Street Preachers Arrested in Greenville, SC

Evangelist David Bane • 10/10/2007

David Bane and Josh Glidewell were arrested on Friday night, September 21st in Greenville, South Carolina. We were preaching and holding gospel signs. I was accompanied by Josh Glidewell, who was also holding signs and preaching.

According to the arresting officer, they were arrested for "saying things that made people feel uncomfortable" 

Our signs read “Gay Pride is why Sodom got Fried – Genesis 19:24, Jude 7” and “God Hates Your Sin – Psalm 5:5, 7:11.”

“Prepare to Meet thy God – Amos 4:12”, “Except ye Repent Ye Shall Perish – Luke 13:3” and “Fornicators and Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God – I Corinthians 6:9-10.”

Our location was a public sidewalk at Coffee and Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina.
A crowd of approximately 30 young people gathered immediately around us, and a total of about 100 people were standing around listening to us preach.  We also spoke to people personally and passed out gospel tracts.

The heat started when two (apparent) lesbians walked by handling each other in a very indecent manner, as they walked down the sidewalk.  They stared at me as they walked by. I pointed in their direction and told them they would burn in Hell if they did not repent.  There were also people walking by who had been heavily drinking. Several of them approached us and told us they were Christians.  I spoke personally to them and told them from I Corinthians 6:9-10 that drunkards must repent and believe on Christ, or Hell awaits them.

Later on, some of the crowd started yelling and cursing at us.  There was a large group of young Southern Baptists who disagreed with us.  Several of them yelled in my face and told me I was wrong.  Strangely , this group remained silent while two teenage girls started open-mouth kissing each other right there on the public sidewalk.  They hated me for preaching the gospel, but had no problem with the sick, open display of sodomy in the streets.

We turned our back on the wickedness of the crowd and calmly conversed with bystanders. A female police officer, Officer Mullinax, approached me.  The conversation follows:

Officer Mullinax: “Let me have a word with you.  You can’t be pointing people out and naming their specific sins.”

David Bane: “Ma’am, we have to address people’s specific sins in order to preach the gospel.  Jesus did that, John the Baptist did it, and we’re going to do it.”

Bane: “Ma’am, what about our first amendment constitutional right of freedom of speech?”

Officer Mullinax: “Ya’ll are welcome to be down here, freedom of speech, all that, but we are getting complaints from people, where you’re pointing at them, specifically…telling them they’re going to burn in Hell. Do me a favor: No more pointing people out specifically, okay?”

Bane: “Ma’am, we have to do that to preach the gospel.”

Officer Mullinax: “Okay, no more pointing people out.”

Bane: We’re gonna keep doing that.  We’re gonna do it as peacefully as we possibly can, but we will point people out and point their sin out.”

Officer: “I don’t want ya’ll pointing people out.  You guys can be out here all you want, but that’s just…it’s causing a problem…”

Bane: “We can’t preach the gospel without pointing out people’s sins, Ma’am.”

Officer: “…you can’t be pointing people out specifically, and causing a problem.”

Bane: “So how is that not breach of freedom of speech?  If we point out somebody’s sin, tell them they’re a Sodomite and they’re going to Hell, what will it be?  Because we’re gonna preach the gospel.”

(As I was speaking, she radioed for backup)

She got my ID and Josh’s ID and wrote us tickets for “molesting or disturbing persons.” The ticket included a fine for $1,227.

Bane: “What exactly does that terminology mean, ‘molesting or disturbing persons…?”

Officer Mullinax: “Okay, molesting and disturbing persons…it’s basically…it’s unlawful for you to stop anybody on a public sidewalk..”

Bane: “Okay, we didn’t stop anybody.”

Officer Mullinax: “…and to say anything to them that would cause them any discomfort, or anything like that…” 

Then Sergeant Hawkins abruptly approached:
Hawkins: “You need to leave right now.”

Bane: “Sir, we’re not breaking any laws.  We’re going to stay right here and talk to these people and keep preaching.  We’ll go home after while, but we are not leaving right now.”
I told him, "We will submit to the ordinances of men all that we can.  But when you're ordinances contradict God's ordinances, and you forbid us from preaching, WE WILL OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN."

Hawkins: “You’ll leave one way or the other!”

Bane: “So if we don’t leave, we’re going to be arrested?”

Sergeant Hawkins slapped my camera very hard, nearly knocking it out of my hand.

Bane: “Sir, I have every right to hold this camera….”

Aggressive Male Officer: “No you don’t! When I’m talking to you, no you don’t! Okay?”

Bane: “It’s our only proof in the court room.”

Hawkins: “You can leave.  You can leave, or you can go to jail.”

Bane: “Alright, we’re gonna stay here.”

Hawkins: “Okay.”

(I have most of the above conversation on video.)  

The Aggressive Male Officer then approached my right arm and started twisting it behind my back under the sandwich sign I was wearing.  Officer Mullinax grabbed my left arm.  They cuffed me, took of my sandwich sign, and Officer Mullinax put me in her cruiser.  Officer Franklin arrested Josh Glidewell at the same time. He was standing right beside me.

We were arrested about 23:20 (11:20 PM) on Friday night.  Our fine on the ticket is $1,277.  We spent over 14 hours in jail.  We were held overnight in a bare concreted cell with ten other men.  We were allowed to sign for ourselves on promise we would appear in court on October 17th.  We were released about 4:00 PM on Saturday, September 22nd.  Court date – October 17th, 2007, 2:00 PM.

I talked to men in jail who had received $140 fines that night for public intoxication.  They were shocked to find out our fines were $1,277!  Upon my release, I immediately returned to the same street corner where I was arrested (Main & Coffee).  I was met by seven other men.  We preached, set up large banners, and held gospel signs for about five hours (From 4:45 PM to 9:45 PM).

We preached the same message, with the same methods, at the same location, and with the same approach as Josh and I had the night before.  The only difference was, we had some older men and a larger number of men.  We were mostly un-bothered by the police. They walked toward us several times, but veered away when they saw that we had two or three video cameras pointing at them simultaneously.

Continue to pray with us that Christ will be glorified in this situation and that God's people would go out and take an open stand against the evil of our nation and declare the Gospel in the Streets!

Sincerely,

Evangelist David Bane