{"id":154425,"date":"2025-12-30T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=154425"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:46:18","slug":"dana-criswell-when-john-316-becomes-a-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/dana-criswell-when-john-316-becomes-a-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana Criswell: &#8220;When &#8216;John 3:16&#8217; Becomes a Crime&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A retired Baptist pastor in Northern Ireland, Clive Johnston, just sat through a trial for preaching a brief Gospel message near Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. The judge didn\u2019t rule. Instead, he asked for more written arguments and pushed the case to March, meaning a 76-year-old grandfather remains under criminal charge because he read Scripture in public within sight of a hospital. If that doesn\u2019t raise your blood pressure about the state of speech and religion in the UK, it should.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/00fb4a5c-b133-47fd-956c-dfca02f93bb1?j=eyJ1IjoiMmFnODI5In0.N02oR11PHXJcV0Cg00btzZPYMpoMvjujfSC27LnwRW8\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Institute<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What did he supposedly do wrong? Johnston is charged under Northern Ireland\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act 2023<\/strong>, which makes it an offense to *influence, directly or indirectly, anyone seeking or providing abortions inside a zone stretching roughly&nbsp;<strong>100\u2013250 meters<\/strong>&nbsp;around a facility. England and Wales implemented a similar nationwide ban last year under&nbsp;<strong>Public Order Act 2023, section 9<\/strong>, which imposes&nbsp;<strong>150-meter<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201csafe access zones.\u201d Intent to influence, or even being&nbsp;<em>reckless<\/em>&nbsp;about whether your speech might influence, can be enough. Government guidance says mere&nbsp;<em>presence<\/em>&nbsp;in a zone isn\u2019t a crime, but it\u2019s the police and prosecutors who decide when \u201cpresence\u201d turns into \u201cinfluence.\u201d That\u2019s a hairline distinction with a chilling effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short: the UK has written into law a&nbsp;<strong>crime of influence<\/strong>&nbsp;around certain topics and places. That\u2019s not \u201cprotecting access.\u201d That\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>policing persuasion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The constitutional divide: U.S. vs. U.K.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the difference most Americans don\u2019t appreciate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>United States.<\/strong>\u00a0The First Amendment treats public sidewalks and streets as the classic venues for speech, including religious speech. Government can impose\u00a0<em>content-neutral<\/em>\u00a0time, place, and manner rules, but broad, speech-suppressing \u201cbuffers\u201d rarely survive. In\u00a0<strong>McCullen v. Coakley (2014)<\/strong>, the Supreme Court\u00a0<strong>unanimously<\/strong>\u00a0struck down Massachusetts\u2019 35-foot fixed buffer around abortion clinics as not narrowly tailored to the state\u2019s interests. The Court stressed that counseling and leafletting on public sidewalks are protected, and the state has to try less restrictive tools first. Earlier, in\u00a0<strong>Hill v. Colorado (2000)<\/strong>, the Court allowed a much narrower 8-foot \u201cbubble\u201d near clinics, but McCullen signaled that sweeping cordons are out of bounds. And the Court has been hostile to content-based rules (<strong>Reed v. Town of Gilbert<\/strong>, 2015) and to forced ideological scripts (<strong>NIFLA v. Becerra<\/strong>, 2018). Put plainly: preaching John 3:16 on a sidewalk would almost certainly be protected here.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>United Kingdom.<\/strong>\u00a0There\u2019s no First Amendment. Rights flow through the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (<strong>Articles 9 and 10<\/strong>), which expressly allow limitations \u201cnecessary in a democratic society\u201d for things like public order or the protection of others\u2019 rights. That balancing test invites Parliament to carve out entire zones where persuasive speech becomes a criminal offense, and invites police to decide when \u201cinfluence\u201d has occurred. Unsurprisingly, the UK now criminalizes a broad array of expression, offline and online, including \u201cstirring up\u201d offenses under the\u00a0<strong>Public Order Act 1986<\/strong>\u00a0and a lattice of communications crimes updated by the\u00a0<strong>Online Safety Act 2023<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the core contrast:&nbsp;<strong>America\u2019s default is \u201cspeech first.\u201d Britain\u2019s default is \u201cbalance it away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why this case is a canary in the coal mine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Defenders of buffer-zone laws say they protect patients from harassment. But look at where the line is being drawn. Johnston\u2019s sermon reportedly referenced&nbsp;<strong>John 3:16<\/strong>\u2014no signage, no obstruction, no targeted harassment, yet prosecutors claim it could indirectly \u201cinfluence\u201d someone considering abortion. Once the government accepts \u201cinfluence\u201d as a harm, virtually any persuasive speech is suspect. Today it\u2019s abortion; tomorrow it\u2019s gender clinics, immigration offices, political rallies, or any other \u201csensitive\u201d service. That\u2019s not a slippery slope argument, it\u2019s how government works once it\u2019s licensed to outlaw persuasion in the name of order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this isn\u2019t happening in a vacuum. The UK has been expanding the policing of expression for years, from \u201cgrossly offensive\u201d posts to new Online Safety offenses. Police and prosecutors may promise restraint, but arrest statistics and charging guidance tell the real story: the state has both the tools and the appetite to patrol speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Americans should learn from this<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Never concede the concept of \u201ccrime by influence.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0The entire purpose of speech is to influence. The moment we accept \u201cinfluence\u201d as harm, free speech becomes a privilege carved up by topic, zone, and mood of the day. McCullen is a reminder that even when conduct on sidewalks is messy or unpopular, the cure cannot be to outlaw normal persuasion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Keep restrictions narrow, content-neutral, and tied to actual conduct.<\/strong>\u00a0If someone blocks an entrance, threatens, or harasses, arrest them, for\u00a0<em>that<\/em>. Don\u2019t criminalize the quiet act of offering words on a public street. That\u2019s the logic of the Court\u2019s time-place-manner framework and why broad buffers keep failing here.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Resist the \u201cpublic order\u201d catch-all.<\/strong>\u00a0In the UK, Articles 9 and 10\u2019s limitation clauses empower lawmakers to trade liberty for a promise of tranquility. Americans should reject that bargain outright. The First Amendment is supposed to protect speech that \u201coffends, shocks, or disturbs.\u201d That\u2019s the point.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Defend religious speech as speech.<\/strong>\u00a0Courts don\u2019t (and shouldn\u2019t) give religion a gag order. If the state can force pregnancy centers to recite government lines or criminalize prayerful counseling as \u201cinterference,\u201d there\u2019s no limiting principle left.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bottom line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Pastor Johnston\u2019s ordeal shows how far a Western democracy will go once it normalizes&nbsp;<strong>zones where persuasion itself is forbidden<\/strong>. That is a categorical break from the American tradition. The U.S. has plenty of problems, but the First Amendment still draws a bright line on public sidewalks: you can speak, even about matters others find uncomfortable, and the government must meet the highest burden before it can push you back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Britain chose a different path. Let\u2019s not follow it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A retired Baptist pastor in Northern Ireland, Clive Johnston, just sat through a trial for preaching a brief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124494,"featured_media":154437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32635],"tags":[33415,32685,33414,5,33416,4],"class_list":["post-154425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dana-criswell","tag-clive-johnston","tag-dana-criswell","tag-john-316","tag-mississippi","tag-northern-ireland","tag-oxford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/John-3-16.jpg?fit=1080%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154438,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154425\/revisions\/154438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}