SICK: Christian American Arrested For Reading Bible At Pennsylvania 'Pride' Event

Damon Atkins, a Christian, was arrested this past weekend during a 'Pride' event in Reading, Pennsylvania, for reading the Bible aloud, causing significant controversy over First Amendment rights.

Atkins, who was standing on the outskirts of the Pride event, was reading from 1 Corinthians 14:33, a verse that speaks of peace, when law enforcement intervened and arrested him. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints," the verse reads.

In under a minute of standing on the sidewalk, Atkins found himself in handcuffs.

WATCH:


According to a court document obtained by The Lancaster Patriot, Atkins was charged with "Disorderly Conduct Engage in Fighting." The criminal complaint, provided by the Reading Police Department to The Lancaster Patriot, clarifies that the violation of the Disorderly Conduct statute involves intentionally causing significant public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof.



It states that Atkins, despite being warned by the police moments earlier, shouted derogatory remarks at an organization holding a permitted event, exhibiting behavior that was threatening, violent, and tumultuous.

"The main reason I was there," he told the Lancaster Patriot, "was because of love. Because Jesus has taught me to love my neighbor as myself." Earlier in the week, he had attended another pride event, where a man approached him and menacingly remarked, "If I had a gun, I would shoot you in the head."

Atkins believed that the message of repentance is often perceived as hateful simply because it does not condone the sinful behavior that is being celebrated by the culture. "What is love? Is it when your pastor tells you that you can be a homosexual and still enter the kingdom of God?" he questioned. "That's not love."

When The Lancaster Patriot interviewed Atkins, he clarified that he had been cited for making "derogatory" comments, even though he was merely quoting passages from the Bible. "In this country, 'God' is now considered a derogatory term," Atkins lamented, expressing his disgust. "It sickens me."

Atkins is scheduled to appear in court on June 16 and is hopeful that Alliance Defending Freedom will provide legal representation for him. Despite feeling discouraged by the pride celebrations in Reading and the conduct of the police officer, Atkins remains resolute in his mission to caution people about the perils of sin. "In the end," Atkins reassured, "all of this will be sorted out."

Twitter reaction in link at top of page.

If an LGTBQ person starting yelling “We love trans people” at a Christian event, would they be arrested? We live in an upside down society.

I'd be willing to bet he gets a payday and rightfully so........

"We don't need no stinkin' first amendment..."

He going to get paid. God will judge the sinners.

Coming to a GD near you.

I can't believe this was Reading.  I saw the headline and assumed Philly or Pittsburgh, but fucking Reading?

Arrested for Reading in Reading.

Just unfucking believable.

Does the city just figure a $5K settlement for these "preventative measures" is cheaper than the possible alternative outcomes?

They'll enthusiastically follow orders to load us onto the train cars, or fema busses.

Ah, to go back in time and see a pride event travel through a Puritan community.

My how the turn tables

The Left hates free speech, anything that doesn't support its narrative. This is only the beginning. More is surely on the way.

Kinda sounds like only approved narratives may be spoken or written. Where else have seen this type of policy lately?

Can the TBL people explain how we should support these officers doing this?

Wow

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That he was shouting scripture makes it more personally disturbing to me, but I can't imagine the justification for that arrest even if he was shouting slurs.

I support the police in actual and substantive ways in my community.

I think this officer should be prosecuted.

I'm sure this is how exactly everything went down.  Uh huh.

Eta the leo's rendition not the video

That’s not gonna stick.


$$$

How does doing that jive with officers doing this?  Is this another case of bad apples or following orders?  Because the fact that both still exist means your actions shouldn’t be taking place.

What do you mean?  There is a video in the OP.  That is exactly what happened on the video.

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At least we aren't Canada who arrests pastors for hate speech haha

Dyke helping with the arrest is icing on the clown cake

And in the meantime he was stopped from speaking in public, will probably miss a lot of work, po-po has zero skin off their back, city taxpayers pay the bill

Didn't take long for DU to get here and defend the police.

Bull Shit. Cops would never do this.

I guess counter protests are outlawed now.

So he really wasn't a radical, just a rascal that wasn't really arrested for reading his bible in Reading.  Right?

He got honored, served, and protected.

Because I'm not retarded?

I think Sgt. Mcclure needs remedial police training on the Bill of Rights and the 1st Amendment.



I bet you a dollar bill if this was Jonesboro Baptist church, doing the protesting nothing would happen.

I was referring to the leo's description of what happened.  Didn't watch the video yet

Don't be so quick to pull the trigger man sheesh

Cop should be involuntarily reassigned employment as a license plate stamper for the rest of his life.

big badda boom payday coming for him.

a 1stA violation that will be easy for a judge.

His courage is admirable.  I wish that we had a 100 million more like him.

I remember it was not so long ago that the Westboro Baptist Church was showing up at the funerals for fallen soldiers and shouting at grieving families that their Sons were burning in Hell.  I remember this because I stood in a line with a couple dozen other good people, holding a big American flag to block the family's line of sight to the signs, while others revved engines to drown out their words.


Would have been nice to see the cops making arrests at those events.  But if they had, the headline would have been 'Christian Americans Arrested for Reading Bible at Funeral.'


There's more to this story.

No, not counter protests. Protests are, but only if you are on the bottom of the intersectionality totem pole.  

There are consequences for blindly giving up your representation in society while chanting "thin blue line."

Double tap

Now I need a place where I can protest and be arrested for exercising my 1st amendment rights.

I can use a payday for retirement.

Back the blue

So holding his sign is fine but actually speaking is "disturbing the peace?"

What did he say that was disturbing the peace?   Unless he was literally exhorting people to violence, I don't see how he could have been doing anything but exercising his rights.

If literal Nazis march around in Skokie and Westboro Baptists nuts can scream "God hates fags!" on the street corner, I'm having a hard time seeing how the cop didn't just violate his rights.

Those are some tiny cops. Two of them are closer to fun size. WTF?

Those Cops are going to have to answer for this.

Susie needs braces.

Hope a judge throws out the officers qualified immunity.  What a blatant violation of the 1st Amendment that you cannot get anymore textbook violation that should disqualify the officer QI.

Speaking loudly/shouting scriptures is nothing to be disturbed by, if done out of real love. People can hear more that way over the crowd/background noises. Many street preachers shout the message in order to combat with other noises. Of course if it was the other way around and the lgbt+ people were shouting slurs/defamatory language,etc., they would be lauded for it and be encouraged to do more by the community in general. Look around us, that is the way of the world. What was evil is now looked upon as good and vice-versa. Any parade they have shows their immorality for all the world to see and for most, that seems ok. I didn't read anything in the article that mentioned slurs or maybe they don't like the idea they are fornicators.

Our DA is a good one.  Hopefully this gets his attention.