Justin Reeder, founder of Love Life, is arrested by Greensboro, N.C., police. (Image via Facebook screenshot)
On Sunday, we reported that four men were arrested outside a Greensboro, N.C., abortion clinic, where they were conducting a prayer walk. Despite the fact that that a pro-life group, Love Life, had canceled its group meeting and everyone was following the rules for social distancing, the Greensboro Police Department arrested them and charged them with violating Guilford County's stay-at-home order.
Apparently not happy with violating the First Amendment rights of four prayer warriors, the Greensboro Police Department arrested seven more people on Monday after they were caught praying in public in front of a facility that makes its money by slaughtering innocent children.
Steve Noble, an area radio host who recorded the arrests, wrote on his Facebook page that those arrested were following the county's rules by limiting their gathering, which was held on private property with the permission of the owner, to fewer than ten people. "They were exercising their First Amendment rights [to] assemble and to exercise their religious beliefs," said Noble. "They believe they are allowed to be there under the exemption clauses of the local county order" regarding the Chinese coronavirus rules.
Justin Reeder, the founder of Love Life, was arrested for a second time on Monday, as were Jason Oesterreich and Isaiah Burner. Also arrested were Leroy Stokes Jr., Andre Gonzalez, Richard Whittier, and John Mcatee. One of the men, according to Noble, is an attorney for the Thomas More Society who is representing the men.
In multiple videos, the men can be seen abiding by the 6-foot social distancing recommendations. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that walking alone is permissible under the guidelines, police swooped in to arrest the men, ordering ten cars to the area to deal with the peaceful prayer warriors who were there not only to pray but to counsel men and women who were contemplating having their babies killed at "A Woman's Choice" clinic.
Noble's video, too, shows that the men were doing nothing more than walking and praying quietly to themselves when a heavy police presence was brought in to deal with them.
All of the men emphasized that they had no beef with the police and understand that they were just following orders that came from above.
Mark Robinson, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in North Carolina, was outraged by the arrests and by the violation of the men's First Amendment rights. He blamed Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and the city council (51:00 in the video above).
"A whole squadron of police officers come down here and violate someone's First Amendment rights," he said. "This is absolutely ridiculous. The resources of this city are being wasted by sending people down here to stop people from praying against the scandal of abortion. These people are trying their best to do this and still follow the guidelines that have been set forth by the state and by the county and our city council and our mayor think that it's essential to send police officers to browbeat people who are praying."
"It's awfully funny to me that the liquor stores are still open, the abortion clinic is still open, but, yet, we can't go to church," he continued. "We can't assemble and pray. We can't peacefully assemble and have our grievances addressed. We can't stand on the sidewalk and pray without the mayor turning the police into the Gestapo to send them down here to trample these people's First Amendment rights. It is egregious."
"The people of Greensboro need to rise up and get rid of this mayor and get rid of this city council," he concluded.
North Carolina Values, a grassroots pro-family group, condemned the Greensboro police "for arresting Christians who peacefully and legally pray and exercise their religious rights on the sidewalks outside an abortion clinic."
"Not even in communist China would police arrest three men for walking and praying on the street," said Jim Quick, state director of grassroots & media at North Carolina Values Coalition. "Since Governor Cooper refused to close abortion clinics as part of his administration's order to cease elective medical procedures these men were simply exercising their constitutional rights to pray outside one of the clinics that remain open. "
Quick pointed out that abortion is an elective procedure and said that "Governor Cooper should have closed abortion clinics and urged abortion providers to donate their PPE and other equipment to [the] coronavirus response, just as he did with hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers that perform elective procedures."
The men were released from jail Monday afternoon and posted a video explaining why they came back to pray and why they will continue to obey God's command to rescue the perishing. It's well worth your time to watch the entire thing. You'll be truly blessed by their desire to serve God and to rescue those who are risk of being slaughtered while ministering and offering help to the mothers.
The hysterical reaction to men maintaining social distancing rules and praying quietly to themselves virtually guarantees that this movement will multiply exponentially in the coming days and weeks. Americans don't take kindly to having their First Amendment rights violated and usually respond with more of the same when told they can't pray, they can't speak, and they can't assemble. And while it's true that we're in the middle of a pandemic and there are legitimate reasons to ask Americans to assent to social distancing requests, it doesn't' appear the men were doing anything more than someone walking a dog or jogging might do. If people who walk their dogs aren't being arrested, why are men walking and praying being harassed and thrown into the slammer?
The answer, of course, is that to many on the left, abortion is a sacrament. They won't be denied their right to spill the blood of innocent children, come hell or pandemic. And if people of faith try to get in their way — or even pray for the women to change their minds — they must be destroyed.
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