Is Canada Arresting Christian Pastors and Banning Public Preaching?
My newsfeed has included a lot of posts about the recent arrest of David Lynn, a Christian evangelist. He had been preaching on the streets of a largely gay neighbourhood in Toronto during Pride Month.
One article responding to this was titled, Yes, Canada Is Actually Arresting Christian Pastors And Banning Them From Preaching In Public. This is another example of fear-mongering among Christians that has me really concerned.
Another example is this one: Pastor Arrested for Preaching Against Homosexuality. The title argues that he was arrested for preaching about homosexuality while the article claims that he didn’t preach against homosexuality. That’s just bad reporting.
This article, and many similar ones, make it sound as if Canada is actively arresting Christian pastors and preventing any public expression of the Christian faith. As a Canadian pastor, I can say that is not the case.
You can watch the video of the incident here:
I am not going to claim that the behaviour of the crowd was completely appropriate. There likely was some anti-Christian feelings by some of them.
But David Lynn was really asking for trouble by doing this. It was not wise to go street preaching in a gay neighbourhood during Pride Month. What was he hoping to accomplish? He must have known that this would cause a disturbance.
And this is not just about LGBTQ either. Something similar would have happened if a Christian evangelist went into a Muslim neighbourhood during Ramadan. It is just not wise.
There is real persecution of Christians going on all of the world. There are people who are being arrested and even killed for identifying as a follower of Jesus. But that is not the case in Canada.
I have no fear of being arrested. Nor do I think that the government is going to stop me from publicly expressing my faith. But that is because I try to do it in respectful and appropriate ways.
When expressing our faith, we need to anticipate our audience, determine our goals and do it in appropriate ways. Setting ourselves up for a hostile reaction with no real hope of a positive outcome is not the way to go about it.
More than that, we should not use these incidents as ways to create a culture of fear and hate. Report on the event for what it was and don’t claim something that isn’t true.
If you are concerned about this, you might like this article as well: Is Ontario Considering Legislation Criminalizing Public Displays of Faith?
What a ridiculous line of reasoning! Have you not read the New Testament? Did Jesus follow your advice – When expressing our faith, we need to anticipate our audience, determine our goals and do it in appropriate ways. Setting ourselves up for a hostile reaction with no real hope of a positive outcome is not the way to go about it – when he said the following to the religious leaders who wanted him dead: Matthew 23:13–16 (ESV)
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
DO YOU SUPPOSE HE THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE A POSITIVE OUTCOME FROM THAT???? No. It got Him crucified, but HE PREACHED IT TO SHOW THEIR SIN in hopes they would repent!!!!
Your argument is totally non-Biblical!!! David Lynn preached without condemnation (as Jesus did preach!) and he is blamed for doing wrong????
In your article you state that we should not use our expressing of faith to create a culture of hate and fear. The Bible clearly states the world hates the Christian and that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Preaching Jesus in this case, does not create this culture it attacks the forces of darkness. What we see is a spiritual response to the truth and the usual response from the opposition is ,you can’t judge or it should be done in love. It certainly has kept the Church silent from speaking out against the evils of this culture. WE the Church are in a war for souls against an enemy that is destroying God’s creation of course we don’t hate people we hate sin and people should be afraid to face God without Jesus.
Well Stephen, this didn’t age well, did it? Now that Canada’s passing of Bill C-4 went into effect this year, can you still preach the whole counsel of God without fear in your country of arrest? What about the basic act of meeting at all, during the anti-God lockdowns that forbid the basic assembling of the saints during a fake pandemic? In the world you will have tribulation if you are Christ’s. If you don’t have tribulation in modern Canada, you’re showing you’re of another spirit. Alas, if you’ve repented since writing this article, and I pray that you have, then have the decency to issue a retraction.
Free speech is only free if you can speak what you believe without fear of being arrested for those words.
One could argue if improving the approach or tone, and still align with free speech.
if one censors their own speech to avoid conflict, then it is not free.
We will be persecuted for preaching the Truth, but we can receive criticism for being ignorant and lacking social graces.