or being prosecuted by the police for ‘misgendering.’
The case also brings into question the increasing politicisation of the UK police force. For example, the Elland Road police station where Mr McConnell was taken after his arrest flies the LGBT Pride flag at the front of the building.
A born-again Christian, Mr McConnell has been street preaching across Northern England for 15 years and has a powerful human interest testimony.
The aim for his street preaching is to share the Bible’s message that we have all sinned by disobeying God’s laws. He preaches that the Gospel is good news and that by believing in Jesus Christ, we receive forgiveness of all our sins, and can have an assurance of eternity in heaven. He believes the foundational Christian belief from Genesis 1: 27 that we are born male and female.
Mr McConnell is shocked by his treatment and determined to fight for justice after he was ultimately arrested for referring to a biological male who presented as a female and whom he addressed as ‘he’. The arrest was made after he ‘misgendered’ the individual during a one-on-one conversation with a police officer covered in pagan tattoos.
He says being reported to Prevent was ‘shocking’ and that his case should concern anyone who cares about Christian freedoms and free speech in the UK.
Mr McConnell’s appeal, which is taking place at Leeds Crown Court on March 9 and 10, is backed by expert evidence from Sex Matters campaigner, Maya Forstater, and Toby Young, General Secretary for the Free Speech Union.
Lawyers will seek to overturn his previous conviction in August 2022 by arguing that the police response was unlawful, disproportionate and interfered with his Article 9 and 10 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
‘This gentleman’
While preaching on 8 June 2021 in Briggate, Leeds, a pedestrianised area of the city, Mr McConnell was asked, while speaking about a range of topics, by a biological male that self-identified as a ‘trans woman’ whether God accepted the LGBT community.
Responding to the question, Mr McConnell, who encourages members of the public to ask him questions while preaching, said: “No, God hates sin. So, this Gentleman asked a question…”
Members of the crowd screamed at him: “She’s a woman!”
Mr McConnell replied: “No, this is a man”, to which a female member of the crowd shouted: “She’s just as much a woman as me!”
Continuing to calmly preach about what the Bible says about sexual sin and homosexuality, Mr McConnell referred to the individual as ‘this gentleman’ and a ‘man in women’s clothes.’
Video footage revealed Mr McConnell continuing to preach and during the afternoon and was repeatedly verbally abused by members of the public, assaulted, and at one point had possessions stolen, including an amplifier.
Members of the crowd, which included a part-time drag queen, had grown to over 100 and chanted ‘Hate speech, Hate Speech’ when the police arrived on the scene.
Video footage revealed members of the crowd shouting at the police: “You’ve got a baton, slap him around the f***ing arse and take him.”
They also called Mr McConnell, and another street preacher standing alongside him, a ‘Stupid C***’ a “dirty little scumbag” and said “just imagine if I pushed him off there [step ladders].’
The crowd also shouted at the preachers to: “Turn that cross upside down and shove it up you’re f***ing arse.”
Arrest
Rather than controlling the crowd, a police officer with pentagram tattoos started collating evidence on how Mr McConnell had allegedly ‘misgendered’ the ‘trans woman’.
The officer began a one-on-one conversation with Mr McConnell where he suggested that they would not arrest him, but would invite him for an interview at the police station at a later date.
Asked what the allegations were against Mr McConnell, the officer said: “Homophobic hate crime. Officers say that there are a lot of members of the crowd who are ‘harassed, alarmed and distressed’.
The officer was referring to Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which is often weaponised by members of the public to compel the police to take action against anyone who is ‘offending’ them or who they feel is causing ‘harassment, alarm or distress.’
Mr McConnell said: “I know I have not violated any law” and added that “the person who came up was a man in women’s clothes.”
Following this comment, the officer aggressively stepped towards Mr McConnell and said: “Listen mate, I’m not having that, because she’s told you she’s a woman.”
Under pressure, McConnell then said: “She asked me, he asked me what do I think…”, but the officer cut him off, took out handcuffs and said: “Ok, you’re under arrest”. The officer said he was being arrested ‘Contrary to Section 4A(1) and (5) of the Public Order Act 1986’, and to ‘prevent further harm to others.’
With the crowd cheering, Mr McConnell was then led away to a police van. Held in custody for 14 hours, he was charged and then released.
Conviction
At the Magistrates Court, he was convicted by the local district judge and was sentenced at a hearing in August 2022 to a 12-month community order, involving humiliating community service with 80 hours unpaid work, and fined.
Commenting on the case, Elizabeth Wright, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: ‘People have the right to hold opinions and express their views. But when words cross the line between a legitimate expression of religious views, and become distressing and threatening, the CPS will prosecute offenders if our legal test is met.’
Report to counter-terrorism
Following his conviction, and prior to the sentencing hearing, the Probation Service ‘routinely’ reported Mr McConnell to counter-terrorism.
The probation officer’s report said that it was clear that Mr McConnell’s Christian faith had positively impacted his life and helped him become a ‘hard working family man.’ It continued that: “I am satisfied there is no sinister or deliberately offensive objective to Mr McConnell’s activities.”
Yet the report concluded saying:
“As with any adjournment where the individual is viewed to be persistently and illegally espousing an extreme point of view, I have routinely liaised with my colleagues in the Joint Counter Terrorism Team. They have no further information on Mr McConnell that would suggest their intervention would be likely or helpful.”
Appeal
Appealing the conviction on March 9 and 10 at Leeds Crown Court, Mr McConnell will be backed in his case by Sex Matters Executive Director, Maya Forstater, and General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Toby Young.
It is anticipated that Mr Young will provide evidence on controversies surrounding ‘speech codes’ and the subjective nature of ‘psychological harm’. He will present how the battle for free speech has increasingly been intertwined with the battle for freedom of conscience.
Ms Forstater, who won a landmark legal case over the freedom to say that individuals cannot change their biological sex is anticipated to bring evidence on how being able to think in and use ordinary words is essential to freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
She will provide evidence on how the words man, woman, male, female, and associated pronouns, are ordinary words for the two sexes. Sex is a characteristic which is immutable and readily perceivable by others and she will say how it does not change through self-identification.
‘I was alarmed’
Ahead of the hearing, Mr McConnell said: “What has happened to me has been Orwellian and really alarming. When I was told I had been reported to counter-terrorism I just thought: ‘What has happened to this country?’
“How I have been treated has been totally unreasonable and should concern anyone who cares about Christian freedoms and free speech in this country.
“Jesus told Christians to expect persecution, however, and I am determined to continue my ministry as while there is always opposition, I also see many people positively impacted.
“Jesus changed my life as a young man, and I am passionate about engaging people with the hope that made such a difference to me.
“My role as a Christian preacher is to speak truth and to communicate what the bible says on a range of issues without compromise.
“I believe what the Bible says about how we are born male and female. I am not aware of any law that says I must use someone’s preferred identity that is clearly contrary to their biological reality.
“I would also challenge anyone who is preaching to a large and mostly hostile crowd while being assaulted and abused, to get everything politically correct while confronted by someone who is gender distressed.
“The police in Leeds, however, are so quick to arrest you. They have become infected by the culture that says you must comply and submit to LGBTQI+ ideology.
“When I went to the police station and saw that they fly the LGBTQI+ flag from the building, it is very intimidating and concerning.
“I want to clear my name and for Christians to be able to preach the gospel in Leeds without fear.”
Born male and female
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre who are backing McConnell’s case, said: “What state are we in as a society when police fail to protect a street preacher who is assaulted, abused, and has his belongings stolen simply for stating biological reality? The abuse against David McConnel didn’t stop there – he was arrested, convicted and reported to counter-terrorism.
“This case represents a disturbing trend in our society which is seeing members of the public and professionals being prosecuted and reported as potential terrorists for refusing to celebrate and approve LGBTQ ideology. Police forces who fly pride flags from their headquarters are failing to provide Christian preachers with impartial protection. If a person cries ‘’offence’ at a street preacher’s words, it’s the street preacher that is punished and taken out. This is deeply illiberal.
“What message does this case send to not just to Christian preachers but ordinary citizens when the arresting officer was covered in satanic tattoos and took McConnell to a police station with an LGBT Pride flag flying from it?
“The bible teaches clearly that we are born male and female; this belief and the freedom to express it in public without fear of being arrested or reported as a terrorist to Prevent must be protected.”
+ Christian Concern, 70 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AX, England, 020 7935 1488, Contact Page
[2] Scripture: The Church’s Only Prototype
On August 20, 1944, four American B-29’s built by Boeing were forced to make an emergency landing in far eastern Russia. One plane crash landed at Khabarovsk and the other three safely landed near Vladivostok. The crews of the three intact fighter planes thought that they would be allowed to refuel and fly out of Soviet territory, but they were wrong. Stalin had been asking Roosevelt to give the Soviets some B-29’s under the Lend-Lease program, but FDR refused ‘Uncle Joe’s’ request. The US was supplying its cunning and unreliable ally with almost everything in World War II from boots to bullets to lesser planes—but no B-29’s. The B-29 was a super fortress heavy bomber, one of the most aesthetically beautiful airplanes ever designed and built. It incorporated every state-of-the-art technology known to the aeronautical industry at the time, including cabin pressure and an analog computer-controlled fire alarm system. It could fly at high altitudes for strategic bombing and low altitudes for carpet bombing. The B-29 was the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. The design and production of the B-29 totaled $48 billion while the Manhattan Project for the atomic bomb only cost $1.8 billion. It is easy to understand why Stalin was so eager for the Soviets to take possession of these planes—and they did.
When those planes made their emergency landings, Stalin knew what he was going to do. Technically, he had grounds to seize them and not return them because the Soviet Union never declared war with Japan. Thus, it was against the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Act for them to aid America’s war against the Japanese. Stalin had likewise taken possession of a B-25 plane in 1942 and imprisoned the crew. He was simply doing what the US should have anticipated he would do. Yet, I believe, from a detailed study of Stalin, that he would have found a reason to keep those planes under any circumstance.
Once the B-29 was in the possession of the Soviet Union, Andre Tupelov was tasked by Stalin with disassembling the plane piece by piece and reverse engineering it. That was a monumental task involving numerous factories and engineers, but the Russians completed it and two years later had 20 Tupelov TU-4 airplanes. Finally, they had their heavy bomber. Yet, their reverse engineering retained all the problems of the B-29. A turret hole that was accidentally drilled into one of the wings was copied by the Soviets.
The Achilles heels of the B-29 were reverse engineered into the Tupelov TU-4. One of those problems was the difficulty in getting airborne, particularly with a heavy payload. The Enola Gay barely was able to get off the ground when it set out to bomb Japan. Records show that the B-29 had twice as many planes to crash from malfunctions than the enemy shot down. Another problem was that the four engines often caused the wings to catch on fire. Both flaws were serious problems. The plane might not make it off the ground and if it did the wings might catch on fire. Nevertheless, the military departments of both the US and the USSR depended on the B-29 for many years and the design was used as a prototype for commercial airlines in both countries into the 1960’s.
Why am I writing about the B-29? Because we must be careful what prototype we use for everything we do in the church of the Lord Jesus. We get our prototype from the Scripture—not from Reformed tradition or the opinions of the greatest theologians or the popularity of any idea. As Isaiah 8:20 says: “To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” Our standard is the Scripture alone—Sola Scriptura. That is why every true reformation of the church is based on a return to Scripture. The modern church is doing the exact opposite. Almost every denomination in the US (and almost every other place in the world) is trying to conform to the standards of the world. Marxism persecuted Christianity, but our modern church leaders are bringing Marxism into the church through the front door. Paul taught that homosexuality is a sin which indicates a person has turned away from the Lord (Romans 1:26-28), but the modern church teaches that a person can be both a homosexual and a Christian—contrary to Scripture. Why is this? It is because the modern church is trying to reverse engineer a very flawed model—the thoughts of men rather than the thoughts of God.
In Vanguard Presbyterian Church, we are trying to “reform according to the Word,” as Calvin said the Church must always do. Last week, I referred to the Preamble of the US Constitution. Afterwards, I thought that the main emphases of Vanguard could be written in terms of a type of Preamble. Here it is:
We the Members and Officers of Vanguard Presbyterian Church, in order to form a more perfect Denomination, govern with Scriptural justice, insure ecclesiastical Tranquility, provide for the defense of the Faith, propagate the Gospel, evangelize the Lost, pray for Revival, uphold the Scriptural view of Creation, promote Scriptural Sexuality and Purity, and secure the Blessings of Liberty in Christ to ourselves and our children, do establish this Constitution for Vanguard Presbyterian Church.
That Preamble (which has not been adopted by Vanguard or even put before the body for consideration yet) covers almost all the distinctives that we stand for. Some denominations have very simple, straight-forward mottos. O, how I wish that they would believe and practice their own mottos. But, they do not. In Vanguard, we are striving to be different. We are radical. We actually want to get “our thoughts, our words, our texts from Christ” (in the words of Robert Murray McCheyne). Someone might ask if that is not the aim of every denomination? I wish it were so, but I must say that it clearly is not. This is what most new denominations do. They reverse engineer a bad prototype and bring the same design flaws into their new denominations.
Nowhere is it more painfully evident that a denomination is operating by human wisdom than when you look at their Book of Church Order. The higher courts of the church vote to change the BCO at will without any reference to Scripture or consideration of that infallible document that alone gives us the only true principles of theology and ecclesiology. Scriptural ecclesiology does not change because the Scripture does not change. When a denomination tries to deal with a sin problem by passing overtures that change their BCO, they have a much deeper problem than what they think. The passing or failing of an overture can never destroy a denomination or reclaim it. The true standing of a denomination is beyond and deeper than any silly overture.
There are certainly many good things about almost every BCO of every denomination. There are also exceptions. I read the governing documents of the CREC once and it stipulates that every judicial case that cannot be resolved at lower levels will be finally adjudicated by a certain pastor in Moscow, Idaho and by him alone. I kid you not. I wonder where they find that principle in the Scripture? I suspect that it is found in the same “book” which teaches that sessions can dismiss any nominee for office at any point before his election if they decide there are questions about his Christian character without even letting him know why they made that decision. That is right there in the book of man—but not in the Word of God. I could give illustration after illustration of such wrong principles of church government.
Some of us in Vanguard have wondered why it is that there are so many so-called conservatives in the various Reformed denominations in the US who are so vocally against Vanguard. Is it because we believe in evangelism? Is it because we pray for revival? Is it because we are against social justice and the Marxist takeover of the Church? Is it because we do not permit officers (or even church members) to identify themselves as homosexual or express confusion about their sexual identity? Is it because we require officers to actually make full confession of the Westminster Standards? Is it because we are against hierarchy and our General Assembly will not be allowed to rule the denomination from the top down? Is it because our main is on the Gospel? Is it because we actually believe what the Scripture teaches about creation not only in Genesis but throughout the Word? No, I do not really think that any of those things are the real problem.
I believe that many conservative and reformed officers are against us because we have staked out positions (that are Scriptural) that do not allow them to move to the right of us if they start a new denomination. They will either copy us without joining us (which would make no sense) or they will copy a flawed design. And I am almost certain that it will be the latter. Thus, they will permit exceptions to the Westminster Standards for officers. They will allow various views of creation. They will allow their BCO to be changed year after year. They will allow a certain amount of hierarchy—in order to make sure they are the ones in control. Sad. Very sad.
In Vanguard, our one aim is to be as Biblical as we can be. I think we are right on every one of our distinctives. I would not want to be in any denomination that left a single one of them out because I have seen what happens to denominations that compromise. None of our distinctives are up for negotiation with any pastor or church or group of churches. We have aimed high. But, is it not time that the American Continent saw a truly Scriptural Presbyterian and reformed denomination?
Dewey Roberts, Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL
+ Vanguard Presbyterian Church, PO Box 1862, Destin, Florida 32540, (850) 376-3166, drob9944@aol.com
Additional Articles of Interest
– Excess Deaths in the US Are Now 2.5 Million Per Month
– Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson Wants Conservatives Jailed For Voicing Opinions
– Grocery Rationing Begins in UK as a Means of ‘Normalizing’ Coming Shortages Ahead of Collapse
– UK Considered Killing All Pet Cats to Stop COVID
– FBI Tagged Pro-Life Americans as Threats After Supreme Court Overturned Roe
– What You Need to Know about Agenda 2030
– It is NOT Agenda 2030 – It is Agenda 2023
– UK Government Confirms Unvaccinated Had Lowest Mortality Rate Per 100,000 in 2022
– STATISTICAL FACT: You’re Far More Likely to Die from Covid “Vaccines” Than from Covid Itself
– US Environmental Protection Agency Still Refusing to Test for Toxic Dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio
– Naomi Wolf: Autopsies on the Vaxxed Confirm COVID Vaccine Damage Is Damaging Body Organs
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