Four people were arrested in Wisconsin last week for reading the Bible on a public sidewalk – in America. It happened during a drag queen event called Pride in the Park where children were being sexualized.
Marcus Schroeder was also arrested for reading the Bible out loud, and the video has gone viral.
Understand this was not in some communist country led by a dictator or under a totalitarian regime where free speech is censored. Or was it?
It happened in Watertown, Wisconsin where police believe it’s against the law to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it’s okay for adult men dressed as women to twerk and flaunt their sexuality to entertain young children.
Jason Storms was one of those arrested, and the back of his t-shirt reads: “I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.”
In the video of Marcus Schroeder’s arrest, you can see police officers approaching as he is standing on the sidewalk reading the Bible over a loudspeaker. One of the officers grabbed the microphone away from him and they say Schroeder was arrested for violating a sound ordinance about noise amplification.
Jason Storms, the minister of evangelism at Mercy Seat Christian Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin said his daughter was among those who were arrested. Storms stated:
“Rather than arrest those sexualizing children – the police arrested four Christians exercising their First Amendment rights including my daughter and one of my sons-in-law.”
Apparently, the city gave orders to the police to arrest people, three of them for the crime of praying and talking to attendees of the drag event because they were inside the park. They were arrested earlier in the day while simply praying and talking to attendees.
The curious thing is the event was open to the public! But not if you’re a Christian who believes the Bible is true and talks to people about repenting of their sin to be saved.
The police presence was there to provide security for the drag performers in lingerie as they pranced in front of children who were invited to give them dollar bills.
What’s also interesting is that according to Wisconsin law, it is a felony to cause a minor under the age of 13 to view or listen to sexual activity. I guess they should define what is sexual. According to the article, if the minor is under 18, it is a class H felony.
Marcus Schroeder has no regrets about being arrested for speaking God’s Word.
He further states:
“It was worth it. It’s actually an honor to be counted worthy to stand with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and been arrested for the sake of spreading Christ and his kingdom,” he told The Sentinel. “If the police wanted to try and set an example for others or anything like that, the only thing I’ve seen is actually the exact opposite, where more and more people are seeing the severity of what’s going on and being called to more action.”
One reason the event made some headlines is there were also some Nazi sympathizers at the drag show. To be crystal clear, they were not associated or affiliated with Mercy Seat Christian Church in any way. Some of the Christians there were sharing the gospel with members of that group as well.
I call this equal opportunity evangelism. They were preaching the good news to drag queens, deceived parents, police, as well as to the Nazi white supremacists.
Naturally, Wisconsin’s leftist Governor, Tony Evers rebuked the Nazis and the Christians while posting a statement defending the drag event and supporting child groomers. He emphasized LGBTQ individuals saying they deserve to be treated with “dignity, decency, kindness, and respect,” which none of us would disagree with.
Stating that drag queens and LGBT people are victims, however, Evers said, “They deserve to be safe being who they are without fear or threat of shame, harassment, intimidation, or violence.”
So, just be who you are. Live. Very profound and redundant, governor. His comments imply the gospel brings shame, Christians are harassing and intimidating, and the drag queen community fears verbal violence.
An interesting opportunity arose from this fiasco. If you already liked Marcus Schroeder’s compassion and courage, you’re going to love him now. He addressed the city council last week and used the platform to preach the gospel.
“As a Christian, I can say what the Nazis did in Nazi Germany was horrific and they should have been resisted. In fact, the number one people group who resisted the Nazis were Christian,” he noted. “The reason why was [Christians] had a worldview that said people are made in God’s image, and they have worth and value. That’s why Nazism is wrong.”
But Schroeder said something we should really pay attention to. He wasn’t being hateful. He wasn’t reading from Romans 1 or explaining why homosexuality was a sin according to Scripture. He was sharing verses from Galatians.
He explained:
“I was reading a passage from the Bible about love. And I was arrested. No reason. Not given any warning. Not told anything about my amplification being turned down. I was arrested and taken into custody simply for reading the Bible on the sidewalk.”
In America, this used to be a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. Not anymore, apparently. Biden Democrats are the ones who abuse law enforcement as a bully pulpit to intimidate Christians and conservatives.
Here’s the key takeaway from a wise Christian young man:
“You see as we become more and more tolerant of sexual immorality in our culture, we’ve become more and more intolerant towards Christian morality,” Schroeder said. “And the more we become intolerant of Christian morality, the more we are going to see lawlessness in our streets…
He concludes:
“We can have our disagreements, but there comes a time when we have to understand that we are all going to stand before God one day…”We going to have to give an account of what we have done with the children in our society. The innocent minds and the children who deserve to be protected. Thank you.”
Sadly, but not at all surprising in Marxist America, the Bible believers were called a hate group, and told they just don’t understand the other side even though Schroeder had long discussions with LGBTQ activists.
Storms said the incident has encouraged him and his fellow church members toward “further boldness.”
By the way, The Sentinel contacted Watertown Mayor Emily McFarland and Police Chief Robert Kaminski regarding the charges against Schroeder, as well as whether the performers of the drag event would be charged for violating the statute against “sexually explicit conduct.”
We’re not holding our breath.
