A British Army veteran was recently confronted by police officers after he stood quietly near an abortion center in Bournemouth, England, where he was taken into custody. What crime was he guilty of? He was praying silently for his son who was murdered through the horrific act of abortion. Modern culture, the world over, has become lovers of death, enamored with the bloodshed of the innocent, a dark truth made known by the way various governments in the world have criminalized the act of standing against abortion or in this case, praying for someone who is a victim of the act.
According to TheBlaze, Adam Smith-Connor of Southampton has become the second Briton in recent months to have been arrested by police not for speech, actions, or activism, but for silently praying. Yes, that’s right. They arrested him for thoughts inside his own head. We are now seeing individuals being arrested for thought crimes. George Orwell is somewhere in the afterlife saying, “I told you so.”
Smith-Connor spoke with the Alliance Defending Freedom UK, which is a faith-based freedom advocacy organization, that “22 years ago, I drove an ex-girlfriend to a facility where I paid for her to have an abortion. Many years later, I came to realize what I had done and it has been a source of great grief to me in my life.”
“I now pray for my son and to God for forgiveness,” Smith-Connor went on to say, adding, “I would never have imagined being in a position to risk a criminal record for praying silently.”
“Smith-Connor approached a British Pregnancy Advisor Service abattoir in the English county of Dorset on Nov. 24 to pray ‘for my son Jacob, for other babies who have lost their lives to abortion, for their grieving families, and for abortion clinic staff,'” the report said.
TheBlaze continued, “The National Catholic Register reported that Smith-Connor was standing silently with his back to the facility to respect the privacy of staff and visitors, when a pair of officers confronted him, pressing him on what he was doing and why.”
Footage captured of the arrest shows an officer asking, “What is the nature of your prayer today?”
What is the nature of my prayer? I’m praying for my son,” Smith-Connor responds.
The female police officer then points out that there is “a clause within the Public Space Protection Order around prayer and around disapproval around the activities at the clinic here.”
How demonically influenced do you have to be to try and arrest someone for holding a silent time of prayer in their own head? Smith-Connor was not doing anyone any harm by praying for his own aborted child. It’s outrageous how little the government there cares about freedom of religion. Though, if we’re being honest, the left would love to have these kind of laws in place here.
“The Scotsman reported that in October, the abattoir in Bournemouth became the fifth in the country to get a PSPO. Accordingly, in the area around the facility, various activities such as protests are verboten. Those found in violation could incur a fine of £100 ($123.65 USD) or face a conviction at a magistrates court,” TheBlaze added.
Some of the things that are forbidden in the buffer zone are protests via “graphic, verbal or written means,” and “holding vigils where members audible pray, recite Scripture, genuflect, sprinkle holy water on the ground or cross themselves if they perceive a service-user is passing by.”
Councilor Bobbie Dove, speaking about the establishment of no-free speech zones in Bournemouth, went on to say, “Whilst we acknowledge the right of anyone to conduct a peaceful protest, we had to balance this against the distress caused or likely to be caused, and the detrimental impact of behaviours experienced by those accessing medical services or doing their jobs.”
“Having clarified that Smith-Connor was in the buffer zone, the female officer can be heard in the video attempting to establish whether Smith-Connor’s silent prayer may have had something to do with the abattoir,” the report revealed.
Responding to Smith-Connor sharing the story of the death of his son in the act of abortion, the officer says, “I’m sorry for your loss. But ultimately, I have to go along with the guidelines of the Public Space Protection Order, to say that we are in the belief that therefore you are in breach of clause 4a, which says about prayer, and also acts of disapproval around the activities at the clinic.”
The ADF UK revealed that Smith-Connor was fined on the basis of the PSP. However, He’s challenging the rsultant council fine, going on to say, “This cannot be right in a country that values freedom.”
“Freedom of thought has to be one of the most fundamental freedoms that any human being can have,” he remarked. “I spent 20 years in the military including spending time in Afghanistan defending the very principle of freedom.”
“I’m not a criminal,” Smith-Connor iterated. “I am a husband. I am a father. I’m a military veteran and I’m a Christian. But I have been censored.”
Pray for Britain, folks. Things are getting worse and worse for religious freedom in other places around the world.