Is speech still free?

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported the arrest and subsequent release of a street preacher on grounds he was too loud and disorderly.

Charges dropped against Warehouse District preacher

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland prosecutors dropped charges this week against a street preacher and aspiring politician who was accused of disorderly conduct by preaching loudly in the Warehouse District.

Police arrested Jason Werner, 28, in June after the manager of the Blue Point Grille said his customers inside the building complained they could hear Werner and his friend preaching outside.

Werner criticized abortion and told passers-by that they would go to hell unless they accepted Jesus in their lives.

Werner, who has failed twice to unseat U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, said in June that he was put in handcuffs for preaching on a street corner.

Police cited Werner for disorderly conduct. He was blocking the path of bystanders and telling people that they were baby killers and were going to hell, the ticket states.

Werner and his wife and friends have been preaching in the Warehouse District since 2006 and downtown since 2000.

Werner said he plans to resume his preaching on the street corner. A citizen's free-speech rights were taken away, but a higher power intervened, Werner said.

"I see it as a blessing," he said today. "God can do a lot of good."

Plenty of people are loud, annoying (driving around with the bass turned up), in the way, etc and are not arrested. This guy may have been too loud (which he probably was), and may have been confrontational (again I am sure he was). But even though I don't agree with the way he presents his message and the way he preaches the Gospel, I find it odd that he was arrested. It certainly is plausible that what people found offensive was not so much his tone or his volume, but the message. I don't think getting in people's faces and telling them they are going to hell and baby-killers is the right way to go, but incidents like this, while small, point to a bigger problem for the church. The world is increasingly intolerant and hostile to the Gospel message and we may soon find that preaching the Word may get us arrested or even killed. That is scary, but it also may be good for the church. God has always used adversity to spread His Word, and we might have a time of great adversity and even greater Gospel growth in store. God give us the strength to be faithful in those times.

6 For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,a cornerstone chosen and precious,and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, 8 and A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense.They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2: 6-10 ESV)