Reading Bible in Public Leads to Arrest of Pastors

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Right up the road a couple months ago one assistant pastor and two elders from Calvary Chapel of Hemet, California, went to the Hemet DMV before it opened and one of the men started to read the Bible aloud. Less than thirty minutes later, he was arrested for "impeding an open business" under Penal Code Section 602.1(b).

A security guard told them to stop reading the Bible, and then about ten minutes later, a California Highway Patrolman approached the pastor, took the Bible out of his hands, and arrested him. As the CHP officer was arresting him and putting him in his patrol car, the two men who were with him asked the officer, "What law was he breaking?" Instead of identifying a legal violation, the officer asked, "Were you preaching too?"

The other two pastors were then also arrested. Neither of them ever read the Bible out loud anywhere on DMV premises.

The charge against the pastors of "impeding an open business" is designed to protect businesses against protestors who block the doors of an open business. The pastors, however, read the Bible at a time when the DMV was closed, and they were standing at least fifty feet away from the entrance.

The arrests were performed without any appropriate charge against any appropriate penal code. The purpose of the arrests seems to have been simply to censor the pastors.

The pastors have been since released, and no criminal charges have been pursued by the District Attorney. Advocates for Faith & Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of these three men for violation of their right to free speech and for unlawful arrest.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary