(OPINION) “It will never happen here.” That’s the general sentiment when discussing feared crackdowns on free speech and religion, with some arguing those sounding alarms merely do so to conjure fear.
The argument goes as follows: free speech and religion are protected bedrocks and won’t go anywhere, regardless of what faithful individuals warn. For a long time, such warnings about cultural changes, cancel culture, and related subjects have been patently dismissed as acts of emotionalism.
Yet recent events and happenings have called these dismissals into question, with critics likening arrests, detainments, and punishments over religious expression to a “1984”-esque dystopian nightmare in which people are only permitted to speak and act in ways that comport with the cultural whims of the day. Indeed, the facts on the ground seem to tell a troubling story.
In the U.S., high school football coach Joe Kennedy spent years fighting back after losing his job for praying on the 50-yard line after games. He was finally vindicated after his case reached the U.S. Supreme Court and the justices ruled 6-3 in his favor. It took years of fighting, though, going all the way to the highest court in the land to solidify those fundamental rights.
In the U.K., the situation appears even grimmer, with Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a pro-life volunteer and co-director of March for Life UK, reportedly being arrested a second time for the “offense” of silently praying in her head within an abortion facility’s censorship zone.
These “buffer zones” are apparently places where even silent pleas to the Lord are disallowed. Thus, Vaughan-Spruce was reportedly detained Monday outside the BPAS Robert Clinic in Birmingham.
Vaughan-Spruce’s story is particularly troubling, as a U.K. court had just recently acquitted her after she was charged with violating a local Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) last December for a previous arrest over the same issue.
CBN News provides a recap of the most recent video showing events leading up to her second arrest: In the 46-second video, Vaughan-Spruce is shown standing still with her back to a hedge and her hands placed in her coat pockets.
Then several police officers approach her. One officer asks her, “Can I please ask you to step away from here and step outside the exclusion zone?” Vaughan-Spruce replied, “But I’m not protesting. I’m not engaging in any of the activities prohibited.”
“But you said you were engaging in prayer, which is the offense,” the officer responded. “Silent prayer,” Vaughan-Spruce counters. “No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offense,” the officer explained.
Vaughan-Spruce told the officer she disagreed. “Okay, then. So you would rather that you be arrested and taken away than stand outside the exclusion zone. Is that what you’re saying?” the officer asked her. (READ MORE)
