A UK minister was arrested for harassment after publicly calling homosexuality a sin. Baptist preacher Dale McAlpine spent seven hours in jail on charges that because he had made the remark loudly enough for others to overhear, it constituted abusive language. McAlpine was handing out religious pamphlets in public when he told a passing shopper homosexuality went against the word of God; a nearby police community support officer then approached McAlpine and told him he could be arrested for homophobic language.
McAlpine was indeed arrested shortly thereafter under a 1986 British public order law aimed at cracking down on soccer hooligans; following his arrest, Christian campaigners told the Daily Telegraph they're alarmed the law is being used to curb religious speech. Others previously charged under the same act include a Christian activist who handed out leaflets at a Gay Pride festival in 2006 and a preacher who held up a sign saying "Stop Homosexuality" in 2002.
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