Preacher Ordered Not to Post Bible Verses Offending LGBTQ Crowd on Social Media for Five Years
A Tennessee street preacher is challenging an Oklahoma court order threatening him with arrest and potential prison time if, over the next five years, he posts Bible verses condemning homosexuality on social media.
Rich Penkoski is the leader of Warriors for Christ, an organization of street preachers that, among other things, attempts to combat the LGBTQ agenda. Its home page, for example, displays a map of the United States indicating “all establishments that have had events that target children for grooming.” One of those establishments is, of all things, a church in Oklahoma, and taking note of it is what has Penkoski in hot water.
According to a press release from the Rutherford Institute, which is appealing the court order on Penkoski’s behalf, last year,
Penkoski used social media to express his moral and religious concerns about a church that endorses same-sex marriage and a public drag queen performance in front of children. In one of Penkoski’s posts, he shared the church’s public photo of a same-sex wedding involving leaders of an LGBTQ organization and quoted Bible verses describing God’s judgment of sin. In a second post, Penkoski criticized the church’s publicly shared photos of children celebrating Pride Month. In a third post, Penkoski weighed in on a regional effort to ban adult-oriented entertainment in public spaces. Attempting to refute what he believed were false statements by one of the leaders of the LGBTQ group who told city council that no adult-oriented entertainment, obscenity, or sexually suggestive performances had occurred at a Pride event, Penkoski posted a video clip of the LGBTQ leader’s public statement to city council along with a video and photos of a drag queen behaving in a sexually suggestive manner near children at the Pride event.