A court in the U.K. has cleared a 72-year-old Christian street pastor of all charges a year after his arrest for purportedly causing “alarm and distress” in London by preaching about the biblical definition of marriage, which police said was “hate speech.”
Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court has acquitted Pastor John Sherwood of the Penn Free Methodist Church in north London, whose defense was centered on Article 10 of the 1998 Human Rights Act.
The Act states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.”
Pastor Peter Simpson, who was with Sherwood at the time of his preaching, told Conservative Woman U.K. – “The trial was quite remarkable in that there was so much Scripture quoted in it. Pastor Sherwood was determined to impress upon the prosecution that everything that he ever preaches upon is grounded in the final authority of God’s word, the Bible.”
Simpson said during the trial, “the public gallery was full with Christians showing their support for a man of God who is willing to stand up for the truths of Scripture.”
Last April, Sherwood had been speaking on Genesis 1:27-28 arguing that marriage is between one man and one woman, when he was approached by police officers and told that three complaints had been received about his preaching – and they arrested him.