Street Preacher Arrested For Preaching on Sexual Morality

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: July 1, 2013


The police arrested a street preacher in Wimbledon under suspicion of offences under the Public Order Act. He had been speaking about sexual immorality in general and the importance to abstain from such practices.

“Police arrested a man in South West London on Monday (1st July) for using “homophobic” speech whilst street preaching. Tony Miano, a US citizen, was questioned by the police after a member of the public called them to the scene. He had been speaking on the subject of sexual immorality and the need to abstain from it based on a passage from the Bible (1 Thessalonians 4:1-12).” Mr Miano was then arrested at 4:40 pm and taken to the local police station where he was photographed, fingerprinted and had a DNA sample taken. He was then interviewed by the investigation officer.
About an hour later, the investigating officer entered Mr Miano’s cell and told him that the inspector had decided to release him with no further action. At midnight Mr Miano was released after just over seven hours in custody.

Mr Miano said about the incident: “I did not speak solely about homosexuality as a form of sexual immorality but also about any kind of sex outside of marriage between one man and one woman, as well as lustful thoughts. … It was very distressing to be arrested and interrogated for openly expressing my deeply held Christian beliefs. … As the questioning started it became apparent that the interrogation was about more than the incident that took place in the street but what I believed and how I think. …. It surprised me that here in the country that produced the Magna Carta that an otherwise law abiding person could lose his freedom because one person was offended by the content of my speech.”

Mr Miano also said that it surprised him that a “person to be taken to jail for their thoughts. … I was being interrogated about my thoughts … that is the basic definition of thought police.“

We thank Christian Concern for reporting. Source: www.christianconcern.com

Links:
•    http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/religious-freedom/street-preacher-arrested-in-london-for-%E2%80%9Chomophobic%E2%80%9D-language
•    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10159420/Christian-arrested-for-calling-homosexuality-a-sin-warns-of-real-life-thought-police.html
•    http://www.christianconcern.com/sites/default/files/docs/2013_07_04_miano_police_interview.pdf
•    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2vu9CI5Ij4&feature=youtu.be

View the transcript of the police arrest and police interview as pdf.